Business

Speqta CEO Fredrik Lindros Teaches Us How to Say No to Black Box Bidding on PLAs with Their New AI-Based Bid-Optimization Tool Bidbrain™

Published

3 years ago

January 14, 2021

Stand out from the crowd by investing in Speqta’s new SaaS tool, Bidbrain™! An AI-based solution for Google Shopping ads that specializes in bid optimization. Developed specifically for the e-commerce industry and dedicated to getting you ahead of the competition by optimizing your Product List Ads (PLAs.)

In the interview below with Speqta’s CEO, Fredrik Lindros, learn more about this smart new tool and how you can bid more confidently and feel more secure about your businesses’ growth.

Please tell us something that not everyone knows about yourself!

Fredrik Lindros: I’ve always been personally driven by innovation and change, obsessed as I was over sci-fi shows like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, both of which instilled upon me an acceptance and an inclination towards new technology and innovation. .

As for my passion for being equally strategic and creative, I have my time as a magician to thank for that. Unorthodox, yes! But I did, in fact, work as a professional magician some time ago. And, after working odd gigs at kindergartens, company gatherings, and various other stages, I developed skills that would later show itself in my business work as a talent for presentation, communication, and marketing.

And how do you usually start your days? (Are you a proactive or reactive type?)

Fredrik Lindros: I would say that I am a bit of both. I have a very particular schedule that I follow to the ‘T’ most days as a result of my waking habits. But, I’m flexible enough that I can deal with the unexpected when they come.

More specifically, every day, I wake up while the rest of my family is still asleep. Usually in the time between 4 AM and 5 AM. I start things off with a cup of coffee and then work entirely at home until it’s time to go to the office to catch up with whoever is there for the day — we’ve done a lot of juggling to account for the global pandemic, but the work must go on.

The rest of the workday is spent hosting meetings, regularly communicating with others through email or Slack, and just working as efficiently as possible so that I can go back home and spend time with my children before the day ends and the routine starts anew.

Please introduce Bidbrain™! What is it? And, how can we use it?

Fredrik Lindros: In short. Bidbrain™ is a SaaS solution outfitted with both artificial intelligence and machine learning. We at Speqta developed it for the e-commerce industry to use for optimizing bids for Google Shopping Ads.

How would you say Bidbrain™ compares to manually bidding on PLAs?

Fredrik Lindros: E-retailers that show a preference over manual rule-based bidding on Google PLAs usually prize control over their bidding strategies. After all, at least then, they won’t have to suffer through Google’s automated black-box bidding strategies.

However, the main issue with manually bidding on PLAs, at least, when compared to BidBrain™, is that it just cannot beat the kind of results that you can achieve with an AI-based system. There’s no question there. Bidbrain not only optimizes your bidding strategies to receive the best outcomes, but it is also capable of product feed optimization in order to increase the quality score of your PLAs. Furthermore, all you need to do to keep it working is to continue feeding it data in order to fuel its intelligence.

I know that there are many e-retailers out there that are reluctant to use new technology like this. But, there’s no denying that compared to those who work manually, those who use AI-based optimization tools like Bidbrain, in the long-run, will always win over their competition.That’s just how technology advances.

How about those e-retailers that already use the automated bidding tools provided by Google? What kind of benefits would Bidbrain™ offer to them?

Fredrik Lindros: One thing that we addressed during the creation of Bidbrain is transparency. Many online retailers that use Google’s own tools can never be fully confident that the program is working for them at 100%. In fact, if you dissect the bids made by Google’s Target-ROAS or Smart Shopping, you’ll find that they are extremely high CPC-bids worth around 30-50 Euros each that result in very few conversions.

As a retailer, it’s just hard to feel secure with such black box bidding methods. Which is where Bidbrain™ comes in. Unlike Google’s tools, Bidbrain was designed to reveal all data. So, e-retailers will always know where their bids are going, and they can rest easy knowing that the AI is 100% on their side. All while enjoying the extra functionalities provided by our sophisticated product feed optimization tools, the helpful insights given for future campaigns, and so on.

What advice would you give to fellow business owners looking to release their own products?

Fredrik Lindros: Bidbrain™ was only developed to be as dynamic and as insightful as it is today with communication. And so, my advice to fellow business owners is simple: communicate. Talk to your team, talk to your key customers, just talk.

As a team, we got to know exactly what our customers were looking for and why they were looking for certain things. And this would not have been possible if our work environment had not been conducive to open dialogue. A significant portion of the developmental process of our service also involved just talking directly with our customers. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that these key customers more or less designed Bidbrain together with us. So, the more open you are to understanding the opinions of others, the better.

Business

Turning Tragedy into Triumph Through Walking With Anthony

Published

2 weeks ago

April 18, 2024

Rosario Farell

On the morning of February 6, 2010, Anthony Purcell took a moment to admire the churning surf before plunging into the waves off Miami Beach. Though he had made the dive numerous times before, that morning was destined to be different when he crashed into a hidden sandbar, sustaining bruises to his C5 and C6 vertebrae and breaking his neck.

“I was completely submerged and unable to rise to the surface,” Purcell recalls. “Fortunately, my cousin Bernie saw what was happening and came to my rescue. He saved my life, but things would never be the same after that dive.”

Like thousands of others who are confronted with a spinal cord injury (SCI), Purcell plunged headlong into long months of hopelessness and despair. Eventually, however, he learned to turn personal tragedy into triumph as he reached out to fellow SCI victims by launching Walking With Anthony.

Living with SCI: the first dark days

Initial rehabilitation for those with SCIs takes an average of three to six months, during which time they must relearn hundreds of fundamental skills and adjust to what feels like an entirely new body. Unfortunately, after 21 days, Purcell’s insurance stopped paying for this essential treatment, even though he had made only minimal improvement in such a short time.

“Insurance companies cover rehab costs for people with back injuries, but not for people with spinal cord injuries,” explains Purcell. “We were practically thrown to the curb. At that time, I was so immobile that I couldn’t even raise my arms to feed myself.”

Instead of giving up, Purcell’s mother chose to battle his SCI with long-term rehab. She enrolled Purcell in Project Walk, a rehabilitation facility located in Carlsbad, California, but one that came with an annual cost of over $100,000.

“My parents paid for rehabilitation treatment for over three years,” says Purcell. “Throughout that time, they taught me the importance of patience, compassion, and unconditional love.”

Yet despite his family’s support, Purcell still struggled. “Those were dark days when I couldn’t bring myself to accept the bleak prognosis ahead of me,” he says. “I faced life in a wheelchair and the never-ending struggle for healthcare access, coverage, and advocacy. I hit my share of low points, and there were times when I seriously contemplated giving up on life altogether.”

Purcell finds a new purpose in helping others with SCIs

After long months of depression and self-doubt, Purcell’s mother determined it was time for her son to find purpose beyond rehabilitation.

“My mom suggested I start Walking With Anthony to show people with spinal cord injuries that they were not alone,” Purcell remarks. “When I began to focus on other people besides myself, I realized that people all around the world with spinal cord injuries were suffering because of restrictions on coverage and healthcare access. The question that plagued me most was, ‘What about the people with spinal cord injuries who cannot afford the cost of rehabilitation?’ I had no idea how they were managing.”

Purcell and his mother knew they wanted to make a difference for other people with SCIs, starting with the creation of grants to help cover essentials like assistive technology and emergency finances. To date, they have helped over 100 SCI patients get back on their feet after suffering a similar life-altering accident.

Purcell demonstrates the power and necessity of rehab for people with SCIs

After targeted rehab, Purcell’s physical and mental health improved drastically. Today, he is able to care for himself, drive his own car, and has even returned to work.

“Thanks to my family’s financial and emotional support, I am making amazing physical improvement,” Purcell comments. “I mustered the strength to rebuild my life and even found the nerve to message Karen, a high school classmate I’d always had a thing for. We reconnected, our friendship evolved into love, and we tied the knot in 2017.”

After all that, Purcell found the drive to push toward one further personal triumph. He married but did not believe a family was in his future. Regardless of his remarkable progress, physicians told him biological children were not an option.

Despite being paralyzed from the chest down, Purcell continued to look for hope. Finally, Dr. Jesse Mills of UCLA Health’s Male Reproductive Medicine department assured Purcell and his wife that the right medical care and in vitro fertilization could make their dream of becoming parents a reality.

“Payton joined our family in the spring of 2023,” Purcell reports. “For so long, I believed my spinal cord injury had taken everything I cared about, but now I am grateful every day. I work to help other people with spinal cord injuries find the same joy and hope. We provide them with access to specialists, funding to pay for innovative treatments, and the desire to move forward with a focus on the future.”