Skai vs. Smaato

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Skai
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Skai (formerly Kenshoo) is a cross-channel advertising solution for search marketing, social media and online advertising. The product aims to give advertisers and agencies the control and automation needed to make better investment decisions across search marketing and online advertising.
$10,000
Starting Price
Smaato
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Smaato is a supply-side publisher platform (SSP) from the Verve Group since the 2021 acquisition.N/A
Pricing
SkaiSmaato
Editions & Modules
Kenshoo
$10,000
Starting Price
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SkaiSmaato
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SkaiSmaato
Considered Both Products
Skai
Chose Skai
I think Skai beats the competitors with its advanced bidding management system, this is a unique feature of them that if you implement properly, your accounts will surely benefit from this, especially if you have tons of data that the algo can learn from and optimize …
Chose Skai
I personally like Kenshoo better than Marin for a few reasons. When it comes to Ecomm Search, Kenshoo is far better in terms of available features, algorithmic bidding which is more focused on ROAS, and reporting especially for eCommerce. Marin is a good platform, especially …
Chose Skai
Google marketing suite - Good for Google but nothing else
Marin - Was very problematic and lacked easy of use & features
Chose Skai
We selected Kenshoo in 2017 due to its market presence and its notoriety. We learned about Kenshoo's integrations with internal data warehouses, and the bid management aspects were touted as first class. In practice, our unique marketing needs did not align with the limitations …
Chose Skai
Kenshoo's integration with sales and social platforms as well as search made it the only choice when it came to managing campaigns. Other interfaces may be simpler and quicker but Kenshoo's range of external integrations makes it more flexible for certain campaigns and the …
Chose Skai
I definitely prefer Marin for paid search only accounts. I select Kenshoo when my client also purchases Google shopping media, since their proprietary tools there are best in class.
Chose Skai
Some features of Kenshoo outshine other solutions we've evaluated. Kenshoo Infinity Suite is a great product for multi-channel management but overall is less favorable especially from a pricing perspective. We've transitioned several client accounts from Kenshoo to DoubleClick …
Chose Skai
An advantage that Nanigans has over Kenshoo is that their version of 'portfolios' didn't have any budget or flight length requirements and was extremely easy to use. They also offered 'affinity' segments. These are studies they would run on certain audiences that would result …
Chose Skai
Kenshoo is the best in class. With "time" being the most precious resource we have, Kenshoo allows us to get more done in the same amount of time as comparable products.
Chose Skai
I have not explored other platforms.
Chose Skai
While DoubleClick does not fully budget pace accounts I think it overall provides more accurate changes than Kenshoo. When our company selected Kenshoo we were told it would be able to manage hundreds of small accounts with small budgets. It is more designed for accounts that …
Chose Skai
Kenshoo Search offers keyword bid policies based off of sophisticated algorithms rather than simple bid rules. Also, the Kenshoo Desktop Editor allows for extremely easy bulk optimizations. Marin Software doesn't have bid algorithms or an easy-to-use desktop tool. These are …
Chose Skai
Very different tool that Hootsuite - which is a good tool for monitoring, but not for ad management. Kenshoo social was easily implemented since we use Kenshoo Search for paid program. When comparing tools, this one seemed to be the most robust and solved many issues we had - …
Chose Skai
Kenshoo is a more effective and user friendly platform than most competitors. Their tool is more expensive and like I said before, tailored to larger marketing budgets. They set them self apart with the ease of use, the Kenshoo editor, and cross channel functionality. However, …
Smaato
Chose Smaato
Smaato has better anti-fraud controls than most exchanges. Even if the inventory ends up being a bit pricey, I am more comfortable running campaigns on Smaato because I know there won't be any issues with the clients claiming refunds for invalid traffic. I believe that as the …
Features
SkaiSmaato
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Skai
7.1
Ratings
4% below category average
Smaato
-
Ratings
Data Transfer8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
DSP integration5.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Skai
6.1
Ratings
24% below category average
Smaato
-
Ratings
Ad campaign creation7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad deployment7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Display advertising4.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation4.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Sequence targeting6.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Skai
7.3
Ratings
6% below category average
Smaato
-
Ratings
Ad dashboards7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad performance reports9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking6.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management5.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization6.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SkaiSmaato
Small Businesses
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.5 out of 10
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Score 9.0 out of 10
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SkaiSmaato
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.6
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
3.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SkaiSmaato
Likelihood to Recommend
Kenshoo Search may not be appropriate if you don't spend much on search engine marketing. It also may not be appropriate if you don't care about tracking conversions and are only concerned with increasing awareness. Or, if you care about tracking conversions but don't expect to capture many, Kenshoo Search may not be necessary.
Read full review
Strong Google Exchange Bidding partner when comparing to other companies in EB.
Read full review
Pros
  • Customized reporting. There are many features that users can't report out on in power editor. Kenshoo makes it incredibly easy to get everything you need for a raw data dump.
  • Automation. Whether it's automated rules, portfolios or refreshing CRM uploads, Kenshoo helps cut some of the manual tasks out of the process making me more efficient.
  • Staying up to date with Facebook product updates. I can appreciate that Kenshoo does an exceptional job and ensuring new capabilities in Facebook are ready for use in the Kenshoo platform as well.
Read full review
  • Fill - the ad requests we send to Smaato have seen a great requests-to-impression ration.
  • Revenue - We've seen a lift in overall revenue thanks to the high CPM bids we get from Smaato.
  • Payments are always on time and they have a responsive financial team that is helpful in answering any questions.
  • Customer service - They are very fast to respond to any issues. The set up was streamlined thanks to their professional customer service.
Read full review
Cons
  • Syncing - I have had many issues where syncs would time out, or not show that changes were posted to Facebook.
  • Library - if there was a library for targeting settings that could be saved and easily accessed and input into new campaigns, that would be very helpful.
  • Updates - seemingly basic tools that a social management platform should have often taken a long time to be released.
Read full review
  • Inventory can be a bit pricey in competitive markets like the US.
  • Reporting dashboard is limited, needs work.
  • They don't offer a lof of transparency about margins over media cost.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
It's great to have a product like Kenshoo Social. It has a lot of data and is a great tool to use. Honestly, I think we would have looked somewhere else if we didn't have some much data and time invested into the platform. We had used it across search and social, so we invested a lot of time to get it running smoothly. It is very expensive and we think we could have gone elsewhere to get the same results over time. Once they have your data and the system is running smoothly, it's very difficult to go elsewhere
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
Set-up like other marketing platforms. If you know Google Ads, you know Kenshoo
Read full review
Smaato has a UI where you can control your line items on the traffic you want to receive. That is a key unique selling point that other SSPs don't offer. Most of the items that you will need like reporting can be done on a self serve manner and that is a big plus, specifically for changes that need to happen really fast and you don't need to deal with account managers that may take some time to answer emails.
Read full review
Support Rating
Very responsive and bring fast answers for problems
Read full review
Smaato's account management team is very professional. They are quite fast in terms of customer support, which is very helpful. One item that stands out is that they are willing to understand what you need for each campaign and what is the best way to move forward. They don't just jump quickly into trying to upsell more of Smaato's products (audiences, data) like other SSPs do.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
While DoubleClick does not fully budget pace accounts I think it overall provides more accurate changes than Kenshoo. When our company selected Kenshoo we were told it would be able to manage hundreds of small accounts with small budgets. It is more designed for accounts that would be spending minimally thousands of dollars a month. We had extreme issues with Kenshoo budget pacing and increasing our bids. Overall it did not meet our needs, and we will be switching vendors at end of contract
Read full review
Smaato has better anti-fraud controls than most exchanges. Even if the inventory ends up being a bit pricey, I am more comfortable running campaigns on Smaato because I know there won't be any issues with the clients claiming refunds for invalid traffic. I believe that as the industry matures, other SSPs will follow suit and prices will increase along with the board.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • ROI is harder to track due to reporting/column & time frame default tech in my humble opinion but generally better results when compared to other products
  • Since the interface is difficult to navigate and paid search is a reactive medium, can produce barriers to change.
Read full review
  • We have seen prices a bit high, thus reducing profitability
  • However, the vast reach has allowed us to get more budgets and fulfill them so the net effect is positive.
  • We have been able to run campaigns that targeted the same user on mobile and desktop by running with Smaato and that has allowed us to get more budgets from specific clients.
Read full review
ScreenShots