• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, September 13, 2011

It took the realization that not all online advertising firms could provide brands with everything for industry executives to come to their senses. So it's a good thing the Web's back-end infrastructure lends itself easily to integrating disparate platforms. Just as brand marketers are aware that technology is increasingly important to online advertising, platform companies understand what it takes to acquire the in-house engineering support to produce better-performing ads.  

Budget may not include the cost to acquire or hire talent who can design and build platforms. It turns out that outsourcing -- more commonly known as "partnering" in the ad industry -- has become a viable option, not only between search engine marketing companies, but between agencies and search firms.

A slew of announcements followed the IgnitionOne and DataPop partnership reported Monday. The deals point to an industry finally working together in favor of brands.

Covario said Tuesday it will fill the missing bid management piece in its search technology platform by licensing Kenshoo's digital marketing software to support online media-buying and optimization for paid search and paid social advertising. In the months ahead, the companies also plan to co-develop a paid and organic search solution for global digital marketers.

Double-digit growth of paid-search spending by enterprise marketers globally, growth in budgets for Facebook advertising and other paid social media campaigns, and benefits behind holistic management of paid search and SEO drove the decision to partner, according to Covario and Kenshoo execs.

Agencies that are discovering they can't do it all to support clients have begun to license technology from search platform firms. Tech companies supporting online advertising and data collection have emerged to support tactical agency campaigns and strategies.

Interpublic Groups' MRM Worldwide and Reprise Media, as well as Prime Visibility and SlingShot SEO, will support clients with help from Conductor Searchlight, a SEO technology platform company. Earlier this year, Conductor also signed on iProspect.

A recent study from Conductor shows just how much time search marketers waste doing tasks that technology could automate. Up to 40% of an average SEO's time is spent on manual tasks. For agencies that employ large teams of SEO professionals and campaigns, this translates to a massive amount of new value for clients. The report finds that by reallocating time saved on automated tasks, SEOs can achieve up to 133% gains in time spent on revenue-producing activities such as content creation and link-building.

One word of advice to brands with all this partnering going on -- make sure the contract clearly states who owns the customer data.