LookingConfident's  Instablog

The message is becoming much louder and clearer everyday. < .. For 're-targeting and more', is what 'dBase Media' advise? Well....

How about, "re-targeting" exclusively @ scale, Folkz? ..>

tinyurl.com/3rqusta

Looksmart's stated move (in it's CC post Q1) to concentrate on CPA & CPV offerings (across it's entire global advertising marketplace), needs to be understood a whole lot more by both LOOK shareholders and the market.

dBase Media are a known AdCenter partner of Looksmart.

Criteo is the absolute 're-targeting' technology and has relationships with all the big players on the web. (Microsoft-AppNexus, Google & Facebook - plus Yahoo!, to name a few)

Looksmart have NOT declared any relationship with Criteo, but works on the very same principles, as does Criteo. (No cost to advertisers for any impression or, re-targeted Ad/banner message - unless a targeted user clicks on that Ad)

I'm strongly suggesting that Looksmart are a 'white-labeled' user of Criteo tech and that THIS is what is now a part of the API package being offered to (as Looksmart advise), the agencies [like VivaKi?] and the large advertisers...

[Added 20th January, 2012 - It's clear or, should be that since writing the above 'thought', things have become so more understandable. -  Taking Shape]

Unified 'User Data' can then be "shared" (through a Criteo/Looksmart 'hook-up'), with Looksmart (ultimately, itself), having an ability to then (via Criteo's tech), reach users across the entire ecosystem.

Remembering, that Looksmart had also told all (in the last CC), that it is ....."[WITH] our unique knowledge of the traffic acquired through our advertising network, we are now able to offer an unparalleled account management service to Yahoo! and Google partners as well."

seekingalpha.com/instablog/36191-looking...

The Looksmart CEO also said:

"We are able to select the right traffic in 'real time' and deliver it at a guaranteed cost per visit recorded on their site rather than a traditional CPC basis."

So why is performance marketing (targeting audiences and or, an ability for 're-targeting', right down to individual users), so special?

The answer and the effectiveness of "re-targeting" is best described in this article on/of a small web business - that is introducing it to their own customer base. (And be assured, that Criteo itself, will NOT be reaching down to this virtual on-seller level, is my opinion - It's dealing with the bigger fish, to 'scale'.)

<. It takes a consumer from a generic topic, such as "car insurance" from a search on an engine, and pushes her deeper into the funnel through different stages of intent to more specific brands.

Shatkin-Margolis points to a recent study from comScore and ValueClick showing retargeted ads increase trademark search behavior by 1,046%. And, between May and December 2010, the number of U.S. marketers using site retargeting rose from 17% to 22%, according to eMarketer.

The research firm also notes that during that time, the proportion of marketers launching search retargeting programs jumped from 13% to 28%.

.......Technical similarities explain the success of combining the two strategies. A partnership between Magnetics and a network of search engines allow cookies to get dropped into a searcher's browser to identify the keywords being searched.>

Note in the 1st line or, two .... exactly, as to where 'in market' users are coming from ... meaning, "from a search on an engine", no?

www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Artic...

Criteo in fact, does get a mention in that (MediaPost's) Magnetic story but Criteo is NOT specifically nominated - - as being the platform driving 're-targeting' traffic, for Magnetic.

Looksmart (in announcing now that it's processing over 2 billion queries a day from searches [being] performed - on its extensive distribution network (certainly, like 7search.com) - are able to then determine WHO the potentially 'hot' users that qualify for retargeting then are - and it is fair to say that they're all coming from within those "over 2 billion" daily searches performed on it's distribution network or, marketplace. (That includes 7search.com)

www.alexa.com/siteinfo/looksmart.com#

All thoughts expressed are .....Just my opinion, as always.

LOOK: 3:56PM EDT: $1.45   0.06 (-3.97%)

With stated cash of $25.6M - end of Q1 2011) Looksmart's market cap on today's close, has gone below this level. Yes, that's unbelievable, but so typical of what an 'un-informed' market, can produce.

finance.yahoo.com/q?s=look

LC

Magnetic (themselve - all news >>) have no notification about this exciting development on their website or, on Twitter. - Maybe this will come tomorrow as MediaPost could well have 'jumped the gun' by one day? And some possible news about this from Looksmart? Hardly!!!

www.magnetic.is/magnetic-blog

["With more than 5 billion searches across 300 million unique users monthly (*Source, Magnetic Internal Data),Magnetic allows advertisers to purchase display ads across Olive’s Brand Response performance network based on search data. These display ads are then targeted against specific search keywords designed to identify audiences with specific purchase intent for better conversion and performance."

"Magnetic significantly lifts the value of media and improves campaign performance. Magnetic’s advanced technology provides the largest payment to search data providers. It is the search data partner of choice for more than 100 leading agencies, ad networks and DSPs." - www.magnetic.is/olive-media-introduces-s...]

[ We can deliver sophisticated targeting options to zero in on your specific audience.

Contextual (Channel, Site, Section, Sponsorships, Newsletters)Daypart (time of day or day(s) of the week)Regional (Country, Province, City, Area Code, Postal Code) Domain names, ISP, bandwidth, operating system, Browser type, Keywords, Creative sequencing, Frequency capping - www.olivemedia.ca/en/advertisers/olivebr... ]

ps; As a 'measure' for across the web 'retargeting' of individual users, check the results for Online fashion store ASOS, at the bottom of this article - Online sales up 19% to £31.5bn in Q1 http://j.mp/oaU9z2

["It's no longer search or display, display or text, SEM or search retargeting. It's all of the above." - http://a.sw.io/n3ikWnA ]

Disclosure: Long LOOK
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