What Smartico does

Smartico operates a B2B ad-tech platform that helps local and regional publishers convert their existing print advertisers into digital display and landing-page campaigns at scale. The platform ingests print ad PDFs, URLs, social media posts, and Google My Business profiles, and uses a combination of generative AI (text and image extraction/enrichment across multimodal inputs) and human, native-speaking media designers to produce high-impact carousel ads, banners, and instant landing pages — typically delivered within 24 hours per package. The product surface spans the flagship Smart Ads bundle, Smartico Ad Studio (a closed-beta self-serve design editor), Smart Inserts (retail shoppable banners), Smart Social Job Ads (Meta/Snap/TikTok recruiting funnels), Smart Marketplaces (SEO-relevant local directories), Smart Advertorials (native advertising), and Smart Magazines (PDF-to-digital magazine conversion). Distribution is anchored by direct sales to publisher leadership across DACH and now the U.S. (via America's Newspapers membership), with a free demo ad and a waitlisted Ad Studio providing product-led-growth entry points for smaller publishers.

Commercially, Smartico earns revenue primarily through bundled per-ad pricing (e.g., €59–100 per Smart Ads bundle including banner, landing page, and a fixed impression volume), per-campaign pricing for Smart Social Job Ads ($500–$1,000 per campaign), and platform/service fees that allow publishers to monetize print advertiser relationships digitally at eCPMs of €13–20+, well above programmatic benchmarks. Documented customer outcomes include €250K+/year in incremental digital revenue for Club 300 publishers producing 300+ Smart Ads/month, and $300K+/year for Schwäbisch Media under an auto-bundle model. Smartico's scale metrics — 500+ publishers, 500+ newspaper titles, 10+ countries, 1M+ ads/year, 2B+ impressions/year, and 100M+ devices reached monthly — point to a meaningful share of the European local-news digital ad-tech market.

The entity is registered as Smart Ads International OOD in Sofia, Bulgaria, led by Managing Directors Christian Scherbel, Simon Kriener, and Nikolay Lazarov. In April 2026, Smartico was acquired by Optimove, a CRM provider, which positions the company to extend its historical CRM and gamification capabilities for iGaming operators (re-entered via the Honoré Gaming partnership in May 2026 for French-speaking Africa and Central America) alongside its core local-publisher advertising business. Smartico is also a verified vendor under IAB Europe's Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) v2.2, enabling cookie-less, privacy-compliant ad serving across its own and third-party publisher inventory.

Name

Smartico

Legal name

Smart Ads International OOD

Website

https://smartico.one

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Smartico provides an AI and human-designer hybrid platform that helps local and regional publishers convert print advertisers into digital display, landing-page, and recruiting campaigns. It serves 500+ publishers across 10+ countries and is now a subsidiary of Optimove following its April 2026 acquisition.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bad Wiessee

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Smart Ads Platform Licensing/Subscription: Publishers pay for access to the Smart Ads platform which creates bundled digital ad packages (banner + landing page + ad impressions) for their SMB advertisers. Pricing examples include €59 per bundle and €69-100 packages. The platform enables publishers to upsell print advertisers to digital, generating incremental digital revenue per ad at eCPMs of €10-20+. Smartico also serves as a profit center for publishers, with documented case studies showing €250,000+ per year in additional digital revenue for publishers producing 300+ ads/month.
2. Social Recruiting Campaigns: Social job ad campaigns amplified on social media platforms (Meta, Snap, TikTok) for publishers' job advertiser customers. Investment starting at $500-$1,000 per campaign generating 5-20 express applications.
3. Ad Creative and Production Services: AI + human design services that create ad creatives (banners, carousel ads, landing pages) automatically from print ads, URLs, or social media profiles, bundled into the Smart Ads platform offering.
4. CRM and Gamification Solutions (legacy/pre-acquisition): Prior to the Optimove acquisition, Smartico provided CRM automation and gamification solutions primarily to the iGaming industry, integrating AI-driven technology for player engagement and customer analytics.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Smartico licenses a SaaS platform to local and regional publishers that automatically converts their print advertisers' existing creatives (print ads, URLs, social profiles, Google Places data) into high-impact digital display ads with matching landing pages within 24 hours, using a hybrid AI and human-designer pipeline. Publishers bundle these Smart Ads (banner + landing page + impressions) into fixed-price packages (e.g., €59–€100) that their existing sales reps can upsell to SMB advertisers without new technical skills. The platform also encompasses Smartico Ad Studio, Smart Inserts, Smart Social Job Ads, Smart Marketplaces, Smart Advertorials, and Smart Magazines as adjacent publisher monetization tools.

Product overview

Smartico is a local digital advertising platform for media publishers that enables creation of high-impact display and video ads at scale. The core product is Smart Ads, which combines AI with human designers to extract data from print ads, websites, and social media to generate carousel ads with instant landing pages. The platform suite includes Ad Studio (beta ad design editor), Smart Inserts (retail-focused shoppable banners), Smart Social Job Ads (recruiting campaigns for social media), Smart Marketplaces (local business directories), Smart Advertorials (native advertising), and Smart Magazines (digital magazine conversion). Smartico serves 500+ publishers across 10 countries, creating over 1 million ads per year served to 100M+ devices monthly.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Smart Ads: High-impact digital display ads with instant landing pages at scale with AI and human creativity for local publishers
• Smartico Ad Studio
• Smart Inserts
• Smart Social Job Ads
• Smart Marketplaces
• Smart Advertorials
• Smart Magazines

Products and services

• Smart Ads AI-powered platform that creates high-impact digital display ads with instant landing pages at scale for local publishers and SMB advertisers, combining artificial intelligence with human designers; generates carousel ads served to 100M+ devices monthly.
• Smartico Ad Studio Design editor tool for creating high-impact ads in minutes; currently in closed beta with early access waitlist available, targeting publishers and companies.
• Smart Inserts Engaging shoppable banner ads with product carousels and landing pages designed specifically for large retailers.
• Smart Social Job Ads Social media recruiting campaigns for job offers, including landing page funnels, gamified express application funnels, and measurable results across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.
• Smart Marketplaces SEO-relevant local business directories generated from existing ads, enriched with data from across the web to help publishers strengthen their Google presence.
• Smart Advertorials Profitable digital advertorials formatted as native advertising, created from existing print specials and supplements.
• Smart Magazines Glossy digital magazines with content and ads for all devices and Google, generated from PDF input.

Quantifiable outcome

• eCPMs of €13+ on average for Smart Ads bundles (vs. $2-5 programmatic CPMs)
• +9 more outcomes

Named customers17 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Honoré GamingminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 May 2026Honoré Gaming, an online sportsbook platform operating in French-speaking Africa and Central America, partnered with Smartico to integrate an advanced CRM solution ahead of the expanded World Cup. The integration aimed to enhance customer analytics and player engagement through AI-driven technology. This partnership reflects Smartico's legacy focus on CRM automation and gamification for iGaming operators prior to the Optimove acquisition.
• OptimovecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 April 2026Optimove, a CRM provider, acquired Smartico in a deal aimed at reinforcing Optimove's market position in the iGaming industry. The acquisition was announced on April 7, 2026, with Smartico continuing to operate its platform while integrating into Optimove's broader CRM ecosystem. This acquisition significantly changes Smartico's strategic positioning, moving from an independent platform to a subsidiary of a larger CRM provider.
• America's NewspaperscoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 13 February 2025Smartico became a member of America's Newspapers, an organization dedicated to supporting local publishers and strengthening the future of journalism. Through this membership, Smartico aims to collaborate with industry leaders, share best practices, and contribute to discussions on the evolving landscape of local media, while helping publishers maximize their digital ad revenue.
• IAB EuropecoreTechnology or Integration · 7 February 2025Smartico became a verified vendor under IAB Europe's Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) v2.2. This enables Smartico to serve Smart Ads beyond its own network, enabling programmatic buying on all third-party publisher sites within the IAB ecosystem. The TCF is a voluntary industry standard helping digital advertising players comply with ePrivacy Directive and GDPR.
• Native-Speaking Media DesignerscoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerSmartico employs native-speaking media designers to build and fine-tune ad creatives. This human creative layer ensures cultural and linguistic accuracy of ads across the 10+ countries and multiple languages in which Smartico operates, complementing the AI-powered extraction and enrichment pipeline.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Cision (PR Newswire): Communications and media intelligence platform serving PR, marketing, and media professionals. Comparable to Smartico as an adjacent service provider in the publisher/media ecosystem, though Cision focuses on PR distribution and earned media analytics rather than display ad creation and serving.
• DoubleVerify: Ad verification and attention measurement platform for digital advertising. Comparable to Smartico as both emphasize attention-based metrics over traditional CTR/CPC, though DoubleVerify operates as an independent verification layer while Smartico owns the full ad creation-and-serving stack for local publishers.

Direct peers

• Celtra: Creative ad production platform enabling scalable display and video ad creation for brands and agencies. Comparable to Smartico as both automate digital ad creative production at scale, though Celtra focuses on brand-side creative workflows versus Smartico's publisher-first SMB bundling motion.
• Smartly.io: AI-powered advertising automation platform for social media campaigns. Comparable to Smartico in providing AI-driven creative production and automated ad delivery, though Smartly.io focuses on Meta/TikTok social campaigns for brands while Smartico focuses on display ads for local publishers.
• Jivox: Dynamic creative optimization and personalization platform for digital advertising. Comparable to Smartico in automating personalized ad creative production and serving, with similar AI-driven creative capabilities, though Jivox targets enterprise brands while Smartico targets local publisher-SMB ecosystems.
• Outbrain: Native advertising platform serving premium publishers with content discovery and native ad formats. Comparable to Smartico as both enable publishers to monetize digital inventory with non-traditional ad formats, though Outbrain focuses on content recommendation while Smartico emphasizes SMB display ad creation.
• Taboola: Native advertising and content recommendation platform that partners with publishers to monetize digital audiences. Comparable to Smartico in serving publisher ad monetization needs through automated ad creation and serving, with overlap in advertorial/native formats (Smart Advertorials).

Emerging players

• Piano: Digital media platform serving publishers with content monetization, subscription, and advertising tools. Comparable to Smartico in providing publisher-focused ad and content monetization technology, though Piano has broader subscription/paywall focus while Smartico specializes in SMB display ad automation.

Broad incumbents

• Google Ad Manager: Google's ad serving and programmatic exchange platform used by publishers worldwide. Comparable to Smartico because both serve digital ad inventory to publishers, but Google Ad Manager is a broad incumbent with vastly larger scale and full programmatic exchange functionality versus Smartico's publisher-focused bundled approach.
• The Trade Desk: Leading demand-side programmatic advertising platform. Comparable to Smartico in facilitating programmatic digital ad buying, but operates at global enterprise scale across display, video, audio, and CTV, whereas Smartico focuses on SMB advertiser bundles served through local publisher networks.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/smartico_ads
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@Smartico-one
• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/smartico1
• Instagraminstagram.com/smartico.one

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Smartico