Razorfish Finds Efficiencies Automating Ad Processes

machines at work

Agencies looking to grow business need to search for ways to shave time off buying media and other processes to reduce operating costs. Companies ready to rebuild and recover from a downturn often look to software automation after cutting expenses to the bone to survive. Following the latest downturn, it appears that advertising and marketing execs are ready to give it a try.

Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google, recently pointed to technology from the Mountain View, Calif. search engine that would assist the transition to this emerging business models aimed at automating processes. The assertion was made during the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting 2010 in Carlsbad, Calif. late last month.

Agencies with in-house technology departments looked to keep up with APIs distributed by companies willing to share software and services, but now some find it more efficient to rely on help from the third-party companies, such as Marin Software.

When the electronics industry went through this automation surge, executives sang the mantra "focus on what we do best and outsource the rest." Razorfish took that advice and shaved hours from each search marketers' day, of which more than 100 support the agency.

"Everyone knows it needs to be done, but no one has put true numbers behind the automation," says Matt Lawson, director of marketing at Marin.

Razorfish has reduced the time spent on daily bidding, reporting, and campaign management by up to 50% for many of its brand-name SEM accounts, driving gains from efficiencies for its clients' large-scale paid-search marketing campaigns.

The search marketing team in the U.S. manages hundreds of accounts for more than 50 large brands, including Victoria's Secret, J. Crew, Shutterfly, Starwood, Weight Watchers, Disney, Polo Ralph Lauren, and CapitalOne.

Razorfish needed an application that could efficiently handle the paid-search programs of diverse clients. Those needs range from automating reporting for analysis and trend spotting to geographic targeting features for large accounts. It also requires an easy-to-use optimization and creative testing features for smaller accounts.

The ability to automate processes enabled Razorfish account managers and account executives to squeeze costs from bid management and reporting to campaign analysis and optimization, while managers use the dashboard to get a view of program performance.

Razorfish also managed to squeeze efficiencies from mobile campaigns. Experiments with mobile and local targeting drove higher click-through rates and conversions at a lower cost for the advertiser. Generated conversions on mobile devices were 7.5% more cost-efficient than conversions on desktop computers. With Marin technology, the agency also tested ad copy to increase conversion rates by 9.3% on mobile ads.

Marin supports 20 agencies. In aggregate, the group spends hundreds of millions of dollars in paid-search advertising.

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