Kenshoo Strengthens Asia Presence as Global Advertisers Increase Search Spend in China

Global advertisers are investing more in China’s paid search marketing, according to a Kenshoo report that revealed the country’s overall search spend jumped 31 percent in Q4 of 2013, compared with the previous quarter.

The digital marketing technology firm has also been busy hiring sales and account servicing executives across the region in Greater China, Tokyo, Australia, and Southeast Asia based out of Singapore.

Michel van Woudenberg (pictured), managing director for Kenshoo Asia Pacific Japan, joined the tech provider last month from Oracle APAC, where he was vice president of CRM.

He tells ClickZ in a phone interview that there are currently 20 Kenshoo execs in the region and plans to increase head count to 25 this year.

Just last week, the Facebook strategic preferred marketing developer announced it had nabbed Ruud Spierings, former Facebook Asia Pacific client partner for global marketing solutions, as the director of Kenshoo Social to oversee Australia and New Zealand.

In Greater China, Kenshoo hired Stella Cheung, a former Google sales exec, based out of its Hong Kong regional office.

While global advertisers are increasing search ad spend in China to bolster their online presence in the country, gaming companies from China are also investing heavily through Kenshoo to seek online exposure overseas.

Van Woudenberg is coy to name the gaming clients it recently acquired but adds that Kenshoo serves advertisers across other sectors such as travel, e-commerce, retail, finance, and consumer goods across the region.

China’s digital ad market, which surpassed Western Europe to become the second largest digital ad market globally, is forecast to hit $16 billion this year, based on eMarketer’s stats.

And Kenshoo is already reaping some of its digital ad market share, as the tech provider recorded a 16.2 percent year-on-year increase for China’s paid search spend in 2013.

It also helped that Kenshoo connected its platform with Baidu, China’s main search engine, to faciliate campaign management for advertisers and agencies alongside other marketing channels.

Kenshoo’s report, presented in an infographic, showed paid search clicks in China increased 6 percent quarter-on-quarter. The country’s click-through rate was 2.4 percent, which was higher than the global average of 1.9 percent.

Kenshoo’s research is based on paid search spend that’s worth $5 billion across a sample of advertisers and agencies using its platform.