Layoffs hit local online ad agency Trada

BOULDER – The online pay-per-click advertising agency Trada Inc. in Boulder appears to have laid off staff in a restructuring that was confirmed Tuesday by Niel Robertson, the company’s chief executive.

“We did some restructuring. We are profitable. We continue to provide awesome service to existing and new customers,” Robertson wrote in response to an emailed question about layoffs.

Robertson declined to share any details about how many people were let go from the Boulder-based online company. Trada does advertising campaigns for its customers on websites such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Facebook.

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“We’re focused on the incredibly busy holiday season for our advertisers,” Robertson wrote in a follow-up email.

It appears that dozens of people were laid off from Trada on Friday, Nov. 15, based on multiple Twitter postings from staffers and others in the industry.

“Bummer news for @trada today. So many brilliant ideas their model. For search experts needing a gig, please consider Booyah. We’re hiring!” read a Nov. 15 post from Troy Lerner, president of Booyah Marketing, an ad firm in Westminster.

Chris Martin, the human resources coordinator at Hanapin Marketing in Bloomington, Indiana, also tried to recruit Trada employees through Twitter, as did others. Neither Lerner nor Martin responded to requests for comment on Tuesday morning.

Trada received $1 million from Boulder-based Foundry Group Inc. in the third quarter, according to the quarterly PriceWaterhouse Coopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report, which uses data from Thomson Reuters. The company previously raised $5.75 million from Google Ventures and Foundry Group in 2010. In all, Trada has raised about $17 million to date.