Meta Ads Manager
Outbrain
| Feature | Meta Ads Manager | Outbrain |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Contact sales | Contact sales |
| Free Plan | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Rating | 4.1 / 5 | 3.9 / 5 |
| Best For | ecommerce, dtc-brands, agencies, local-businesses | content-marketers, enterprise-brands, publishers, agencies |
| Founded | 2007 | 2006 |
| Audience Targeting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Carousel Ads | ✓ | ✗ |
| Video Ads | ✓ | ✗ |
| Retargeting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Lookalike Audiences | ✓ | ✗ |
| Conversion Api | ✓ | ✗ |
| Native Ads | ✗ | ✓ |
| Smartfeed | ✗ | ✓ |
| Conversion Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| A B Testing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Brand Safety | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Meta Ads Manager Pros
- Huge audience
- Advanced targeting
- Visual ad formats
- Retargeting capabilities
✗ Meta Ads Manager Cons
- iOS privacy impacts
- Rising costs
- Complex reporting
✓ Outbrain Pros
- Premium publisher network
- Good content amplification
- Strong audience targeting
- Better brand safety than competitors
✗ Outbrain Cons
- Higher minimum spend
- Lower volume than Taboola
- Requires quality content to perform
The Verdict
Meta Ads Manager is built for ecommerce and dtc brands, with a focus on audience-targeting and carousel-ads. Outbrain targets content marketers and enterprise brands and leads with native-ads and smartfeed.
Both tools use custom enterprise pricing — you'll need to contact sales for a quote, which makes direct cost comparison difficult.
Neither tool offers a free plan, so factor the subscription cost into your decision from the start.
Both tools are a solid fit for agencies — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.