Digital marketing agency Spike has been appointed by leading online classified platform, Gumtree, to help manage and grow their paid search campaigns.
Established as the UK’s first free site for classified ads, Gumtree’s users can buy and sell items, cars, and properties, as well as find jobs, through free local listings on the platform.
Founded in 2000 to create a community where users can find anything they need when moving to a new place, Gumtree has remained one of the UK’s largest online classified sites, reaching 400m sessions a year.
Spike will support Gumtree’s ambitious plans to scale with data insight, audience building, ad copy, and channel optimisation, to help improve performance at a brand and campaign level.
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Specialising in growth marketing and digital strategy, the agency plans to integrate the team’s expertise with search data and AI-driven insights to optimise ad performance and accelerate growth, working towards an exciting new direction of Agentic AI in Paid media optimisation.
Following a competitive pitching process, Spike was selected because of its experience in classified ads websites, in particular its automotive experience, which is a key vertical for Gumtree.
Recently appointed by Bauer Media, Spike has also worked with companies including Stagecoach, Travelodge, Leeds Rhinos and Quickline.
Rob Powell, co-founder and director at Spike (pictured), said: “The team at Spike is incredibly enthusiastic about this project. We’re looking forward to uncovering all of the opportunities and taking paid search in an exciting new direction for such a key player in the classified ads space, with an aligned vision for growth trajectory.”
“The upward trend of Paid Media in recent years is now counterweighted for increasing demand in accurate marketing measurement, which is a key driver for our team. We’re always stretching ourselves further to stay at the cutting edge of the constant change and newest technologies at Spike. This is a fantastic opportunity to take a fresh approach to paid search informed by AI insights to consolidate Gumtree’s position as the leading classified ads platform in the UK.”
Kim Faura, chief consumer officer at Gumtree, added: “As well as leaning on their extensive expertise in the automotive and classified ads sector, Spike stood out with their approach to utilising AI with proprietary tools to get insights and recommendations for maximising search ad performance. With ambitious plans for the year, it’s an exciting time at Gumtree, and we’re looking forward to seeing the growth and impactful results we can achieve with Spike.”
