Outbrain
Outbrain is a native advertising platform that helps you reach engaged audiences across premium publisher sites through personalized content recommendations that drive measurable marketing results and brand growth.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform that helps you manage engagement, publishing, analytics, and listening across all your social channels from a single, centralized dashboard.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Outbrain | Sprout Social |
|---|---|---|
| Website | outbrain.com | sproutsocial.com |
| Pricing Model | Subscription | Subscription |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | $249/month |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✓ 30 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2006 | 2010 |
| Headquarters | New York, USA | Chicago, USA |
Overview
Outbrain
Outbrain helps you get your content in front of the right people by placing it on the world's most respected news and entertainment sites. Instead of intrusive banners, your ads appear as recommended articles or videos that match the interests of the person reading. You can target specific audiences based on their habits and preferences, ensuring your budget goes toward users most likely to engage with your brand.
The platform gives you full control over your campaigns through a self-service dashboard where you can set budgets, test different headlines, and track conversions in real-time. Whether you want to increase brand awareness or drive direct sales, you can optimize your creative assets using automated tools that identify which versions perform best with your target demographic.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a centralized platform designed to help you manage every aspect of your social media presence. Instead of jumping between different apps, you can handle engagement, publishing, and reporting from one unified smart inbox. It helps you build stronger relationships with your audience by ensuring no message falls through the cracks while providing deep insights into what content actually drives results for your brand.
You can use the platform to schedule posts across multiple networks, monitor brand mentions in real-time, and generate presentation-ready reports for your stakeholders. It scales effectively for growing businesses and large enterprises alike, offering a 30-day free trial to let you explore the full suite of automation and listening tools before committing to a paid plan starting at $249 per month.
Overview
Outbrain Features
- Interest Targeting Reach your ideal customers by targeting them based on their verified reading habits and long-term content interests.
- Conversion Bid Strategy Automate your bidding process to focus on the specific actions that matter most to your business goals.
- Smartads Gallery Create engaging ad formats like carousels and interactive polls that encourage users to interact with your brand.
- Lookalike Audiences Find new potential customers who share similar behaviors and characteristics with your existing high-value website visitors.
- Automated A/B Testing Test multiple headlines and images simultaneously to discover which combinations drive the highest click-through rates.
- Premium Publisher Network Place your content on high-authority sites like CNN and MSN to build trust and credibility with your audience.
Sprout Social Features
- Unified Smart Inbox. Streamline your engagement by managing all incoming messages from every social profile in a single, filterable view.
- Shared Content Calendar. Plan and schedule your social posts across multiple networks using a visual calendar to maintain a consistent brand voice.
- Social Listening. Uncover critical consumer insights and industry trends by tracking specific keywords, hashtags, and brand mentions across the web.
- Automated Reporting. Create professional, presentation-ready reports that track your performance and prove the ROI of your social media efforts.
- Employee Advocacy. Empower your team to share curated company content to their own social networks to extend your brand's reach.
- Review Management. Monitor and respond to your business reviews on Facebook, Google My Business, and TripAdvisor directly from your dashboard.
Pricing Comparison
Outbrain Pricing
Sprout Social Pricing
- 5 social profiles
- All-in-one smart inbox
- Publishing and scheduling
- Social content calendar
- Review management
- Mobile app for iOS and Android
- Everything in Standard, plus:
- Unlimited social profiles
- Competitive reports for Instagram
- Custom workflows and tags
- Optimal send times
- Paid social reporting
Pros & Cons
Outbrain
Pros
- Access to high-quality traffic from reputable news websites
- Intuitive dashboard makes campaign setup quick and easy
- Granular targeting options for specific audience segments
- Effective at driving lower costs per acquisition
Cons
- Strict content guidelines can lead to ad rejections
- Minimum daily spend requirements may limit small budgets
- Reporting data can sometimes experience slight delays
Sprout Social
Pros
- Intuitive interface makes onboarding new team members fast
- Excellent reporting tools that look professional for clients
- Smart Inbox simplifies managing high volumes of messages
- Reliable post scheduling and automated optimal timing features
Cons
- Significantly higher starting price than most competitors
- Additional costs for social listening and advocacy modules
- Limited features for smaller teams on the entry tier