Interview with Erin Cigich, CEO of Clickbooth
Should advertisers or publishers care about whether their network partner(s) are investing in new technology or are innovating?
First and foremost advertisers and affiliates should be focused on the results their partners are driving. This is, after all, performance marketing. While Clickbooth has invested and continues to invest in industry leading technology, our proprietary platform is a vehicle for us to deliver quality, consistency and scale for our partners. It allows us to drive results and out-perform the competition. Technology simply for technology’s sake over complicates things or obfuscates the value your partners are creating.
That being said, when you see a company who is innovating and investing in new technology in our space we see it as a strong indicator of their financial performance and commitment to the industry.
CPM display advertising seems to be full of fraud, with some estimating that as many as 60% of ad impressions are bot-driven. Doesn’t this mean that advertisers should be shifting budget to performance marketing? What would you say to advertisers reading this?
I could not agree more with your March 29th article “Why Performance Can Win Against Google,” the performance space simply makes more sense. CPM display advertising is no better, and in many ways worse, than buying traditional advertising that cannot be effectively tracked. CPA marketing allows advertisers to guarantee ROI by only paying when a new lead or sale is generated. If this is not currently a part of your marketing mix you are missing out.
Many BLUE BOOK visitors ask for recommendations for advertiser or affiliate tools, everything from link-trackers to keyword tools, and from page builders to CRM. Would you share a few of your favorite tools with us?
On the affiliate side, Clickbooth recently acquired ThriveTracker, a cutting-edge tool that allows them to monitor the performance of their content, creatives and traffic sources, providing a full picture of their business. We’ve also built a programmatic media buying tool that allows affiliates to auto optimize their native campaigns. This product is currently in beta but the feedback so far has been phenomenal.
Advertiser client feedback frequently recognizes a select group of vendors who have continually returned a best-in-industry experience. Among them, Forensiq and Optizmo remain client favorites. In recent years, many Clickbooth clients have also touted the benefits of lifetime value-focused solutions like RevGuard, a reputable force in the continuity space.
About
Erin Cigich serves as CEO of Clickbooth overseeing strategic marketing, sales and business development, client relationship management, and new product development. Joining the company in 2007, she has provided leadership through every growth phase of the company. Erin has a degree in Advertising from the University of Florida.