Platforms

Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress didn’t always have a “Hall 8.”  Today, that’s where they keep all the mobile ad tech – and it’s huge. An entire pavillion packed with vendors and bustling with brands and agency reps looking to get serious about mobile innovation. “The first year I came here, it was very much about the […]

Facebook made waves two weeks ago when it delisted more than 15 companies from its Facebook Exchange (AdExchanger story). Going forward, only 12 companies will be allowed to trumpet their access to the desktop news feed and right rail ad space that comprises the FBX inventory pool. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Even […]

More automation is in the cards for Rubicon Project, which revealed its short-term goals around guaranteed orders at its Automation Summit in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on Thursday. The company launched an updated product that powers direct, guaranteed orders. “Digital advertising is a $62 billion opportunity,” CEO Frank Addante told attendees. “The largest part, premium, […]

Criteo is retiring its AD-X attribution product and replacing it with a new partner-based approach to mobile tracking, the French company revealed Thursday. Criteo, a retargeting company that works with Internet retailers, brands and agencies, first acquired AD-X in July 2013. AD-X remained a standalone business within Criteo, offering advertisers and app developers in-app measurement […]

Depending on how you frame it, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest are either disintermediating the influencer marketing ecosystem or “wrapping their arms more tightly around it,” as Lisa Weinstein, president of global digital, data and analytics at Starcom MediaVest Group, puts it. Circa 2011, brands threw money at social marketing agencies with one goal: “Go […]

Sharing financial performance figures for the first time Thursday, PubMatic said its annualized net revenue run rate is now above $130 million, based on year-end figures. From 2013 to 2014, the publisher platform company said GAAP net revenue grew 90%. PubMatic did not disclose net income, but revealed it had turned a small profit for the past […]

Before Yahoo bought video exchange BrightRoll, it had eyes for Dailymotion, a French video-sharing site that amasses more than 2.5 billion video views a month. Although that’s nowhere near the size and scope of YouTube, which gets 4 billion views a day at last count, some speculated Dailymotion would have been Yahoo’s YouTube had French […]

IronSource is counting its cash. The Israeli ad distribution and app monetization company, which announced an $85 million round in September, said Wednesday that it’s brought in an additional $20 million from a group of unnamed investors led by Access Industries. These two funding events represent the first time ironSource, which works with Yahoo, Google, […]

Google has snapped up Toro, a tool that helps developers market their apps on the Facebook platform. The deal appears to be an acquihire, since Toro employs fewer than 10 and has begun urging customers to seek out alternative partners to support their Facebook install campaigns. (Read the blog post.) Google declined to comment other than to […]

Rubicon Project’s focus on premium inventory, international expansion and new products looks to be paying off. CEO Frank Addante said during the company’s Q4 earnings call – in which it posted quarterly revenue of $41.8 million, up 49% YoY – that Rubicon had avoided low-quality sellers that would have boosted short-term revenue while hurting its […]

With the revamp of its partner program last week, Facebook is for the first time allowing agencies to pursue certification – under a specialization called Media Buying. (Don’t call it a badge.) The change is a tacit acknowledgement that Facebook’s key relationships in the ad ecosystem include not only the builders of tools for reaching […]

Getting freemium users to become paid users is a nuanced process that varies from person to person. Users on the brink of turning their free trial into a paid subscription need only a little nudge. Others, admittedly a much smaller number of people, will quickly pay for subscriptions. But neither group is the ideal target. […]

Paris-based direct and programmatic ad platform Smart AdServer will break away from its parent company, the Internet portal AuFeminin, through a buyout by private equity firm Cathay Capital for $42.1 million, the companies said Thursday. “Smart AdServer is entering a new phase and the market is evolving very fast,” said Smart AdServer US General Manager […]

Yahoo is buoying its push to be a mobile player with a mobile dev suite, revealed Thursday at the company’s first-ever mobile developer conference – but the products, and Yahoo’s plans, are highly contingent on an important factor. Will developers see the value in Yahoo’s app-monetization tools? Flurry’s SDK now includes demand from both Gemini, […]

Rocket Fuel appears to be bracing for a chilly wind, at least when it comes to the insertion order-based media sales business that has been the core of its revenue engine for the past several years. The programmatic platform company reported Q4 revenues of  $139.5 million, a 63% lift compared to Q4 2013. That’s a […]

Facebook has decertified more than half the seat holders on its Facebook Exchange (FBX) as part of a revamp of its marketing partner program, unveiled Tuesday. Among the partners no longer badge-certified to buy on FBX are some very big ad platform players, including Adobe, Advertising.com (AOL), Rocket Fuel, IgnitionOne and Dotomi/Conversant (Epsilon). In total, […]

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner referenced a “re-envisioned” marketing solution suite coming soon during the company’s Q4 earnings, and it appears he acted swiftly. The company on Thursday rolled out two products: LinkedIn Network Display and LinkedIn Lead Accelerator. [The company’s blog post.] Network Display is an ad product reaching across 2,500 publisher sites as well as […]

If an ad isn’t seen, that ad shouldn’t be counted. That’s Facebook’s position on viewability in a nutshell. As the debate around viewability swirls, Facebook outlined its point of view in a blog post Wednesday. “It doesn’t make sense for advertisers to count impressions that never enter a person’s viewable area,” said Brad Smallwood, Facebook’s VP of measurement […]

Criteo, which began as a retargeter of online display, expanded on its product roadmap during the company’s Q4 and FY 2014 earnings call Wednesday. Criteo’s focus is “leveraging the huge momentum in mobile commerce,” said CEO Jean-Baptiste Rudelle by emphasizing its multi-screen solution and cross-device ID. “Converting customers across multiple marketing channels is critical for CMOs. […]

Facebook on Tuesday rolled out product ads designed to let retailers connect their product lists with news feed units. Read the blog post. Retailers traditionally have trouble syncing up inventory-level data with media, since the bulk of that information sits in transactional databases. “With dynamic product ads, marketers can directly upload their product catalog to Facebook or set […]

Mobile is the mother of all invention at BabyCenter, an online content hub for pregnancy and parenting-related content. Founded in 1997, BabyCenter has always maintained a digital-first mindset – but the changing consumption habits of its more than 40 million global monthly users, mainly current and expectant mothers, means that mobile is fertile ground for […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Brian Mikalis, senior vice president of monetization at Pandora. Publishers that want to retain their premium stature are executing programmatic deals through private exchanges or directly with advertisers as they jump in to figure […]

The majority of TripAdvisor’s revenue came from advertising in Q4 2014. Of TripAdvisor’s reported $288 million in fourth-quarter revenue – up 35% from Q3 – $181 million came from click-based advertising (63% of total revenue) and $36 million from display (13% of total revenue). Display CPMs were up for more than 2,000 advertisers in TripAdvisor’s network, President […]

AOL’s programmatic revenue grew 250% in the fourth quarter, and now accounts for 39% of AOL’s non-search revenue. In Q4 the company “integrated the first set of private marketplaces,” Armstrong said, for a total of 15 private marketplaces. AOL’s shift to programmatic led to a recent restructuring of its sales force, another area of heightened attention from investors. AOL recently […]

Five months after taking the wraps off its revamped ad management product, Facebook is slowly but steadily chalking up new Atlas customers. In the wake of its splashy deals with Omnicom Group and Havas, the company has unveiled agreements with database marketer Merkle and Mediaocean, the dominant provider of RFP and workflow management software geared […]

The company formerly known as Yellow Pages has worked hard in recent years to transfer its historical strength – helping consumers find local businesses via large printed books – into a business that’s now booking more than $1 billion in digital revenue. YP acquired mobile ad firm Sense Networks one year ago and continues to refine and experiment with […]

The vodka market is as crowded as a downtown bar on a Saturday night – and Stolichnaya is looking to differentiate. That’s where the millennial male – a social animal – enters the picture. “Our key target is millennial men, ages 25 to 35,” Stoli brand director Sarah Gorvitz told AdExchanger. “We call them ‘authentic experiencers.’” For […]

Pandora will leverage its data assets and introduce mobile programmatic capabilities later this quarter for its iOS and Android platforms, CEO Brian McAndrews said during the company’s Q4 and year-end earnings call Thursday. “Advertisers are looking for high engagement on mobile,” McAndrews said. “In terms of digital revenue opportunities, we are positioning Pandora to lead the […]

LinkedIn had strong growth across all lines of business in the fourth quarter. Marketing Solutions revenue for the quarter was up 56% year over year, coming in at $153 million. This beat some analysts expectations, which projected that figure at a slightly lower $131 million. [Here are the full results.] Marketing Solutions accounts for 24% of […]

You know the Twitter earnings narrative by now. Enthusiasm around strong revenue from advertising products is dampened by concerns over the growth rate of monthly active users (MAUs). Such was the case with the company’s Q4 Thursday, in which Twitter’s ad revenue doubled from the previous year to $432 million, beating Wall Street estimates. Mobile […]