Henry Wong is Chief Executive Officer of Adgregate Markets, a transactional performance ad network.
AdExchanger.com: Given you and your team’s experience (AdECN), how important is your familiarity with ad exchanges in the success of Adgregate Markets?
HW: Given the experience of the management team with AdECN, we understand the value that ad exchanges can bring to our ShopAds technology and platform in terms of being able to offer advertisers bleeding edge targeting and retargeting tools to execute performance based advertising campaigns. Adgregate Markets’ ShopAds is the first certified transactional advertising technology to integrate with AdECN; which enables advertisers to use Microsoft’s platform for ad targeting and retargeting, media purchasing and placement, and ad optimization.
Can you describe the challenge Adgregate Markets technology solves as well as a sense of scale for your business currently?
While the Company is still early in its development, the network is currently getting approximately 40 million impressions per month, reaching 12M+ uniques monthly, with 1M+ ShopAd embeds currently. Over 500 advertisers currently use the ShopAds platform.
The ShopAds platform enables advertisers to integrate e-commerce into any banner ad campaign to allow consumers to browse, interact, and ultimately purchase directly within an ad unit. When combined with an ad network’s targeting and retargeting solution for advertisers, ShopsAds can offer a substantial lift to ad performance by capitalizing on prior data on a consumers’ product research and browsing behavior. For example, in an instance where a consumer researches a product on a retailers’ site and then leaves the site before purchasing the product, an advertiser could use the combined AdECN and ShopAds solution to not only retarget that user with a banner ad for a discounted price on such product, but also provide the purchasing functionality to capitalize on the impulse purchase, on whichever publisher site the user is currently browsing.
Providing e-commerce, transactional capability in the banner seems to remove the need for landing pages. Is this where you see media going?
Long term, yes. In our opinion, landing pages add unnecessary steps into the consumer’s clickstream. Our objective is to optimize the purchase process and reduce the friction that occurs with traditional banner advertising. ShopAds accomplishes that by bringing e-commerce directly into the ad and by enabling targeting and retargeting campaigns.
Does Adgregate Markets have any plans to trade or advertise on its own behalf, or is it primarily a technology services business?
Adgregate Markets is a seatholder on the AdECN exchange, and thus will engage the exchange to find liquidity for its advertising partners as well as execute performance campaigns on behalf of the ShopAds network.
In addition, Adgregate Markets is offering ShopAds through various channels ranging from agency relationships, ad networks/exchanges, direct with publishers, and direct with advertisers.
Can you talk about how publishers can benefit from Adgregate Markets technology?
ShopAdsTM enables visitors to complete purchases without having to leave the publisher’s web site. By retaining visitors, publishers can now sell ad space that doesn’t divert traffic away thus allowing them to increase page views and more importantly, increase revenue. In addition, affiliate publishers can use Adgregate’s CPA marketplace to search for contextually relevant offers and products for its site.
How do ad exchanges move toward a premium inventory future – and can Adgregate Markets help the exchange model in this respect?
The value of inventory is often measured by quality and response rate; by enabling ecommerce and rich targeting/retargeting data, Adgregate Markets increases the opportunity for ad exchanges to better understand inventory value and close the gap between remnant and premium inventory.
Beyond direct response, does Adgregate Markets offer an opportunity for brand advertisers?
Adgregate Markets is launching a new brand affinity solution, BrandAdsTM, that will enable brands to increase awareness and reach by allowing advertisers to engage and interact directly with consumers through our technology. The combination of BrandAdsTM and ShopAdsTM bridges the gap between brand and direct response marketers, allowing them to share messaging, creative, objectives, and ultimately streamlining online advertising costs.
How will media buying agencies need to evolve in the future?
Media agencies will need to embrace technologies and solutions that bring greater value to advertisers. They’re still applying an offline strategy towards online media purchases and that needs to change. ShopAds brings a new dimension and approach towards online banner placement with innovative ecommerce technology and targeting capabilities.
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