Bitshelf » Paid Search Advertising

MarketTarget adds Bing and Yahoo! PPC management services to San Diego SEO services

cezanne — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:19:34 +0000

MarketTarget, a leading provider of SEO Services announced the launch of its Bing PPC Advertising Campaign Management offering. The Pay Per Click advertising model has become one of the most cost-effective and lucrative ways to market a brand on the web. According to the latest MarketTarget Search Marketing Report produced by MarketTarget’s SEO Consulting Services division, nearly 80% of the survey’s respondents are engaging in PPC or paid search activity (either as a standalone advertising channel or combined with other methods such as search engine optimization), which demonstrates that the competition within this sector is very significant.

While many companies exclusively position their campaigns with Google, utilizing the organization’s popular Adwords software, many businesses are also noticing the potential of other search engine advertising platforms such as Bing. Bing has steadily increased its market share in this area for many years and is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with. As such, the PPC team at MarketTarget has announced its intention to offer Bing PPC management options from early 2012 alongside its current wide range of paid search services.

David Wiedmaier, the SEO agency’s leading Pay Per Click specialist, feels that companies shouldn’t be put off by the fact that Bing is largely unexplored territory for many marketers.

“By investing in the platform sooner rather than later, businesses will be exposing their brand to an expanding audience and are likely to gain an edge over their competitors, as many rival companies may not have tapped into Bing’s potential yet”, explains Wiedmaier.

MarketTarget’s team of experts is quick to stress that companies can cost-effectively run campaigns with Google and Bing simultaneously, no matter what their level of experience with the programs. All businesses approaching MarketTarget for any related PPC management service should be aware that the entire team behind this division of the company is professionally qualified, possessing Google Analytics and Adwords accreditations alongside years of experience of running similar search campaigns.

All marketers interested in Bing Pay Per Click management are invited to get in touch with MarketTarget for more information.

About MarketTarget
Since 2009, MarketTarget has been a leading provider of SEO and Search Engine Marketing services. As a full service San Diego SEO services firm, MarketTarget also offers full service web marketing, SEO consulting services and custom SEO training options for its clients. What makes MarketTarget unique involves several key factors: Personal Service, Reasonable Costs & ROI Focus. MarketTarget offers many great free SEO resources, including SEO white papers and a helpful SEO Newsletter.

Source: www.markettarget.com

Publicis Webformance selects Kenshoo Local to manage Paid Search campaigns

cezanne — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:02:31 +0000

Kenshoo, a global leader in digital marketing software announced that Publicis Webformance, a leading provider of web development and Internet Marketing services for the small and medium-sized business community, will use Kenshoo Local solution to create and optimize paid search campaigns across its diverse client base in France.

“Kenshoo Local is exactly what we need to serve our clients more efficiently and grow our paid search offering,” said Maxime Baffert, Directeur Général at Publicis Webformance. “Kenshoo Local’s automated technology solutions will help our team get campaigns up faster and the advanced algorithms will help us meet each client’s specific goals. Without Kenshoo Local, we would not be able to scale our business as effectively.”

Kenshoo Local was built specifically for companies managing large volumes of small/medium enterprises (SME), stores, dealers, franchises, or individual locations. Built upon the Kenshoo Enterprise platform used by eight of the top ten global agency networks, Kenshoo Local is the first to offer capabilities that simplify account creation and enable mass management of hundreds or thousands of geo-targeted campaigns so that Publicis Webformance can manage more clients effectively and profitably.

Publicis Webformance will take advantage of the Kenshoo Local’s objective management and budget management solutions to manage and optimize the campaigns of its clients, providing them with the highest standard of quality.

“We’re very excited about the partnership with Publicis Webformance,” said Sivan Metzger, General Manager at Kenshoo Local. “More and more, the SME market is turning to the Internet as a growth channel and Publicis Webformance has carved out a very strong position and turnkey solution. Armed with Kenshoo Local, the Publicis Webformance team will be able to do more for its clients in less time.”

About Kenshoo
Kenshoo is a digital marketing software company that engineers technology solutions for online advertising. Kenshoo’s global platform delivers the control, automation and results needed to make better investments across search, social, and display campaigns. Advertisers, agencies and marketing providers use Kenshoo EnterpriseTM, Kenshoo SocialTM, and Kenshoo LocalTM to direct more than $15 billion in annual sales revenue. Kenshoo powers five of the top ten retailers in the world and eight of the ten largest ad agency networks. With campaigns running in more than 100 countries, Kenshoo customers include Barnes & Noble, CareerBuilder, Facebook, Havas Digital, Hitwise, iREP, John Lewis, LendingTree, Omnicom Media Group, Sears, Starcom MediaVest Group, Travelocity, Walgreens, and Zappos. Kenshoo has ten international offices and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Arts Alliance. Please visit www.Kenshoo.com for more information.

About Publicis Webformance
Publicis Webformance’s mission is to bring the best of digital communication to SMBs and professionals. Based in Lyon, it provides website creation services and paid search campaign management for its clients. Publicis Webformance is a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, the 3rd largest communication company worldwide and leader in digital communication.

Online advertising revenues hit $7.3 billion in Q1 of 2011

cezanne — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:50:41 +0000

Folks, while no mention of whether the ad revenue represents a particular region or continent, I’m going to assume this data represents US only. There’s also an interesting point that SearchEngineLand.com points that uses 2010 channel revenue breakdown and assumes Paid Search is half of the $7.3 billion which is great news, however, the caveat is that they compared to very different sets of data.

Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $7.3 billion for the first quarter of 2011, representing a 23 percent increase over the same period in 2010, according to figures released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This marks the highest first-quarter revenue level ever for the industry and a significant increase over last year’s first-quarter revenue level, which had been the highest on record to date.

“The consistent and considerable year-over-year growth we’re seeing demonstrates that digital media is an increasingly popular destination for ad dollars, and for good reason,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “As Americans spend more time online for information and entertainment purposes, digital advertising and marketing has emerged as one of the most effective tools businesses have to attract and retain customers.”

“The year-on-year 23 percent increase in first quarter revenues is not just impressive in its own right, but especially so when you take into account the fact that 2010 was a record-breaking year itself for Internet advertising revenue,” said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “These numbers indicate that the interactive advertising field hasn’t simply bounced back since the recession; it’s growing with dynamic energy.”

The following chart highlights quarterly ad revenue since 1999; dollar figures are rounded.

The IAB sponsors the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by the New Media Group of PwC. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues because the data is compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising.

The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information. Past reports are available at www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport.

About the IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

About the PwC Network
PwC firms provide industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to enhance value for their clients. More than 161,000 people in 154 countries in firms across the PwC network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice. See www.pwc.com for more information.

© 2011 PwC. All rights reserved. “PwC” and “PwC US” refer to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership, which is a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each member firm of which is a separate and independent legal entity.

Yodle acquisition of ProfitFuel ushers new independent local search engine marketing provider

cezanne — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:22:11 +0000

Great news for ProfitFuel but I have to say that I’m skeptical of Yodle’s long term viability as a business–I’ll give them two more years before they go bust or some silly rather large company acquires them. Caveat though, they can improve if they are focused on the right things. Those right things are customer satisfaction, building endemic traffic, improved client service (shift from aggressive sales to business development), improved optimization and technology automation/development which they can do through either acquisitions or builds or both.

Yodle’s business (not local search) relies on the lack of knowledge of their customers which are predominantly SMBs. It’s not to say that they have succeeded in helping many small businesses but my take is that we should employ better solutions and tactics for SMBs as they are the backbone of the US economy. In the long term, a customer centric solution will provide Yodle improved brand satisfaction and higher margins. Also, for god sakes, to Yodle execs please shift commissions from just acquisition (revenue) and tie it to margins which would force a focus on quality, acquisition and retention. Let’s hope Yodle listens to this bloggers call or has shifted already to be on the customer satisfaction front through quality, innovation, content and technology. By the way, having scoured there NYC offices, and meeting a few folks, I don’t recall ever meeting true online marketers? Hmmm!

Here are a few relatively old feedback from various folks on the web:

Yodle, ReachLocal, Yext – Scams or Just Hard To Please Everybody?
Lawyerist.com: Yodle Takes the Hard Sell to a New Level
DavidPirek.com: Is Yodle a scam?

Also a good attempt to improve search reputation by the Yodle which may have been outsourced: Yodle Reviews.

Speaking of small businesses, I’d love to hear from you folks. Have you used Yodle or any other local search provider? What has been your experience? How have they succeeded? How have they not?

Yodle, a leader in local online marketing, announced it has completed a transaction to acquire ProfitFuel, Inc. ProfitFuel, based in Austin, TX, is the largest and fastest growing provider of local search engine optimization (SEO) services to small businesses across the United States. With over 11,000 clients, ProfitFuel has achieved breakout growth serving small businesses that have a moderate marketing budget. Outrank, the company’s main service, is designed to generate inbound phone calls and emails cost effectively by delivering prominent rankings on top search engines for clients.

“ProfitFuel’s dedication to customer results and sales excellence made it a natural fit with Yodle. I look forward to bringing Yodle’s expanded suite of SEM, SEO, Social and Display marketing products to market more quickly in collaboration with ProfitFuel’s world class team.”

Historically, Yodle has focused its local online marketing services on small business advertisers that typically spend larger budgets of $1,000+ monthly and national brand advertisers; Franchise, Multi-location, and Manufacturer/Dealer organizations that advertise locally across hundreds of locations. With the acquisition of ProfitFuel, Yodle now adds a product and a sales force capable of serving a much broader set of clients who have smaller marketing budgets, but who still want the accountability of measuring their marketing performance.

“With ProfitFuel, Yodle is doubling down on its approach of providing a clear ROI to the local advertiser, delivered through a combined 450 person sales and client service team,” said Yodle CEO Court Cunningham. “ProfitFuel’s dedication to customer results and sales excellence made it a natural fit with Yodle. I look forward to bringing Yodle’s expanded suite of SEM, SEO, Social and Display marketing products to market more quickly in collaboration with ProfitFuel’s world class team.”

David Rubin, previously CEO of ProfitFuel, will join Yodle as SVP of Sales. Mr. Rubin has a proven 20 year track record as a successful CEO and sales leader in the technology space. Prior to ProfitFuel, Mr. Rubin was founder and CEO of HomeCity, an online real estate brokerage that pioneered utilizing web-based content to acquire clients. Before founding HomeCity, David held leadership positions at various companies including Intraware as Vice President of New Services Development, BITSource as founder and CEO and Computize as National Sales Director.

“We felt Yodle was the perfect choice to maximize our future potential for our clients, employees and shareholders,” said Mr. Rubin. “We spoke to many companies in the industry and felt that Yodle offered the best set of products, highest caliber talent and the most comprehensive vision to outperform the competition and transform this industry for many years to come.”

Founded in 2000, ProfitFuel has 220 employees and is consistently recognized as one of the best places to work by multiple sources, including Austin Business Journal and Texas Monthly. Yodle will now boast a 300-person sales force and many more talented staffers across marketing operations, client services and corporate departments.

Yodle plans to grow ProfitFuel’s Austin, TX office, making it a major hub, and to fully integrate the company’s infrastructure and technology by year’s end.

About Yodle
Yodle, a leader in local online marketing and named #35 on the INC 500 List of fastest growing private companies in the U.S., connects thousands of local businesses with consumers in a process so simple and cost-effective that business owners can’t imagine any other way to advertise. Yodle has developed an integrated approach to signing up and serving local businesses that are transitioning their marketing budgets online. Yodle is headquartered in New York, NY.

Source: Yodle

Efficient Frontier acquires Context Optional to create solution for social media marketing

cezanne — Thu, 05 May 2011 07:49:31 +0000

Efficient Frontier, a leading global performance marketing company announced that the company has acquired Context Optional, a leader in enterprise social marketing solutions. The acquisition expands Efficient Frontier’s social media offering which will combine the company’s advertising campaign management and optimization with Context Optional’s page management platform. This marks the first unified solution for managing and optimizing Facebook fan acquisition through to fan retention and engagement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are excited to offer marketers a complete solution for capitalizing on the growing social marketing opportunity across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn,” said David Karnstedt, Efficient Frontier’s CEO. “Social media marketing is more than just the initial contact with the customer and requires both compelling experiences and an ongoing dialog to realize the full potential of the interaction. The acquisition of Context Optional will create a unified platform for marketers to manage all of their social media touch points with brand enthusiasts.”

Efficient Frontier’s platform manages ad campaigns across search, display and social media, enabling customers to acquire audiences across multiple channels and optimize for better results. Context Optional’s Social Marketing Suite of products is an enterprise solution for brands to engage and retain audiences across Facebook and Twitter.

By aligning acquisition and engagement strategies, the combined company will be able to deliver a seamless and measurable user experience by integrating advertising and social marketing content. Brands will be able to more efficiently target audiences based on social engagement insights and continually refine their Facebook application experiences to better match their audiences’ interests. Efficient Frontier will also be able to provide integrated analytics to provide a more complete view of performance including virality.

“Efficient Frontier is a leader in digital marketing and our respective clients are asking us for a comprehensive solution to both acquire and build relationships with their customers,” said Kevin Barenblat, Context Optional’s Co-Founder and CEO. “This combination is recognition that social media is now indeed a powerful marketing channel in which brands are significantly investing. We’re excited to be the first in the market with an integrated, enterprise solution to enable brands to effectively scale their investment in social.”

About Efficient Frontier
Efficient Frontier is a leader in online performance marketing managing search marketing, display and social media campaigns for advertisers and agencies around the world. Efficient Frontier currently manages more than $1 billion in annual marketing spend on behalf of their clients globally. Founded in 2002, Efficient Frontier pioneered the application of modern portfolio theory for search engine marketing and today combines its core predictive modeling algorithms and bidding technology with comprehensive strategic and tactical value-added services. The largest and most sophisticated advertisers and agencies partner with Efficient Frontier to achieve and sustain optimal campaign performance and growth in highly complex and competitive marketplaces. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in New York, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and India, and technology licensing partnerships in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. Efficient Frontier is a privately held company with funding from Redpoint Ventures and Cambrian Ventures. For more information, please visit http://www.efrontier.com and subscribe to the Efficient Frontier blog at blog.efrontier.com.

About Context Optional
Context Optional is the leading provider of social marketing software and services to global brands and advertising agencies. The company provides marketers with comprehensive solutions to build, manage, monitor and measure brand presence across the social web to meet their acquisition, engagement and retention goals. By combining a leading technology platform, industry expertise, and comprehensive analytics into an integrated approach, Context Optional delivers the most effective social CRM and marketing solutions to Fortune 500 brands and agencies. Context Optional is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York. For more information, please visit http://www.contextoptional.com.

Ad Age ranks Covario among nation’s largest search marketing agencies

cezanne — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:12:48 +0000

Covario, Inc. (formerly SEM Director), one of the nation’s largest independent providers of search marketing software solutions and agency services for both SEO (search engine optimization) and paid search marketing, moved up two notches from No. 22 to No. 20 in the recently released Advertising Age magazine ranking of the Top U.S. Search Marketing Agencies.

Covario’s U.S. search revenues grew by 37.7 percent in 2010 — the highest growth rate among the top 20 search agencies in the ranking. The San Diego-based firm reported search revenue in terms of net revenue only, exclusive of paid search media fees and Web development work.

“As impressive as our U.S. growth was in 2010, international search marketing now represents more than 40 percent of our business and is growing at a faster rate than domestic campaigns,” said Russ Mann, Covario’s chief executive. “With our global revenue included we would have ranked even higher.” Covario was one of only five search marketing agencies to improve upon its position in the ranking from the previous year when the firm made its first appearance on the annual Ad Age list.

Founded in 2006, Covario was also featured for the first time in the 2011 Forrester Research Wave of U.S. Search Marketing Agencies, along with eight other firms from among some 100 agencies considered. In Forrester’s summary of the report, Covario was noted as “best for SEO (search engine optimization).” Last year, Covario made the INC. 500 list of the nation’s fastest-growing privately-held companies for the second year in a row, as well as the Software 500 list of largest U.S. software firms. The search marketing firm has also won numerous awards — together with its clients — for both SEO and PPC (pay per click) programs, including two first place MediaPost OMMA Awards for paid search campaigns and an IAB MIXX Gold Award for “the best search campaign.” The company has nearly 130 employees worldwide who support about 100 clients, representing more than 1,000 brands and websites. In addition to paid and organic search marketing software and services, the firm provides its global enterprise clients with display advertising support, social media marketing, and cross-media attribution analysis.

About Covario™ Covario, Inc. is among the nation’s largest independent SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimization) solutions providers, offering software and agency services for paid and organic search management. Covario provides large global organizations with robust solutions for paid search advertising, organic search (SEO), social media and display advertising. Covario enables complex and distributed organizations to control their brand integrity; ensure budget transparency; and deliver quantifiable results across business units, distribution channels and languages. Headquartered in San Diego, the company’s growing customer base includes some of the world’s best known brands in technology, retail, ecommerce, financial services, consumer electronics, media, entertainment, publishing and consumer packaged goods. More information about Covario is available by calling 858.397.1500 or visiting online at http://www.covario.com.

Paid search advertising report shows who spends the most on Google AdWords

cezanne — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:09:19 +0000

Kantar Media introduced syndicated reporting of paid search advertising that ranks advertisers in paid search advertising.

The company will become the first media research provider to offer a syndicated service monitoring online paid search activity, which represented a $3.4 billion market during the fourth quarter of 2010 in the U.S. With this expansion, Kantar Media will also become the only source of competitive intelligence to monitor the entire online ad market, bringing methodic insight into display, video, ad networks and paid search advertising trends, as well as detailed data on spend, impressions and creative.

The new service will define for users those companies investing in paid search, expenditure allocated, keywords purchased, and the number of clicks keywords receive.

Kantar Media’s analysis of paid search advertisers for the 2010 holiday period, a crucial time period for e-commerce, shows significant investment from online retailers and travel companies in the top five. Interestingly, four financial companies feature among the top 10, three of them in the insurance category.

Syndicated search reporting will be integrated into Kantar Media’s StradegyTM application, which already provides comprehensive advertising information on 3 million brands across 21 media. As an additional medium, it will provide monthly reporting on paid search activity for Google’s U.S. search engine, giving subscribers granular, reliable data points on search advertisers. The service will also include historical data going back to January 2010, enabling the analysis of trends and shifts over time.

“Kantar Media’s new service brings us one step closer to a holistic perspective of the competitive dynamics occurring within the digital landscape,” says Gregory Aston, SVP, Director of Competitive Intelligence for MPG. “The core value is the ability to track evolving competitive strategies over time and raise the bar from telling digital anecdotes about our competitors to enabling more comprehensive, systematic analysis.”

“As the first to market with syndicated paid search reporting, Kantar Media Intelligence is now the only source of competitive intelligence that monitors the full array of digital advertising activity and can offer subscribers a single source of insights through a common methodology,” says Mark Nesbitt, President, Kantar Media Intelligence. “This innovative launch further establishes our position as the marketplace experts focused on tracking advertising wherever it appears.”

About Kantar Media
Established in more than 50 countries, Kantar Media helps clients master the world’s multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, cinema, mobile, social media, and outdoor worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors – Intelligence, Audiences, TGI and Custom. Kantar Media companies also include Compete, Cymfony and SRDS. Drawing upon the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insight to more than 22,000 customers worldwide.

Source: Kantar Media

Kenshoo rolls out global Cloudvertizing search advertising platform

cezanne — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:09:26 +0000

Kenshoo a global search marketing and online advertising technology SaaS provider announced the release of its proprietary cloudvertizing platform.

Designed to help marketers reach for the sky, Kenshoo Cloudvertizing enables true geographic targeting by going beyond physical locations and into physical sciences. With an API feed from the Total Biological Service (Total BS), Kenshoo uses a patent-pending algorithm to provide 24-hour, 3-day and 10-day forecasts. This data can then be modeled out to determine the optimal level of coverage incorporating key metrics like Cloud Travel Route (CTR) and Cumulus Per Cirrus (CPC).

“With more and more computing being conducted in the cloud, it was only natural for Kenshoo to incorporate cloudvertizing into our digital marketing software suite,” said Alon Sheafer, Chief Strategy Officer at Kenshoo.

Kenshoo Cloudvertizing has been in a private beta for select customers in London and San Francisco where cloud density is highest. The precipitation for this innovation was the industry trend towards hyper-local targeting and location-based advertising. Having already been in market for nearly two years with a local solution and achieving much success, Kenshoo seized the opportunity to round out its offering with an atmospheric solution.

Yoav Izhar-Prato, Kenshoo CEO, added, “We look forward to making it rain with cloudvertizing.”

About Kenshoo
Kenshoo is a digital marketing software company that enjoys April Fools gags while engineering technology solutions for search marketing and online advertising. Kenshoo’s global platform delivers the control, automation and results needed to make better investments across search, social and display campaigns. Advertisers, agencies and marketing providers use the Kenshoo EnterpriseTM and Kenshoo LocalTM suites to direct more than $15 billion in online sales revenue. Kenshoo powers eight of the ten largest ad agency networks and five of the top ten retailers. With campaigns running in more than 100 countries, Kenshoo customers include such brands as Barnes & Noble, CareerBuilder, Facebook, Havas Digital, Hitwise, iREP, John Lewis, LendingTree, Omnicom Media Group, Sears, Starcom MediaVest Group, Travelocity, Walgreens, and Zappos. Kenshoo has ten international offices and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Arts Alliance. Please visit www.Kenshoo.com for more information.

Source: Kenshoo

Paid search and display advertising underperform compared to social activity

cezanne — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:04:49 +0000

Research released last week by appssavvy finds that advertising integrated into the social activities occurring across social games, applications and web sites, is one of the most effective forms of digital marketing. We at Bitshelf do not agree with the methodology and approach used to arrive at the findings. Search and Display are not entirely engagement oriented vehicles as is social. As a result it’s not surprising that activity within social media and gaming-sphere will out perform compared to display and search.

I would have loved to have seen a bit more of an apples to apples comparison in the EDIs below. Also, lest we forget that the report is biased simply because it’s from appssavvy.

The appssavvy report: Social Activity Index – Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Advertising (Download free at: http://socialactivityindex.appssavvy.com) found social activity advertising rivals paid search in terms of effectiveness, outperforms standard display ads by a multiple of 11 and more than doubles the performance of rich media.

“The web has changed significantly thanks to social media, but advertising hasn’t,” said Chris Cunningham, co-founder and CEO of appssavvy. “Understanding what people are doing provides advertisers the opportunity to leverage social activities and deliver advertising that captures both context and intent. The Social Activity Index clearly demonstrates the eye-opening effectiveness this new form of digital marketing is driving.”

Performance is measured and based on data from appssavvy spanning 170 U.S. social activity campaigns in 2010 and industry benchmarks by eMarketer (www.emarketer.com). The index used Equivalent Display Impressions (EDI) — a metric defined by appssavvy to provide a cost weighted measure of an ad format’s ability to drive brand engagement. It finds EDI by ad format as follows:

Ad Format Equivalent Display Impressions (EDI)
Paid Search 12.2
Social Activity 11.4
Rich Media 5.3
Display 1.0

Social activity advertising involves delivering brand messages within activities or events that occur within social games, applications or web sites. Examples of these activities include sending a virtual gift, playing a branded level within a game, completing a poll or quiz, or entering a photo contest, to name a few. Upon completion of an activity, a social ad is delivered. These ads combine brand messaging with social calls to action such as sharing, following, or Like-ing.

When it comes to social activity advertising, social games deliver the highest performance, and outperform all ad formats, including, notably, paid search. The EDI for Paid Search, again, is 12.2, while Social Gaming drove EDI of 15.2. The strong performance of social games advertising is driven by virtual goods gifting and decorative items, and the completion of branded integrations into game play:

Social Games Ad Format Equivalent Display Impressions (EDI)
Gift 37.0
Decorative Item 21.5
Mission/Quest 21.0
Display 1.0

Additionally, the appssavvy Social Activity Index found 2.1 percent of all social activity ads are shared to social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, resulting in hundreds of millions of additional earned media impressions.

Research Details
The Social Activity Index is the result of an analysis of 170 U.S. campaigns in 2010 planned and delivered by appssavvy on behalf of brands, including Microsoft, Visa and McDonald’s, to name a few. These campaigns ran across 20 social activity partners, including ngmoco, LivingSocial and Zynga, spanning Facebook, mobile and web platforms. appssavvy social activity campaigns resulted in more than 200 million social activities completed.

About appssavvy
appssavvy rethinks the relationship between delivery and reception of advertising. We partner with leading web publishers and developers to uncover what people are doing across the Internet. Understanding people and their actions is what enables appssavvy, and the brands and agencies that we work with, to leverage and experience social activity. Today, the appssavvy Social Activity Platform connects more than 293 million people performing 1.4 billion social activities each month with brands.

Source: appssavvy

Download the appssavvy Social Activity Index report.

Crosslink Capital leads fifth round raising $16mm in funding for Marin Software

cezanne — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:15:01 +0000

Good news on the fact that Marin Software raised $16mm in funding. Congrats to one of my favorite companies out in the biddable media management space. Sources at Marin have described the recent funding and growth as a positive sign for the company. It’s also an important indication that paid search advertising is a maturing market despite the fact that spend growth has slowed a bit and focus has shifted to display mainly due to the hullabaloo around ad exchanges, attribution modeling, etc. The bid management solutions industry has moved away from “bid” to consider other more practical factors such as quality, workflow, automation, and ease-of-use. This type of trend is typical of a maturing market. The fact is, the variables to success have shifted exponentially towards more of an enterprise based approach that I cringe these days when folks discuss bidding.

The good news didn’t end there, Marin hit the news media with another whammy, announcing that it now manages more than $2 billion in annual paid search spend through the Marin platform. What do we think? 1.5% of those billings plus a small amount of service related fees, not too shabby. I would have paced the announcements a bit, to be honest.

The funds will be used to focus growth Internationally with plans to open offices in Singapore and Shanghai, and expand into France, Australia and Brazil in 2011. Marin services 800 clients on search campaigns in 160 countries, expanded its service to Facebook last August.

In my opinion, Marin is laying the foundation for two possible scenarios IPO in the next 12 months or possible buy out.

Below is the release along with coverage on Marin.

Marin Software Secures $16 Million Series E Financing

Marin Software, provider of the leading online advertising management platform for advertisers and agencies announced it has secured an additional $16 million in Series E financing. Crosslink Capital led the round with participation from Marin’s existing venture capital investors including Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Focus Ventures and Triangle Peak Partners. The company also announced that Eric Chin, partner at Crosslink Capital, will join the Board of Directors as an observer and that former Shutterfly VP of Finance John Kaelle has joined the executive team as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

News Facts:
Marin Software will invest the Series E funding to support the growth of its global customer base which includes many of the world’s leading advertisers and agencies spanning diverse industries such as: retail, education, financial services, insurance, travel, lead generation, automotive, B2B, and local. Marin Software currently serves 800 clients worldwide and manages 600 million keywords and more than $2 billion in annualized paid search spend for its customers.

As the leading global provider of online advertising management solutions, Marin’s technology is used to manage search campaigns in 160 countries and 25 currencies. The company will also use the funding to support continued international expansion. Marin Software recently announced its expansion into Asia with new offices in Singapore and Shanghai, and plans to expand into France, Australia, and Brazil in 2011.

In the past year, Marin Software expanded its product offering beyond paid search and now offers advanced applications for managing Facebook ads, as well as Marin Retargeting, a complete workflow, analysis, and optimization solution for advertisers and agencies seeking to manage display retargeting as an integrated part of the online media mix. In addition, Marin recently launched Marin Professional, which offers the power and ease-of-use of the Marin platform for search marketers who spend less than $100,000 per month.

John Kaelle has joined Marin Software as Executive Vice President and CFO. Kaelle joins the company from Shutterfly, where he was Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. During his tenure at Shutterfly, Kaelle managed company growth from 150 to over 600 employees, revenue growth from $54 million to over $300 million, and a successful IPO in 2006. Prior to Shutterfly, John held executive roles at Thomas Weisel Partners and TriNet Corporate Realty Trust, a publicly traded real estate investment trust. John earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan, and holds a master’s degree in taxation from Golden Gate University and an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Quotes:
“Over the past few years, Marin has delivered tangible business benefits to a growing list of advertisers and agencies through the expansion and development of our enterprise-class advertising management platform,” said Chris Lien, founder and CEO of Marin Software. “This latest funding will enable Marin to accelerate our investment on behalf of our customers worldwide as we deliver innovations in product development and client services. Marin is committed to providing our customers with the most powerful and easy-to-use advertising management platform in the world.”
“With $2 billion of global search spend under management, Marin Software is a leading innovator in the online advertising industry,” said Eric Chin, partner, Crosslink Capital. “We believe the company’s strong customer momentum, track record of product innovation and global reach position Marin for continued success, and we look forward to working with the Marin team.”

“Marin Software is an emerging leader in advertising management software, and it has achieved this position in a relatively short period of time through cutting-edge technology innovation, strong client services, and complex global deployments,” said John Kaelle, EVP and CFO of Marin Software. “I look forward to working hand-in-hand with the executive team at Marin to help drive the company’s financial success in this time of rapid global growth.”

About Crosslink Capital:
Founded in 1989, Crosslink Capital is a leading stage-independent venture capital and growth equity firm with over $1.5 billion in capital under management. Crosslink was among the first and largest investment firms in the U.S. to integrate public and private technology investing. This strategy allows Crosslink to partner with its portfolio companies on a long-term basis. With more than 20 years behind it, Crosslink Capital has invested in over 90 private equity portfolio companies, including Miller Heiman, Omniture (acquired by Adobe Systems) Pandora, SeaMicro, Twin Creeks Technologies, Virage Logic, and Yipes (acquired by Reliance Communications).

About Marin Software:
Marin Software is a leading provider of online advertising management solutions, offering an integrated platform for managing search, display, and social marketing. The company provides solutions for advertisers and agencies of all sizes, enabling them to improve financial performance, save time, and make better decisions. Marin Enterprise, the company’s flagship product, addresses the needs of online marketers spending at least $100,000 per month on biddable media. Marin Professional delivers the same power and ease of use as Marin Enterprise, through an application designed for marketers spending less than $100,000 per month on paid search. Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices worldwide, Marin’s technology powers marketing campaigns for over 800 customers managing more than $2 billion of annualized ad spend in more than 160 countries.

Source: Marin Software