Matchcraft

Matchcraft was founded in 1998 by two visionary entrepreneurs who identified a fundamental challenge in the advertising market: matching buyers with sellers at scale. The core insight was elegant—small businesses needed help reaching customers across multiple advertising platforms, but the fragmentation of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Facebook made this nearly impossible without expert guidance. The company built its foundation on this "craft" of matching, developing deep domain expertise that would sustain it for two decades.

The two original founders built Matchcraft around a powerful operating model: instead of selling directly to small businesses (which would churn), they built a reseller network. This "channel-based wholesale" model became their moat. By focusing on premier partnerships—particularly with Google as a premier partner—they aligned their incentives with platforms that mattered. The company developed proprietary taxonomy, keyword libraries, and crucially, auto-generated ad copy in 23 languages. This allowed resellers to serve local businesses without needing specialized expertise.

Matcraft's breakthrough came through strategic partnerships, particularly with media companies. In 2014, Advanced Publications Inc. (owner of Condé Nast magazines including Vogue, Glamour, The New Yorker, plus Advanced Local with 50M+ monthly unique visitors) conducted a competitive "bake-off" after being nervous about offering search solutions due to known high churn. Matchcraft won decisively, leading to acquisition by Advanced Local. This validation from a major media company with extensive sales teams sealed their credibility in the market.

The reseller model proved far superior to direct-to-business sales. With over 6,000 sales reps globally across their reseller network and presence in 43 countries supporting 23 languages, Matchcraft avoided the churn that plagued direct models. Their revenue split reveals what worked: 70% managed services (where Matchcraft actively manages campaigns) at 12-17% of media spend, and 30% SaaS (self-service with their taxonomy and ad copy tools) at up to 7% of spend. The secret sauce—extensive keyword taxonomy, battle-tested ad copy, and platform expertise—created genuine defensibility.

Under CEO Sandy Lowe, who joined in 2016 after evaluating Matchcraft from the client side at Advanced Local, the company has scaled dramatically. With nearly 100 employees spread across Santa Monica, the Netherlands, India, Spain, Sweden, and Brazil, Matchcraft has processed over $100M in total media spend through its platform. Most impressively, the company consistently grows at 2x the industry rate (which itself was growing 12-20% in 2016), all while remaining privately held and debt-free. The original two founders still lead the development team, maintaining technical vision while Sandy runs operations, sales, and growth. This combination—20 years of domain expertise, a proven channel model, and aggressive 2x industry growth—positions Matchcraft as a top-two player in ad tech for local businesses.