Yahoo’s purchase of a 20 percent stake in Internet ad exchange RightMedia this week moves the search ad industry toward a profile-based exchange, according to the CEO of one search agency.
RightMedia, which created the RightMedia Exchange, makes the market more efficient by letting more advertisers and publishers interact, said Roy Shkedi of AlmondNet, New York.
For example, if one ad network signs a telecom advertiser but has few sites where such ads would perform well, the RightMedia Exchange lets the network deliver the ads within a second ad network, one where telecom ads perform better, he said. This gives advertisers access to more ad space.
RightMedia processes non-premium inventory, which is best for behavioral targeted ads such as the ones delivered by AlmondNet.
AlmondNet, for example, will place anonymous cookies with visitors who search for the term “car insurance” on a site. AlmondNet then would be presented with profiles, and when that person later is found within ad space processed by RightMedia, AlmondNet can deliver a car insurance ad in the low value ad space, Mr. Shkedi said.
The consumer sees a relevant ad while his privacy is maintained. The advertiser reaches a prospect wherever he is. The owner of the ad space gets a higher price, and the profile provider makes money from its visitors when they are not on its site.
RightMedia boosts the value of leftover ad space not only by letting advertisers and publisher interact, Mr. Shkedi said, but also by enabling behavioral targeting of the ad space based on profiles collected elsewhere.
“Yahoo, by making some of its non-premium inventory available through RightMedia, will provide additional liquidity and scale to a marketplace that could benefit entire the advertising ecosystem,” he said.
