Skai’s 18 Years of Paid Search Innovation and Milestone Capabilities

Skai (known as Kenshoo for our first 14 years) recently celebrated 18 years as a leading search engine marketing platform. Throughout that time, we have learned a lot and continuously innovated by listening to our clients’ needs. Our goal has always been to add value beyond the native search publisher functionalities to keep our customers on the cutting edge of SEM.

As the years have passed, we have expanded our capabilities beyond paid search. We added paid social in 2010, app marketing in 2016, and retail media in 2017. We applied everything we learned about paid search to these new tools and even found ways to integrate what we built for those other channels into our paid search solution.

The true value of Skai today has grown beyond SEM bid management software. Today, marketers can leverage Skai’s omnichannel platform to create a cohesive strategy across various digital channels, maximizing ROI through data-driven insights and advanced optimization techniques.

Skai’s milestone SEM capabilities

Because our teams are always on a mission to add more pieces, we don’t often stop and reflect on our success. However, seeing this list of our paid search capabilities in their totality was somewhat impressive for us. And what you’ll see below is not even every capability we offer!

While some of these might seem foundational and should be in all modern paid search platforms, many were groundbreaking at the time. For example, our pioneering algorithmic bidding optimization predates Google Smart Bidding. Skai-first innovations like custom metrics, Budget Navigator, and portfolio bidding were cutting-edge in their eras.

Please schedule a brief demo with our team if you want to learn more about these innovative capabilities or see them in action.

• Search term analysis. Analyze search terms with AI to identify opportunities and refine keyword strategies, eliminate wasted spend, improve program efficiency, and drive higher engagement and better ROI. (read Take Back Control of Broad Match with Skai’s Search Term Analysis for more info)
• Automated actions. Streamline campaign management with automated actions that execute based on predefined criteria, improving efficiency and effectiveness. (Read more: Make Your Workflows Work for You with Skai’s Advanced Automated Actions).
• AI-crafted headlines. Automatically generate engaging headlines using AI to improve ad performance and click-through rates. (Read more: AI-Powered Headlines That Write Themselves)
• Destination optimization. Skai’s Destination Optimization uses AI to analyze customer journeys and optimize ad placements, directing each customer to the most relevant destination to improve conversion rates and enhance overall campaign performance. (Learn how Domain used Skai to lower costs and increase ROI).
• Signal enhancement. Enhance campaign signals to improve targeting, performance, and publisher bidding algorithms by leveraging data insights to optimize ad delivery and engagement. (Learn how Toolstation achieved a 168% lift in ROI with Skai’s Signal Enhancement).
• AI-powered recommendations. Use AI to generate recommendations for optimizing campaigns and improving performance, leveraging data insights for better decision-making.
• Campaign mirroring. Mirror campaigns across different platforms to maintain consistency and streamline management, ensuring cohesive multi-channel strategies. For example, create a mirror of your Google campaigns on Microsoft and you’ll only need to make changes in Google to manage them both. (Learn more about Skai campaign mirroring).
• Advanced keyword management. Skai offers sophisticated keyword management tools that allow marketers to target the most relevant search terms and optimize their campaigns effectively, driving higher engagement and better ROI. (Learn how WeddingWire used Skai to drive a notable increase in leads).
• Algorithmic bidding. Skai’s algorithmic bidding leverages advanced algorithms to automate and optimize bid strategies, ensuring optimal spend and performance for maximum returns. (Read more: How to Use AI For Marketing).
• Bid multipliers. This feature allows marketers to apply bid adjustments based on factors such as device, location, and time of day, enhancing bid precision and efficiency to reach the right audience at the right time. (Learn how XP Investments used Skai’s bid multipliers to reach the most valuable customers).
• Custom metrics. Create and track custom performance metrics that align with specific business goals and KPIs, providing tailored insights for more effective campaign management. (Learn how Strocko Consulting leveraged custom metrics to boost a FinServ client’s conversion rate by 67%).
• Dayparting. Schedule ads to run at specific times of the day or week to maximize their effectiveness and reach the target audience when they are most likely to convert. (Learn how Skai’s dayparting limited branded keyword spend and lifted ROI).
• Dimensions & categories. Organize and categorize campaigns for better management and reporting, allowing for more streamlined and efficient campaign oversight.
• Portfolio optimization with machine learning. Use machine learning to optimize entire campaign portfolios for better overall performance, ensuring resources are allocated to the highest-performing strategies. (Learn more about Skai portfolio optimization here).
• Publisher bidding enhancement. Enhance bidding strategies with publisher-specific tools and insights, improving campaign performance by leveraging platform-specific advantages.
• Rule-based automation. Automate campaign management tasks with customizable rules and triggers, saving time and reducing manual effort for more strategic focus.
• Smart bidding enhancements. Advanced smart bidding features leverage machine learning for optimal bid adjustments, ensuring campaigns always perform at their best.
• URL automation. Automate the creation and management of tracking URLs to ensure accurate attribution and reporting and simplify campaign tracking and analysis.
• Budget Navigator. Skai’s Budget Navigator helps marketers efficiently allocate and manage their budgets across multiple campaigns, providing real-time insights and recommendations for maximizing ROI. (Learn how FH Health pivoted spend and optimized budget allocation with Skai).
• Automated alerts. Receive real-time alerts on campaign performance to take immediate action when needed, ensuring campaigns stay on track.
• Bulk actions. Perform bulk actions across multiple campaigns and ad groups to save time and increase efficiency, allowing for quick adjustments at scale
• Incrementality measurement. Measure the incremental impact of your campaigns to understand their true effectiveness, enabling better budget allocation and strategy adjustments. (Learn how Fjällräven boosted new ad revenue using Skai’s incrementality solution). (Read more: The 4 Ingredients of a Best-in-Class Incrementality Measurement Practice).
• Inventory-aware campaigns. Automatically adjust campaigns based on inventory levels to ensure ads are always relevant and timely, improving customer experience and sales efficiency.
• Negative keyword management. Efficiently manage negative keywords to avoid unwanted traffic and improve campaign performance, ensuring ad spend is directed toward high-value audiences.
• Predictive analytics for campaign performance. Skai’s predictive analytics uses historical data and advanced modeling techniques to forecast future campaign performance, enabling marketers to proactively adjust their strategies to maximize ROI. (Read more: How to Use AI For Marketing).
• Cross-channel attribution. Understand the impact of your campaigns across multiple channels to allocate budget more effectively and optimize overall marketing performance.
• Detailed reporting and analytics. Comprehensive reporting and analytics tools to track key performance metrics and gain valuable insights into campaign performance, driving data-driven decision-making.
• Experiments for campaign testing and optimization. Run experiments to test different strategies and optimize campaigns based on data-driven results, improving overall marketing effectiveness. (Read more about Data-Driven Decision Making: Better Marketing Through Experiments).
• Google Ads keyword match type optimization. Optimize keyword match types in Google Ads to improve targeting and efficiency, and ensure ads are shown to the most relevant audiences.
• Market intelligence integration. Integrate market intelligence data to stay ahead of industry trends and competitor activities, enhancing strategic planning and execution.
• Real-time data integration. Integrate real-time data to make timely adjustments and optimize campaign performance, ensuring strategies remain responsive and effective.
• Audience segmentation and targeting. Skai’s audience segmentation and targeting tools enable marketers to create highly targeted campaigns, delivering personalized and relevant ads that resonate with their target audience. (Learn how Kids Help Phone improved targeting and engagement with Skai).
• Responsive search ads (RSAs). Manage responsive search ads to dynamically adjust ad content based on user queries, enhancing ad relevance and performance. (Learn how a major retailer grew search advertising revenue with Skai).
• Smart tags. Automatically label campaigns with relevant metadata for better organization and reporting, simplifying campaign management. (Read more about Skai smart tags).
• Targeting. Implement advanced targeting strategies to reach the most relevant audience segments and improve ad effectiveness.
• Seamless integration with other platforms. Skai’s seamless integration capabilities ensure you can connect and synchronize data across various marketing platforms, enabling unified campaign management and efficient workflows. (Learn how Empower closed the loop between search and Amazon with Skai).
• Amazon attribution for search & social. Connect search and social campaigns with Amazon sales data to measure the full impact of your marketing efforts, providing a comprehensive view of campaign performance. (Learn how a Fortune 50 Consumer Electronics Brand increased Amazon advertising conversions by 467%).
• Cross-publisher dashboards. Use cross-publisher dashboards to gain a holistic view of your campaign performance across different platforms, enabling better strategic planning.
• Customizable reporting templates. Use customizable reporting templates to generate reports that meet specific business needs, providing tailored insights for stakeholders.

It takes a village…

18 amazing years, and it’s all thanks to the collective effort of several key groups:

1. Customers. Your trust in our technology to manage your marketing investments is the foundation of our success. Your invaluable feedback is the driving force behind our continuous innovation and improvement.
2. Publishers partners. You are the visionaries who set the tone for the future of digital media. Your foresight shapes the landscape in which we operate.
3. Tech partners. Thanks to your collaboration, we have been able to enhance our omnichannel platform with robust capabilities, offering our customers a richer experience.
4. Customer success team: Your dedication ensures our customers can efficiently maximize their performance. Your expertise and support are vital to our clients’ success.
5. Product Team: You are the architects behind everything we offer. Your skill in building innovative and effective solutions enables us to meet and exceed our goals.

Each group plays a pivotal role in our journey, and your contributions are deeply appreciated.

We continue to innovate rapidly to remain the industry’s leading paid search and omnichannel solution. With each new feature and capability, we aim to empower marketers to achieve greater efficiency, effectiveness, and success in their campaigns. Here’s to many more years of partnership and growth together.

Paid Search

Skai’s Paid Search solution helps you stay ahead of your competition and reach consumers when and where they’re searching. Our advanced optimization and reporting are coupled with automated solutions, including tools for bidding and budgeting, and much more. As part of our omnichannel platform, connect the walled gardens and manage campaigns on all the top publishers across retail media, paid social, and app marketing. 

Client results include:

• 756% increase in conversions for New York Magazine
• 168% increase in year-over-year ROI for Toolstation
• 20% decrease in cost per acquisition for Endurance
• 150% increase in ROAS for Michaels Company

For more information or to see our capabilities for yourself, please schedule a brief demo with our team.