Trada Raises $5.75M From Google Ventures To Crowdsource Search Engine Marketing

by Jason Kincaid - Techcrunch



Google’s AdWords may be one of the most successful products in Internet history, but it’s fair to say that most small and medium-sized business owners aren’t exactly experts when it comes to writing their ad copy or picking out keywords — in fact, there’s a whole industry of consultants and firms who specialize in doing just that. Enter Trada, a startup that launched in March that’s looking to help turn the industry on its head with the power of crowdsourcing. The company just closed a $5.75 million Series C round of funding led by Google Ventures, with participation from previous investor Foundry Group. Google Ventures Partner Rich Miner will be joining the board. And yes, this means Google’s VC arm is taking a dip into paid search marketing, which is sure to raise a few eyebrows.

The basic premise of Trada is to make running an online ad campaign as easy as possible: specify a budget you’re willing to spend on ads, decide which advertising platforms you want your ads to appear on (the site currently supports Bing, Yahoo, and Google), and enter how much you’re willing to pay-per-click or per acquisition. Finish those steps and you’re done — the site sources the heavy lifting, like choosing thousands of keywords to target and writing ad copy, to its community of experts.

At first glance, the fusion of crowdsourcing with online advertising campaigns sounds like a terrible idea — it’s easy to throw away money when someone clueless is managing your account. But Trada CEO Niel Robertson says that the company goes to great lengths to ensure that their “crowd” consists of a group of vetted, seasoned advertising experts. Each expert must be AdWords certified, and they also have to pass Trada’s own 45 minute exam. And users tapping into the platform can see the track record of each expert, so it should be fairly easy to tell if someone isn’t up to par.

Each ad campaign actually has multiple experts working on it, which Robertson says can help diversify the number of good keywords your campaign is targeting (an average campaign on the site has over 6,500 keywords and 110 ads). Each expert is incented to create ads that perform well, because they get rewarded for each click/acquisition their ad receives in the wild (Trada takes a 25% cut of this reward). Trada is also experimenting with incentives that will encourage experts to work together — for example, experts could receive a bigger cut of the proceeds if the aggregate click-through rate of a client’s campaign hits a certain threshold.

Given the fact that this directly involves Google’s bread and butter AdWords, the Google Ventures connection is obviously going to draw some scrutiny. Robertson says that Trada fully expects this; to stay as above-board as possible, it has gone through its policies and practices with Google account managers to ensure that everything is in order. That won’t silence the critics, but it’s a start.

Trada plans to use the money in part to grow internationally and also to work toward launching support for display ads. When the time comes to launch display, Robertson says that Trada will likely help solve another piece of the puzzle: you’ll be able to outsource both the placement of your ads and have another set of professionals working on creative.

Including this round, Trada has raised a total of $7.95 million since it was founded two years ago.
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New York Prep School Crowdsourcing Google Ads For Less With Trada

June 24, 2010 9:00 AM EDT

Winston Preparatory School, a co-ed day school with campuses in New York City and Norwalk, Conn., is using Trada to crowdsource pay per click marketing campaigns and reach parents for ten times less than its anticipated cost.

(PRWEB) June 24, 2010 -- Winston Preparatory School, a co-ed day school with campuses in New York City and Norwalk, Conn., is using Trada to crowdsource pay per click (PPC) marketing campaigns and reach parents for ten times less than its anticipated cost.

Trada is a PPC marketplace allowing advertisers to leverage the skills of hundreds of the best PPC experts in the world. Winston Prep offers an individualized education for sixth through 12th grade students with learning differences such as dyslexia, nonverbal learning disabilities, expressive or receptive language disorders and attention deficit problems.

Winston Prep’s plan called for the school to extend its reach beyond its existing community. Parents of children with learning disabilities are active online, so it made sense to advertise on the web. But the costs for paid search advertisements on Google – where people bid for ad placement in an open marketplace -- were high. And it didn’t make sense to employ a full-time paid search expert to bring the costs down. In addition, Winston Prep needed to make sure ads ran only in the locations near the two campuses in New York and Connecticut.

In October 2009, Winston Preparatory School launched a paid search campaign in the Trada marketplace, leveraging the skills of more than 500 certified paid search experts, known as optimizers. Trada automatically geo-targeted the campaign to New York City and Norwalk, Connecticut to ensure only prospective parents living near the schools would see the ads. Within one week, the optimizers generated thousands of keywords and hundreds of ads to generate inbound leads from parents of kids interested in attending the school. Within a month, the optimizers were able to lower the conversion cost – the price the school paid for a parent to click on an ad and fill out a form – from Winston Prep’s original target of $60 to six dollars.

“Trada brings a level of expertise to our PPC that we could never have achieved on our own – and it’s easy! Best of all, Trada’s optimizers have lowed our conversion cost to a tenth of what we had initially been willing to pay,” said Kristin Wisemiller, Director of Admissions at Winston Prep.

“Winston Prep shows how pioneering educational institutions can reach new communities using paid search and how Trada’s experts can help make the effort affordable. We’re looking forward to more schools following their great example,” said Niel Robertson, Trada founder and CEO.

Winston Preparatory Campaign Statistics Optimizers working campaign: 18 Keywords in campaign: 12027 Ads in campaign: 58 Impressions: 859107 Clicks (visits to site): 7027 Conversions (interested parents): 715 Conversion rate: 10% Cost per conversion: $6 Original target cost per conversion: $60

About Trada Based in Boulder, Colo., Trada is revolutionizing the way agencies, advertisers and pay-per-click experts build and manage PPC marketing campaigns. Trada has developed the first PPC marketplace that allows agencies and in-house advertisers to leverage the skills of hundreds of the best PPC experts in the world, who in turn earn money risk free by generating low-cost clicks and conversions for advertisers. For more information, visit http://trada.com
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SCORE column: Source the crowd for business strategies

When a SCORE client needed a business name, students of Paul Lotto, a SCORE volunteer and marketing/business teacher at Ashwaubenon High School, put together a list of creative possibilities. We didn't realize it at the time, but this was a prime example of crowdsourcing, one of the newest and cheapest business strategies.

Crowdsourcing allows an entrepreneur to complete projects or jobs inexpensively by leveraging groups of people to come up with solutions.

Using LinkedIn, a member of the Marketing and PR Innovators Group started an online discussion.

"Please help me come up with a tagline for my music company," Jeff Gold requested. "The name of my company is Jeff Gold Music, and I compose and produce music that is great for relaxation. I'm not quite as good with words and I have struggled with a good tagline."

In response, ideas have been coming in for months. In fact, more than 350 people have responded with their recommendations. There are so many good taglines that it will be difficult for Gold to select the best. What he has done is obtain exceptional assistance at no cost. The savings are huge.

This is just one of the strategies that can be employed. There are some sites that help entrepreneurs get their businesses going without the cost of employees. Some to consider include:

99 Designs: This site offers graphic design work to a broad network of artists and designer who compete to submit the best idea. The entrepreneur offers a payment price for the best logo and picks a favorite from the submissions.

Kickstarter: This is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, and more. You name the amount of money you need to do something; people in turn pledge amounts in support of this project or business. If you receive enough pledges, your donors' payments are processed and you receive the full amount.

TopCoder: Runs competitions with prizes that enable participants to compete for the best software, development and employment services solutions.

Trada: A search engine marketing and optimization company that lets the crowd pick the best keywords for your company or campaign.

Jigsaw: Provides leads in the industries you are targeting by allowing you to upload contact information in exchange for the ability to download other people's contact information.

LiveOps: If you aren't ready to hire sales people, this company specializes in call center outsourcing.

InnoCentive: As your business grows, this company allows you to outsource research and development to discover the latest new product or service.

Samasource: A socially responsible site, this will enable your business to send microtasks to youth, refugees, and women in developing countries.
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Trada Raises $2.2 Million For Crowdsourced SEM Management Service

Stealth startup Trada launched to the public today as an online marketplace allowing small and medium businesses and agencies to essentially crowdsource search engine marketing services. The startup has raised $2.2 million from the Foundry Group and angel investors Alan Warms, Carlos Cashman, Dan Murray, James Crouthamel, Stuart Larkins and Robert Wolfe.

As we all know, search advertising is necessary for businesses but SEM can be a time consuming, perplexing and tedious task. Many businesses overpay for common keywords or don’t use the right keywords to drive traffic. Trada comes into play here by crowdsourcing SEM experts to build and manage and advertiser or business’ paid search campaign across search engines. The service currently supports Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.

Essentially, Trada ends up being a middleman for coordinating SEM service. Advertisers use Trada to enter information about a campaign and experts, who must be AdWords or SEMPO certified and pass Trada certification, use the site to find interesting campaigns and submit keywords, ad copy and bid prices across the search engines and to track and optimize campaigns across the ad networks. Trada coordinates the payments and takes a small cut of each transaction between advertisers and SEO experts.

The benefit for the SEM experts is that they don’t have to deal with the administrative and management issues with clients. Experts earn money when they generate clicks or other actions for less than the advertiser’s target price. Advertisers get 25 qualified experts to work on their campaigns and according to Trada, those businesses who participated in the private beta of the service are seeing successful results.

Trada entered private beta in January 2009 and currently has 70 advertisers and 280 experts to date. Founded by entrepreneur Niel Robertson, Trada was born after Robertson grew frustrated managing his own $8,000-a-month paid search campaign. Realizing that paid search campaigns are best left to experts, he thought an online marketplace for PPC experts and businesses would be the best way to maximize SEM. The startup faces competition from Kenshoo, Conductor and many others.
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Trada Throws Crowdsourcing into Paid Search Mix

Trada is the latest company to use crowd sourcing to craft an online marketing campaign - in this case paid search. The company has launched with a business model that connects small and medium sized companies to hundreds of paid search experts - specifically, people who have Adwords or a similar certification - to build their campaigns.

The firm entered into private beta last January and has since built a stable of 280 experts and landed 70 advertisers. It currently supports Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.

The smallest budget an advertiser can request for Trada is $500 a month, founder Niel Robertson tells MarketingVOX. The largest will range in the tens of thousands a month. “The way we work is that an advertiser specifies what it wants - the budget, and how they would like to pay, whether by click or by the sale.” The paid search experts opt to work on the campaigns they want and whose conversion price seems fair to them, he adds.

Trada just received $2.2 million from the Foundry Group and angel investors Alan Warms, Carlos Cashman, Dan Murray, James Crouthamel, Stuart Larkins and Robert Wolfe. The company will be using the proceeds to invest in sales and marketing, Robertson says.
Industry Trend

Trada is hardly alone in turning to crowdsourcing - it is expected to be one of the top trends for marketers this year, according to the digital experts at Last Exit. The downside of the concept, however, is that companies can find themselves with a deluge of offers that may become more work than first realized, according to Jez Frampton, CEO of Interbrand (via Forbes).

"It is the ability to select and profitably execute an idea that delivers greatest value to the organization. This supports the old adage that success is 5% inspiration, and 95% perspiration."

Dark Side

Frampton tells of a creative director who tried crowdsourcing for a specific campaign and within 48 hours had received hundreds of ideas. The irony, Frampton said, was that the director and his team spent more time sorting through the input than they would have spent simply developing a good idea themselves.

These are still early days, though, and as this model takes off supporters say such problems will be resolved. More industry resources are being devoted to crowdsourcing, which should also help. Last October, for instance, a new advertising agency, Victors & Spoils, was launched by former executives from Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, billing itself the first creative ad agency built on crowdsourcing principles.

Also companies are getting smarter about crowdsourcing in general, according to Matthew Greeley, CEO and founder, Brightidea.com (via DM News).

"Marketers need to be brought in to ensure that open innovation sites serve as an extension of the overall brand. A simple way to do this is through white-label innovation platforms, which easily enable marketers to influence the look and feel of a crowdsourcing initiative so that there is a stronger tie between the brand and innovation."
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