New Engen on Thursday unveiled a self-service platform that enables marketers to run search engine marketing campaigns on Bing and Google, as well as Facebook and Instagram, from one platform.
The company, which has been getting feedback from brands like 1-800-Flowers, also plans support for Amazon, Pinterest, Shopping, and Snap later this year.
Amit Shah, 1-800-Flowers CMO, said the company works with New Engen to support its algorithmic marketing model. They have been working together for two years.
“We were using an agency, but given the rate of change on Google and Facebook, we felt the need to continually learn,” he said. “We are approaching a new wave of advertising and marketing that requires us to pay more attention to algos.”
Essentially, marketers get stuck when competitors bid against their every online move. The ability to create “our own algorithms” and keep in touch with the correct audiences requires a deeper understanding of how campaigns work. It means getting more involved, he said.
New Engen focuses on technology rather than an agency model, which allows for rapid change. “It makes a difference,” Shah said.
1-800-Flowers has been working with New Engen’s managed services for about two years, and stepped up to offer input on the self-service offering. Shah identified three main benefits to a self-serve platform.
Having a consolidated platform spanning across channels provides agility and allows marketers to see how each channel performs to determine whether it makes sense to take the same bid rates from search into social. It also fosters a learning environment, he said.
Shah said two of the company’s smaller brands have begun to use the self-serve platform, but he declined to name them. Some of the more well-known sister brands include Harry & David, Moose Munch, and Simply Chocolate.
Rothy’s also uses New Engen’s managed services and is expected to make the transition to this self-service platform, which will enable its marketers to manage campaigns, keywords, and ads to better target customers and optimize budgets for the most efficient spend.
Dave Atchison, CEO of New Engen, said “larger companies seem to care more about the sophisticated and granular nature of the technology, and smaller companies care more about the automation and making it easy to use.”
Walmart, Good American, The Hershey Company, TUMI, Timbuk2, FanDuel, and Urban Outfitters are among the other brands that work New Engen’s managed services.