Acquisio has released a groundbreaking bid & budget management feature for search marketers that updates every 30 minutes, giving them unprecedented improvements in performance and superior budget management capabilities.
MONTREAL, June 11, 2013 – Acquisio, the award-winning performance media platform and leading provider of technology for marketers and agencies buying ads on any online channel, today announced a new feature that is set to revolutionize the way marketers manage their PPC accounts.
The new Bid & Budget Management algorithms run continuously, throughout the day, on every single campaign and ad group. Acquisio’s 30 minute update cycles mean that, on average, the product makes multiple decisions per second. This allows marketers to take full advantage of intraday inefficiencies in the auction in order to effectively decrease their CPA, maximize conversion volume, and increase spend control with more power and authority than ever before.
Performance Improvement
The Bid & Budget Management algorithms are used to optimize CPA or CPC. During the pre-launch test period, Acquisio has optimized more than 150 accounts, with thousands of campaigns of all sizes, and has observed results oscillating between 20% and 80% decrease in CPA, often multiplying conversion volume by 2X or more. Positive results are typically observed in a matter of days.
Spend Control
One of the keys to success in search marketing is accurate cross-campaign budget allocation based on individual merit. The Bid & Budget Management algorithms are continuously monitoring campaign performance and steadily adjusting daily budgets based on observed performance. As a result, weekly and monthly budgets are met with far greater precision than ever possible before and, at the same time, customers observe an increase in conversion volume and a decrease in CPA. Acquisio has observed a delta on monthly spend vs budget of less than 0.01%, with a standard deviation of well below 1%, numbers which, until now, have been unheard of in the search marketing world.
Near Real-Time Bid and Budget Management
Changes to budgets and bid prices are made throughout the day, reflecting the observed performance for the previous 30 minute period, instead of reacting to what happened the day before.
“In the world of Finance, technology has evolved quickly to make decisions in near real-time in reaction to unexpected events that have immediate impact on the performance of a stock portfolio. Obviously, the same should apply to a marketing campaign. In fact we have seen a lot of this in RTB for display advertising” said Martin Le Sauteur, President and CEO of Acquisio. “No respectable stock broker uses yesterday’s news to manage their stock portfolio. However in search marketing, this is how all other bid management platforms operate today.”
In addition, the system allows marketers to effectively plan for seasonal periods ahead of time, allocating budgets and targets for any group of campaigns, over any period of time.
“We’ve made it simple for marketers to use this system,” said Tracy Smith, Acquisio’s CMO. “There is no need to change account structure or deploy new tags, meaning that anyone interested in taking advantage of this system can get up and running very quickly, with very little investment in time or energy.”
Bruce Clay, one of the most influential figures in the search industry has announced PPC CPA optimization service in tandem with BBM’s release. “Acquisio’s BBM technology revolutionizes PPC campaign bid management through its unprecedented control and automated adjustments,” said Bruce Clay, president of Bruce Clay, Inc. “We look forward to providing the human expertise and oversight to wield such powerful tools as service partners of the Acquisio technology.”
Acquisio’s Bid & Budget Management algorithms are the result of more than six years of focused research and development efforts performed by ScienceOps, which was acquired by Acquisio in August 2012. The algorithms can operate independently of the rest of the Acquisio platform, and are fully compatible with all so called “enterprise-level” bid management platforms.
Anyone interested in learning more about this new feature is encouraged to visit www.acquisio.com/bbm and ask for a demonstration.
About Acquisio
Acquisio provides digital marketers with a performance media platform that enables them to optimize the results of their search, social, mobile, and display marketing programs wit speed, accuracy, and efficiency, and with full control over every aspect of their online marketing initiatives.
With more than 4,000 users and 10,000 brands under its management, Acquisio is the multi-channel marketing solution preferred by agencies and marketers alike. Clients include WPP, Omnicom, IPG and Publicis; as well as performance media companies Bertelsmann, Cossette, iProspect, Isobar, NetBooster, PhD, and Yellow Pages Group. Info: www.acquisio.com.
Acquisio now allows B2B marketers to use Salesforce data to optimize their PPC campaigns, leveraging the real value of inbound leads for optimization.
MONTREAL, June 5, 2013 - Acquisio, the award-winning performance media platform and leading provider of technology for marketers and agencies buying ads on any online channel, announced today they will provide unique connector to Salesforce.com data that allows marketers to easily, and more effectively, keep track of their campaign performance, and make better-informed decisions on their PPC ad spends when bidding on B2B customer acquisition.
Because Salesforce.com gives marketers the opportunity to gain deeper insight into their customers and their value, using this tool allows marketers to keep track of what happens to leads as they journey through the sales cycle, and to make adjustments to their campaigns as more relevant lead qualification data becomes available.
Connecting this crucial data to other data sources, such as Marketo, Google AdWords conversion tracking and Google Analytics goals will give marketers and salespeople a unique insight into the value of a particular lead, and allow them to make bid management decisions based on the outcome of the sales process and the unique value of each customer, or type of customer.
The connection gives marketers a level of insight that is not available through any other platform. Ad campaigns can be optimized based on cost per lead, cost per qualified lead, cost per opportunity, cost per closed opportunity, return on ad spend, and more.
All data is connected within the Acquisio platform, and is displayed in a manner that gives marketers immediate access to the valuable information, as well as the ability to act on that information and make crucial, money-saving changes to their current campaigns.
“As a B2B marketer, I know how important Salesforce data is to measuring success. We were the first user of our connector and we were able to identify opportunities fairly rapidly, by using our Marketo qualified leads (scores above 65 in our case) as our first measure of success,” said Marc Poirier , Executive VP of Business Development at Acquisio. “Considering the sales cycle is fairly long, knowing that we’re getting leads with high Marketo scores, which eventually become sales qualified leads, opportunities, and revenue, helps us make enlightened decisions for optimization.”
The solution is currently being used by a select few, and the results are speaking for themselves.
“Qualified leads are the ones that drive revenue. With the introduction of the Salesforce.com connector, the Acquisio platform provides us with our true cost per qualified lead, rather than an unqualified cost per ‘conversion,’ Diane Berry , Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communication at Coveo. “We now have lead qualification and opportunity data flowing from Salesforce into Acquisio and can see which ads and keywords are creating value. This means we can focus our budget on the right campaigns for the highest ROAS.”
The Salesforce.com connector is now available for all clients of Acquisio. Current customers, or other interested parties can click here for more information.
About Acquisio
Acquisio provides digital marketers with a performance media platform that enables them to optimize the results of their search, social, mobile, and display marketing programs with speed, accuracy, and efficiency, and with full control over every aspect of their online marketing initiatives.
With more than 4,000 users and 10,000 brands under its management, Acquisio is the multi-channel marketing solution preferred by agencies and marketers alike. Clients include WPP, Omnicom, IPG and Publicis; as well as performance media companies Bertelsmann, Cossette, iProspect, Isobar, NetBooster, PhD, and Yellow Pages Group.
The company is based in Montreal, Quebec with offices in Seattle, New York City, and London. For more information, visitwww.acquisio.com.
Once again, the Acquisio team will be at SMX Advanced in Seattle on June 11-12. Always a great conference, we’re especially looking forward to it this year as we have lots to share. We will be at Booth #6, armed with our world-famous t-shirts and great news for all digital marketers.
As you know, our Summer Release will include some amazing features, not the least of which is the Bid & Budget Management function that gives marketers an unprecedented amount of control over their search marketing campaigns through an automated system that updates every 30 minutes.
You can swing by our booth to discuss this feature, and a lot more while at SMX Advanced. There is a lot brewing at Acquisio, and we’d love to tell you about it and show you what’s going on. Our Summer release will take place right around that same time, so we’ll have a lot more to show you.
Enter SMXA613acquisio (case sensitive) upon registration and SAVE 10% on conference passes.
We’re excited about SMX Advanced, and really looking to see you all. Remember to drop by Booth #6 and say hello – and don’t forget to grab a t-shirt!
Learn About Remarketing at Interactivity Digital
The Interactivity Digital conference is just around the corner, and for those of you who will be attending, you won’t want to miss out on this session presented by our co-founder and VP of Business Development Marc Poirier, along with Larry Kim and Cassie Oumedian.
On May 16th, this knowledgeable group will assemble to present “Reeling Customers in with Remarketing.” We all know that remarketing is fast becoming a popular addition to search marketing campaigns, but with it all happening so fast, there may be some things that those who are new to remarketing are missing out on.
Make sure that you’re not missing out on everything that remarketing has to offer and get the lowdown from marketers who are deeply involved in this exciting marketing technology.
In addition, Marc Poirier will be available to answer your questions on remarketing and any other digital marketing questions you might have, as well as to show off the capabilities of Acquisio’s new Bid & Budget Management features – it’s like RTB for search, with results that you will want to see for yourself.
The “Reeling Customers in With Remarketing” session runs from 3:30pm to 4:30pm on May 16th. Don’t miss it!
It’s hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since we first had the idea to change the world of PPC. For those of us who have been on board since the beginning, it seems like it was just yesterday when we first started talking about doing this, and we have created lifelong-lasting memories along the way.
The company has changed so much over that period – in the beginning, we were a 10-person agency, but after 5 years, we sold the agency business, raised some money and focused exclusively on building software to help digital agencies improve their SEM operations and deliver better results to their clients.
Since the beginning we have added some amazing people to the Acquisio team, and we’re amazed every single day by the knowledge and professionalism displayed by our co-workers.
Along the way there have been some fun events, some things that happened that have been significant in the growth of our platform, and some amazing developments. So sit back, relax, and enjoy 10 of the highlights from Acquisio’s last 10 years.
1. Acquisio T-Shirts
When we attended our first event, we were the new kids on the block (not the band, the saying) and were trying to 
get some attention. The answer came in the form of a t-shirt.
At every event we’ve ever been to, our t-shirts have been one of the most sought-after items each and every time. It’s been a great way for us to get some attention, and it’s also a great way for people who wear our shirts to get attention. The messages on the shirts pull no punches, and we’ve spoken to many of the things that online marketers feel on a daily basis, as well as how we go about helping them out with those challenges.
We’ve given out more than 4,000 of the “I Hate Doing This Shit” t-shirt, and there are tens of thousands more out there sporting messages like “I Make the Rules,” and “I Answer to No One.”
Looking back, was the t-shirt a good way to get people talking? Sure was!
2- Acquisio’s First Show
Our first show, Ad:Tech New York in 2006, was nerve wracking. We did not yet have a completed product, and we had been positioned all the way on the third floor at the very back of the convention center. What we did have were some awesome t-shirts and a MINDBALL game (it’s exactly as exciting as it sounds)!
The good news is that we were able to get some people over to talk to us who were genuinely interested in what we were doing, and it was enough for us to know that we would be able to move forward.
What it taught us is that you don’t need the biggest booth, you just need the best ideas.
3- The Amazing Coffee Machine
As the Acquisio team started to grow, more energy was needed. Enter: The Coffee Machine!
The pride and glory of the Acquisio office, this bad boy has kept more people awake than worrying about bills has.
Its popularity can be measured in the amount of emails our HR department gets on the odd occasion when it is not working. It’s definitely one of the things our staff loves the most about working here.
4- First Clients
As a business starting out, it’s not unlikely that you’ll not have a lot of money to work with. Such was the case with Acquisio and so, in the early days, it meant being the best at enabling PPC and SEO.
One of our very first clients, SEER Interactive from Philadelphia, has grown along with us, and has become a powerhouse of PPC marketing. They have stuck with us from the very beginning (from the very first quarter!) and we are mesmerized by their patience and unwavering support for what was a vision, more than a product. And by the many blog posts they post on the Acquisio blog, one can be fairly certain that they’re getting a lot out of using the Acquisio platform!
5- First User Summit
Our first User Summit was more successful than we had ever dreamed it might be when we thought of the idea.
We had Acquisio users from all over the world attend the three-day event held during Montreal’s Jazz Fest. Kicked off by a great keynote from Mitch Joel and some incredibly exciting announcements, each day featured sessions from some of Acquisio’s top users that gave others the ability to get even more out the world’s best performance media platform.
The entire weekend was fun, productive, and educational, and we can’t wait to do it again!
6- Worldwide Expansion
After a couple of outings to SES and ad:tech in London, we kept hearing over and over again from those we spoke to, “We’d love it if you had a local presence. And so we did. We met Laurent Boninfante and he was chosen to head up our London office. He had been doing such a great job that we hired him a General Manager and gave him the mandate to build a world-class team for our EMEA expansion.
In December of 2011 the offices were opened, and less than a year later we expanded to London’s Tech City with a team of amazing folks who spread the word and support our EMEA clients.
This success triggered more expansion, and we have since opened offices in Seattle, Chicago, and New York. No matter where they’re located, they are all integral parts of the Acquisio team and we’re excited to have them all along with us on this ride!
7 – Strategic Acquisitions
Early on we realized that there were people who had expertise in areas that we did not, and our platform could benefit from that expertise. As such, we’ve made a few acquisitions over the years of complimentary businesses to our platform.
Beginning with ClickEquations in 2011, a strategic addition that allowed us to rapidly expand our service offerings to better meet the needs of our clients with killer features for search marketing, shopping engines and product search.
And then in August of last year, Acquisio acquired ScienceOps, a Seattle business that has created the most powerful algorithms for Display advertising available to online marketers. Created by a former NASA scientist, the algorithms have been proving themselves to be far and away the best product on the market for marketing on the Google Display Network and our clients are amazed at the results.
Since then we’ve been adding more of their science to our platform. We’ve altered these algorithms to do the same job with Search campaigns, with updates to campaign bids and budgets every 30 minutes, and millions of decisions made every day to help marketers suppress CPA and increase volume. You can find more details in our Spring Release notes.
8-First Make-A-Wish Foundation Events
As those who have been privileged enough to have a lot, it is, as the saying goes, on us to ensure that we give back. As one of the ways in which we do this, each year we participate in the 48 Ride for Wishes, A Make-A-Wish Foundation fundraising event.
Each year we assemble teams of Acquisio employees who, rider by rider, take part in a 48 hour cycling relay. We have a great time doing it, but more to the point, we have been able to raise more than $30,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation through our fundraising efforts. To all of you who have donated, thank you!
In addition, Acquisio is pleased to offer all of the proceeds from our Cafe Press store (where you can buy those world-famous t-shirts of ours) to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. So get on over to the store, and do something good for someone else while getting something good yourself!
9 – Office Move 2012
As with any growing business, the time comes when you have to give up the original space that you’ve learned to know and love, and move on to another space to accommodate the extra space required with growth.
We started by having the kind of space we needed designed for us in a way that could accommodate our new space. As construction began, we all started to get very excited.
We moved in at the end of February, 2012, and haven’t looked back. We have managed to retain a nice, open office style, while still giving everyone enough privacy to get their work done in peace. If you’re ever in Montreal, come on by for a tour. And you know that you’re going to get a great cup of coffee while you’re here!
10- The New Acquisio
The New Acquisio is being used in Beta by many of our clients right now, and the feedback that we are getting is amazing. It has been a massive project for us with with many hours dedicated to getting it right from our world-class development team. We are fortunate to have some of the best developers in the world here at Acquisio, and they’ve been diligently working away on our biggest project yet.
We want our users to have the best experience possible, and attain the best results possible in the process. We started by building software iteratively and have added module upon module with some integration, but realized that there was room for improvement which could only be addressed by changing both the technology and the approach.
And this is what we have done with the New Acquisio. Redesigned and redeveloped from the ground up, we are very proud of what we have been able to achieve and can’t wait for all of you to be using it in the very near future. Faster, more intuitive, and with more features than ever, this version of our platform is the perfect spot to begin the next 10 years.
To all of you who have supported us over the last 10 years, we’d like to say a very big THANK YOU! It’s through your support that we’ve been able to get this far, and through your questions and requests for more functionality at each step of the game that we have been able to create the performance media platform that sets the industry standard.
Here’s to another 10 great years!
