ClickZ has launched an innovative new series of buyers guides, created with the aim of cutting through the complexity of the technology landscape to help our community of readers make better decisions about vendors. The first of this series is dedicated to bid management platforms, which help brands maximize the returns on their PPC, social media, and display advertising budgets. The role of a bid management platform has changed significantly over the past decade, in line with the increased sophistication of the digital media industry. With over $90 billion spent on paid search in 2017, these software packages play a vital role in deriving maximum value from a brand’s digital media budget. The core component of the ClickZ bid management vendor guide is our customer survey, which received over 1,600 responses.

1. In partnership with Platforms evaluated
Buyers Guide
Bid Management Tools
Helping you choose the right
technology partners

2. About this guide
The 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.
1
World Economic Forum White Paper, Digital Transformation of Industries: Digital Enterprise
2
Chiefmartech.com
3
Statista
4
Gartner - CMO Spend Survey 2016-2017

3. .....................................................
Contents page
1The state of paid
search today
2Picking the right
technology for you
4The current landscape Kenshoo
DoubleClick Search
Marin Software
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Acquisio
Wordstream
09
10
11
12
13
14
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3Scope and
methodology
5The ClickZ & Search Engine
Watch customer survey
Introduction
Bid management
Automation
Cross-channel
Strategic insight
Reporting and analytics
User experience
Overview
15
16
19
22
24
27
30
33
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01
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4. 1
The state of paid search today
Paid 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
Statista
6,8
eMarketer

5. 2
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

6. 3
Picking the right technology
for you
All 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
Product
Demos
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

7. 4
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

8. 5
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

9. 6
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

10. 7
Scope and methodology
This 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
Analytics User
experience
Bid management
techology
The ClickZ & Search Engine Watch Customer Survey

11. 8
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:

12. 9
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 Aviv
Israel
Platform strengths
(taken from the ClickZ survey)

13. 10
Key People
Company profile
Founded HQ
1995
(purchased by Google
in 2008 for $3.1B)
New York City
Matt Eichner
Head 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.
Platform strengths
(taken from the ClickZ survey)
Tushar Balsara
Head 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

14. 11
Key People
Company profile
Founded HQ
2006 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.
Platform strengths
(taken from the ClickZ survey)
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 Lien
CEO
Wister Walcott
EVP, Product & Technology
Douglas Pan
SVP, Engineering

15. 12
Key People
Company profile
Launched HQ
2012 San Jose
USA
Brad Rencher
EVP 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.
Platform strengths
(taken from the ClickZ survey)
Brett Wilson
VP 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

16. 13
Bid Management
Key People
Company profile
Founded HQ
2007
(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
Platform strengths
(taken from the ClickZ survey)
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 Poirier
Co-founder and CEO
Richard Couture
Co-founder/CTO
Alexandre
Lamoureux
COO
Analytics Client Support

17. 14
Key People
Company profile
Founded HQ
2007 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.
Platform strengths
(taken from the ClickZ survey)
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 Folz
CEO
Howard Kogan
President
Kristen Yerardi
SVP Customer Success

18. 15
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 survey
Our 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
Analytics User
experience
Bid management
techology

19. 16
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 Management
Assessing 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.

20. 17
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
4

21. 18
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.

22. 19
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:
Automation
Using 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.

23. 20
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.
Kenshoo DoubleClick Marin Adobe Acquisio Wordstream
4

24. 21
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.

25. 22
Cross-channel capabilities
Vendor 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.

26. 23
Kenshoo DoubleClick Marin Adobe Acquisio Wordstream
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.

27. 24
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.

28. 25
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 insight
Assessment 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.

29. 26
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.
Kenshoo DoubleClick Marin Adobe Acquisio Wordstream

30. 27
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.

31. 28
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 reporting
The 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.

32. 29
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.
Kenshoo DoubleClick Marin Adobe Acquisio Wordstream
4

33. 30
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.

34. 31
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 experience
Analysis 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?

35. 32
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.
Kenshoo DoubleClick Marin Adobe Acquisio Wordstream

36. 33
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.

37. 34
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.
Overview
The diagram below highlights the average score received in our survey for each
vendor across the six assessment categories.
Kenshoo DoubleClick Marin Adobe Acquisio Wordstream
4

38. 35
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.

39. 36
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.