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Market Trends Playing Out: Azoogle Acquires Bazaar

Oct 3, 2007
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CPA network AzoogleAds has acquired the lead generation firm Bazaar Advertising to aid in the SEM offerings for advertisers with the network.

ClickZ announced the deal and has details:

In an effort to morph AzoogleAds into more than just a performance-based affiliate advertising specialist, the company has acquired Bazaar Advertising, a San Francisco search engine management and advertising player whose technology impressed AzoogleAds’ executives.

The decision to go beyond its niche in CPA-based affiliate networking has already proved fruitful for the New York-based company, said chief marketing officer Michael Sprouse. He said AzoogleAds, which handles affiliate advertising for Blockbuster Video, recently convinced the movie-rental giant to also use it for SEM.

This points to a general, and accelerating, trend in the performance marketing world – it’s not enough to be good at just affiliate marketing or lead gen marketing or search engine marketing if a company is looking for long term solubility and market share.

Instead, companies in the performance marketing space such as ValueClick, Linkshare, MediaWhiz and now Azoogle are building out their own offerings by acquisitions and pointing to a very real market trend of necessary diversification that exists at the moment.

Filed under: Online Marketing + Search Engine Marketing
  • http://www.jeffmolander.com Jeff Molander

    Gotta spend that VC money on something!

    I'm convinced — VCLK's CJ is next to worthless as an investment without being able to pair it with something that converts advertiser relationships into something new. There's limited (declining) value in the traditional publisher network. Witness acquisition of the cream rising to the top.

    Rakuten's Linkshare? Even more so.

    Growing these companies by buying distribution won't fool smart investors. Then again, the world is full of great spinmasters (i.e. founders of Facebook, Skype, etc.).

    "The whole idea of a siloed e-mail provider as a business moving forward is limiting. I think there is a tremendous opportunity to combine e-mail marketing with other interactive services."

    Al DiGuido
    (new) CEO of Zustek

    I wonder what Jeff Pullin is up to lately?

  • http://www.evokemg.com Dave Cole

    I agree with Jeff (as usual… the cynics always crowd together). However, I think this consolidation is a good thing. Businesses like CJ and Linkshare have enjoyed their heyday and the numerous other DirectTrack powered affiliate networks are in the process of consolidating or disintegrating.

    Online marketing is emerging as a sophisticated branch of advertising and I think it makes sense for companies to integrate just like most mainstream advertising agencies are.

    The days of the boutique affiliate network are numbered.