• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 25, 2014

iCrossing became the first agency to pair search data with audience retargeting with Search Audience Intelligence (SearchAi) technology, announced Wednesday. The new service integrates Hearst audience data through its Connected Marketing Platform (CMP) platform with the Google AdWords Remarketing Lists for Search Ads.

Ty Martin, director of digital media at iCrossing, a Hearst company, said the service marries the search keyword with persona data in real time to retarget consumers on Google.com and its network of sites. The technology considers age, gender, interests and more. "It means marketers can bid up or down for a specific audience," he said. "It also enables different messaging based on a specific audience."

More than 60% of iCrossing's clients use RLSA, per Martin. Many of these companies will soon move to SearchAi. Overall it doesn't require much setup, but does require a special tag. SearchAI is code connecting multiple systems.

Think of SearchAi as middleware connecting iCrossing's Connected Marketing Platform with a brand's first-party campaign data and audience profiles generated by Hearst's global network. The combination creates audience segments that extend through third-party data providers. It lets iCrossing run Google search ads with targeting and messaging capabilities that can translate into higher engagement rates at lower cost-per-click (CPC).

Although the first search agency, iCrossing joins Oracle's BlueKai, and Marin Software in supporting Google RLSA, which allows brands to retarget visitors to publisher Web sites on Google.com and partner sites throughout the Google Search Network.

iCrossing's advantage points to having access to Hearst's audience platform that aggregates data from users traversing Hearst's 100 magazine Web sites globally, 29 broadcast TV stations and 15 newspapers and encompasses 200 million unique visitors monthly.

Martin views the technology as a discovery tool to understand more about searchers who visit Hearst's sites. The data will let brands know of their search traffic what percentage are male or female and have an interest in gardening, food and wine, for example. Then brands can make business decisions and execute campaigns based on the data. There are hundreds of intent signals, along with interests and demographics.