Online ad auction platform AdECN announced Aug. 23 the addition of three new members to its exchange, almost 10 months since its launch with only one client signed on.
The new seat holders are Los Angeles marketing company AMS Global Online, New York ad network A Simple Internet, and Denver, CO-based ad broker Sierra Group Marketing.
The cost of a seat varies, based on each member’s projected volume and the quality of its traffic. AdECN also charges members a transaction fee, based on the volume of transactions, for every auction it runs.
“We know we can handle at least a billion impressions a day,” said Bill Urschel, CEO of AdECN . “We’re talking to partners who want to serve tens of billions of impressions a day.”
Since launching in October 2005, AdECN operated with only one ad network: Carpinteria, CA-based Experclick.
The AdECN exchange is structured like a stock exchange. Members buy on the exchange for advertisers and sell on it for publishers. Members’ advertisers place bid amounts in advance. However, an automated auction takes place immediately among all the interested advertisers for each ad impression whenever a visitor lands on a page.
SpotBot, a feature that checks the history of a spot and compares its performance to that of others in its category, and automatically reduces an advertiser’s bid if the spot underperforms its peers.
Mr. Urschel said that the feature was not there to price the spot. But it was included to control overbids, prevent arbitrage and add value to the exchange by insuring advertisers don’t waste money on poorly performing spots.
Bids are placed on a cost-per-thousand, cost-per-click, cost-per-acquisition or cost-per-lead basis.
“Not all [online ad] spots are created equal,” Mr. Urschel said. “We are very aware of people bringing on inventory that nobody wants.”
Along with hosting the auction, AdECN provides targeting and tracking technologies, ad serving and accounting for its seat members.
“We’re not out to change the way the retail end of the business works,” Mr. Urschel said. “The biggest offering we have for the ad networks is liquidity and efficiency.”
