New York — Being part of the Advertising Week in New York, AOL’s Platform-A is entering into the next generation online ad exchange space with “BidPlace,” a self-service marketplace exchange with an eye towards offering advertisers unprecedented control in managing display advertising campaigns — that will launch in the first half of next year.
The company’s ad network-centric division Platform-A announced on Sept. 23 the launch of a new “BidPlace” that will offer advertisers unprecedented transparency and also enables advertisers real-time bidding to purchase inventory across the group’s vast network of Web sites to maximize campaign results.
BidPlace is expected to debut in early 2009 and has been designed to be a self-serve marketplace where brands can purchase ad inventory. The marketplace will allow advertisers bid for CPM, CPC and CPA ads on AOL, across other partner sites and across Platform-A’s third party network, according to Platform-A.
“BidPlace unleashes the industry’s most powerful advertising technologies and places them in the hands of advertisers,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “This is the next step in Platform-A’s efforts to offer marketers a unified solution for brand advertising at scale and performance advertising across multiple media. BidPlace gives advertisers what they have been asking for — a more accessible and transparent approach and an ability to adjust the dials to get the best results.”
Platform-A, http://www.platform-a.com, is AOL’s digital advertising business.
Platform-A’s Clarizio emphasizes the difference between BidPlace and other online ad exchanges. With the launch, AOL follows the lead of rivals like Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange, Microsoft’s AdECN and Google’s DoubleClick.
BidPlace empowers advertisers to manage inventory, forecast pricing and changes bids frequently, all in real time. The differentiating benefit, say AOL officials, is that Platform-A’s third-party network, which combined reaches 90% of the online audience — though much of its inventory is of the non-premium, or remnant variety, according to the August 2008 comScore Media Metrix report.
Moreover, numerous independent ad exchanges have come forth in recent years, promising that the combination of targeting technology and an open selling auction approach will deliver better yield for publishers stuck with excess inventory.
BidPlace’s powerfully automated system will allow advertisers to build and manage their bids using a Web interface, define an ad budget, pricing, targeting and the frequency of their ad placements. Advertisers will receive detailed reporting on campaign and creative performance. The technology is based on AdLearn, which AOL acquired when it purchased Advertising.com for $435 million in 2004.
For marketers managing a CPA campaign, they can use a simple set of tags and have AdLearn discover the best places on the network to run media to meet a specific ROI, without having to compute each place individually. “With other exchanges, you can bid on inventory, which is a fantastic thing for an advertiser, but how do you know that you have the algorithmic intelligence to bid on the right places?” said Clarizio.
Another online exchange, ADSDAQ, maintains that it provides a similar capability: The technology “machine-reads” millions of content pages, in real time, to deduce what they are about so that ads are put into a context that supports the ad message.
BidPlace will make the most of a new, upgraded version of Platform-A’s award winning AdLearn technology, which includes cutting-edge optimization and targeting technologies.
When fully launched, the benefits of BidPlace will include:
• Pricing: Change bids at any time;
• Creative Gallery: Manage creatives in a central repository for easy access;
• Price Volume Analysis: Get forecasts for expected volume at different price points and targeting options;
• Budget Allocation: Maintain complete control over how budgets are allocated across campaigns;
• Campaign Management Controls: Ability to have full control over campaign delivery;
• Reporting: View detailed reporting on campaign and creative performance.
BidPlace extends Platform-A’s many powerful product launch efforts. In recent months, Platform-A has launched: Spot Marketplace, which allows advertisers to purchase non-reserved site or content-specific media across Platform-A; Behavioral Targeting across Platform-A; an iPhone ad optimization solution that detects and delivers optimized ads on iPhones browsing the Web; an affiliate marketing solution that links Platform-A’s buy.at affiliate network to the widget-based marketing tools of Goowy Media. BidPlace complements PubAccess, the self-service interface Platform-A launched in April that lets publisher sites monetize their inventory through Platform-A’s third-party network.
According to ADSDAQ, William Morrison, partner and senior internet analyst at ThinkPanmure, says the online ad exchange marketplace is now a $1.1 to $1.2 million market.
Learn more at http://www.platform-a.com.