Large Market Opportunity, Growing Customer List Attract Leading Venture Firm
San Francisco, California (PRWEB) April 7, 2008 -- Marin Software, provider of the leading enterprise-class paid search management application for advertisers and agencies, today announced a $7.25 million Series B financing led by Benchmark Capital. As part of this round, Bruce Dunlevie, General Partner at Benchmark, will join Marin's Board of Directors. The new funds will be used to further develop Marin Search Marketer™, Marin's paid search management application, and to expand the company's sales and marketing efforts.
While traditional advertising is losing steam, spending on paid search advertising (also known as search engine marketing, or SEM) is large and growing fast. According to a recent report by JP Morgan, paid search in the United States is expected to grow 23% annually, from $11.8 billion in 2007 to $26.8 billion in 2011. Over the same period, international markets are projected to grow 34% annually from $10.2 billion to $33.1 billion. As paid search has become integral to the marketing mix, with programs expanding to include thousands of concurrent and often overlapping campaigns, and tens of thousands to millions of keywords, an urgent need has arisen for better search management tools. To date, most search marketers have had few options other than to manually manage and optimize campaigns using Excel spreadsheets and search engine ad centers.
To fill this market gap, a trio of search marketing and enterprise software veterans - Christopher Lien, Wister Walcott and Joseph Chang - came together to found Marin Software in 2006. The company's flagship product - Marin Search Marketer - is the industry's first enterprise-class paid search management application that addresses the workflow, analysis and optimization needs of professional search marketers, saving time and improving financial performance. A complete solution for paid search management, Marin Search Marketer includes cross-publisher campaign management, automatic keyword generation and submission, flexible revenue tracking and bid optimization and business-level analytics. Designed for power users by search marketing experts, Marin Search Marketer offers a 30-day, full-featured free trial with pay-as-you-go pricing and is designed for those who are spending at least $50,000 monthly on paid search. To date, the company has attracted more than twenty five customers, including Zappos.com and ZipRealty (Nasdaq: ZIPR), as well as several marquee agency partners such as Avenue A | Razorfish, a division of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), and Ionic Media. Performance marketers specializing in lead generation and customer acquisition also are using the technology; early adopters include Trouvé Media, Adlucent and Viveli.
"Marin Software is well-positioned to take advantage of the tremendous growth in paid search and the resulting need of advertisers and agencies for better management tools," said Bruce Dunlevie, General Partner, Benchmark Capital. "Marin's domain expertise, unique technology, and pay-as-you-go model have generated significant traction so far, and the company has a solid team in place to execute effectively going forward."
"Paid search is the largest business I know of that is still managed almost exclusively in Excel spreadsheets," said Christopher Lien, chief executive officer of Marin Software. "Marin Search Marketer combines deep knowledge of search with enterprise-class software to meet the day-to-day needs of professional search marketers. Marin provides a browser-based workspace for large-scale search marketers to work more efficiently while delivering better financial results. We are honored to gain the support of Bruce and Benchmark as we build Marin Software."
About Marin Software
Marin Software provides an enterprise-class paid search management application for advertisers and agencies. Marin Search Marketer™ addresses the workflow, analysis and optimization needs of professional search marketers, saving time and improving financial performance. Marin offers a 30-day, full-featured free trial with pay-as-you-go pricing and is designed for those who are spending at least $50,000 monthly on paid search. Customers include Avenue A | Razorfish, a division of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Zappos.com and ZipRealty (Nasdaq: ZIPR). For more information about Marin Software, please visit www.marinsoftware.com.
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