Incubeta Holdings, is the holdings company of global paid search specialist Clicks2Customers. The company has been steadily increasing its global footprint with clients and offices in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Brazil.
Interface Holdings (iFace) is an integrated online media company. It houses digital brands including Webmail and EasyInfo and has a 20 percent share of the SA online ad spend. Webmail ranks in the top-three domestic page impressions sites according to the DMMA.
The deal, the first of many expected in the coming months, has been structured as a part-share, part-cash transaction. It is expected to deliver combined profits exceeding any other digital group in South
Africa. It also positions the company as one of the largest spenders and client base in search, particularly on Google.
"The acquisition allows us to roll out our new SME offering, which has been in the R and D phase for three years. iFace really understands the SME space and, together, we will be in a position to deliver a full-service online-marketing offering to smaller companies who understand the value of digital marketing and paid search, but who don't want to go the often costly route of working with a digital agency," explained Jonathan Gluckman, CEO of Incubeta Holdings.
A new division, Clicks2Local, has been created offering search to the SME market, particularly in the emerging regions.
"We are strong believers in Search Engine Marketing and its effectiveness in driving acquisition traffic to SMEs," said Gluckman.
"The problem is that although search is seen as a commodity, which anyone can provide, the truth is that it is hard. Structure, choice of keywords and pricing are critical to ensure that the SME is showing
its ads at the right time to relevant searches. Through Clicks2Local, the SME will get the benefit of having its campaign structured in the same way that we would manage the bigger accounts."
The power of the new offering will mean Incubeta Holdings will easily be able to service both the high-end corporate client as well as the high-volume SME market, ideally positioning the group for global
expansion.
"The deal is a natural progression for both companies, which have successfully worked together over the past two years. We see this as an opportunity to expand our offering and our footprint into a
lucrative and relatively untapped market quickly," commented Alan Lipschitz, CEO of Interface Holdings.
Clicks2Customers has traditionally specialised in servicing companies that run very large, complex campaigns. The company develops and manages campaigns from its Cape Town offices, using proprietary software combined with a quantitative approach to search.
"Most paid search campaigns are managed by agencies, which struggle to understand the quantitative essence of paid search," Gluckman said.
"We offer the service of auditing an existing campaign and proposing a model of performance, in which our fees are earned through improved performance. Most campaigns are set up and left, and are
underperforming, and this allows Clicks2Customers to provide significant improvements to our client base."
This technical, geographical and cost-base advantage has enabled Clicks2Customers to deliver a superior service at very competitive rates in the market. As a result, it has attracted a number of high-profile clients. This includes five of the eight award winners at the recent Australian Retail Awards, three of the Top-30 US online retailers and, in South Africa, four of the top-five e-commerce sites.
Clicks2Local clients will benefit from software designed with their specific needs in mind. The R and D has taken place over three years by the Incubeta development team, applying its technical insight and in collaboration with the SME knowledge from the iFace team, which has been working with them to refine the offering.
"This is one of many acquisitions we plan to make in this space over the coming months. We will be looking to make both client-based and skills-based acquisitions to ensure we can quickly scale up to service the emerging markets, which hold significant growth opportunity. We will be launching our Clicks2Local offering in South-East Asia in November and rolling out quickly into other regions soon after that," Gluckman concluded.
