AzoogleAds Acquires Bazaar

Performance-based online ad services firm AzoogleAds has acquired Bazaar Advertising, a San Francisco-based search management company--bulking up the search end of its marketing tools portfolio.

Meanwhile, a cross-promotional partnership between search firm ineedhits and Oddcast's SitePal aims to show small- and medium-sized business owners how using avatars can boost conversions and ultimately increase their search efforts' ROI.

Clients like Boston University turn to New York-based AzoogleAds for its affiliate marketing services (including a cost-per-action ad network), and the acquisition of Bazaar Advertising brings a host of automated bidding, campaign testing and lead generation tools under their umbrella.

"It's really a technology and optimization play," said Michael Sprouse, AzoogleAds' CMO.

AzoogleAds' search offering had already gained some traction, as Blockbuster recently agreed to let the firm run its search campaigns--but the acquisition was key for bringing the in-house technology up to scale.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but with Bazaar Advertising's staff (and corporate office), AzoogleAds now has about 120 employees and locations in New York, Toronto and San Francisco.

For New York-based avatar marketing solutions company Oddcast, the partnership with ineedhits is about offering their small- and- medium business clients access to free search optimization and marketing tools--and exposing ineedhits' clients to the conversion-snagging power of avatars.

"Ineedhits is focused on using a variety of techniques that drive traffic to Web sites, but once users get to the landing page, how do you turn an eyeball into a click?" said Shawn Holt, Oddcast's vice president of business development. "SitePal's answer is to use a speaking avatar that can inform them, give them an overview of your offering or even issue a call to action."

SitePal is the small-business-focused, self-service division of Oddcast, and Holt said that the two companies began discussing the partnership about four months ago. SitePal will promote ineedhits' free- and subscription-based search marketing services in client newsletters, emails and in the Third-Party Resources section of its site.

Meanwhile, Perth-based ineedhits will feature SitePal's range of virtual salespeople in its conversion product department.

"The biggest challenge for Web site owners is convincing visitors to take the desired action on a Web site," said Peter Gavalas, sales manager at ineedhits. "When our search engine marketing is combined with Sitepal conversion tools, Web site owners have a much better chance of turning search engine traffic into new customers."

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