Criteo vs Adroll for B2B

At Help Scout, we ran a test of Criteo vs. Adroll for remarketing. Results showed that Adroll was the winner. The final results were based on Revenue.

Background

In the beginning, I let AdRoll and Criteo know that we would be testing them against each other in August. I’d take the monthly budget and split it evenly between the two channels.

Criteo agreed and AdRoll wished us the best of luck. I also shared reporting between the two whenever they asked. They were being judged on 4 aspects (which they both knew about).

Account Management

Winner: Both

To be honest, I was surprised Criteo worked with us as much as they did. In the initial sales call, the AM called us an “unusual client”. Chris (Criteo) and Casey (AdRoll) were both great, but there were a few differences.

Casey is our dedicated Account Rep. Chris was our Sales Rep and held my hand until the campaign started running, and then handed me off to Carly (our next account rep). Chris was great, but because of his short term with us, he really couldn’t see long term.

It was a tie because initial set up with Adroll was rough. Although Casey is great, he’s our 3rd account rep.

Why the emphasis on the account rep? AdRoll has pushed us into a few Alpha programs due to account management; they can also manipulate our bids.

Campaign Performance

Winner: AdRoll

Criteo sold us (and every single one of their customers) on click through conversions. They do that because AdRoll’s bidding model is based on CPMs, while Criteo’s is based on CPC.

This was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to test. If Criteo could bring half price clicks, it’s worth the test to push on conversions.

And that was the case. Criteo CPC was $3.74, while AdRoll was at $7.28. The Adroll CPC was 2x that of Criteo, but AdRoll converted better, and I give credit to AdRoll’s technology being better.

Criteo is built for ecommerce, b2c. Leave the cart with an item? Criteo will hammer the user until they buy again.

AdRoll, not so much. AdRoll plays a longer B2B game – which fits our customers better, but this also means we will rely on VTC conversions.

AdRoll Blended: $99.86

Criteo Blended: $124.53

Revenue

Winner: AdRoll.

Due to the higher CPA, Criteo needed to have revenue at ~130% of that of AdRoll to make it close. And it didn’t happen.

Technology

Winner: AdRoll

1. AdRoll focuses on longer buying processes; Criteo focuses on immediate return - not ideal for our customers. Again, worth testing due to the half price CPC, and it did convert, but $20 higher CPA.
2. Criteo runs everything through the account reps: Bid Change? Upload Ads? All have to go through Criteo Reps. AdRoll allows me to make any and all changes.
3. Criteo doesn’t offer an exclusion audience: no way to block customers. And if you’re B2C, this isn’t a necessity. But we need it.
4. AdRoll has 1 pixel to rull them all. Criteo has to create a unique pixel for each campaign.

Continuing with Adroll

For us, AdRoll was clearly winning on CPA and Technology.