LONDON, January 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Throughout 2010, Criteo, the global leader in pay-per-click (PPC) retargeting, gained worldwide market leadership through innovative advancements to its advertising technology and expanding globally to service over 16 countries across Europe, North America and Asia. With this success and momentum, the company catalysed record-setting e-commerce display advertising conversion rates and revenue.

Globally, Criteo continues to grow as its personalised retargeting technology gains international recognition. Throughout the past year, Criteo served more than 50 billion ads, and experienced a:

- Tripled (3x) client base, to over 1000 top e-commerce clients - 8x increase in ad impressions served - 10x increase in ad clicks - 11x increase in sales generated post-click

In the UK, post-click sales increased by 600 per cent, cementing Criteo's place as market leader in personalised retargeting. Criteo now partners with more than 200 well known UK advertisers who benefit from the advanced technology.

"Major UK media agencies are forecasting for stronger growth in display ad-spend compared to search - with most predicting a 12-13 per cent increase in 2011. A key driver of this has been the re-assessment by advertisers that display can now deliver a performance-based marketing channel with the added benefit of branding. Personalised retargeting has played a significant role in this shift as it affords a fully transparent and accountable channel whilst delivering ROI comparable to search through highly relevant creative. We fully expect this trend to accelerate in 2011." Michael Steckler, MD Northern Europe.

Leadership and Innovation

Throughout 2010, Criteo solidified its industry leadership by announcing its Advisory Board of e-commerce and online advertising veterans, and securing $US7 million Series C round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Additionally, Criteo recently unveiled the Performance Optimisation Platform, which for the first time allowed advertisers and agencies to define and manage their retargeting campaign in real-time, down to the category level. The platform's industry-first self-service CPC management capabilities drive unprecedented ROI via a real-time automated bidding interface and product-specific campaign management. This innovation has enabled Criteo to become the go-to partner for e-commerce merchants that are seeking to cost-effectively win back lost prospects and drive increased loyalty from existing customers.