Google Ads vs Google Ad Manager

by Gralio Feb 18, 2025

Google Ads and Google Ad Manager serve different purposes within the advertising ecosystem. Google Ads helps businesses advertise their products or services, while Google Ad Manager enables website and app owners to sell their ad inventory. Choose Google Ads for promoting your offerings and Google Ad Manager for monetizing your online properties.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 3094 reviews and 60 websites, saving 17 hours, 41 minutes of reading.

Google Ads

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Google Ad Manager

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the results of search engines like Google Search and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos. Google Ads enables businesses of all sizes to reach their target audience, increase website traffic, and generate leads or sales. Its self-service platform allows for campaign customization, budget control, and performance tracking.

Google Ad Manager is a comprehensive platform designed to help website and app owners earn money from their online content by displaying ads. It provides tools to manage various types of ads, connect with numerous advertisers, and track ad performance to maximize revenue. Google Ad Manager is a robust solution suitable for businesses of all sizes seeking to streamline their online advertising operations.

Summary

Main difference

Google Ads is a platform for advertisers to create and manage campaigns across Google's network, focusing on driving traffic and conversions through paid search and display ads. Google Ad Manager, conversely, is for website and app owners to sell their ad space, maximizing revenue by connecting with various advertisers.

Relative strengths of Google Ads (compared to Google Ad Manager)

Wider reach across Google's network, including search results.
Advanced campaign customization and optimization tools, like automated bidding and PPC suggestions.
Detailed performance tracking and ROI measurement, enabling data-driven campaign adjustments.

Relative weaknesses of Google Ads (compared to Google Ad Manager)

Less control over ad placements and inventory.
Can be complex for beginners due to numerous features and settings.
Focus is on spending budget for ads, not generating revenue from ad space.

Who should use Google Ads VS. Google Ad Manager

Google Ads is a powerful advertising platform enabling businesses to connect with their target audience through search and display ads. Users praise its reach and targeting but find the interface complex and reporting cumbersome. Best for businesses seeking scalable advertising solutions with robust analytics, despite the learning curve.

Google Ad Manager is a robust ad management platform ideal for businesses seeking to monetize their website or app content. Users praise its comprehensive features and detailed reporting, while some find it challenging to learn initially. Its ease of use for basic tasks makes it accessible to various skill levels.

Ideal for small, medium, and large businesses.
Suitable for various industries, including E-commerce, Healthcare, Finance, and more.

Best for small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
Ideal for Finance, E-commerce, Retail, Consumer Goods, Media & Entertainment, Software, IT, Telecom, Legal & Marketing.

Google Ads and Google Ad Manager features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Performance Tracking & ROI Measurement

Supported

Google Ads allows tracking impressions, clicks, conversions, and estimated revenue for ROI measurement.

Supported

Google Ad Manager tracks impressions, clicks, conversions, and revenue, enabling ROI measurement.
Advertising Campaign Management

Supported

Google Ads provides tools and methods for managing ad campaigns across Google platforms.

Supported

Ad Manager allows publishers to manage ad campaigns within their inventory.
Google Ads integration

Supported

Google Ads allows managing campaigns directly within its platform.

Not supported

Google Ad Manager displays Google Ads campaigns on publisher websites, but does not manage campaigns.
PPC suggestions

Supported

Google Ads offers PPC campaign optimization suggestions in the Recommendations tab.

Not supported

Google Ad Manager does not directly offer PPC optimization suggestions.
Bing Ads integration

Partially supported

Bing Ads campaigns cannot be managed directly within Google Ads, but integrations with third-party tools or APIs are available.

Not supported

Bing Ads campaigns are not supported.
Automated bidding

Supported

Google Ads supports automated bidding based on goals like conversions and ROAS.

Not supported

Google Ad Manager does not support automated bidding in the same way as Google Ads.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

-0.15

Neutral sentiment

+0.5

Rather positive sentiment
Customer Service

-0.09

Neutral sentiment

-0.67

Rather negative sentiment
Ease of Use

+0.34

Rather positive sentiment

+0.47

Rather positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

+0.55

Rather positive sentiment

+0.54

Rather positive sentiment
Ease of Implementation

-0.02

Neutral sentiment

+0

Neutral sentiment
Scalability

+0.88

Strongly positive sentiment

No data

Google Ads and Google Ad Manager Pricing

No data

User sentiment

Neutral

-0.15

We couldn't find a pricing page for Google Ads.

No data

User sentiment

Rather positive

+0.5

We couldn't find a pricing page for Google Ad Manager.

Google Ads and Google Ad Manager review insights

3094 reviews analysed from and

Users love

Unmatched reach and precision targeting
Ideal for large campaigns with robust analytics and scalability
Powerful retargeting tools
Google performs max campaign is productive

Robust platform with comprehensive ad management features.
Easy to use interface for basic tasks.
Detailed reporting and analytics.
Widely used and accepted in the industry.

Users dislike

The new UI could be less confusing
It crashes quite frequently
Filters aren’t very clear
Reporting can be complicated
Google Ads launched automated channels which puts digital marketers less levers to for optimization
DDA driven attribution has also has a down side as the backend numbers or the CRM numbers referred by the client creates a huge discrepancy in the reporting conversions

Difficult to understand and navigate for beginners, especially with advanced features.
Customer support is often slow and unhelpful.
Integration with other tools can be challenging.
Inventory forecasting is inaccurate.

Google Ads and Google Ad Manager Ratings

G2

4.3/5

(1936)
Capterra

4.5/5

(949)
Glassdoor

3.5/5

(2)

G2

4.2/5

(221)
Glassdoor

3.5/5

(2)

Company health

Employee growth

No data

Web traffic

No data

Financing

No data

How easy is Google Ad Manager to use for beginners?

Google Ad Manager has a mixed reception regarding ease of use. While some users find the interface easy for basic tasks, others, especially beginners, find it difficult to understand and navigate, particularly when dealing with advanced features. A 0.47 ease-of-use score suggests a moderate learning curve.

Which product best supports maximizing ad revenue?

Google Ad Manager is the better product for maximizing ad revenue. Its core function is to help website and app owners monetize their content through advertising, offering tools to manage various ad types and connect with numerous advertisers. While Google Ads focuses on creating and running ad campaigns, Ad Manager focuses on optimizing ad placements and revenue generation for publishers. This makes Ad Manager better suited for maximizing ad revenue from existing online content.

What are the advantages of Google Ads?

Google Ads offers unmatched reach and precise targeting, leveraging Google's vast network and search data. It's particularly well-suited for large campaigns due to its robust analytics, scalability, and powerful retargeting tools. Features like automated bidding and PPC suggestions streamline campaign optimization. For businesses focused on driving traffic and conversions through search and display advertising, Google Ads provides a comprehensive platform.

What are the disadvantages of Google Ads?

Google Ads can be complex and difficult to manage, especially for beginners. Users report a confusing interface, frequent crashes, unclear filters, and complicated reporting. The automated features, while intended to simplify campaign management, can limit control over optimization. Discrepancies between Google Ads data and client CRM data can also create challenges in accurately measuring conversions. Finally, users have expressed negative sentiment towards the pricing of the product.

Alternatives to Google Ads and Google Ad Manager

RollWorks Account-Based Platform

RollWorks is a platform designed to help businesses find and connect with their ideal customers, particularly in the business-to-business (B2B) market. Using a large database and artificial intelligence, it identifies companies that are likely to be interested in your products or services and provides insights to help you tailor your marketing efforts. It offers a suite of tools for advertising, account-based marketing, and sales intelligence, all aimed at driving revenue growth. RollWorks integrates with other marketing and sales tools to streamline your workflow and track campaign effectiveness.

AdSense

AdSense is a platform by Google for website and blog owners to earn money by displaying targeted ads on their sites. AdSense automatically displays text, image, and video ads that are relevant to your content and audience, potentially increasing revenue through clicks or impressions. It's a straightforward way to monetize your online presence, suitable for businesses of all sizes.

AdButler

AdButler is an ad-serving platform that helps businesses manage and optimize online advertising. It offers a range of solutions, including tools to create and manage display ads, video ads, native ads, and more. AdButler is designed to be flexible and scalable, making it suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises. Its key features include a self-serve marketplace, detailed analytics, and programmatic advertising options. Overall, AdButler aims to be a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to maximize their online advertising revenue.

Cometly

Cometly is a software platform designed for businesses to better understand the effectiveness of their online advertising. It helps marketing teams track which ads lead to sales or other desired actions, like signing up for a newsletter. Cometly provides data and reports that show which ads are performing well and offers tools to help improve ad campaigns. It is used by companies who sell software, marketing agencies, and online stores.

Mailchimp All-in-One Marketing Platform

Mailchimp is a popular marketing platform designed to help growing businesses of all sizes. It enables you to create, send, and analyze email and advertising campaigns. With features like pre-designed templates, landing page creation, marketing automation, and data analytics, it provides a comprehensive toolkit to manage your marketing efforts. Mailchimp emphasizes data-driven insights to optimize campaigns and aims to drive sales through personalized customer interactions across multiple channels, including email, social media, and text messages.

FCC Ads Manager

FCC Ads Manager by Flipkart is an advertising platform for brands wanting to reach Flipkart's customer base. It offers various ad formats like display ads and sponsored product placements within Flipkart's website and app. You can target your ads based on keywords, interests, and customer demographics. FCC Ads Manager also provides performance tracking and reporting to help measure campaign effectiveness.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

How are we doing?

Is this information helpful to you? Is there anything we are missing?

Did this help you select your product?

Other issues? Vote & Let us know