Google Campaign Manager lacks accountability, and is limited to Google inventory. In contrast, Bionic enables you to buy media from anyone, in any channel.

About Google Campaign Manager

Google’s Campaign Manager was first introduced in 2014 as a successor to its aging MediaVisor product.

Its strengths are its tight integration with the Google technology stack, Google ad inventory, and pricing.

Its weaknesses are lack of accountability to business goals, lack of support for non-digital channels, weak support for non-Google inventory, and missing media planning functionality.

How Bionic is Different

Bionic media planning software enables you to plan 100% of your media budget across all media channels and inventory sources.

You get an unbiased and holistic view of your advertising all in one place. And Bionic integrates with the Google technology stack – Campaign Manager, Google Ads, and Google Analytics.

Key Differences

  1. Lack of Product Commitment – Google unilaterally “end of lifed” Mediavisor, the predecessor to Campaign Manager. Campaign Manager did not replace the functionality of Mediavisor and fell short of customer expectations. You have to question how committed Google is in supporting this product line. In contrast, Bionic media planning software is Bionic’s flagship product and commands the lion’s share of the company’s resources – investment, product developers, marketing, trainers, customer support.
  2. Limited to Only Digital Media Channels – With Campaign Manager, you are limited to digital media, which is typically only a small portion of the overall media budget. With Bionic, you can plan 100% of your media budget across all media channels in one unified interface.
  3. Missing Cost Methods – With Campaign Manager, you are limited to CPM, CPC, CPA, and Flat rate cost structures. There are many other ways to price media – per day, per week, per month, cost per point, cost per column inch, cost per view, cost per completed view, cost per spot, viewable CPM, and more. In contrast, Bionic supports all media cost methods.
  4. Limited Access to Inventory – With Campaign Manager, you are limited to the inventory available in Google’s directory, which is only a portion of what’s available to you. As a media planner, you need access to the entire spectrum of options.  With Bionic, you are never limited and can include any inventory of any type from any vendor in your media plans.
  5. Loss of Independence – With Campaign Manager, the Google technology “stack” has you locked in with their tractor beam. With Bionic, you have the freedom to use any products you wish to use, including Google’s.
  6. Loss of Data Ownership – With Campaign Manager, Google has access to all of your media planning data. Do you really want this? With Bionic, your data is your data and is strictly confidential.
  7. Lack of Integration – With Campaign Manager, your integration options are limited to the Google technology stack. Clearly there are many other best of breed solutions available and you should not be limited to the Google stack. With Bionic, you are free to integrate with a wide array of products from Google and many other competing vendors.
  8. No Media Plan Optimization – With Campaign Manager, you only get media plan summary information, which makes it difficult to optimize and report on your media plan. With Bionic, you get detailed breakdowns of your media plan from every perspective: over time, by channel, by vendor, by ad unit, and by every other dimension of your plan.
  9. No Advertising Flowcharts – Campaign Manager does not enable you to create advertising flowcharts, which is one of the most important documents in the media planning process. With Bionic, you can create flowcharts with a click of a button.
  10. No Media Plan Presentation – Campaign Manager does not enable you to create PowerPoint presentations, which are critical in the process of getting approval on your media plan. With Bionic, you can create PowerPoint presentations with a click of a button.
  11. Weak Performance Monitoring – With Campaign Manager, you can’t monitor your marketing performance and pacing against your goals. This is like having a finance system that lets you create budgets, but doesn’t allow you to track your revenue and expenses against that budget. With Bionic, your marketing performance data flows in automatically from other systems and is compared against your plans. You get alerted if anything is not going as planned.
  12. No Product Transparency – Campaign Manager doesn’t provide product demonstrations or screenshots on their website. In contrast, Bionic gives you an online product demonstration that shows you all the key features of the system at your own pace without a salesperson pressuring you.
  13. Questionable Business Model – You get the Campaign Manager for “free” with Google. There’s an old adage in technology, “When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.” Think about that – do you want to be a product or a customer? With Bionic, you are the customer. The Bionic media planning software is not free because this is how we pay our people and our bills. It’s an honest transaction – you give us money and we give you great software in return. If you don’t like the software, then you can stop paying for it. And it’s a fair transaction with No Nonsense Pricing.

What’s missing or wrong?

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