A Creative-First Approach To Profitable Social Advertising

Consumer Acquisition was founded in April 2013 by Brian Bowman.

In 2014, we developed an unbeatable creative and bidding process for Facebook & Instagram mobile app advertising.

With an unbeatable process and dissatisfaction with leading Facebook bid management technologies, in 2015 we hired Brian Kanaga (CTO) to build the ideal Facebook advertising platform for mobile app installs.

By 2016, Consumer Acquisition transforms into a social ad technology company with the launch of AdRules.

The AdRules self-service platform offers simple and powerful workflow automation that reduces manual tasks while following Facebook’s best practices. While also operating across desktop and mobile devices.

Consumer Acquisition is selected as a Facebook Marketing Partner with an Ad Technology specialty with an emphasis in the Gaming, Entertainment and Automotive verticals.

Consumer Acquisition earns an Instagram Marketing Partner badge and expands into Facebook’s eCommerce vertical.

January 2017, we announced free access to AdRules Advanced Reporting platform to enhance the capabilities of Facebook’s Ad Manager and Power Editor.
April 2017, we announced a BETA Creative Studio for Facebook Advertising. It helps advertisers drive successful creative at scale. Also, advertisers receive fresh images and videos from our highly-trained editors and designers.

August 2017, we announced the public availability of our creative studio which delivers creative at scale to Facebook and Instagram advertisers. We’ve produced over 150,000 Facebook ads and spent over $200M in Facebook advertising studying what works. In addition, our top advertisers know that maintaining profitable performance with Facebook ads requires a constant refresh of videos and images. And, with a short creative brief, advertisers receive fresh videos and images from our expert editors and designers. Also, they choose which creatives to run and upload to Facebook.

September 2017, we announced the expansion of Ad Copy services within our Creative Studio that delivers creative at scale to Facebook and Instagram advertisers. With today’s news, Consumer Acquisition became the only Facebook Marketing Partner to offer a complete suite of services for advertisers to dynamically source videos, images, and ad copy in our creative studio.

November 2017, we announced that Google UAC become available as a channel in our Creative Studio. For the first time, advertisers can access high-performance videos, images and ad copy from a unified creative studio that engages video editors, designers and ad copywriters for Facebook, Instagram, and Google universal app campaign designs.

February 2018, we enhanced our Creative Studio with access to Shutterstock’s library of over 180 million images and videos. As a result, providing advertisers with fresh content and editing solutions to scale ad creative for Facebook and Google.

March 2018, we announced that Facebook & Google advertisers have received 300,000 videos and images from the Creative Studio. Also, we celebrate with one free 10-second video for all new advertisers, free best practice audit on any Facebook ad account, free access to Shutterstock’s library of over 180 million images and videos and a free whitepaper, “Creative Ideas for Facebook Advertisers.”

April 2018, we hired Mike Merell as our creative director. Mike has 25-years of experience in computer animation, visual effects, and live-action. Prior to joining our team to lead creative, he worked for Disney, Industrial Light & Magic and Warner Bros on such films as Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Atlantis, and Chicken Little, Mickey’s Philharmagic, Planes, Planes 2, Tinkerbell’s ‘The Pirate Fairy’, Gnomeo and Juliet and well as films yet to be released by Disney, Marvel, Fox, Sony, and Prime. Mike will oversee the company’s professional in-house design team and its scalable Creative Studio, which delivers creative videos and images to Facebook and Google advertisers.

August 2018, we became one of Facebook’s Playable Developers helping gaming advertisers manage playable ads. Facebook released three new ad solutions designed to help gaming marketers reach valuable players: playable ads, retention optimization, and minimum return on ad spend (ROAS) bidding.

August 2018,  Inc. Magazine named Consumer Acquisition, 592 on its 2018 annual Inc. 5000 list.  Widely considered the most prestigious honor for private companies, this award puts Consumer Acquisition in rarefied company.  This elite group of companies has included Microsoft, Timberland, Vizio, Intuit, Chobani, Oracle, and Zappos.com.

August 2018, we announced a simplified approach to the creative approval processes with an easy-to-use, Trello-like task manager that gathers and centralizes creative feedback, tasks and action items to unify communications across stakeholders.  Create custom workflows that fit your unique way of getting creative approvals done. and receive real-time updates and alerts to check the status of creative as it moves along the approval process.

December 2018, we announced support for Google UA and reduced the cost of AdRules to 0.07% of media spend with a maximum monthly cap of $15,000.

January 2019, announced we’re now offering Google App Campaign for managed services and expanded our managed services offerings and tiered them for advertisers of all budget sizes.  We also enhanced AdRules with new workflow automation features: AdBuilder Express & Audience Builder Express.  The platform offers the industry’s lowest fees; 60 days free, then 0.7% of spend.

May 2019, announced that is has been awarded a Google Premier Partner Badge; recognizing Consumer Acquisition as a leading social advertising and creative solutions. The Google Partner Program is a highly selective program designed to help customers identify the highest performing and most reliable companies based on their Google App Campaign social advertising and creative needs. A company must meet several requirements in order to qualify as a Google Premier Partner. According to Google, “Achieving Partner status means that your company has demonstrated AdWords skill and expertise, met Google ad spend requirements, delivered company agency and client revenue growth, and sustained and grown its client base.” Premier Partners are held to an even higher standard and must demonstrate expert-level AdWords knowledge and performance in order to achieve this badge.

May 2019, announced during Google I/O’s keynote address as one of eight Google App preferred creative partners. Consumer Acquisition enables advertisers to generate high-performing ad creatives at scale through its in-house Creative Studio for Google App Campaigns (formerly UAC). Additionally, Google announced a new set of machine learning capabilities, ad placements on YouTube, and ad groups within app campaigns.

In August 2019, Inc. revealed that we had made the Inc. 5000 annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America for the second time! One of the most prestigious honors for private companies, this award puts Consumer Acquisition in rarefied company. The elite group has included companies such as Microsoft, Timberland, Vizio, Intuit, Chobani, Oracle, and Patagonia.

In October 2019, Consumer Acquisition was named one of the top 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times

February 2020, Inc. 5000 expanded its annual 5000 list with the launch of a regional spinoff series. The series focuses on five specific states or regions, with lists recognizing its fastest-growing companies. In February, Inc. 5000 named Consumer Acquisition as one of California’s top 250 fastest-growing private companies. Inc. notes the total combined revenues from those businesses rose 168% between 2016 and 2018, resulting in $5.5 billion, and created 26,000 jobs. Consumer Acquisition is ranked in the top 200 with a 2-year growth (2016-2018) of 128%.

July 2020, FREE Facebook creative testing for all creative studio or managed service clients.  You can remove the burden of A/B testing creative from your internal UA team to help them spend more time driving performance. You simply cover the Facebook media fees, and our world-class UA team will manage the media buying of creative split tests for FREE using our proven 3-step methodology.

FREE Mobile App Industry Benchmarks: Ever wonder how your mobile game or app KPIs perform vs industry benchmarks? We’ve released our “Mobile App Industry Benchmarks” to help you see how your performance compares to industry benchmarks. To get full access to all industry benchmarks, please register for a free AdRules account.

FREE Mobile App Competitive Videos: Want to know how your competitors’ ads are performing?  View +1,000,000 video ads from top mobile apps and see which creatives really drive performance.

August 2020, Dustin Engel joined as our new President. Dustin will leverage his experience in e-commerce, branding, travel, entertainment, and programmatic buying to help drive Consumer Acquisition’s next phase of growth. He brings proven experience in M&A, client services, high-growth marketing, and strategy for Fortune 500 brands. Engel most recently served as VP of Corporate Strategy and Development for PMG, an award-winning provider of digital services and technology for Fortune 500 brands across more than 50 countries.

August 2020, Inc. revealed we had made the Inc. 5000 annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America for the third time in a row! One of the most prestigious honors for private companies, this award puts Consumer Acquisition in rarefied company. The elite group has included companies such as Microsoft, Timberland, Vizio, Intuit, Chobani, Oracle, and Patagonia.

October 2020, the San Francisco Business Times named Consumer Acquisition to its annual list of the top 100 fastest-growing private companies in the Bay Area. This is the second consecutive time that Consumer Acquisition has been recognized as a FAST 100 company by the San Francisco Business Times. Companies on the Times’ Fast 100 list represent extraordinary organizations that have shown meteoric growth and potential over the past three years. These businesses also reflect the diversity of industries in the Bay Area – from software and fintech to construction, health care, professional services, and food manufacturing.