San Francisco — Google Inc’s ad network subsidiary DoubleClick, that offers online ad-serving technology to ad agencies and web site publishers, today announced a deal with Adgregate Markets, the foremost provider of transactional advertising technology, to embed support for ShopAds e-commerce advertising functionality in web banner ads.
The deal would allow clients to integrate e-commerce transactions into any banner ad campaign to allow consumers to browse, interact, and make secure purchase directly within an ad unit.
Consumers will be able to conclude a purchase without leaving the ad, using Adgregate Markets’ ShopAds technology, to work with DoubleClick Rich Media, will now be widely available to all of DoubleClick’s advertisers. ShopAds allow brands to build a network of syndicated e-commerce partners through paid media and social networks.
Adgregate Markets CEO Henry Wong said Adgregate’s ShopAds technology is the first certified transactional online ad technology tested and proven to work with DoubleClick Rich Media. DoubleClick has agreed to offer it to display advertisers.
ShopAds will allow companies using DoubleClick for banner ad campaigns to integrate e-commerce transaction capability into the ads.
Advertisers can insert ShopAds into blogs, MySpace pages or publisher sites. The e-commerce transactions are encrypted through the HTTPS secure protocol and Adgregate’s proprietary technology. VeriSign also verifies the secure transactions.
Adgregates’ ShopAds will become an ground-breaking addition to DoubleClick’s arsenal. Poised to revolutionize the landscape of online display advertising, ShopAds transform traditional banner ads into totally transactional e-commerce ad units. Customers can securely purchase any product from within ShopAds, without ever needing to click away to another website. By teaming with Adgregate Markets, DoubleClick will have access to a across-the-board platform that allows their advertisers to expand their e-commerce strategy beyond the reaches of existing online retail channels.
“Adgregate Markets’ ShopAds are a great solution for direct response and brand response advertisers, and we are excited to work with them to bring this cutting edge technology to our clients,” said Ari Paparo, Google’s Group Product Manager.
DoubleClick’s ad sales team will take the technology to existing customers, adding to Adgregate’s more than 500 clients such as Warner Bros. and Random House, according to Adgregate CEO Wong. “This month we should serve up more than 1 million ShopAds,” he said. “Last month we had 1.5 million, and next month we should clear 3 million.”
While e-commerce retail sites have invested “gazillions of dollars” building up infrastructure and driving online advertising back to landing pages, Wong does not believe the e-commerce banner ad will replace Web sites, but rather extend the reach to consumers via social networks and blogs.
“Teaming up with Google and DoubleClick makes a lot of sense for us. As an industry leader, DoubleClick understands the needs of agencies and marketers who will no doubt embrace our ShopAds technology,” stated Wong. “We know our technology is game changing and that DoubleClick is positioned to help us deliver this innovation to their customers.”
By accomplishing the sale through the banner ad, Adgregate can link the price of product to the cost of the ads which operate on a revenue-split transactional model where the company takes a percentage of the sale.
Adgregate Markets introduced ShopAds last year and says its technology has been embedded in more than 1 million online ads. The company lists among its clients entertainment company Warner Brothers and book publishers Random House and Hachette. Other ad-serving companies working with Adgregate include Microsoft’s AdECN, AdRoll, EyeWonder and AOL’s Platform-A, Adgregate says.
The addition of e-commerce to banner ads is a continuation of a trend to overcome web users’ indifference to online ads by livening them up with video, animation and other eyecatching features, says online advertising analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.
Plans also are in the work to launch a forthcoming ad product Wong calls the “brand advocate ShopAd.” The new ad runs a variety of social network tools. Features include a Twitter feed and the ability to send a product recommendation to friends. Companies opting to run the social network features will pay per click. Both features provide performance-based metrics to quantify each ad placement.