Digital commerce is strong and growing in Southern California, leading the way down new paths such as mobile, programmatic, and more. From industry mainstays to up-and-comers, here are LA-based adtech companies you should know.
Top LA Adtech Companies You Should Know
- Friendbuy
- System1
- Scorpion
- Advertise Purple
- Centerfield
- Hawke Media
- GumGum
- Nativo
- The Trade Desk
What they do: Foursquare equips companies with geo-spatial technology to locate audiences and personalize their branding experiences. With access to over 105 million points of interest, businesses can determine which markets to enter and where they can find the most customers.
How it’s changing adtech: To fine-tune business and marketing strategies, Foursquare helps companies craft detailed customer personas. Teams can leverage Foursquare’s data-rich insights to establish ideal store locations, increase mobile app engagement, and customize ad campaigns.
What they do: To avoid wasting resources on ineffective ad campaigns, companies can leverage the comprehensive marketplace of The Trade Desk. The company’s platform and AI technology give businesses access to insights and data, allowing them to tailor campaigns to target audiences.
How it’s changing adtech: Instead of learning by trial and error, marketing organizations can inform each decision with a data-based approach. The Trade Desk’s platform helps companies determine how to allocate resources and determine the best channels for reaching customers. In addition, the company’s AI tool optimizes campaigns, drawing in more customers with personalized content.
What they do: System1 is a marketplace for pay-per-click advertising, analyzing billions of attributes and ultimately accessing consumer intent.
How it's changing adtech: System1 is all about making advertising a better experience for both consumers and advertisers.
What they do: Advertise Purple offers a full suite of market affiliate tools to help boost exposure for e-commerce companies.
How it's changing adtech: Advertise Purple’s suite of tools help e-commerce companies drive revenue from affiliate websites.The company’s platform uses data-driven strategy to help find the optimal affiliate to promote an e-commerce site’s promotions.
What they do: Through its proprietary network of content-rich websites, Centerfield helps businesses by providing a technology that allows them to target and acquire customers.
How it's changing adtech: The El Segundo-based startup's real time biddable media means businesses now have access to a smarter, more engaged audience.
What they do: Hawke Media is a marketing service that acts as an out-of-house CMO for companies. Whether executing new strategies or evaluating existing ones, the company helps clients save money, enhance efficiency and generate revenue.
How it's changing adtech: Hawke Media takes care of everything from branding to web design, helping companies without the resources to hire new talent fill marketing needs.
How it's changing adtech: GumGum continues to roll out new offerings, including a new product that creates in-screen ads across multiple devices.
What they do: The Mobile Majority offers an integrated platform that treats mobile ads like software and allows customers to create and target their campaigns in a one-stop shop.
How it's changing adtech: The Mobile Majority is rapidly expanding, with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Sao Paulo. The company has also acquired Gimbal, a mobile engagement and location intelligence platform.
What they do: Founded in 2014, VideoAmp has its sights set on simplifying the cross-screen world in online advertising.
How it's changing adtech: VideoAmp's technology allows clients to transact across all devices, from TV to digital, with its screen optimization platform.
What they do: The OpenX Technologies platform works for both publishers and ad buyers to sell and purchase ad space, respectively.
How it's changing adtech: OpenX has received a lot of attention recently as their ad marketplace has helped them exceed $100 million in revenue.
What they do: Taboola helps companies reach new users through their predictive and personalized digital marketing methods. Taboola streamlines the traffic monetization process by exposing its customers to over one billion users each month.
How it's changing adtech: Major companies like Expedia, Nissan and Ben & Jerry’s entrust Taboola to engage wider userbases and expand brand awareness.
Founded: 2007
What they do: Formerly known (and known well) as Shopzilla, this digital marketing company officially changed its name to Connexity in 2014. Connexity is leveraging its long experience in the e-commerce game to help retailers better understand their customers through data.
How it's changing adtech: In 2015, Connexity acquired the audience-based insights company Hitwise, which will operate as a division within the company and allow Connexity to provide deeper insights into audience demographics and behavior on mobile devices to retailers.
What they do: Ace Metrix provides solutions and insights for evaluating video advertising. With 50,000 ads tracked since 2010, the company has the largest database of digital video and television advertisement assessments.
How it's changing adtech: Ace Metrix allows marketers to have data about their ad as well as all other ads within 24 hours of run time, providing insights into an advertisement's impact.
What they do: adQuadrant helps advertisers drive leads and grow revenue through social media networks. The service takes charge of every step of the campaign, from strategy and copywriting to media buying and reporting.
How it’s changing adtech: adQuadrant has been responsible for digital media ad purchases on behalf of clients like eHarmony, ProFlowers, Bankrate and General Assembly.
What they do: MomentFeed develops an integrated marketing program specifically built for the mobile age. It brings together Google, Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare and more in one place.
How it's changing adtech: Momentfeed's phenomenal fundraising and convivial corporate culture have made the company one of the fastest-growing startups in Los Angeles.
What they do: Viant streamlines the process for launching exceptional digital marketing campaigns, creating the ability to reach consumers across channels where they are paying the most attention.
How it’s changing adtech: The self-service platform combines programmatic capabilities with automation to seek out and communicate with audiences that become more identifiable through the company’s technology.
What they do: Pathmatics brings a mammoth creative library and remarkable transparency to digital advertisers, allowing clients and industry players to learn from each other's successes.
What they do: Friendbuy is a digital marketing and customer acquisition platform focused on referral programs and email. The company has split-tested and tracked their way to a powerful position on a very competitive landscape.
How it's changing adtech: Despite its cheeky name, Friendbuy takes email marketing seriously and has built a strong reputation and client list in a fairly short time. Customers friendly with Friendbuy include Warby Parker and LA's own Dollar Shave Club, lifestyle brands internationally celebrated for their groundbreaking marketing strategies.
What they do: Scorpion offers a suite of internet marketing products that help businesses reach wider customer bases.
How it's changing adtech: Scorpion’s marketing tools include website design, SEO, social media marketing and reporting analytics, just to name a few. The company has helped thousands of legal, franchise and healthcare firms reach a wider audience with their optimized marketing tools.
What they do: Nativo provides a complete native technology stack to simplify selling, deploying and optimizing native ads across their media properties, creating a non-interruptive experience for their audiences.
How it's changing adtech: Native advertising is fast becoming a preferred method for brands, and the El Segundo company has not only raised over $31 million since launching in 2010 but also launched an office in London to expand its global reach.
What they do: ConsumerTrack provides clients with multiple marketing solutions, helping brands connect with their audiences through in-depth engagement.
How it's changing adtech: In addition to building brand awareness and creating content for other enterprises, ConsumerTrack operates its own websites, GOFreeCredit, GOBankingRates and RewardandTravel.
What they do: Wpromote helps companies grow their market share, and increase their customer lifetime values through their suite of digital marketing tools.
How it's changing adtech: Wpromote helps global brands like Toyota and Verizon enrich their customer’s product knowledge and grow their customer base. The company advises in SEO, email marketing, strategy and paid search media to help businesses get the most out of their marketing campaigns.
What they do: Matchcraft is a marketing platform that allows companies to sell and manage search, display and social campaigns for their advertisements.
How it's changing adtech: Being around for almost 20 years, Matchcraft is a pioneer in local search marketing and can now be found managing campaigns across 42 countries supporting 23 languages.
What they do: Bridg helps retailers and restaurants “bridge the gap” with customers. The platform finds potential loyalty members, drives new online orders, re-engages lapsed customers and discovers first-timers.
How it's changing adtech: According to Bridg, 80% of retailer and restaurant visitors are not signed up for emails or loyalty programs, and the company aims to fix that. Bridg drives sales for well-known restaurants like Chipotle, HuHot, Gordon Biersch, Hungry Howie’s, Rock Bottom and Noodles & Company.
What they do: Pasadena’s Red Ventures connects companies with a wider customer base through a multitude of marketing avenues.
How it's changing adtech: Red Ventures personalizes each adtech experience based on a company’s needs. The company offers services and consultancy in categories such as SEO, data analytics and ecommerce to help businesses draw in more customers and increase profits.
What they do: Building buzz around a brand is difficult. Markett helps brands scale their ambassador programs in order to build awareness and grow customer base.
How it's changing adtech: Influencers are becoming more important to a brand’s image and companies like Airbnb and Fanduel entrust Markett to grow their ambassador programs.
What they do: For more than a decade, Amobee has honed its expertise in display, video, email and social, demonstrating a versatility that makes it highly adaptable in a market that changes by the hour.
How it's changing adtech: As it has matured, Amobee continues to grow and staff up. It prides itself on embracing mobile workers, indicating its strong digital faith — a company that is helping make new rules for advertising is also helping make new rules for work culture.
What they do: Bringhub builds digitally integrated shopping experiences for the always-on era. It spans sectors, from shoes to travel and is noted for its swanky office space.
How it's changing adtech: Bringhub isn't solely about streamlining the checkout process; it aims to turn almost any piece of online content into a point of sale without alienating the ad-skeptical.
What they do: The world's premier mobile-first influencer platform has an office in Beverly Hills. Influential connects brands with the social media powerhouses best positioned to promote.
How it's changing adtech: Sometimes social media marketing is rocket science. Influential uses IBM Watson technology, boasts a network of over 7000 influencers and, after a $5 million Series A round, is living up to its name.
What they do: Zefr provides video technology for some of the biggest content platforms and channels around, ensuring their audience’s interests are aligned with the advertisements delivered to them.
How it's changing adtech: Zefr is part of the strategy for such industry leaders as AMC, Paramount, Universal, "Saturday Night Live," Netflix and Fox, among other globally known companies and organizations.
What they do: Approaching online advertising from a storytelling perspective, Fieldtest has become a powerful player in its space in just a few years. It isn't entirely new as its team built and sold IndieClick Media Group, a strong influence on display ads.
How it's changing adtech: Fieldtest's work brings together two of adtech's most significant trends: high-touch content marketing and high-reach programmatic delivery.
What they do: Vertebrae's native advertising platform matches brands and agencies with virtual reality developers and 360° video creators. With the company's analytics and distribution tools, brands can monetize the use of VR content.
How it's changing adtech: Vertebrae is currently working on a standards and formats guideline for VR advertising, securing its reputation as a leader in the emerging industry.
