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December 11, 2006
WebTrends Acquires ClickShift, Announces Dynamic Search Product
In this article, updated information on the WebTrends acquisition of Click Shift and the creation of the "Dynamic Search" program.
"WebTrends Unveils Automated Optimization of Paid Search Advertising with WebTrends Dynamic Search"
New on-demand solution expands WebTrends Marketing Lab product family to profitably scale marketers' online spend
PORTLAND, Ore - December 4, 2006 - Following the December 4th announcement of the ClickShift acquisition, WebTrends Inc. today unveiled WebTrends Dynamic Search™, the industry's most sophisticated search marketing solution for optimizing paid search keyword portfolios to any business objective. Powered by WebTrends True Optimization™ technology, this innovative on-demand solution automatically determines which combinations of networks, keywords, positions, creative and landing pages perform best and dynamically allocates advertising spend to the top-performing combinations across major search networks, including Google, MSN and Yahoo!. With this announcement, WebTrends is breaking down the barriers to effective search engine marketing with end-to-end automation that eliminates the impasse between insight and action to continuously-and effortlessly-improve results and profitably scale search marketing.
"The growth of search engine marketing has brought rising keyword costs, and increasing complexity has made it more difficult for advertisers to profitably scale their efforts. Additionally, today's bid management tools saddle marketers with an ever-increasing time and resource burden, forcing them to manually monitor, measure and tune dozens of variables for hundreds if not thousands of keywords," said Greg Drew, CEO and president, WebTrends. "WebTrends now leads the industry in delivering a solution that dynamically optimizes search marketing efforts by automatically selecting the best combinations of variables to maximize return on investment. We are thrilled to provide our customers with a truly unique and comprehensive solution that will give them the competitive edge in acquiring quality traffic to drive their business objectives."
Major online retailers such as ShopNBC are already seeing the powerful results of automated optimization in their search marketing. "Through WebTrends Dynamic Search, we have been able to drive sales and improve our contribution margin dollars, said Loran Gutt, director of customer marketing, ShopNBC. "We have also been able to greatly expand our search efforts, increasing paid search revenue from non-branded terms by 25 times and more than doubling our profit margin for all paid search efforts."
More Science, Better Results
Once marketers perform a few easy setup steps, including uploading initial keywords and creative, and defining business goals, such as maximizing revenue, gross profit or return on advertising spend, WebTrends Dynamic Search starts managing and dynamically optimizing campaigns. First, leveraging a combination of methods, keywords and creative are expanded. Then, using unique mathematical and algorithmic statistical models, the True Optimization engine automatically performs multivariate tests to determine which network-keyword-position-creative-landing page combinations deliver the best results for the marketer's stated goal-within the shortest amount of time and the least amount of money. The solution then automatically allocates spend to the best performing variable combinations across the major search networks, eliminating the need to manually manage keywords or change creative on each network. Results are available on-demand for campaign, product, landing page and keyword-level reporting.
Marketers can also upload product cost, gross margin percentage, shipping expense, and other financial data directly into WebTrends Dynamic Search for a holistic understanding of how paid search is impacting their business and for the most accurate allocation of spend for optimal efficiency. The solution can also automatically pause inventory listings related to out-of-stock items, and incorporate pricing and product changes as they occur. In addition, as an integrated solution within the WebTrends Marketing Lab product family, customers also benefit from a single data collection tag for consolidated reporting and real-time monitoring, providing complete visibility into search performance.
For more information on WebTrends Dynamic Search, please visit www.webtrends.com/dynamicsearch .
About WebTrends Inc.
WebTrends is the leading provider of web analytics software and on-demand solutions for web-smart customers including General Mills, IKEA, Microsoft, Reuters and Ticketmaster. With WebTrends Marketing Lab, the company has expanded its comprehensive analytics platform to offer on-the-fly data exploration, dynamic advertising optimization and customer targeting solutions fueling relationship marketing. Thousands of enterprises have chosen WebTrends solutions and consulting services to accurately prove and improve their business and marketing results. For more information, visit www.webtrends.com.
WebTrends is a registered trademark of WebTrends Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. 
Previous announcement info below.
From the WebTrends announcement page:
WebTrends Acquires ClickShift
WebTrends has announced the acquisition of ClickShift, an innovator in online advertising optimization. This exciting development for marketing professionals worldwide brings leading-edge technology and deep industry expertise to WebTrends enterprise-class web analytics and Marketing Performance Management solutions.
Watch for a new addition to the WebTrends Marketing Lab product family, coming soon: WebTrends Dynamic Search™. More information about this sophisticated new online optimization solution will be revealed on December 11. Stay tuned for further details in how online marketing optimization will provide real results for businesses like yours.
Use this link to Request a Product Release Update.
Below, you will find a WebTrends press release about the acquisition of ClickShift:
Unveiling of industry's most sophisticated search marketing solution to occur at launch events in New York City and London
PORTLAND, Ore - December 4, 2006 - WebTrends Inc., the market leader for web analytics and Marketing Performance Management solutions, today at Search Engine Strategies announced its acquisition of ClickShift, an innovator in online advertising optimization. The acquisition brings leading edge technology and deep industry expertise to WebTrends, with ClickShift employees joining the company including its MIT-educated core development team and co-founders, John Rodkin and Leo Chang. Rodkin and Chang, who previously founded Flyswat, subsequently acquired by NBCi, will continue to lead the team out of its current San Bruno, Calif. facility. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
"As WebTrends evaluated its strategic options to offer our customers a leading online marketing optimization solution, it quickly became clear that marketers have many unmet needs in this area," said Greg Drew, CEO and president, WebTrends. "With ClickShift, we've found a perfect blend of deep online advertising expertise and innovative technology that solves fundamental challenges facing marketers. We're extremely pleased to welcome such a talented team to the WebTrends family."
The acquisition will strengthen the company's existing product family, WebTrends Marketing Lab, with the addition of WebTrends Dynamic Search™. Details of the new solution will be unveiled worldwide to online marketers, industry experts and journalists at invitation-only launch events in New York City on December 11th and in London on December 14th.
For invitation details or information on the launch events, please contact the listed media representatives or email launch@webtrends.com.
"From day one, our vision has been to revolutionize the way marketers manage and profitably grow their complex online marketing campaigns," said John Rodkin, co-founder and CEO of ClickShift. "WebTrends is the ideal partner for our revolutionary solution as its Marketing Performance Management strategy perfectly matches our mission. WebTrends has the resources, experience and expansive customer base to introduce more marketers to the power of true marketing optimization."
"Our goal is to continually enhance the value customers derive from our Marketing Performance Management solutions. ClickShift exemplifies the type of cutting edge marketing solution that we evaluate for strategic acquisitions and partnerships to build customer value," said Tore Steen, vice president of corporate development, WebTrends.
About WebTrends Inc.
WebTrends is the leading provider of web analytics software and on-demand solutions for web-smart customers including General Mills, IKEA, Microsoft, Reuters and Ticketmaster. With WebTrends Marketing Lab, the company has expanded its comprehensive analytics platform to offer on-the-fly data exploration and customer targeting solutions fueling relationship marketing. Thousands of enterprises have chosen WebTrends solutions and consulting services to accurately prove and improve their business and marketing results.
For more information, visit www.webtrends.com.
WebTrends is a registered trademark of WebTrends Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
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