ReachLocal

History

ReachLocal was founded in 2003 by Zorik Gordon, Nathan Hanks, Michael Kline, Robert Wright, and Robert “Rick” Spitz, with headquarters in Woodland Hills, California and operations in four global regions.

ReachLocal has over 1,300 employees across 68 offices located in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Austria, India, Belgium, and Japan. As of February 2016, the company has more than 17,000 active clients. ReachLocal operated in the United Kingdom until December 2015 when they entered Administration. Fat Media purchased the UK assets, customer contracts and goodwill from ReachLocal UK Ltd.

ReachLocal’s first product was a search engine advertising service called ReachSearch. This technology places businesses’ advertisements on multiple search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and Bing. ReachLocal has since introduced a range of digital marketing products, including ReachEdge, its award-winning lead conversion software.

In 2010, ReachLocal launched its initial public offering (IPO). Before the company’s IPO, ReachLocal was venture-backed by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Rho Ventures and Galleon Special Opportunities Partners Fund LP.

In April 2014, ReachLocal appointed B2B and information services veteran leader Sharon Rowlands as Chief Executive Officer and member of its board of directors, replacing interim CEO David Carlick.

In June 2016, the company was acquired by Gannett Co. for about $156 million.

Services

In addition to search engine marketing, ReachLocal provides other online marketing solutions for their clients. In 2005, the company launched ReachSearch, a search engine advertising product designed to attract more leads from consumers. The product achieves this by placing text advertisements on leading search engines and directories.

In 2009, ReachLocal introduced ReachDisplay, an online display advertising service that places banner advertisements on premium websites. The following year, the company built ReachCast, a web marketing service, and launched a site retargeting product called ReachRemarketing in 2011.

ReachRetargeting was launched in 2012 and combined the site retargeting technology of ReachRemarketing with a new feature set that also included search retargeting. This was followed by the launch of award-winning website and lead management system ReachEdge in 2013. Within six months, ReachEdge had launched over 1000 client websites. In 2014, ReachLocal introduced a search engine optimization service, ReachSEO. In 2015, ReachLocal launched ReachListings, a local listings management solution. In 2016, ReachLocal launched ReachSocial Ads, a Facebook advertising solution, and enhanced their SEO solution, ReachSEO.

Technology

ReachLocal has developed a proprietary technology platform to serve their customers. The company has also developed various technologies to assist their clients in publishing their campaigns and tracking, optimizing and reporting results for a variety of their services. In September 2012, the company released the first ReachLocal mobile application, which provides real-time lead notifications and reports to their clients, followed by the ReachEdge app in 2013. Both applications are available for Apple iOS and Android.

ReachEdge, the company’s marketing automation platform released in 2013, provides clients with a list of leads, sources, actions needed, performance and reports. The platform consists of a website, lead management software and the aforementioned mobile application.

In February 2014, ReachLocal released LigerMobile, an open source framework that assists in the development of hybrid apps.

Awards

In 2009, Inc. Magazine ranked ReachLocal number 39 on its Inc. 500 list, and was named on the list for a second time in 2010.

Search Engine Watch named ReachLocal as a finalist for “Best Search Engine Marketing Technology Platform for Small- to Medium-Sized Businesses” in 2009. paidContent also named the company in its “Most Successful Digital Media Companies in the United States” list in the same year.

The American Business Awards selected the company as a “Most Innovative Company of the Year” finalist in 2009 and 2010.

In 2009, ReachLocal was ranked number one on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list. The company also featured on the list in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

In 2010, ReachLocal won a Mashable Award for “Best Social Media Service for Small Businesses.”

Glassdoor selected ReachLocal as one of its 50 Best Places to Work in 2012.

ReachLocal is a Premier SMB Partner with Google and was awarded Google’s 2013 North America Premier SMB Partner Award for “Best Quality Accounts” in 2013 and “Quality Score Champion” in 2015 for having the highest average AdWords Quality Score during the judging period. In 2015, ReachEdge also won Google’s North America Innovator Award.

Reach Local Australia & New Zealand won three awards in 2014 from Google: Best Quality AdWords Accounts, Highest AdWords Account Performance Satisfaction, and the Innovation Award. ReachLocal Australia & New Zealand won three awards from Google in 2015: Best Quality AdWords Accounts, Highest AdWords Account Performance Satisfaction, and AdWords Customer Service Satisfaction.

ReachLocal Latin America was awarded Google’s “Quality Score Champion” in 2015.