Buyers Guide - Kenshoo€¦ · Author of the Bid Management Buyers Guide, ClickZ. 3 Picking the...

In partnership with Platforms evaluated

Buyers GuideBid Management Tools

Helping you choose the right technology partners

About this guideThe pace of change in today’s world is phenomenal.

The average Fortune 500 company1 took 20 years to reach a market capitalization of $1 billion. Today, we have seen Uber, Slack, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest & Square get there in under three.

Computing power continues to accelerate each year (largely following Moore’s Law) and the democratization of technology driven by its plummeting cost, increased access to funds and a rising entrepreneurial culture means that start-ups are upending even the most established businesses.

As marketers, we have been on the sharp end of technological disruption as we look to track, target, monitor and engage with our customers. You have to remember that Google was only born in 1998 and that in 2011 there were only 150 tracked marketing technologies.

Fast forward to the present day and the average attention span is only 8 seconds, 80% of the US population3 own a smartphone, and there are over 5,000 marketing technologies2.

The power of technology is revealed all around us (look at Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb, for example), so it is no surprise that it has become the single biggest factor enabling businesses to gain an advantage over their competitors. This is reflected by the fact we now spend 33% of our marketing budget on technology, which has just surpassed the 32% spent on advertising4.

If you combine all of this together, and add in the huge costs associated with adopting a new technology, the crowded landscape, integrations with legacy technology, management of stakeholders and the long onboarding periods - choosing the right technology can be equated to being dropped into the middle of a minefield and your job is to lead your team to safety.

At ClickZ, we are here to help.

As one of the largest digital marketing communities in the world, we have access to knowledgeable and insightful experts in all digital marketing disciplines.

Our new series of buyer’s guides will avail of this expertise by canvassing opinions on a range of market-leading technologies, in the hope of facilitating more successful decisions for other members of the community.

We provide no explicit recommendations on which platforms are superior, as their effectiveness will be determined by a company’s circumstances. We do, however, aim to create a clear view on the areas in which each of the main technologies excel, and the types of company that typically benefit from their services.

Each guide will be accompanied by an event in London and New York and we welcome your feedback on how to improve this document.

Sam Lawson Head of ClickZ

The average enterprise has over 1,200 cloud-based technologies.

1World Economic Forum White Paper, Digital Transformation of Industries: Digital Enterprise2Chiefmartech.com3Statista4Gartner - CMO Spend Survey 2016-2017

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Contents page

1The state of paid search today

2Picking the right technology for you

4The current landscape KenshooDoubleClick SearchMarin SoftwareAdobe Advertising CloudAcquisioWordstream

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3Scope and methodology

5The ClickZ & Search Engine Watch customer survey

IntroductionBid managementAutomationCross-channelStrategic insightReporting and analyticsUser experienceOverview

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The state of paid search todayPaid search campaigns are comprised of a multitude of moving parts.

The industry is about much more than text ads nowadays; search allows brands to meet customers at the very source of demand, whether through text, images, or videos, across multiple devices and languages.

That evolution has been reflected in advertisers’ investment in the channel. In 2017, $92.4 billion was spent on paid search advertising worldwide5.

The rate of growth for the industry may be set to increase again, as Google evolves its product suite to target upper-funnel consumers and perfect the conversion journey. The search giant’s audience targeting capabilities continue to develop in sophistication and could be key to attracting more ad spend from marketers looking to target new customers. The shift from keywords to intent-driven audiences, ongoing for a few years now, looks set to materialize fully in 2018.

Combined with the increasing adoption of mobile devices for search and the ongoing success of Product Listing Ads within Google Shopping, Google remains the go-to channel for online ad budgets.

Facebook advertising continues to grow too, with $21.75 billion expected to be spent on the social network on 2018, an 80%6 share of the social media advertising market7.

Between them, Google and Facebook accounted for over 60% of all digital ad spend in the US in 20178, so it makes sense that many advertisers should want to manage campaigns for both channels within one platform.

Bid management tools can facilitate this, not just by managing the campaigns, but by sharing data across both platforms to improve both search and social performance.

A new landscape has also been created by visual formats like Pinterest, along with the variety of ecommerce opportunities that Amazon brings.

Bid management software still provides vital support for AdWords, but its role has evolved to mirror a more complex and rewarding paid media industry.

Combined with the increasing adoption of mobile devices for search and the ongoing success of product listing ads within google shopping, google remains the go-to channel for online ad budgets.

5,7 Statista6,8 eMarketer

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Not only does this ever-changing ecosystem require a new strategic approach; it also requires advanced technology to manage a brand’s portfolio across all platforms.

As a result, a wide variety of sophisticated paid media management platforms aim to cut through the complexity to improve performance, from awareness through to conversion and retention.

All of the vendors we evaluated in this guide cited figures of at least 20% performance improvements on average for their clients, so there are obvious business benefits to using these technologies.

There are 6 core areas that help to drive these performance uplifts:

Automation

The role of bid management software

Cross-channel capabilities

Strategic Insight

Analytics User experience

Bid management techology

The decision to start working with a bid management tool, or to switch from one provider to another, can prove highly profitable. It is also a decision that requires a sizeable amount of research and discussion, as every advertiser will have different requirements.

Our guide is written with the aim of stimulating that process of research and discussion, to support more informed decisions by marketers.

Clark Boyd Author of the Bid Management Buyers Guide, ClickZ

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Picking the right technology for youAll of the vendors covered in this guide provide sophisticated solutions in the 6 core areas of assessment. What we want to bring to light are the subtle differences that can help advertisers make the right decision for their business.

To understand which vendor is the right partner for you, it is advisable to go through the following process.

Step 1: Define your decision criteria

Define your decision criteria

Research Decision &implementation

ProductDemos

Draw up the business case

Digital strategy Business objectives

Advertising budget

Technology budget

Proposed start date

Legacy technology

These criteria will typically include:

One output from these discussions should be an evaluation scorecard, containing the features that you feel are essential for your business when selecting a vendor. These criteria should also be weighted based on their relative importance.

For some advertisers, it will be essential to have a platform that manages programmatic TV, is capable of optimizing millions of keywords across territories, and can promote products on emerging platforms like Pinterest.

For some agencies, having a technology partner that incorporates machine learning technology to optimize bids on Google and Bing across thousands of small accounts will be vital.

These are only two out of thousands of potential scenarios, but this starts to highlight the significance of deciding up-front exactly what you value most from a paid media management suite.

9 Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016

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Partnering with a vendor or switching to a new platform will entail some level of investment from any business.

Before engaging with vendors, it is essential to get buy-in from your company and prove why this investment will bring significant returns.

According to a recent study, 69% of marketers9 feel that budget is the main restricting factor when it comes to their business investing in new marketing technology, while 35% state that difficulty of implementation is an obstacle.

Figure out which of these factors may constrain you, before putting together a business case that helps overcome them.

The benefits included within this business case may be:

Increased ROI from search/social spend Increased productivity through task automation and better insights from data Transparency for all stakeholders in reporting dashboards More efficient spending of ad budgets Access to new innovations and features

For each stakeholder you would like to convince, there will likely be a different weighting attached to each criterion. For example, the CMO may prioritize the ROI the platform will bring, while a specialist may be more focused on the insights the technology will provide. Make sure to tailor your proposal to cater for these criteria within your audience.

Step 2: Draw up the business case

What’s holding your company back from implementing new marketing technology?

Budget

Difficulty of implementation/integration

Internal resistance to change

Lack of executive buy-in

Lack of information

Lack of interest

Nothing meets our needs

We don’t need newmarketing technology

Other

69%

35%

33%

22%

10%

10%

7%

20%

3%

Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016

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The next stage is to conduct some research on the vendors that best suit your needs. Guides like this one serve as helpful resources, and peer recommendations remain hugely influential.

Online reviews and case studies also provide useful context, but always consider the source of this content. If the person or business has different requirements of the technology than you do, their opinions on its efficacy are not always that impactful.

This discovery phase is essential, so it is worth drawing up a longlist of vendors to evaluate against your selection criteria. A mixture of peer recommendations, analyst reports, testimonials, and a review of the vendors’ respective websites will provide some color and allow you to whittle the list down to a small selection of potential technology partners.

It is at this stage that most advertisers will engage with vendors to set up some meetings.

Step 3: Research

53% of marketers10 report that product demos are a significant determining factor when choosing a marketing technology partner - a higher percentage than was reported for any other factor.

This is to be expected, as demos often provide the first live interaction with a platform. However, paid media management technologies contain a huge array of sophisticated features and it is entirely possible to miss out on some key capabilities in a product demonstration.

Keep in mind the features that matter most for your business and ask questions that keep the conversation on track.

Some example questions to ask during a demo:

Will we need to implement any new tags to use this software? Does the platform integrate with our existing analytics software? Will we have full visibility into the bid management methodology? What attribution models are included within the platform? Are there additional fees to use advanced or custom features? How quickly is data processed and displayed from search engines? Can we optimize towards a range of business goals within our campaigns?

Of course, this list of questions could extend much further and will depend on each company’s requirements. It is recommended to draw up a standardized list of questions to answer for all vendors, as this will give everyone a chance to respond on an equal footing and remove some bias from the decision process.

Step 4: Product demos

10 Walker Sands 2016

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More than half of marketers (57%) say three to five people are typically involved in martech purchasing decisions at their companies.

If you have prepared and used a scorecard throughout the process, this should help when it comes to arriving at a joint decision among the relevant stakeholders. Given the importance of a paid media management platform, decision-makers will usually include senior marketers, from VP to Director and CMO.

When you are ready to proceed with a particular vendor, it is time to negotiate a contract, define the length of the agreement, and agree on commercial terms. It is also a good idea to ask for references from the vendor, as current clients will be able to provide a lot of insight into the experience of using the platform over a longer period of time.

The onboarding process is a vital part of the new partnership, so make sure you have set aside enough time to engage with this fully.

Step 5: Decision and implementation

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Scope and methodologyThis guide is aimed at paid media marketers who are evaluating the most suitable technology partner to boost their digital advertising performance, in particular through search.

For this guide, we have considered 6 vendors that provide bid management, cross-channel optimization, and analytics solutions for paid search, social media, and display campaigns.

The vendors we have analyzed were chosen based on their position as renowned market leaders, combined with the opinions of our industry experts and the responses to our survey from the ClickZ and Search Engine Watch (SEW) community.

Undoubtedly, this is a space that has evolved very significantly over the past five years and we have endeavored to include the latest industry trends within our analysis.

Equally, we have assessed the core bid and portfolio management technologies that underpin each software solution.

We have aimed to provide a balanced, informed view of the strengths of each platform within this guide across all of the core decision criteria.

Each vendor has been scored on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being high) in the following categories:

Within each of these, there are six subcategories for scoring. We will cover these in detail in the relevant sections later on in the guide.

The scoring is determined by the results of the reader survey:

Over 1,600 responses were received and the survey covered all aspects of paid media management, from core bid management technology through to client support and pricing. ClickZ and Search Engine Watch members were free to take the survey more than once, if they had significant experience of using multiple platforms. The survey base contains a cross-section of agency and in-house marketers, with a broad cross-section of levels of experience responding for each of our 6 vendors.

Automation Cross-channel capabilities

Strategic Insight



The ClickZ & Search Engine Watch Customer Survey

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The following has been used to sense check and provide context into the results of the reader survey:

The ClickZ team has held meetings with each vendor. These interviews have allowed the vendors an opportunity to present their company credentials and demonstrate their platform’s capabilities across our 6 scoring categories.

A selection of industry experts have been consulted to verify our findings and provide a further opinion on the strengths of each technology.

ClickZ provides no explicit recommendations on which vendor to partner with and offers no endorsement of any particular company.

Vendor interviews:

Expert assessment:

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Company profile

Yoav Izhar-Prato CEO/Co-founder

ClickZ overview

Kenshoo is a key player in the bid management space and has held this prominent position for over a decade. Their position as a third-party solution creates the freedom to innovate on technologies that benefit the paid media marketer, spending budget across a range of channels to find the best return on investment.

This ability to work fluidly on all online channels is essential, a fact that has led Kenshoo to develop a suite of full-funnel search and social technologies.

Nir Cohen CTO/Co-founder

Will Martin-Gill Chief Strategy and

Development Officer

Kenshoo monitors the usage of features on its platform in meticulous detail to ensure that their engineers’ resources are spent on the features that clients want. This approach has led to a focus on developing sophisticated performance forecasts for all channels, as well as exceptionally fast dashboards that can filter millions of keywords within a few seconds.

Kenshoo is particularly well positioned to take advantage of the evolving paid media landscape. After launching a pioneering partnership with Pinterest and adding a list of new features to improve Amazon performance, Kenshoo offers a paid media management solution that will appeal to marketers with complex and multifaceted campaigns under their management.

Cross-channel Bid Management New Innovations

Founded HQ

Key People

2006 Tel AvivIsrael

Platform strengths(taken from the ClickZ survey)

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Key People

Company profile

Founded HQ1995

(purchased by Google in 2008 for $3.1B)

New York CityMatt EichnerHead of DoubleClick Search Sales

ClickZ overview

DoubleClick Search sits alongside Campaign Manager, Bid Manager, Creative Solutions, and Ad Exchange to form the comprehensive DoubleClick Digital Marketing stack.

Its interface is similar to that of AdWords, making it an easy transition for paid search marketers that need more functionalities than AdWords alone can offer.

Two of DoubleClick Search’s core attractions for advertisers are its deep integration with the full Google suite of products and its ability to manage a wide variety of online channels.


Tushar BalsaraHead of DoubleClick Search Sales, EMEA

Its position as a Google-owned solution can also be viewed as a potential drawback, with third-party competitors able to offer an ‘unbiased’ alternative for brands looking to grow on Facebook, Amazon, and Pinterest too.

DoubleClick’s proprietary Floodlight tag provides a seamless integration of online data sources and the ability to add custom dimensions, while it is also possible to upload offline data into the platform.

The recently-announced partnership between Google Analytics 360 and Salesforce will serve to strengthen the potential data repository for DoubleClick Search campaigns.

DoubleClick Search has established a prominent position as a user-friendly platform with sophisticated machine learning technology at its core and accurate reporting on cross-channel, cross-device performance.

User Experience Analytics Client Support

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Key People

Company profile

Founded HQ2006 San Francisco

USA

ClickZ overview

Marin Software is a long-established leader in this space, with a lengthy list of global brands among their clients. Access to so much data helps refine the machine learning algorithms that help Marin Software optimize its bidding methodologies.

A core area of focus for this vendor has been the integration of search with social. The Google/Facebook duopoly is here to stay, so Marin Software has invested in the services that will help clients get the most out of these two channels.


For example, impression level data is pulled in from Facebook and synthesized with Google data to provide a clear view on cross-channel attribution. Marin Software has also invested heavily in its Facebook optimization offering and its proprietary Dynamic Ads product automates personalization on social based on search activity.

Marin Software provides support for emerging platforms such as Amazon and Pinterest too, but sees Google and Facebook as the core components for marketers to get right first. Their position as a third-party solution allows Marin Software to be publisher agnostic and provide unbiased strategic recommendations to its clients.

Search/social integration

Bid Management Client Support

Christopher LienCEO

Wister WalcottEVP, Product & Technology

Douglas PanSVP, Engineering

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Key People

Company profile

Launched HQ2012 San Jose

USABrad RencherEVP and General Manager, Adobe Digital Marketing

ClickZ overview

Adobe Advertising Cloud was formed by the merger of Adobe Media Optimizer and the company’s new acquisition, video ad platform TubeMogul.

This has created an impressive suite of products for advertisers looking to nurture their audiences across off- and on-line media.

This includes some sophisticated dynamic creative optimization (DCO) technology that can adapt creative assets based on audience behavior and intent.


Brett WilsonVP and GM, Adobe Advertising Cloud

Customers who already invest in other Adobe marketing products may find Adobe Advertising Cloud to provide the most profitable results, as the platform turns this data into more accurate audience targeting. In fact, over 200 metrics from Adobe Analytics are synthesized to create audience segments that can be uploaded to AdWords.

Adobe also offers accurate performance forecasts, which are infinitely useful when trying to understand which channels to invest in further. For marketers that want an end-to-end programmatic platform to manage everything from TV to digital video, across multiple device types and territories, Adobe Advertising Cloud is worth further investigation.

Cross-channel capabilities

Analytics Client Support

13

Bid Management

Key People

Company profile

Founded HQ2007

(acquired by Web.com, 2017)

Montreal,Canada

ClickZ overview

Acquisio started life as an agency building in-house tools, but soon realized the potential that their technology held. For the last decade, Acquisio has steadily built a suite of technology that gives businesses of all sizes access to advanced paid search capabilities and offers a 21 day free trial.

The proprietary Acquisio Turing (™) technology brings machine learning predictive bid and budget management to the platform, updating bids as frequently as every 30 minutes. Acquisio also offers highly valuable features like the ability to sync with


real-time inventory and dynamically update ads based on stock levels and prices.

Acquisio also contains Facebook/Instagram management tools, along with a range of features within Turing that are designed to help advertisers maximize their returns from Display advertising.

This vendor offers some specific tools for SMBs within its Promote product, which simplifies the campaign creation and bid management process.

Through its acquisition by Web.com last year, the company has maintained its focus on the areas that matter for its customers, such as the speed of the user experience, the performance improvements the platform brings to PPC campaigns, and insightful reporting dashboards.

Marc PoirierCo-founder and CEO

Richard CoutureCo-founder/CTO

Alexandre Lamoureux

COO

Analytics Client Support

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Key People

Company profile

Founded HQ2007 Boston,

USA

ClickZ overview

WordStream offers a user-friendly paid search management platform that builds on the functionality of AdWords and AdWords Editor. It built its original success by carving out a niche as an accessible technology that could deliver results for clients with minimal time requirements. This is due to the automation technologies that can implement account best practices to any AdWords campaign.

WordStream’s AdWords Performance Grader tool has been hugely popular over the years, providing a free assessment of a brand’s PPC account setup.


Its customer support team is on hand to help those who are new to paid search too, so it is possible for customers to avail of the knowledge of Wordstream’s specialist team as well as the platform’s automation technologies.

Wordstream’s core customer base is in the small/medium-sized business market and its USP is that it simplifies paid search to provide business owners with advanced technology at a lower cost.

Ease of use Bid Management Adwords optimization

Ralph FolzCEO

Howard KoganPresident

Kristen Yerardi SVP Customer Success

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We found there to be little to choose across these platforms in relation to bid management, user experience, and campaign optimization.

This is perhaps to be expected; the industry has reached a mature stage and the market leaders have been fine-tuning the basics for a decade or more.

In fact, 7% of respondents use AdWords alone to manage paid search, as Google’s deep integration of machine learning technology has improved AdWords’ bid management capabilities significantly.

However, the vast majority of marketers spending over $1 million per annum stated that they use external technology to help manage their AdWords budget. The differences between the companies on this front are subtle, but can still be significant.

Where the results began to deviate notably was in relation to the latest requirements, particularly automation, strategic insight, and cross-channel support. These are the areas that matter most to businesses that invest beyond AdWords and want one enterprise solution to manage everything from programmatic TV to social media.

Equally, speed is of the utmost importance for advertisers managing millions of keywords across accounts. Features such as campaign mirroring, which keeps keyword lists in sync across all campaigns and channels, can also prove invaluable.

Finally, the ability to communicate findings both within the paid media team and upwards to senior management can prove a key differentiating feature among these technologies.

Within our analyses below, we have assessed each of the 6 categories in turn.

The ClickZ & Search Engine Watch customer surveyOur community survey received over 1,600 responses and covered a wide variety of software packages. While we received feedback on dozens of platforms, a small cluster of companies received the lion’s share of the responses.

Automation Cross-channel capabilities

Strategic Insight



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Google AdWords continues to add new, machine learning-based updates to its core product. Bid management technologies have built on this by using predictive analytics to optimize campaigns in real time, across multiple channels.

Bids can now be adjusted to optimize campaign performance across devices, territories, audiences, and even down to the hour of the day. With mobile driving so much of the search industry’s growth, specific mobile support will be of the utmost importance to marketers.

The ClickZ and Search engine Watch communities gave scores across each of the following subcategories within bid management:

Bid ManagementAssessing how effectively each vendor manages search budgets to hit campaign objectives.

Clear methodology:

Is the rationale behind bid adjustments transparent? Is it possible to intervene manually?

ROI:

Does this platform deliver tangible improvements to your campaign’s performance?

Mobile:

Are bids optimized across devices on an ongoing basis?

Bid management algorithms:

Does the bidding technology take into account seasonality and search trends?

Local:

Does this platform go into granular detail when adapting bids by territory to maximize traffic/revenue?

Spend management:

How effective is the budget pacing within this software?

All of the software packages reviewed in our survey scored well within this category. This is perhaps to be expected, as this is the core function upon which all others are built. Nonetheless, all of the vendors are innovating in this space and there are clear USPs for each.

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Kenshoo performed consistently well across all subcategories, with particular highlights including the ability to adjust bidding algorithms by setting the business value of different criteria. Kenshoo shaded the ROI subcategory and scored highly for the clarity of its bidding methodology. Its move into understanding the intentionality behind searches also contributes to its high scores in the Bid Management category.

DoubleClick Search was among the leading scorers for its mobile features and management of local search campaigns. It was also stated by clients that its close integration with other Google properties provides benefits in this category.

Kenshoo DoubleClick Marin Adobe Acquisio Wordstream

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Marin Software also provides a very significant amount of transparency over its bidding methodology, even allowing clients to view historical adjustments to see exactly why changes have been made. This vendor demonstrated advanced budget management capabilities across devices, too.

Adobe excelled in the bid management algorithms scoring and was also among the leading platforms for its mobile capabilities, along with DoubleClick Search. Adobe’s portfolio optimization approach is driven by predictive analytics and automated bid adjustments, updated on an hourly basis.

Acquisio received praise for its budget management, which was judged to be much more successful and flexible than the AdWords offering. This was one reason the platform was accredited with improving campaign metrics such as increasing conversions and decreasing cost-per-acquisitionto such a significant degree.

Wordstream was a strong performer in the local campaigns category and was praised by its customers for the ROI it has delivered. Wordstream’s clients felt that the platform got them up and running with a more efficient account structure in a relatively short period of time.

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Automation is the backbone of a successful, modern paid search campaign. This is a broad field, however, ranging from rules-based notifications to alert account managers of performance anomalies, through to ad creation and performance recommendations.

The ClickZ and Search Engine Watch communities gave scores across each of the following subcategories within Automation:

AutomationUsing rules-based or AI-driven automation to get better results and increase search marketers’ productivity.

Alerts:

Does the technology alert you to performance changes or competitor activity? How well does it deal with issues like 404 pages?

Scripts:

Are there effective scripts within the platform to make campaign adjustments?

API integrations:

Is it easy to integrate other data sources and run automated analyses?

New innovations:

Does this company release new automation technologies on a frequent basis?

Ad creation:

Are ad variations created automatically based on audience feedback data?

Performance recommendations:

Does the software proactively recommend account changes to help performance?

The scores showed some notable variations within this category across the technologies.

The subcategories are broad in scope and advanced automation can be hard to achieve across so many different areas, which at least partly explains why we have seen more varied scoring here.

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Kenshoo was a strong performer in terms of its alerts system, particularly its automated methods for avoiding 404 pages and notifying clients of any issues. This vendor also scored well for the frequency and quality of its innovations and its effective support for upgraded URLs was praised too.

DoubleClick Search received positive scores across all areas of Automation, without being the outstanding performer in any particular subcategory. Its ability to tailor ads dynamically was stated as a highlight from current clients, as was its automation of bids to hit the client’s conversion goals.


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Marin Software adjusts bids based on factors including stock prices and inventory levels, which led it to receive positive scores for its use of scripts to aid performance. Marin Software’s dynamic keyword clustering and automated keyword suggestions were also cited as useful developments.

Adobe’s Sensei technology brings with it a host of automation benefits, and its ability to optimize creative based on customer behavior and audience segments is a significant draw for enterprise clients.

Acquisio scored very well for Ad Creation and Performance Recommendations, with clients specifically noting that the Dynamic campaigns technology within the platform provides automated ad management in sync with their real-time product inventory. Acquisio also distributes budget automatically from weaker campaigns to stronger campaigns, which helps both spend management and ROI performance. This capability applies across platforms, for example between AdWords and Bing.

Wordstream is favored by clients for its accessible automation technologies, which optimize bids across campaigns and provide some recommended fixes on a weekly basis to boost account performance. Although not as detailed or advanced as the recommendations provided in Marin Software or Kenshoo, as reflected in our survey scores, Wordstream appeals to smaller advertisers and streamlines account structures for a lower monthly cost. The 20 minute work week was referenced as the vendor’s most useful product, built primarily on automation technologies that save time.

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Cross-channel capabilitiesVendor support for channels outside Google and Bing search, including social media and display.

4

Our analysis of cross-channel capabilities has assessed some of the most essential aspects of a modern, holistic paid media campaign.

For some brands, a pure-play search management platform will be of more importance than these other features. For others, there is a requirement for a platform that can manage the many moving parts that comprise a large-scale digital marketing campaign.

This context will provide color to the scores provided within this section.

The six subcategories assessed here are:

Display:

Does this platform provide advanced support for display advertising?

Facebook:

How well does this vendor integrate Facebook with search?

Shopping:

Does this vendor contain sophisticated Google and Bing Shopping capabilities?

Offline:

Is it possible to measure offline advertising alongside online activities?

Emerging platforms:

This includes analysis of Pinterest and Amazon paid search support, along with new forms of video-based creative for search and social.

Attribution:

How well each software defines the convoluted paths to purchase that modern consumers take.

There was some marked variation in scoring within this category.

All vendors scored well for their Shopping support, particularly for Google Shopping, but the subcategories for offline integration, emerging platform, and attribution showed a wide range of scores.

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4

Kenshoo excelled in our Emerging Platforms scoring, with its Pinterest partnership and early adoption of Amazon ads proving to be a competitive advantage. Kenshoo also scored highly for its Facebook support and campaign reporting.

DoubleClick Search, which avails of DoubleClick’s heritage in the Display advertising industry, was an unsurprisingly high scorer in the Display category. DoubleClick Search also received praise for its Shopping integrations and its attribution models. The latter have been aided by the integration of Adometry following Google’s purchase of the company in 2014. We should expect to see new attribution features within DS and GA 360 through this year.

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Marin Software came out on top for the sophistication of its Facebook offering. Clients referenced its TruePath attribution product, which takes impression-level data from Facebook and synthesizes this with Search data to arrive at a more accurate view of conversion paths.

Adobe Advertising Cloud performed very well in the Offline category, with its users citing offline-online marketing visibility as a particular strength. Adobe received strong feedback for its attribution capabilities, as did Marin Software and Kenshoo.

One area in which Adobe really stands out is its support for media formats including Video, Audio and TV, with partners including Rubicon, Spotify, and a host of nationwide cable TV broadcaster.

Acquisio also received high scores across the social category, particularly for the features contained within Acquisio WorkBench to provide transparency into Facebook performance data. Acquisio automatically pauses ads that are performing poorly and moves budget around multiple campaigns to find a better CPA and CTR, which has also contributed to its positive scores within the Cross-channel category.

Wordstream was a high scorer in the Shopping subcategory, as clients cited its feed optimizations as a performance highlight of the platform. Wordstream has more of a ‘pure’ focus on paid search than the other vendors, which has surely contributed to its slightly lower scores in this section. This can be viewed more as reflection of their market positioning rather than an innate weakness of the technology.

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As automation frees search marketers from time-consuming tasks, more freedom is afforded for the essential strategic insights that help evolve performance.

Sophisticated vendors in this space work as strategic partners to their clients, so this is an important area of assessment for those in the market for new paid media management software.

The ClickZ and Search Engine Watch community gave scores across each of the following subcategories within Strategic Insight:

Strategic insightAssessment of the additional insight each platform provides into audiences, competitor activity, and projected account performance.

Audiences:

Does this software incorporate the latest audience features for AdWords? Does it provide a clear view on audiences across channels?

Competitors: Does it track competitors and alert clients to any changes in activity?

Cross-channel:

Does the software make it easy to spot trends across multiple channels?

Forecasts:

Are performance forecasts available? Are they accurate and do they cover multiple channels of activity?

Data flow:

Is information available in real time, from multiple sources?

Data analysis:

Is it possible to manipulate and filter data to arrive at new insights within the platform?

There are many varieties of strategic insight, so it is no surprise to see some varied distribution among the scoring here. This is one of the most important categories for assessment for many advertisers, particularly when it comes to audience-based insights that can be used across other marketing activities.

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Technology can be something of an equalizer, with brands having access to the same software packages, whether within AdWords or in a third-party platform. What starts to differentiate companies is the strategic insight they can draw from the data. This depends on their internal resources, but also on their technology partners and the support they provide.

In addition, many advertisers prioritize the ability to view cross-channel performance and forecasts within an intuitive, real-time dashboard.

We found that all vendors have clearly invested in these areas to match their clients’ expectations, but there were still some important distinctions to note.


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Kenshoo and Adobe received the highest scores for the sophistication and accuracy of their performance forecasts, with the former also leading the way for its adoption of new audience features.

DoubleClick Search also performed well here, with its Google Analytics 360 integrations proving popular and effective with its customers. This facilitates accurate remarketing efforts across search and display, with the potential to integrate this with DoubleClick Bid Manager too.

Marin Software was the highest scorer for its competitor analysis capabilities and was also among the leaders for cross-channel strategic insight. This vendor’s close ties between its search and Facebook data was viewed as beneficial when it comes to understanding the role of channel in the conversion journey.

Adobe, meanwhile, was seen as a leader in the data analysis fields, which is in part driven by the capabilities Ad Cloud shares with other Adobe properties. Adobe Audience Manager was singled out for praise in this regard.

Acquisio was praised for its Power Cloner tool, which instantly mirrors AdWords campaigns on Bing. Power Cloner keeps these campaigns in sync over time, so advertisers can save time by making changes for one engine safe in the knowledge that this will be picked up for other engines too. This vendor was also among the leaders for competitor insight, as clients said the training they received from Acquisio helped them get the most out of these capabilities.

Wordstream received high scores for its competitor insights capabilities. Current clients noted that it was simple to keep track of rivals’ search activity within this platform and to get an overview of their own campaigns’ performance. Overall, this vendor did not score particularly well in this section, which is in keeping with its lower price point.

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Data is the lifeblood of paid media management, both for practitioners and for senior-level marketers. This category has aimed to elucidate the effectiveness of each vendor in terms of their tracking, processing, and visualization capabilities.

The ClickZ and Search Engine Watch communities gave scores across each of the following subcategories within Analytics and Reporting:

Analytics and reportingThe integration of multiple data sources and the effectiveness of reporting dashboards.

PPC analysis:

Does the platform contain effective, intuitive PPC analysis and reports?

Call tracking: Does it track and report on calls?

Cross-channel:

How effectively does it track and display data for social, shopping, and display alongside search?

Cross-device:

Are conversions tracked on different devices and included within reports?

Summary reports:

Is it easy and efficient to pull custom, summary reports on performance?

Available metrics:

Is the list of available metrics sufficient for your business?

There was not a huge amount to separate the vendors in this section. Analytics and reporting are critical functions of bid management technologies and it is clear that these leading companies have all invested heavily to ensure their clients get the data they need.

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Kenshoo scored very well across all sections within this category and was praised for the level of customization its reports provide, in particular. Its support for app install formats across both search and social also provides further visibility into audience behavior across media platforms. Moreover, partnerships with call tracking companies such as Marchex allows Kenshoo to automate optimizations based on call quality data.

DoubleClick Search just shaded the cross-device measurement subcategory, although all vendors did score above 4.5 out of 5 for this capability. DoubleClick Search provides device-specific reports at a keyword level and a variety of device-level bidding technologies, factors that have helped to boost its score in this subsection.


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Marin Software’s search/social reports were cited as one reason for its high score in the cross-channel reporting subcategory, along with the clarity and ease of use of its reporting dashboards.

Adobe Advertising Cloud performed exceptionally well for its cross-channel reports, including its offline integrations. Cross-device tracking and reports were also viewed as strengths for this vendor, alongside its audience proximity bidding tools.

Acquisio received particular praise for the clarity of its paid search insights. Customers also cited its intuitive reporting dashboards and the array of metrics on offer as highlights of this platform. Once more, the Acquisio Workbench was cited as a useful and insightful data analysis tool.

Wordstream performed well for its PPC analysis; clients defined it as clear, actionable, and insightful. This vendor’s scores were lower for the Cross-Channel Reporting subsection, but it did perform well in relation to search marketing questions.

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User experience is an important criterion when choosing a technology, but it is worth bearing in mind how relative this category can be. Consider the requirements of your company; for example, will a non-technical audience need to engage with the software often? If so, it is a good idea to assess the training support on offer.

If your user base will be of a technical nature, then ease of use may be a secondary concern when compared with the stability of the platform or the access to new features that you can expect. In fact, a lower score for ease of use can mean the platform is sophisticated, so it is worth exploring this metric in combination with other factors.

The ClickZ and Search Engine Watch community gave scores across each of the following subcategories within User experience:

User experienceAnalysis of how intuitive each platform is, and how effective the training and support are for clients.

Ease of use:

How accessible is the platform to a new or novice audience?

Training: Is training available for beginner, intermediate, and advanced audiences?

Client support:

Does your client support representative offer insights into your results? Do you have regular check-ins to assess the development of your relationship?

Stability:

Is the platform reliable? If errors occur, are they dealt with swiftly?

Set-up process:

How easy is it to set up a new account and/or transfer from another platform to this one?

New features:

Are new features announced often and accompanied by specific training?

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As is perhaps to be expected, the Ease of Use subcategory drew a wide range of responses.

Kenshoo, Marin Software, and Adobe Advertising Cloud did not score so highly for their ease of use for a non-technical audience, but did receive high scores for the training they offer to clients.

DoubleClick Search, with its Adwords-esque interface, was among the highest scores here. Acquisio and Wordstream also received very high scores in this section and were praised for their respective implementation processes.


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Acquisio was also among the leaders in relation to the client support it provides, followed by Marin and Kenshoo. Acquisio’s reporting dashboard also received praise for its intuitive and informative nature, showing performance data from search engines alongside Facebook and Instagram. This vendor’s relatively low entry price point was also referenced as a positive factor, given the array of advanced technologies it provides to its clients.

Wordstream is evidently an approachable technology for the paid search novice, which resonates with its user base of small business owners and agencies with a long list of accounts to manage. This vendor also received positive feedback for the support it provides to clients, via their knowledgeable team of in-house search experts.

Stability is an important consideration for advertisers placing their budgets on the hands of a paid media management platform. As a result, this was an area of strong performance for all vendors, with very few clients citing stability as a weakness of their software.

Innovative new features are essential for bid management platforms, as they can provide a vital competitive edge to their clients. This other was a fiercely contested area of our survey, but Kenshoo just edged ahead of the other vendors, with Marin Software and Acquisio close behind. Kenshoo’s adoption of new features to avail of AdWords innovations and its early adoption of both Pinterest and Amazon advertising contributed to this positive feedback.

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Kenshoo was a consistently strong performer across all categories, with particular highlights including its adoption of intent-based audiences, cross-channel management capabilities, and accurate performance forecasts. For advertisers looking for sophisticated search support on large accounts, with access to the latest innovations across both search and social, Kenshoo is clearly a worthy option.

OverviewThe diagram below highlights the average score received in our survey for each vendor across the six assessment categories.


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DoubleClick Search received very positive reviews for its user experience, integrations with display advertising platforms, and its automation technologies. Advertisers who are already heavily invested in the Google suite of products found the transition to DoubleClick Search to be an easy and profitable one.

Marin Software was highly praised for its proprietary search and social management technologies and for the strategic support its client teams offer. Advertisers keen to manage their paid media through a third-party platform that provides innovative search and social technologies should consider Marin Software.

Adobe Advertising Cloud scored best in the more advanced categories, particularly the data analysis sections and those relating to complex, cross-channel campaign management. This vendor provides a sophisticated solution that will benefit advertisers with large budgets and multifaceted creative assets to optimize across channels.

Acquisio was among the highest scorers in a number of categories, including bid management, user experience, and reporting. With a comparatively low price point for a monthly subscription, Acquisio’s clients stated in our survey that this provides access to advanced search campaign management, training, and client support.

Wordstream provides a more focused experience that prioritizes getting the best out of paid search for smaller advertisers. As such, it performed well in the client feedback for both Bid Management and User Experience. In the sections where it scored lower, these were not necessarily the functionalities that its users were most interested in from a bid management tool.

At a higher level, we can see that within the areas of Bid Management, User Experience, and Analytics/Reporting, higher scores were given across all vendors. These categories form the foundation of a successful paid media management software package, so this in keeping with expectations.

For many advertisers, these remain the core areas of assessment when choosing a technology partner to improve paid search performance.

Strategic Insight is one of the areas that starts to distinguish the vendors from each other in a meaningful way. As the industry continues to evolve, more marketers will be looking to their technology partners to act as consultants as well as suppliers.

Of course, the sophistication of the features offered will often be tied to the cost of the platform. For larger clients with complex requirements, this investment typically reaps rewards, as these advanced technologies deliver better commercial results.

Smaller advertisers may not need access to these features and, as such, may want to investigate more streamlined platforms that provide the core technologies they need.

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It should be clear that all of these vendors provide advanced support for search marketing campaigns, often driven by over a decade of investment and innovation. The distinctions between them are subtle and often come down to the following considerations:

Integration with brand’s current tech stack Effectiveness and frequency of vendor’s bid adjustments Performance prediction accuracy Mobile/local targeting features Social media management capabilities Support for marketing channels beyond search and social Reporting dashboards Cost

There are objective differences between the capabilities of each vendor, which we have aimed to shed some light on within our analyses in this guide. As stated previously, these distinctions are not always particularly marked, but it is possible to pinpoint particular strengths for each vendor.

The restant decision factors are entirely subjective and will be tied to the advertiser’s current situation and future business goals.

Our hope is that this guide will serve to provide shape to those discussions and encourage brands to enter discussions with the technology partners that will best suit their needs.

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