Google is so powerful that its many company changes echo throughout the entire online marketing industry. Or, at least this is how many of us see the search giant. One thing\’s apparently sure: Google\’s $350 million acquisition of Wildfire, one of the world\’s largest social media management platform, will further amplify the tech powerhouse\’s marketing solutions for thousands of agencies in Canada and the rest of the world.

About Wildfire

Four years ago, Wildfire was Launched by Alain Chuard and Victoria Ransom, and was funded in part by Facebook. Its array of clients include Virgin, Gilt Groupe, Verizon Wireless, Spotify and Amazon. Wildfire helps out these popular Internet services manage their promotions, ads and content across different social networks, including Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. The acquisition\’s terms weren\’t exactly disclosed, but there was a statement from Google\’s Jason Miller in a blog post that said Wildfire is going to be incorporated into Google\’s line of websites and ad management tools like Admeld, DoubleClick and Google Analytics.^[1] What does this all mean? This looks like another one of Google\’s schemes to ensure advertisers keep coming back to Google for their display advertising campaigns, regardless of where they want to place their ads, be it Facebook, Google, etc. The deal isn\’t so surprising if you consider that Google has always strived to be at the front of the line.

What\’s In It For Digital Marketing Agencies?

The online marketing industry is growing at a steady to rapid pace, so much that even most advanced marketing departments are in need of assistance in certain campaigns, according to Rob Eleveld, CEO of Seattle-based B2B inbound marketing software company Optify. Eleveld even expects the amount of online marketing firms to double over the next couple of years. \”But we see it growing much more strongly in the long tail of small digital marketing agencies, those that serve local and metro area clients that are small and mid-size businesses. We see it especially in places like Lincoln, Nebraska or St. Petersburg, Florida, where these businesses are overwhelmed with what to do to gain some online marketing presence, and they don\’t have the resources or knowledge to keep up with the latest trends,\” Eleveld explains. Just like New York City and Chicago, Canadian cities with a sophisticated marketing services landscape (such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) have better capability of keeping up with the speed of digital marketing changes. However, other cities like Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg still have more room for Internet marketing entrepreneurs. According to Marcel LeBrun, the SVP of Salesforce Radian6, \”Social media has caused the biggest transformation in marketing since the Mad Men era, causing CMOs to completely re-think their strategies. By bringing together market leaders Radian6 and Buddy Media, we are doubling down on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud to provide CMOs with the ability to manage the entire social marketing lifecycle.” On the other hand, there still remains a number of social media doubters, even in Toronto. A handful of executives wonder what social networking can bring to the table. Eleveld believes these doubters are turning into believers, however. After all, digital marketing has evolved over the last five years and a vast majority of the market has joined the trend.   Notes:

1. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/sparking-better-conversation-with.html.html

Reference sources: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/number-of-digital-marketing-agencies-in-canada-set-to-double-2012-08-21 http://mashable.com/2012/07/31/google-acquires-wildfire/