Kevel vs. The Trade Desk

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kevel
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Kevel's (formerly Adzerk) APIs is designed to make it easy for engineers and PMs to build their own server-side, fully-customized ad server. E-retailers and user communities can use Kevel to build ad servers to promote anything from native ads to internal content to sponsored listings (where vendors and sellers pay for their organic listing to be promoted in search and browsing results). According to the vendor, engineers reliably see a significant reduction in dev time using Kevel’s APIs…N/A
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
The Trade Desk is the eponymous flagship product from the company headquartered in Ventura California, a demand-side / data management hybrid platform (DSP / DMP).N/A
Pricing
KevelThe Trade Desk
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KevelThe Trade Desk
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is customized based on feature needs, support needs, and monthly request volume.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KevelThe Trade Desk
Features
KevelThe Trade Desk
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Kevel
10.0
Ratings
30% above category average
The Trade Desk
-
Ratings
DSP integration10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Kevel
10.0
Ratings
25% above category average
The Trade Desk
-
Ratings
Ad campaign creation10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad deployment10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Display advertising10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Kevel
9.2
Ratings
18% above category average
The Trade Desk
-
Ratings
Ad dashboards9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad performance reports9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KevelThe Trade Desk
Small Businesses
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.5 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
Enterprises
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Score 9.0 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KevelThe Trade Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KevelThe Trade Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
For ad serving, implementing client-side header bidding with prebid was actually easier with Kevel than it is with Google Ad Manager in most cases, particularly for display advertising. I found though that with more complex integrations (like video), there were more solutions and code snippets available with other larger ad servers (Google).
Read full review
We are a large company, but The Trade Desk seems like it would also work well for small companies. In our limited deployment, we focused on the USA market and Digital Marketing, but we see this platform working for global markets, multi-language, and across all paid search engines. They provide great user engagement and dashboard reporting to help us manage each campaign in real-time. The Trade Desk seems to do all of these things well and would work for most companies. I have yet to see a campaign and/or executive initiative that The Trade Desk can't handle. We have had a favorable experience and believe it has met every objective we have.
Read full review
Pros
  • More personable team that can address customizations needed to the product.
  • Easy to use interface.
  • Frequent product updates with notifications via email.
  • Well documented API.
Read full review
  • Manage multiple client accounts for Display Advertising
  • Manage multiple clients' Display Advertising across an array of Display Platforms
  • We were also able to manage clients' Video and Native Advertising Campaigns
Read full review
Cons
  • User interface could be faster to load.
Read full review
  • They are not very transparent in terms of margins and fees.
  • They need to get more video inventory, there is not enough.
  • The reporting they provide is a bit limited.
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
easy to understand dashboards and the self started ability to get going on your own terms. It's great to target niche groups across the world while still being able to report at a high level to C-suite. Wish it drove more conversions, but display can be a struggle there. Overall, would use it again.
Read full review
Support Rating
No answers on this topic
We noted no issues with our limited interaction with support. The software operated just as expected and we found that we were able to navigate needs on our own. We understand that The Trade Desk offers excellent support, so we believe it will be a good resource to us in the future.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Kevel was an easier initial implementation for header bidding with prebid. The team worked alongside us to make sure everything was operating as intended. We ultimately switched to Ads Manager to access AdX demand and other features that were not possible with Kevel (for instance, EBDA). There are benefits to both but I appreciated the attention we got from Kevel support when we were first working through the implementation. We are still using Kevel for many things, just not as our primary display advertising ad server.
Read full review
We compared The Trade Desk against a number of competing programmatic media buying platforms including Google's DV360, Centro's Basis platform, Adobe Advertising Cloud, and the Simpli.fi platform. In the end, we felt that The Trade Desk provides the most tools, options, advanced technology, and access to third-party solutions than anything other DSP/DMP on the market. TTD has leaned into forming a long-term relationship with our agency, and they continue to provide great strategic service.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Kevel enabled us to get up and running with client side header bidding when our team was still small and the technology was still new. This improved our ability to monetize our inventory.
Read full review
  • Positively impacting ability to delivery in-view KPI campaigns across ad types (display, high impact, preroll).
  • Slightly higher pricing structure requires a bit more conservative bidding in this platform compared to others.
  • The customer service has been top notch. Adding to the confidence in building a lasting partnership. Access to product betas and offering product feedback are of interest to our organization.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Kevel Screenshots

Screenshot of Adzerk homepageScreenshot of Decision API JSON exampleScreenshot of Management API example