Founded in June 2010, India-based start-up Twtbuck, is a do-it-yourself performance-based social media advertising platform for advertisers.
Advertisers can create Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn marketing campaigns on Twtbuck.
The campaigns are tailored according to their needs such as geographical location targeting, category targeting, maximum cost per click and ad copy.
It saves advertisers the hassle of having to go to each individual platform to manage their campaigns. It also saves the trouble of having to find digital influencers to help spread the words. At Twtbuck, it is a one-stop-shop for social media advertising. Campaigns can even go live within few minutes after customization.
“We work with a number of advertising agencies to help them with customized social media campaigns, providing 50,000-100,000 clicks a month for their clients,” explained Gaurav Sharma, CEO and founder of Twtbuck.
The task can’t be completed without publishers such as influential bloggers and Twitter users. Publishers have to simply register with Twtbuck and start spreading the available ads on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google Buzz to earn revenue based on a per click rate.
“We give our publishers 50% cut from advertisers’ spending, 3% goes to payment gateway, 5% goes to affiliates (users referring publishers/advertisers). So our gross margin comes around 42%-47% . The business is profitable since January 2011. And going by our recent partnerships and campaign orders, we are eyeing a monthly revenue of $20,000 for month of June,” said Sharma, when asked about his business model.
Sharma also revealed that Twtbuck currently serves 416 advertisers, 21,000+ publishers and four agencies/ad networks.
From Banker to Entrepreneur
Twtbuck started as an experiment. During April last year, Sharma was testing this concept on his own blog and websites. Surprisingly it produced amazing results. And the results got better even when he was busy with his full time job at an investment bank. The positive results gave Sharma confidence to leave his high paying job and move full time to Twtbuck.
“The increasing cost-per-click rates on Google, Facebook, and Linkedin and lack of advertising options on Twitter inspired us to create Twtbuck,” explained Sharma.
Sharma now spearheads the Twtbuck team together with four engineers and two sales people. The team is currently based in Delhi, India and Sharma said that he will be traveling to Singapore this June to explore opportunities to start a sales office in Singapore.
It has been a period of growth and profitability and naturally, investors are eager to invest in the start-up.
“We were very close to signing a deal with an investor in December 2010 but the term sheet conditions were not suitable hence didn’t go for funding at that stage. And at the present, we are in talks with four Venture Capital funds and 2 angels [investors] and will be finalizing our investor by the end of July,” said Sharma.
Investing in Twtbuck looks like an attractive deal. Let’s see if Twtbuck can keep up with its current growth rate and attain success if it expands to Singapore.
