GroupM's Norman On FBX Growth; Was 'NetShelter', Now 'InPowered'

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

‘Sitdown’ On FBX

In a “sitdown” with Adweek, Facebook’s head of sales, Carolyn Everson, and GroupM global CEO Rob Norman trade notes. Norman says Facebook Exchange has “quadrupled” exchange-traded media. (That’s a finger-in-your-eye to Google.) Everson adds more on FBX, “There are two things happening on our Exchange product right now, and one is that people are engaged more, they’re actually clicking through. And the second is that the [cost per action] is actually much cheaper on Facebook. So we have more engagement and it’s cheaper cost, and it’s much more efficient.” Read it.

Adding The Ad API

Turn is adding to its DSP/DMP offering with some Facebook Ad API “seasoning.” A release announces Turn’s entrance: “This integration enables agencies and advertisers using Turn Campaign Suite to execute Facebook Sponsored Stories and Marketplace campaigns as part of their multi-channel digital advertising campaigns.” Read more. Bringing data-driven, attribution capabilities across the Facebook Exchange and Facebook Ad API channels would seem to bode well for all participants. If you’re an Ad API partner only, it may be time to get on the Facebook Exchange bandwagon.

Video Ad Trends

BrightRoll released an industry survey looking at video advertising in the UK among other countries. Among the findings, buyers’ favorite targeting criteria: “Despite the clear preference for demo targeting, behavioural targeting ranks second with 25 percent of respondents who think it is an important targeting technique. However, when asked what percentage of online video ads they expect to be behaviourally targeted in 2013, 62 percent of respondents believe less than half (0 – 40 percent) of their campaigns will have this form of targeting.” Get the study (pay with some PII).

Programmatically Speaking

Federated Media frontman, John Battelle, talks about where he sees digital marketing headed in a post on his personal blog. Speaking to Federated’s network of publishers and beyond, Battelle pumps up the “programmatic” possibilities: “Traditional banner inventory is already undergoing significant change, and publishers need to understand that change, and get smart about how best to navigate it. Programmatic buying is growing at double digit rates, and by some estimates, will account for more than half of all display advertising budgets within two years. That’s stunning given programmatic buying platforms barely existed just three years ago.” Read more.

Native Vs. Programmatic

On Digiday, Josh Sternberg surveys industry leaders to see what they’re thinking about native ads versus the programmatic variety. Reuters’ Vikram Somaya says, “I think programmatic buying in all its forms is necessary for the future of online advertising. It will underpin growth in all message formats – native or otherwise. As ignorable inventory grows in scale and forces content producers to find new ways to monetize audiences, programmatic methodologies will have to proliferate to allow both buy-side and sell-side to efficiently utilize new messaging channels.” Read more.

SEM Platform Evolution

Ad buying platform Kenshoo, which used to be just an SEM platform, has dipped into the venture capital till again as it announced a $12 million round of funding led by Tenaya Capital. Read the release. Since competitor Efficient Frontier was bought by Adobe a year ago, Kenshoo and Marin Software (raised $79.5 million) have forged on with programmatic and social ad buying products to different degrees. A Kenshoo spokesperson tells TechCrunch’s Anthony Ha that this latest round “brings [Kenshoo]’s total funding to $30 million, and that the company’s valuation has tripled since its last round in 2010.” Read it.

Switching To Native (Or Content)

NetShelter is pulling its new tech platform brand over its technology blog network in an effort to align with the opportunity it sees with native advertising/content marketing. Read more about the platform from this May NetShelter post. Henceforth known as Inpowered, the company is full steam ahead as TechCrunch’s Anthony Ha provides a quick use case, “It presents customers with a chart showing how many people have been ‘influenced’ by content about a product (i.e. read related articles), and how many have become ‘influencers’ (shared those articles). The goal, then, is to increase those numbers.” Read more.

Funding Marketing Software

Marketing software company Hubspot announced that it, too, has raised more venture capital – $35 million to be exact. Who says ad tech or marketing tech funding has slowed? The rounds keep getting bigger. CEO Brian Halligan says on the HubSpot blog, “We’re generating revenue at an annualized run rate of $60 million, up more than 80% over last year, and we still see a huge market opportunity ahead of us.” Read more on the HubSpot blog. And, read this interview with CEO Brian Halligan on AdExchanger in May. B2B lead generation is a hot theme. One other note – HubSpot is laying bare its financials to prep to go public (or find a buyer?). Read about it on The Next Web.

About Those Native Ads

Social ad platform MediaBrix has been busy with a study of its own showing, according to MediaBrix, that the “native ad” genre should be re-examined – consumers are “hating” on it. Twitter’s promoted Tweets, Facebook’s Sponsored Stories and sponsored video ads all received low marks that either “negatively impacted or had no impact” on the consumer’s experience, says MediaBrix. Read the release.

But Wait. There’s More!