Clickable gets $14.5 million
CEO David Kidder talks about why his ad management software offers 'Apple-like' simplicity
Clickable, a NY-based startup that's trying to simplify the process of managing advertising spend across Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, just announced that it raised $14.5 million led by Founders Fund, with participation from initial investors Union Square Ventures and FirstMark Capital.
"Clickable is a Web service that makes online advertising easy," said David Kidder, Clickable CEO and founder, in a recent interview with me. "We're a partner with all of the ad networks to bring simplicity to online advertising experiences in managing spends in Google, and Yahoo and Microsoft... We do that with Apple-like simplicity."
Clickable focused on small to medium sized businesses that spend between $2500 and $50,000 a month, said David. To this end, Clickable doesn't really compete with Yahoo's RightMedia, which is focused on larger companies, he said. For the SMB market, managing multiple campaigns across multiple networks involves dealing with the creative process and quantitative analysis - which is overwhelming and inefficient for small companies.
While this interview is a few months old, David did mention that the company had more than 500 customers and the company was adding dozens each week. Today, it's reported the company is adding 200 per month. In this interview, David said that Clickable makes between 3% and 5% on the advertising spend. If it's below $2,000 spend, it's about $30 per month. The average spend is between $5k and $25k per month. "But it's creeping up," he said.
Clickable's funding to-date is $22.5 million. "Clickable's tools allow users to track and manage campaign performance across multiple ad networks with a comprehensive, easy-to-use dashboard," said Justin Fishner-Wolfson, a Principal at Founders Fund, who joins Clickable's board of directors. "Clickable's intuitive technology makes it easy for advertisers and agencies to realize the true potential of search ads."
Bambi Francisco Roizen
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
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Clickable
Startup/Business
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Clickable is an online solution that makes search advertising Simple, Instant and Profitable. Clickable’s immediate activation and intuitive user experience make it easy for marketers to manage performance across all major ad networks, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Clickable’s powerful recommendations and reporting make marketers more efficient, effective, and confident – even at the very first login. Clickable’s ActEngine actually learns marketers’ preferences and enforces best practices to maximize return. Clickable always listens and constantly improves. That’s why customers often say: “Clickable is like having a trusted advisor always by your side ensuring success.”
For advertising agencies, Clickable drives profitability by growing margins, staff efficiency, and capacity to serve more clients. Predictable, performance-based technology costs enable agencies to capture new market share from smaller clients, historically unprofitable under traditional agency cost structures. With easy white-label reporting, agencies can groom smaller clients into full-service accounts. Finally, Clickable rapidly enables and educates agency staff with embedded contextual help, multimedia training, and community.
For ad networks, Clickable offers growing access and scale to thousands of advertisers and agencies, while providing parity with all major ad networks. Simply “Clickable enable” your ad network to grow customer loyalty and market share by integrating with the one platform where advertisers manage all premium networks.
Founders Fund
Angel group/VC
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We are company founders first and investor second: we have built companies from the ground up, including PayPal, Facebook, Napster, Plaxo, Palantir Technologies, and Clarium Capital. We have experience from concept to realization, from shared offices to public offerings. Every stage of the company creation process is familiar to us, from finding seed capital, to building defensible products, scaling up the organization, and realizing lasting value for employees and shareholders.
Our current investments include Facebook, Slide, Geni, Powerset, IronPort Systems, Zivity, Quantcast, and Project Agape. Our fund is $50 million and we focus on investments in early-stage consumer Internet companies. We typically invest $500,000 - $1 million per investment. At the end of 2007, we raised $220 million for The Founders Fund II.