Even though Google+ has been improving more each day that passes, Google is known as being a little bit behind in the line of social marketing. We know that, and so do they, which is why they’ve been focusing on their social marketing strategies. It’s the reason for Google+’s sudden boosts and Google knows that its social competitors are only going to be improving as well. Google has had success in the past acquiring companies that work with competitors, and things usually work out in that way. Well, today they’ve announced their acquisition of a company that will help them out in social marketing as well as have an advantage on competitors.
Wildfire is a social marketing platform that focuses mostly on Facebook, but also works with Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Google writes on their blog about Wildfire, “Their co-founders, Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard, launched their startup just four years ago. Since then, they and their team have built a service that helps businesses like Virgin, Cirque du Soleil, Gilt Group and Spotify manage their social efforts across numerous social websites. It’s a platform for brands to manage their pages, apps, tweets, videos, sponsorships, ads, promotions and more, all in one place.” So, now, along with managing their own social market on Google+, Google has taken over a company that manages social advertising all over the web.
Wildfire has only been around 4 years, but Google apparently saw potential in the company through the sufficient results they’ve seen so far. Google’s goal isn’t only beating out competitors in social marketing tactics, but they are working on bringing “fresher content” to social media advertising and building their advertising network further. Due to the constant success of things like AdWords, Google has a significant reputation in the marketing world already, so with this acquisition of Wildfire, social marketers can expect good things.
In their blog post, Google comments on their numerous opportuinities offered to advertisers saying, “Google Analytics helps businesses measure the contribution of hundreds of social sites; our Admeld services has helped to serve ads in Facebook developers’ social apps; and our DoubleClick platform enables clients to run and measure ads across social websites. On Google+, brands use services like Vitrue, Buddy Media and others to manage their pages, with many more to come.” Also, we’ve seen a lot of success in the companies that Google has acquired in the past, as Google knows the advertising world like the back of its virtual hand.
So, in sum, Google has purchased another company that will probably end up improving Google Inc. further, if that’s possible. Google hasn’t released the price tag of Wildfire, but according to MarketingLand, reports say about $250 million. Clearly, the purchase of Wildfire is a sensible decision for Google, as they’ve never had trouble making any of their acquired companies work perfectly in their favor and in the favor of advertisers. With Wildfire, Google will probably see a lot of improvement in their social media marketing, giving other social media advertisers a run for their money.
