AdRoll vs. MNTN

Ready to find partners and solutions that’ll help your omnichannel marketing efforts reach the next level? You may have stumbled upon AdRoll and MNTN, both offering powerful retargeting features, audience targeting, and attribution. 

How do the two compare when it comes to other capabilities, pricing, pros, cons, and use cases? We’ve got the answers right here — let’s dive in!

What Is AdRoll?

AdRoll is an all-in-one marketing platform for brands looking for a comprehensive suite of products that cover everything they need to grow their businesses, including: 

• AI-powered ads that recover abandoned carts, build customer loyalty, boost brand awareness, and more — in whatever format you like, whether that’s image, video, dynamic product, native, or rich-media.

• Email marketing tools complete with a library of pre-made templates

• Automation builder to manage all your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest efforts all in one place

• Audience and segmentation to maximize your first-party data and ensure every marketing message is hyper-personalized to shoppers’ needs and wants

We also offer a Cross-Channel Performance Dashboard that lets you see precisely how your campaigns are performing, as well as how your marketing touchpoints are interacting and contributing to conversions. Not a numbers person? You’re in luck — we analyze your data to provide high-level insights and recommendations on where to allocate your budget for the largest impact possible. 

What Is MNTN?

MNTN helps brands create, launch, and monitor performance ads streamed over smart TVs and over-the-top (OTT) devices. In other words, once you select your target audience, your ads will be shown during ad-supported shows on networks such as the Food Network, ESPN, or CNN. For an extra cost, you can also extend your campaign and use MNTN to reach the same audience through display ads when they’re browsing on their computers and mobile devices. 

Additionally, MNTN also offers the following:

• Creative services, so you don’t have to hire a production agency. (Keep in mind that while the MNTN website states they offer different packages for every budget, it is unclear how its Creative-As-A-Subscription services are priced.)

• Campaign measurement and attribution across the entire customer conversion journey — on both the MNTN platform and Google Analytics

• Audience retargeting — simply place the MNTN pixel on your website, and site visitors are automatically added to your retargeting audience pool. 

In other words, MNTN handles TV ads less like a traditional marketing channel and more like a digital performance channel alongside paid search, social media, or display. 

AdRoll vs. MNTN: The Showdown

While both AdRoll and MNTN help brands reach their target audience and launch campaigns from a single plug-and-play platform, they differ in significant ways:

• Although MNTN makes TV ads more accessible to brands than ever, TV is just one channel out of many in any robust omnichannel strategy. Comparatively, our platform covers ads on both the web and social media, email, and more, streamlining your MarTech stack and helping you save massively on subscription costs. 

• Our platform is free to use, and the Marketing & Ads Plus plan (which offers a ton of advanced features, including automated Cross-Channel recipes) starts at only $36 per month. Comparatively, MNTN does not disclose its pricing — you’ll have to reach out and request a demo to learn more. 

• MNTN may offer retargeting for TV ads, but AdRoll is the undisputed industry leader in cross-channel retargeting. Not only does our retargeting platform cover millions of websites and mobile apps (including Facebook and Google) but it’s also powered by expert machine learning to ensure you get the results you need. 

The Final Say

TV ads aren’t cheap — even if you’re only using stock images and voiceover, you’re looking at a minimum of $1,000 for a 15-second spot. Costs balloon when you start tinkering with the timing, audience, networks, frequency, and more. (Not to mention the time and effort required to bring your concept to life.)

MNTN display prospecting ads can only be served to households that have been previously targeted with a MNTN Connected TV ad. AdRoll has no such limitations. Our brand awareness display ads (which include video ads) reach across the open web to target high-intent users wherever they might be.

MNTN also doesn’t offer a transparent look into how much brands can expect to pay for results, but industry experts estimate the CPM for CTV ads range between $35 and $65. Our CPM, comparatively, ranges between $3 and $9 depending on the type of ad (retargeting is cheaper than demographic and interest targeting). Additionally, MNTN doesn’t offer a free trial or subscription plan, making it risky for brands wondering if it’s the right fit.

It’s clear: Unless you’re an established brand with significant resources for experimenting with new channels and ad types, you’ll receive more results for less budget with AdRoll compared to MNTN.

Curious about what else AdRoll can do for your bottom line?

Last updated on November 14th, 2023.