B & T
Search marketing start-up, AdLux, has signed two major clients Group M and Ebay-owned Gumtree as more companies begin to diversify their search spend.
The partnership with Group M sees the search network, which officially launched into the Australian market during ad:tech, manage search campaigns for Mindshare, MediaCom, Mediaedge:cia and search agency Outrider. Group M and Gumtree add to the network’s existing client base including Telstra and Reprise Media.
Philip Mackertich, sales director at AdLux, told B&T Today that companies are starting to diversify their search spend across different search networks to get maximum audience reach, with its clients also using Google’s AdWords and Yahoo!’s Panama.
“2010 is a year of diversifying and a lot of clients that we’re speaking to at the moment, whether they be agencies or direct clients, are all mentioning how they’re trying to diversify their spend, look at other avenues and trying to not have all their budgets ties up into the one supplier, say Google.
“In terms of where the budget is coming from for these clients, it will definitely be from Google and Yahoo! because advertisers are not just handing over more money to use on search.”
He added the search marketing sector in Australia will continue to mature and achieve double digit growth in the coming years.
“We’re going to hit the $1bn mark (for search) very soon in Australia.”
At the end of 2009, the search market grew 17% year-on-year to $944m, to comprise over half (50.5%) of total online spend, according to IAB figures.
The search marketing network, which aggregates online publishers to provide contextually relevant advertising, currently boasts the lowest cost-per-click rate in the market, though is also the smallest player.
