Dive Brief:
- Performance marketing firm Criteo is acquiring HookLogic and its ad exchange for brands according to a company announcement.
- The deal, which Adweek reports is worth $250 million, will see Criteo integrate its predictive bidding and product recommendations technology for brands into HookLogic’s cost-per-click native ads on retailers' sites.
- By combining efforts, Criteo hopes to better help manufacturers tie marketing spend directly to retail sales while enabling retailers to further monetize their site traffic.
Dive Insight:
The practical result of the deal is the combined martech companies will make it easier for brands to reach consumers on e-commerce sites with targeted product suggestions through bidding predictions. Personalized, native ad experiences are one tactic to marketers are experimenting with to provide better-quality, less intrusive experiences.
Online advertising as a whole is becoming more automated through technology such as programmatic buying and taking advantage of ad exchanges. This deal points towards more tech-driven marketing and also illustrates the importance of data in the process – including the data that online retailers have on their shoppers in order to target and bid on ad units.
What’s interesting about this deal is Criteo’s tech enables brand-side marketing while HookLogic’s exchange covers both the brand and the retailer sides of advertising.