Criteo takes on the big guys with new cross screen product

It will work using an advertiser-provided ID across every session the user visits the website to aggregate information about products they viewed.

 “This is a very compelling product for most CMOs because of the nature of multi-screen usage,” said Jason Morse, VP, mobile products for Criteo. “Our goal is to reach the users that advertisers are targeting, more often and on the media they are viewing while ultimately increasing sales.”

Facebook and Yahoo have been doing this for some time now using login identities for owned properties, but Criteo promises to make its tool available across RTB and first party sites.

According to Morse, the new tool gives advertisers a richer understanding of the product that the user is interested in, while allowing it to serve personalised and targeted advertisements back to each of the screens.

Morse who has spent six months developing the product says the cross-device capability has the potential to be a core product. “This is a foundation product for how consumers are using media,” he said.

The company has been testing the product with select advertisers including Vertbaudet, Defacto, Cykelpartner, Stayhard, FC Motoover and Reifendiscount over the past couple months. “We still have some work to do and it will be an ongoing project for the next several quarters.”

With its exploding ecommerce market, Asia presents a significant growth opportunity for the company. According to eMarketer estimates, market size of ecommerce in Asia will surpass North America this year and be equivalent to both North America and Western Europe by 2017.

Globally and in the region the company is focused on mobile, which accounted for 15 per cent of its total revenue at the end of March. In Japan this figure is at a lofty 26 per cent. Mobile for Criteo consists of retargeting on mobile websites and in applications.

Morse who didn’t predict any growth numbers said he “hoped for some results” in the first half of 2015, given early interest in the product.

“The biggest challenge we’re seeing is that advertisers are expecting to get immediate results and products like this take time to grow,” Morse pointed out.