Getting to Know Ad Management Platforms

In my time here at PMG I’ve been lucky enough to work on a variety of different clients. Clients ranging from small companies with niche products to global retail brands. While, as one can assume, managing these varying clients requires different strategies and approaches. Each client has also been a unique learning experience for me as they’re all managed on different platforms.

Through the evolution of my career I’ve grown familiar with Kenshoo, DoubleClick and Marin. In working with all these platforms I’ve had plenty of moments of frustration, however, I have come to realize that PMG is focused on finding the right platform for each client and that each platform we use was chosen for a reason.

Below is a brief description of my experience with these platforms along with some of the favorite features of each. As I do have my biases I sought the opinions of fellow PMGers as well. I hope that by reading this you’ll be able to gain some quick insights into the benefits of using these tools to help you find the right tool for your brand.

Kenshoo

I’ll always have a soft spot for Kenshoo. It was the first platform I ever used back in my intern years when SQRs and keyword builds filled most of my work days. It’s for this reason that I’m most comfortable when I’m building Kenshoo import sheets for new campaigns, keywords, etc. Some of the favorite Kenshoo features from the Kenshoo Pros around the office include:

Bulk Bid Management

Campaign Replication Functionality

Custom Dashboard Configuration

DoubleClick

DoubleClick is where I learned to manage budgets, to optimize keywords and to traffic ads. It’s also where I’ve spent the majority of my career, which does make me slightly biased 🙂 Overall, DoubleClick is the best tool for any user who is familiar with operating in the Google AdWords UI as it’s very similar, although with multi-engine integration and better bulk import capabilities. Other awesome features include:

Simple Ad Scheduling

Speedy Bulk Operations

Great Bulk Import Capabilities (because it’s worth saying twice)

Marin

For the first time in 2 years I’m easing myself back into uncharted territory. It’s hard to speak with complete confidence about Marin as I’m still very much an amateur, however, my first impression is that Marin is very easy to operate for anyone familiar with other ad management platforms. Some favorite Marin features include:

Easy & Quick Filtering

Ease of Budget Management

Simple UI Navigation

Happy Ad Managing!