AdRoll vs. Facebook Ads

Whether you’re new to the world of ecommerce or a seasoned marketing veteran, you’re probably familiar with the importance of digital ads — especially on social media. (Despite all our New Year’s resolutions to dial down the screen time, studies have found we’re spending more time on social media than ever before.)

But with digital ad marketing comes a few tough questions: Are Facebook ads still worth it in 2022? Have social media ad costs risen dramatically post-iOS 14? What’s the best way to attract new audiences and grow your brand? Should you buy ads directly from social media platforms or use a social media ad management platform?

We’re here to offer some clarity. Drumroll, please — it’s time for another showdown: We’re squaring off AdRoll vs. Facebook ads, complete with answers to all your frequently asked questions.

In This Post

• What Is AdRoll?

• What Is Facebook Business Manager?

• AdRoll vs. Facebook Ads: Pricing

• AdRoll vs. Facebook Ads: Key Features

• AdRoll vs. Facebook Ads: The Verdict

What Is AdRoll?

We’re an all-in-one ecommerce marketing platform perfect for growing brands. Some of our solutions include:

• World-class prospecting and retargeting ads, plus email, to attract, convert, and delight and say goodbye to abandoned carts

  • Customer access to a design team for visually engaging and on-brand dynamic product, rich-media, native and image ads

  • Placements across more than 2 million publisher sites and mobile apps

  • High-performing AI that optimizes to your campaign goals to drive outcomes at the best price

• Urchin tracking modules (UTMs) so you can monitor performance regardless of frequent changes associated with third-party cookies

• Marketing personalization features, such as AI-driven product recommendation carousels, to better capture the attention of distracted shoppers

• A holistic data analytics dashboard to track the customer journey and optimize for results

• Basic and advanced custom audiences, so you can better tailor your marketing messages to different segments

• Quick and easy integration with ecommerce platforms and tools like Shopify

• Convenient customer support via chat and email

What Is Facebook Business Manager?

Facebook Business Manager is Meta’s business suite for all things related to ads and marketing across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Using Facebook Business Manager, you can easily:

• Launch ads across all networks under the Meta umbrella in various formats — lead ads, video ads, carousel ads, engagement ads, etc.

• Leverage remarketing features

• Access basic ad templates

• Use custom audiences and geographical, behavioral, and interest targeting tools

AdRoll vs. Facebook Ads: Pricing

Pricing and resourcing are massive parts of marketing for growing brands. While you want the best for your ecommerce business, you also have to be realistic when it comes to how much budget you can dedicate to different channels.

AdRoll

• Our ad costs are priced dynamically based on cost per thousand (CPM). In other words, costs are a true reflection of inventory supply and demand.

• You can allocate and adjust budgets for individual campaigns at any moment. (Don’t worry — our convenient ROAS calculator can help you figure out your ideal budget.)

• We offer two monthly subscription plans — the Ads plan is free, while the Marketing & Ads Plus plan starts at $36 a month. Both plans unlock a ton of marketing tools, including display ads, audience segmentation, and performance tracking.

Facebook

• You can choose your own bidding model, whether that’s CPM or cost per click (CPC). According to the platform, costs average around $7.19 per 1,000 impressions for the former and $0.97 for the latter. Ultimately, your ad price will depend on variables such as your audience, bid, objective, and placement.

• Once you set your budget, your ads will run until you’ve reached the last scheduled date of your campaign or when your budget has been exhausted. Just like with our Facebook ads tool, you’ll enjoy some flexibility when it comes to pausing ads or adjusting your spend.

AdRoll vs. Facebook Ads: Key Features

While both our Facebook ads platform and Facebook Business Manager allow you to launch ads on the Facebook network, there are some key differences between the two.

We’re a one-stop-shop for all your marketing needs. Rarely should an ecommerce brand rely on just one marketing channel, whether that’s Facebook ads or emails. Over time, this causes marketers to amass a Frankenstein-esque MarTech stack with a dozen subscriptions to different solutions, many of which offer overlapping functionalities — not ideal.

With our platform, you can manage all your efforts on one platform, saving time and money. Plus, you can better monitor your results and minimize overlapping data as shoppers zip back and forth between multiple touchpoints. For example, with just a few clicks, you can track precisely how a shopper viewed a display ad, liked a Facebook post, checked out your shipping FAQ, then eventually hit the checkout button.

We use AI and machine learning to optimize your campaigns. Not only is our platform built for attributing and tracking customer journeys, but it’s also powered by AI and machine learning, meaning you can easily optimize your campaigns. Trust us: This is super useful when you’re running and organizing multiple campaigns.

We provide extremely in-depth yet manageable insights on our Cross-Channel Performance Dashboard, with clear recommendations on how to improve your ads.

We offer unparalleled customer support. Spend a moment on Reddit or any other MarTech review site, and you’ll find thousands of ecommerce entrepreneurs and marketers bemoaning how they’ve been routed to a dozen help pages but can’t get in touch with a live Facebook representative to help them debug, fix, or unfreeze their ads. (Facebook only assigns reps to high-spend accounts.)

Comparatively, no matter how much (or how little) you spend with us, there’s someone there to answer your questions or look into your ads.

AdRoll vs. Facebook Ads: The Verdict

There are plenty of similarities between Facebook ads launched via our platform vs. the Facebook Business Network. Both are easy to set up and user friendly, have a relatively low cost, and successfully target specific audiences based on their location, demographics, interests, and behaviors.

However, unless you’re planning to spend big bucks on Facebook ads, our platform is the way to go. With better customer support, more robust features beyond the Facebook ad network, and friendlier optimization features, we’re a fantastic marketing solution for growing brands looking to test, tinker, and optimize — all while remaining extremely cost-effective.

In comparison, Facebook ads are still the go-to for many brands new to the world of retail, though its features and tools are more appropriate for larger brands with massive budgets run by marketing veterans. If advertising directly on Facebook — or even Google — seems daunting, we make ad management significantly more beginner friendly.

It’s clear: AdRoll is the ultimate platform for growing brands, and there’s nothing that quite compares to it.

Last updated on November 14th, 2023.