Back in early 2016, Marc was running a webshop and growing increasingly frustrated with Google Shopping's bidding process. How could something so critical to a webshop's profitability be handled so badly?
He shared his frustration with Jan, an ex-banker turned full-time developer of Machine Learning-based real-time trading algorithms for the S&P 500. The two quickly realised that buying promising clicks on "click markets" wasn't all that different from buying promising assets on financial markets. But one key question remained: how do you measure the purchasing intent behind a search query? How likely is this visitor to actually buy? Enter Alex, a hard-core data scientist and statistician specialising in DNA sequencing and analysis. Using advanced scientific techniques, he began analysing search queries to uncover the strength of a shopper's buying intent.
The first version of their algorithm was tested on Marc's own webshop, and it worked brilliantly. The second version was offered to fellow webshop owners, who saw equally impressive results: sales typically jumped 50% or more, while costs dropped by 20% or more. Hard to argue with that. After three years of continuous improvement, the team noticed a shift in 2020. Marketplaces like Amazon, Bol, and Kaufland were evolving into powerful product search engines with compelling advertising options. The challenge for webshops was no longer just optimising Google campaigns — it was optimising performance across a growing portfolio of advertising channels. They also recognised that webshops sit on a goldmine of underused data: product information, competitor insights, customer behaviour, sales channel performance, and more. By tapping into all of this, it should be possible to build a system that tackles the emerging challenge of cross-marketplace advertising. The catch? It would be hugely complex, requiring the algorithm to be rebuilt from the ground up using the latest machine learning techniques.
After another year of hard work, Neural Search Labs GmbH was founded in April 2021 in Düsseldorf, Germany, marking the official launch of DeepCliq: a powerful Data-Science-as-a-Service platform helping online retailers and brands unlock the full potential of cross-marketplace advertising. Following an initial phase with early adopters on the Bol marketplace, DeepCliq officially launched in January 2024 as the first AI Advertising Agent for marketplaces, quickly earning a Bol Silver Partnership. Rapid adoption by leading retailers and brands followed, and by March 2025, DeepCliq was awarded Bol's highest distinction: Gold Partnership.
