Edinburgh digital marketing firm to accelerate with seven-figure boost

An Edinburgh-based digital marketing consultancy whose clients span 28 countries and include power supplier Aggreko and telecoms giant EE is set to expand after netting seven-figure investment.
Niki McKenzie of Archangels with QueryClick's Chris Liversidge. Picture: contributed.Niki McKenzie of Archangels with QueryClick's Chris Liversidge. Picture: contributed.
Niki McKenzie of Archangels with QueryClick's Chris Liversidge. Picture: contributed.

QueryClick, which aims to transform how effectively advertisers invest in digital marketing, is seeing its growth catalysed by investment of £2 million led by Scottish business angel investment group Archangels in partnership with the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.

QueryClick was founded in 2008 and has 54 staff, who manage more than £1 billion of client spend in 28 countries, and clients also include insurer Vitality. It will use the investment to recruit more analysts and sales staff – and to mount a “significant” marketing effort to accelerate its growth in what it says is a fast-developing sector.

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The consultancy has developed a “unique” machine learning-based attribution offering – enabling marketing software firms to precisely allocate their investments in different marketing channels to ensure the maximum possible return on investment.

The firm said that while attribution services have long been widely available, including from the likes of Google and Adobe, its product Corvidae reveals up to 334 per cent more data for attribution than top competitors, tracking the customer journey across all advertising platforms including TV, newspapers, magazines, out of home and digital.

“This unique level of insight enables Corvidae customers to benefit from increases of as much as 87 per cent in the effectiveness of their digital advertising, whether using other digital marketing services and software from QueryClick’s portfolio or applying Corvidae insights to their in-house digital marketing activities,” QueryClick said.

It also sees the market for Corvidae as “substantial”, with $316bn (£261bn) worldwide forecast to be invested in digital advertising in 2019.

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QueryClick founder and chief executive Chris Liversidge, said that for years, attribution has been digital marketing’s “broken promise”.

He added: “We recognised that the emergence of machine learning offered a new opportunity for our industry to get attribution right for advertisers, who deserve better, and this investment gives us renewed impetus to take our unique solution out to them.”

Niki McKenzie, investment director at Archangels, said the business angel group is optimistic that QueryClick, with the right support, will “prove to be another success story for Scotland in this fast-developing sector”.

SIB director Kerry Sharp said: “This investment will help QueryClick realise the full potential of its unique product offering in a dynamic and fast-growing market.

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"Scottish Enterprise has been working with the company for ten years, from the start-up phase through product innovation and organisational development, so it’s great to see the company expand and create more jobs. We look forward to working further with them on their continued growth journey."