Smartly.io Acquires Ad-Lib.io to Expand Creative Technology Across Channels

Smartly.io, the leading social advertising SaaS platform for creative and performance marketers, today announced the acquisition of Ad-Lib.io, the next-generation creative optimization platform. Continuing its strong growth trajectory, the acquisition advances Smartly.io’s cross-channel reach from social to now include dynamic creative optimization across programmatic, CTV and the entire Google ecosystem.

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“These teams are currently using multiple technologies or software partners, but going forward they won’t have to. The Smartly.io and Ad-Lib.io solution will provide the connective tissue to maximize creative effectiveness, media buying and creative intelligence.”

With the acquisition, Smartly.io’s SaaS solution for social advertising will now be augmented by Ad-Lib.io’s enterprise suite of creative tools for YouTube, DV360 and Google Ads campaigns. The industry is seeing a growing demand for solutions that bring creative and media closer together across all channels.

“The past two years have proven that creative technology has become the most important lever for driving digital advertising performance,” said Kristo Ovaska, CEO and co-founder, Smartly.io. “Ad-Lib.io is a clear leader in the creative space by innovating on the mission-critical dimensions of workflow, automation, brand governance, personalization and insight. Their knowledge of the Google stack is unmatched in the industry and combining that with Smartly.io’s deep understanding of Facebook and the social stack across creative, media and data allows us to now serve customers across all major digital channels.”

Ad-Lib.io is a Google Certified Creative partner and currently works with 10 of the top 30 global advertisers. Smartly.io partners with all major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok and works with more than 700 major advertisers globally.

“Smartly.io is the preeminent leader in delivering creative and media effectiveness for social,” said Oli Marlow-Thomas, founder and president, Ad-Lib.io. “With brand marketers and agencies increasingly uniting their social and programmatic teams into integrated digital creative and media investment teams, this is a natural next step for both companies.”

Ad-Lib.io CEO, Adit Abhyankar, added, “These teams are currently using multiple technologies or software partners, but going forward they won’t have to. The Smartly.io and Ad-Lib.io solution will provide the connective tissue to maximize creative effectiveness, media buying and creative intelligence.”

Smartly.io & Ad-Lib.io customers are excited about the benefits of this combination:

• Dean Weaving, head of display, video and paid social for Deliveroo is a supporter of the combined entities. “Both Ad-Lib.io and Smartly.io have enabled the developing partnerships between our creative and media teams. This has massively simplified the way our teams work. And with this merger, it only gets better, as we look to unify our advertising relevance across channels.”

• “Ad-Lib.io has been a fantastic partner of ours for the last four years while we have been focused on branding activity,” said Steve Pollack, head of Media Communication, Nestle. “This partnership will help Nestle extend to more ‘always-on’ and eCommerce-related activity. We see it as a natural fit and are excited by what the Ad-Lib.io and Smartly.io journey will mean for brands seeking relevant and consistent relationships with their customers in the digital advertising arena.”

Over the coming months, the Smartly.io and Ad-Lib.io teams will continue to build a robust stack of creative digital optimization tools to help advertisers gain unparalleled relevance and reach in the constantly changing digital advertising landscape.

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