That’s the thinking of Fyber, a leading mobile advertising technology company. The company just announced open beta of its Real Time Bidding (RTB) platform.

“Through RTB –a programmatic technology–Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) and their advertisers can bid on inventory in real time and apply fine-tuned targeting on the inventory most relevant to them, which yields better ROI and higher eCPMs,” said Fyber in a recent press release. “With this introduction, Fyber brings together a mediation layer across interstitials and rewarded video with an RTB exchange.”

Fyber’s goal? To become a “one stop shop” for publishers.

“With the introduction of RTB into the Fyber platform, our goal is to serve as a one-stop shop for publishers to manage all of their mobile advertising needs,” said Janis Zech, Co-founder and CRO, Fyber. “For DSPs, we want to become the de facto platform for transacting high-value ad formats such as interstitials. We knew this was an inevitable move for Fyber, and are thrilled to be rounding out our stack and offering RTB especially as more budget and demand moves towards programmatic. This move enables us to provide developers with access to all budgets available in the exchange.”

The open RTB-based exchange enables DSPs to reach the most valuable audiences through what Fyber calls “premium inventory”(high-performance ad formats, including rewarded video and interstitials).

Partners already using Fyber’s RTB program include TradeMob, Mars Media Group, Ajillion, Pocket Math, Remerge, and Liquid M.

The post Need More Fyber in Your Ad Diet? Company Expands Platform with RTB appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

IMX is a joint venture digital mobile-first Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Advertising Exchange in partnership with Smaato, a global mobile RTB Ad Exchange.

According to details divulged in a press release, Indosat’s existing mobile advertising offering, i-klan, which currently sits within its Digital Services unit, will become part of the joint venture.

IMX’s digital mobile advertising exchange will facilitate a portal that enables both local and global advertisers to connect with leading publishers in Indonesia and provide targeted programmatic advertising to Indonesian consumers. Indonesia is one of the leading digital advertising markets in the world in terms of number of impressions with double digit growth forecast for the foreseeable future.

“Digital advertising represents an important avenue of new business as we look for opportunities beyond our core services to support our customers’ digital lifestyles,” says Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO of Ooredoo. “Currently 25% of our customers actively use mobile content services and Indosat’s partnership with a leading global player like Smaato helps us to build products and capabilities that better serve both business customers and consumers alike. As smartphone use across our footprint increases we intend to extend this approach to the other markets that we operate in.”

The post Indosat, Smaato Roll Out Mobile Ad Exchange in Indonesia appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“MLG is one of the most recognized brands in e-Sports and one of the fastest growing digital networks worldwide,” the formal announcement reads.

MLG has extensive reach, connecting with 20 million committed fans via web, mobile, connected TVs, gaming consoles, and social media channels.

MLG is billed as “the definitive property for advertisers to reach young men.”

“Under the terms of the exclusive agreement, MLG will leverage OpenX’s full stack platform to optimize its digital advertising inventory,” added the announcement. “OpenX’s integrated solution will manage MLG’s ad serving and programmatic monetization, which includes directly sold inventory, Real-Time-Bidding (RTB), and ad networks in one overarching auction.”

“OpenX is the most thoughtful and collaborative partner we’ve found in the industry,” said Don Reilley, Executive President of Global Sales at MLG. “That quality of listening, partnered with their industry leading technology and monetization solutions, made OpenX the best choice for us. As we have grown our business, OpenX has provided ways for us to continually scale up and increase revenue.”

The post OpenX Gets the Tap: Major League Gaming Selects Company for Its Digital Advertising Platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Adiant, which owns the largest content-style native advertising platform (Adblade) on the internet as well as the Adblade Exchange, and Zemanta, a leading native content demand-side platform (DSP), just launched both a partnership and a platform integration.

“Buying on the Adblade Exchange through the Zemanta One Content DSP, marketers can, for the first time, programmatically bid in real time on billions of monthly content-style native ad impressions across thousands of desktop and mobile websites,” according to a provided statement. “Adiant has simplified the RTB content-style native ad buying process with the creation of the Adblade Exchange. The way in which Adiant has developed their RTB technology makes it easier for DSPs to administer, manage inventory, and meet goals for content-style native advertising campaigns.”

One benefit, say the companies, is improved scalability available to marketers.

“We’re pleased to offer Adiant’s RTB exchange thru the Zemanta One Content DSP,” said Todd Sawicki, Zemanta CEO, “Both teams are committed to delivering true targeting and audience buying capabilities to the world of content ads and native advertising.”

Adiant’s Adblade Exchange currently delivers highly targeted native ads through its advanced RTB system to thousands of firms, including major publishers such as McClatchy Newspapers, Worldnow, Lee Enterprises, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Times, ABC News, Hearst, and many others.

The post Taking the Problematic Out of Programmatic with Advanced RTB Technology appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The Index, without question, is an important one. With ad fraud becoming the plague of modern mobile advertising, the industry’s first comprehensive Real-Time Bidding (RTB) quality rating standard has been sorely needed for some time.

Pixalate, if you’re not familiar, is a respected programmatic analytics platform that offers an impressive degree of fraud protection.

The Pixalate Global Seller Trust Index evaluates RTB quality from more than 400 active exchanges and ad networks across a range of data and ranks the 20 top-rated sellers.

“OpenX operates the world’s cleanest and largest independent ad exchange,” said Qasim Saifee, senior vice president of Monetization Platform at OpenX. “Delivering consistently exceptional results is a hallmark of a trusted pool of inventory. By providing both buyers and publishers with an environment in which they are able to trade impressions safely, transparently and with confidence, the OpenX Ad Exchange provides all marketplace participants with ongoing optimal value.”

The post OpenX Marks the Spot on Trust Index for Real-Time Bidding appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That begins Yi’s essay, recently posted at Adotas, on the changing fortunes of Real Time Bidding (RTB).

Yi believes “RTB has still not fully shaken off its dubious reputation of being murky and opaque.”

What should ad buyers expect from RTB campaigns?

“To keep up with the trend of vastly more targeted advertising,” Yi contends.

Here are three key areas Yi thinks advertisers need to see addressed by RTB platforms “in order to see their bids live up to their full potential”:

1. Granular data-driven targeting: knowing every bid inside and out

“Programmatic markets add much more value for buyer and seller when high degrees of first party, third party and proprietary data are involved. “

2. High intent customers: taking first party data to the next level

“High intent customers are the ultimate lead generation opportunity – if advertisers can correctly identify them and be relevant to them at the right time.”

3. Data-driven transparency: illuminating the shadowy reaches of every ad impression

“Transparency is one of the ad tech world’s biggest buzz words. Ad buyers find that there is still an obstacle between them and a true understanding of the value of every impression – and it comes down to transparency.”

Yi notes that ad buyers have groused about RTB inventory not being “as premium” as other forms of programmatic, and claims costs are still too high for buyers to see pronounced value.

“But increasingly, mainstream programmatic trends are seriously shaking up the RTB space and ushering in a data-driven Age of Enlightenment, when the value of RTB is being reassessed and reinvented,” concludes Yi. “In this new era of hyper-impactful RTB, the value of every bid and the true meaning of every impression can be data-verified and help ad buyers not only get greater bang, but more qualified leads, for their buck.”

There’s much more to read in Yi’s essay. See for yourself here.

The post Has ‘Age of Enlightenment’ Arrived for RTB? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post from Or Shani, CEO and founder of Adgorithms.

With a recent boom in ad technology, many marketers are lost as to how they can use it to drive mobile campaigns. One of the strongest developments is in programmatic media buying, but the Wall Street Journal found in a recent survey that only 23 percent of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) understand programmatic advertising enough to use it in campaigns, and 12 percent of respondents haven’t heard of it at all. When implemented correctly, predictive programmatic media buying can get mobile marketers to their goals faster, with a better response to market dynamics and even a reduction in the incidence of ad fraud – and all without wasting valuable budget dollars on manual trial-and-error schemes.

What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising uses machine-learning technology and real-time bidding (RTB) to purchase digital ads. Online programmatic campaigns are booked, executed, analyzed and optimized via demand-side platform (DSP) or supply-side platform (SSP) interfaces and algorithms. With programmatic advertising, advertisers can set a specific budget that they are willing to spend. Some have specific requests, such as certain websites an advertiser would like to be featured on, or a certain type of audience, demographic or geo-location. In comparison to human ad buyers, programmatic methods offer an inexpensive and reliable way to buy and sell digital ads. Manual buying requires humans to combine huge amounts of data and negotiate for the best campaign results possible. And humans are also prone to mistakes, so having a machine to ensure the process goes smoothly wherever possible creates a more efficient process. It’s important to note that the biggest difference between advertising via desktop and mobile is that mobile doesn’t support cookies. This means it’s even harder to track whether ads are reaching the right customer at the right time and if they’re having a positive effect.

Is programmatic the future of ad buying?

Programmatic buying in the mobile space is on the rise. According to Smaato’s Q4 2013 Mobile RTB Insights, global spend on mobile RTB in the entirety of 2013 increased by 466 percent. And research from IDC predicts spending on mobile RTB in the U.S. will grow to $1 billion by 2015 and $3 billion by 2017.Already, a large portion of advertising is traded programmatically, and agencies and brands are eager to buy media through programmatic channels. Some have even gone as far as building in-house teams to handle the programmatic ad buying. Up until now, programmatic has been largely used for online advertising, but brands and advertisers are beginning to explore ways to bring programmatic capabilities to TV and social media platforms.

What are the benefits?

The mobile landscape is currently a very complex and granular ecosystem full of various players, apps and devices, creating an overabundance of targeting possibilities. Given these variables, programmatic buying is a natural fit for mobile advertisers, as the machine-learning algorithms that automate buying decisions only enhance performance the more data points it has to pull from. And it does so at a speed that manual campaign optimization can’t match.

Mobile advertisers using programmatic buying can target the right audience at the right time. The process delivers campaign results that are extremely targeted and at a larger scale. When combined with RTB, advertisers can leverage third-party data to automatically select and optimize their campaigns to ensure success. The best programmatic campaigns follow the consumer as he moves between channels and touchpoints within the customer lifecycle, allowing for each interaction to be predicted and informed by the next.

Programmatic advertising allows marketers to develop a strategy that best engages with its target audience. But it’s not without its challenges, as mobile is a fragmented and young industry. In traditional display advertising, the ecosystem is relatively stable with around four to seven big exchanges and sources. In mobile, there are many networks, companies and exchanges making it more difficult to work, buy and optimize campaigns. However, programmatic advertising can streamline the manual overload to make mobile ad spend more manageable. Marketers can use customer data to increase their advertisements’ effectiveness, preventing budget dollars from being wasted on consumers that have no interest in their brands or products. For consumers, programmatic buying increases the relevancy of ads that are presented to them, delivering higher quality experiences.

The post Opinion: Why Programmatic is the Future of Mobile Advertising appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

At Smaato, for example, spending for RTB “exploded” between the first quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014 on their mobile dedicated RTB-enabled ad exchange. They report growth of 459% and have already predicted that 2014 would experience some of the strongest increases in RTB spending ever seen.

While practically all industry sectors are seeing a good amount of increased spending, it’s the entertainment industry that’s definitely seeing the biggest rise in ad spending with mobile RTB with over a 3^rd of all RTB spending at 37%.

The next biggest sector was technology and telecom at 24% of the market, while 11% was grabbed by business and finance.  Advertising, at 8%, was quite left far behind and at the bottom were fashion and retail, travel, social and dating, all of which were at 5% or less.

With mobile RTB ad volume that grew by over 46% between the last quarter of 2013 in the first of 2014, entertainment was also dominant in many content categories and watched its percentage share of mobile ad impressions jump from 26% to 38%, which is impressive on its own.

Of course this jump meant that, as far as their share of traffic volume was concerned, all other categories, including music, communications, social media, technology and games, lost ground.

The post RTB Spend to Increase Markedly by 2018 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

SiteScout, a self-serve platform for programmatic ad buying, regularly sees 30 billion ad impressions each day. But it now accesses an additional 1.5 billion daily video impressions through integrations with top video SSPs and exchanges including LiveRail and SpotXchange.

We’re told that SiteScout can run in-stream video campaigns with pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll placements. Encompassing desktop, mobile and now video.

“Online video RTB is inaccessible for small and mid-sized marketers,” the company says, explaining that many ad networks and ad buying platforms for video ask for thousands of dollars in minimum campaign spend and do not provide insight on their technology.

Additionally, many firms that do offer self-serve technology for video don’t support other tactics like desktop or mobile RTB.

“Marketers have to log into multiple systems to run multi-channel campaigns, making it difficult to manage and optimize ad spend,” SiteScout adds, explaining that they have found a way to mitigate these challenges.

“Video can draw a visceral response from consumers in a way that a desktop banner or mobile ad may not. SiteScout wants to make online video advertising as easy as advertising on desktop and mobile,” said Matt Sauls, the company’s vice president of operations. “SiteScout makes it easy to combine the power of video with standard display tactics to create synergy across all major digital channels.”

The post Video Comes to Leading Self-Serve RTB Platform appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The Big Game is history and the winner was clear: mobile advertising.

Before the Seahawks pummeled the Bronco’s last Sunday, we talked about how this year’s Super Bowl would be a mobile-driven, advertising powerhouse. WithLocals, the peer-to-peer travel experiences startup, took the plunge and decided that a mobile ad campaign would be a better bet than a Super Bowl television ad given their marketing budget. Well, the stats are in and should you need additional convincing about the importance of mobile and real time bidding (RTB), I invite you to consider the following data from the mobile Withlocals ad campaign during this year’s Super Bowl.

• For a mobile display ad, a flat bid of $35 cost only $2.95 CPM on average*
• Before the game, the average CPM on mobile RTB inventory was $3.48; during the game it dropped to $2.39

*Remember, in RTB multiple buyers bid for specific impressions. The highest bidder wins the auction and can then serve a display ad. However, here’s the important part, the highest bidder will only pay the second-highest price (as a second-price auction is the default model in RTB). For example, a bid price of $35 CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) does not mean that an advertiser has to actually pay $35. In many cases, the second-highest price (a.k.a. the clear price) is considerably lower.

Average CPMs for mobile ads for Super Bowl XLVIII were incredibly affordable this year:

• The winning team’s homepage: Seahawks.com = $1.15
• The NFL homepage: NFL.com = $2.19
• The biggest newspaper sites in Seattle: The Seattle Times = $3.42 and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer = $4.10
• The biggest newspaper sites in Denver: The Denver Post = $6.14 and The Denver Westword = $4.79
• Prominent sports domains: 247sports.com, cbssports.com, and foxsports.com = $1.84

According to AT&T’s blog, total data usage in the stadium was more than 624GB; the highest number AT&T has ever seen from a one-day sporting event. For context, 624GB is the equivalent of 1.8 million social media posts that include photos.

Verizon also won big time. According to Verizon’s News Center, the company handled more than 800% more data connections during the game than the busiest hour from last year’s Super Bowl—and used more data in MetLife stadium in one hour than was the case in any previous Super Bowl.

This data from the Seattle versus Denver faceoff fully supports the premise that mobile advertisers can enjoy extremely relevant audience targeting despite a limited budget. What are you waiting for?

The post MMW Op-Ed: Super Bowl XLVIII Changes the Mobile Ad Space appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.