科技广告巨头初长成

    在股市打拼是一件伤脑筋的事，而在线广告业务的竞标一样充满风险。

    位于旧金山的新公司Marin Software就想在这一领域一展身手。搜索引擎谷歌（Google）及其竞争对手们创造出一个市场，允许广告商对关键词竞标，以匹配特定的搜索结果。广告商对关键词的出价越高，用户在搜索词语时就能在越显眼的位置看到他们的广告。网络广告竞标是一项迅速发展的技术，而Marin开办了这方面的业务，帮助网飞（Netflix）、梅西百货（Macy’s）和菲尼克斯大学（The University of Phoenix）等客户参与这个广阔的市场。这家公司还帮助企业管理在线广告宣传，不仅涉及谷歌，还包括雅虎（Yahoo）、Facebook和其他网站。

    不仅如此，Marin的共同创始人兼首席技术官约瑟夫•张说，公司可以算出哪些广告促进了利润的增长。比如，通过对照谷歌的点击率数据和梅西百货的营业额，Marin就能算出哪些关键词最能增加公司的盈利。投标额会受到这些数据的影响，像股市一样实时变动。每天，Marin都对其1,800名客户的超过30亿个关键词进行监控，来决定何时应该提高投标，何时应该降低投标，据此实现客户的利润最大化。

    2006年成立至今，Marin在蓬勃发展的网络广告产业中获益颇丰。2012年，广告商在网络广告方面投入了900亿美元，这一数值在明年还会增至3倍。随着这个产业每年以15%至20%的速度增长，广告商感到了压力，他们迫切希望在社会媒体和移动产品业务上扩大影响。Marin的客户不断增加对网络广告的投入——他们每年在网络广告上的投入已经超过了40亿美元——因此Marin的收入也就水涨船高。Marin去年收入为3,600万美元，据共同创始人和首席执行官克里斯·里恩预计，今年的收入将会超过5,000万美元。

    当然，这个行业的竞争也非常激烈。谷歌和Adobe公司的搜索营销服务让客户选择更加多样化，其他的广告管理产品则集中于搜索广告的附加领域。例如，加利福尼亚的Rocket Fuel公司也利用数据实现横幅广告影响最大化。随着市场不断升温，要在这个领域有所作为只可能变得越来越困难。

    不过Marin已经取得了开门红。公司目前有超过400名员工，收入正在节节攀升。里恩在2005年曾为一家网络广告公司工作过一段时间，之后就有了创办Marin的想法。（他最早开办了一家数字媒体公司，名为Sugar Media。该公司在那一年的早些时候以4,000万美元的价格卖给了2Wire。）里恩意识到，搜索广告商没有可用的软件来管理网络广告宣传，尤其是那些大的广告商。

    Playing the stock market can be nerve-wracking. Bidding for online advertising space can be just as dicey.

    San Francisco-based startup Marin Software wants to do something about that. Search engines like Google (GOOG) and its competitors have created a marketplace that allows advertisers to bid on keywords to match an ad with a particular search term. The higher companies bid for a term, the more exposure their ad will get every time someone searches for that keyword. Bidding on such ads is a kind of rapidly evolving science, and Marin has built a business helping clients – including Netflix (NFLX), Macy's (M) and the University of Phoenix – play this vast market. The company also helps manage companies' online advertising campaigns, not just on Google but Yahoo (YHOO), Facebook (FB) and others.

    More than that, co-founder and CTO Joseph Chang says the company can figure out which ads actually boost profits. By pairing up Google's click data with Macy's revenues, for example, Marin can calculate which keywords actually bring in the most money. This data affects bids, which change in real-time much like the stock market. Every day, Marin monitors more than 3 billion keywords for its 1,800 clients, determining when to bid higher or when to back off in order to maximize revenue.

    Since its founding in 2006, Marin has reaped the benefits of the growing online advertising industry. In 2012, advertisers spent $90 billion on online ads, a number expected to hit triple digits next year. With the industry growing at a rate of 15% to 20% annually, the pressure is on for advertisers to expand their reach in social media and on mobile devices. As Marin's clients continue to spend more on online ads – they already represent more than $4 billion in annual online ad spending – the startup's take has risen. The company reported revenue of $36 million last year and expect that number to be over $50 million this year, according to co-founder and CEO Chris Lien.

    There is plenty of competition of course. Google and Adobe (ADBE) already offer competitive search marketing options; other ad management offerings focus on areas complimentary to search advertising. California-based Rocket Fuel, for example, also uses data to maximize the influence of banner ads. Things are only likelier to get tougher as the market heats up.

    But with revenue rising and the company over 400 employees strong, Marin has a solid start. Lien came up with the concept for Marin Software following a brief stint working for an online ad firm in 2005. (His first startup, a digital media company called Sugar Media, sold to 2Wire for $40 million earlier that year.) Lien realized that search advertisers had no viable software for managing their online campaigns, especially larger advertisers.