Internet Marketing Dominates Inc.’s List Of America’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies

Inc. Magazine published its annual list of the 5000 fastest-growing, privately held companies in the United States last week, and the internet marketing industry is definitely well represented.

It’s quite an interesting journey to build an internet marketing company, and as I review Inc.‘s list, I’m so inspired by what other founders in our industry have built.

Showroom Logic, creators of the automotive-specific SEM platform AdLogic, topped the list of internet marketing companies on the list and ranked 26th overall. From 2010 to 2013, Showroom Logic grew its annual revenue by 8,448% to over $13 million while managing tens of millions in ad spend for thousands of advertisers.

Video supply-side platform AdKarma ranked second-highest of the internet marketing companies on the list in 31st place. The firm connects more than 300 publishers with advertisers and has grown 7,500% since 2010. It has plans to open new offices in Los Angeles and New York this year.

Lead generation software brand ReviMedia came third in the Advertising and Marketing category, in 41st place overall. The company grew its revenue from $100,000 to $5.9 million from 2010 to 2013 and added 21 employees, bringing its total workforce to just 24 people! Its platform is pictured above.

Other familiar internet marketing companies on the Inc. 5000 list include HD video advertising platform AdColony at #114; big data and multivariate software developers DataXu at #582; my own company, WordStream, at #673; internet marketing agency 3Q Digital at #677; Minnesota-based online marketing agency aimClear at #1258; and search and digital marketing service provider Rimm-Kaufman Group (RKG) at #1520.

As a whole, the advertising and marketing companies on the Inc. 5000 list represent $7.4 billion in total revenue, while software companies on the list generated another $6.4 billion.

Not surprisingly, the advertising and marketing industry firms on the list had the second-highest average growth rate over the last three years, at 186%. Software followed right behind in third, at 182%.

Check out this list to see where some other well-known internet marketing services and software industry leaders landed on the Inc. 5000:

• #1083 – Moz with 411% 3-year growth to $29.2 million in revenue
• #1100 – HubSpot with 405% 3-year growth to $77.6 million in revenue
• #1482 – Brafton with 289% 3-year growth to $21 million in revenue
• #1918 – Bruce Clay with 213% 3-year growth to $13.6 million in revenue
• #3062 – Portent with 116% 3-year growth to $5.4 million in revenue
• #3190 – Vertical Measures with 110% 3-year growth to $3.6 million in revenue
• #3370 – Hanapin Marketing with 100% 3-year growth to $2.5 million in revenue
• #4073 – Third Door Media with 73% 3-year growth to $7.9 million in revenue

Note: All revenue figures are for 2013.

It’s really amazing to watch these companies grow. Pat East and his team at Hanapin (above), for example, have built a massive community around their PPC Hero blog and social accounts. 3Q Digital acquired iSearch Media earlier this year and have expanded under the leadership of founder and CEO David Rodnitzky to offices in Silicon Valley, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco and Burlington.

Moz, which booked a whopping $30 million in 2013, is poised for even greater things ahead! This year, Sarah Bird took the reins when Rand Fishkin stepped into a new role as the Wizard of Moz. That takes real guts, to be able to step back and put the people in place to really support big growth.

We are surrounded in this industry by creative, ambitious, super-smart people, and I apologize if I missed anyone you feel should have been included in this summary. Internet marketing as a whole is growing at an incredible rate and we should all be very proud of our collective accomplishments and contributions to the industry!

Check out the full Inc. 5000 list and see how your favorite companies did!