Trada raises $5.75 million for its crowdsourced SEM platform

Trada, a crowdsourced SEM (search engine marketing) platform led by Google Ventures and early investor Foundry Group, recently raised $5.75 million. With this platform, freelance search marketers and advertisers find one another to work on advertising campaigns. Trada announced few weeks ago that it raised $5.75 millions from Google Ventures and others. Trada CEO Niel Robertson said the money will be used for important mid-term projects such as expanding into markets outside the US.

Many advertising agencies that can also be seen as Trada’s competition have begun using Trada for several reasons, including:

• Trada doesn’t get any additional fees or markup, which means agencies can keep their margins. In this case, Trada could be called as the wholesaler and agencies are the retailers.

• Trada is willing to develop tools based on agencies requests, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship.

• Trada is now using the traffic from sources that offer the most expensive CPC‘s on the market: Google, Yahoo and Bing. According to CEO Robertson, that’s a method to motivate their marketers to discover the most efficient keywords. With this method, Trada can save about 10% for its clients.

Trada on the other hand focuses on advertisers who have the budget from $5,000 to $50,000 per month for their campaigns. That’s the “middle-class” group of SEM market, and many advertisers belong to that group. Trada also meets the needs of clients who don’t want, or cannot hire people to do their paid SEM. It’s easy to understand why five months ago Trada had only 30 customers, and now has more than 200.

Each campaign on Trada receives an average of 24 search marketers working on, cooperating, or competing with one other. Trada’s clients can trust in its crowdsourced marketing team since the company tests and certifies each member carefully.  Trada also requires third-party certifications to ensure they’re qualified for the jobs. This qualification process means Trada’s marketers aren’t just a bunch of junior marketers with nothing else to do. Some Trada marketers have their own agencies, or are freelancers who enjoy the freedom of working their own schedule.