• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 8, 2013

With an onslaught of possibilities to display ads online, marketers find nirvana in building the ad once and serving it on multiple search engines and publisher sites without having to physically tweak the size or copy. A tool from Pricing Engine takes that concept and makes it work across social sites.

The Pricing Engine platform allows brands to build the ad once and serve it simultaneously on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and Foursquare. The tool already enables marketers to build once and publish on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines, said Jeremy Kagan, the company's CEO. "We force the copy into a unified structure with preset specifications to simplify it," he said.

It works similar to responsive design models, adapting to fit the page and content requirements. Design structures are preset, so the text gets automatically reformatted for ads that will serve up in each of the social sites. There is a selection of images from which to choose. Marketers can preview what the ads look like on the social sites before they publish.

The tool aims to support local, small businesses, like restaurants, body shops, vacation rentals, or dry cleaners spending about $2,000 monthly. He points to the mom-and-pop shops helping to build the economy.

BIA/Kelsey estimates the U.S. total social-local spend for 2017 at $3.6 billion, up from $1.6 billion in 2013, and $1.1 billion in 2012. This year small and medium size businesses will spend about $64 million on social local paid and earned media.

Nearly every marketer will use social media this year, according to Forrester Research. The analyst firm estimates that overall, U.S. marketers will spend $4.8 billion on social marketing tactics in 2013.

In a report, eMarketer points to Manta data published in April estimating that 39% of small businesses see a return on investment from their social media campaigns. About 25% of small businesses use social media ads, according to Constant Contact October 2012 data.

The Pricing Engine, which is working on a white-label platform for publishers, has also integrated the technology from its SEMplest acquisition, which adds keyword generation and auto bidding tools to the platform. With this tool, keyword generation and online ad bidding are automatic.