Website Closers® presents a SaaS company that revolutionized the consumer insights industry by offering best-in-class advertising testing and research capabilities in hours rather than months. Its commitment to speed, affordability, and superior quality continually sets them apart from competitors.
The catalyst for the business was the advent of widespread high-speed internet access and streaming services such as YouTube, which paved the way for brands to reach consumers in meaningful new ways. This meant that how marketers advertise and the speed at which creative content must be created changed forever. The owners realized that traditional market research methodologies and companies were quickly becoming antiquated. Slow and expensive market research would not correctly serve marketers in this new environment. As a result, they knew there was a better way and founded the company. It was officially launched within two years of building the technology to rapidly connect millions of consumers to brands within hours and developing a patented live audience emotion-capturing system for advertising diagnostics.
Patented Technologies Several patents are owned for pioneering technologies, including the unique second-by-second commentary and emotional live tracing feature. This offers real-time insights into consumers’ emotional journeys as they engage with multimedia content.
Unique Data Sets Live audience reactions provide a unique data set that helps brands and agencies optimize their messaging. Understanding what triggers positive or negative consumer responses allows clients to fine-tune their ads and maximize ROI.
Data Collection at Scale The company serves as a large-scale data collection source, connecting over 400 million people globally to its survey platform. This positions the business as an attractive acquisition target for AI companies seeking rich, diverse data sets.
Powerful AI Tool The integration of live audience reactions with the option to integrate with computer vision technology allows the team to create unique training sets focusing on any aspect of content. This uncovers deeper insights into human emotional responses, enhancing the predictive capabilities of AI technologies.
Valuable Ad Performance Tracking Beyond testing ads, the platform also tracks consumer feedback and brand performance metrics throughout the lifecycle of the campaigns to know “realworld” results from a brand KPI standpoint such as brand awareness, purchase intent, etc. This dual capability equips clients with comprehensive insights into their advertisement’s life cycle and provides a rich data set for training AI models.
Valuable for AI and Data Analysis Companies The wealth of real-world performance data accumulated would be valuable for potential acquirers, enabling them to develop more sophisticated, accurate, and predictive AI-driven marketing and advertising solutions.
Unmatched Depth of Insights and Data The business’s ability to test ads and track their performance in the real world offers an unmatched depth of insights and data, making it an invaluable partner for companies seeking to advance their AI capabilities.
Revenue is primarily derived from two key offerings, which account for approximately 90%.
Ad and Concept Testing is an essential component. The company provides comprehensive ad testing services, covering various formats such as radio, TV, and banner ads. This offering includes testing ads from concept to postproduction, ensuring clients’ campaigns are optimized for maximum impact.
Brand Tracking Services are equally important. The platform’s brand tracking services monitor performance metrics such as affinity, attributes, and purchase intent over time. These services provide real-time insights on marketing campaign impact and competitor activities, helping clients make informed strategic decisions. The recurring, long-term research contracts associated with brand tracking services contribute to high-profit margins.
Around 70% of contracts are from repeat customers, providing ongoing ad testing and brand tracking services. The remaining 30% are either new or one-off services.
Contracts are billed in various ways. Ongoing software subscriptions are billed annually, while ongoing data collection and tracking services are billed monthly, quarterly, or annually. Depending on the customer, one-off research projects are billed on net 30 to 60- day terms.
The ad-testing business enjoys strong sales throughout the year, exhibiting healthy peaks in demand during spring and fall as companies prepare for holiday campaigns and launch new concepts at the beginning of the year.
Two owners work primarily on the following:
- Sales, Marketing, and Customer Management
- Contracts and Proposals
- Finance and Accounting
- Website Maintenance
- Operations
Additionally, they have a list of trusted vendors for data analysis and report writing. Since 2021 the founders astutely decided to build a network of partners to deliver the professional service side of the business, including reporting and research so that they could focus on technology and software services. This proved to have a significantly positive impact where there is no full-time staff with fluctuating demand on the professional service side. The decision made the company extremely efficient and more scalable. An outsourced vendor is also used to develop software.
