Online advertising services giant DoubleClick Inc. has launched its Advertising Exchange Service, an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of online display advertising.
The move comes in response to the needs of buyers and sellers for new methods to generate additional revenue.
“In speaking with our customers, DoubleClick has identified key challenges in how advertising inventory is currently bought and sold,” said Michael Rubenstein, vice president and general manager at DoubleClick’s Advertising Exchange Business Unit.
“Sellers are looking for more ways to sell their inventory and buyers are looking for ways to better reach their target consumers online,” Mr. Rubenstein said. “Exchanges in general – and the DoubleClick Advertising Exchange specifically – allow sellers access to a new and complementary sales channel while simultaneously providing buyers the ability to selectively reach the consumers they need in an efficient and scalable way.”
A study conducted by Forrester Research Inc. shows 25 percent of online advertising inventory is never sold. An additional 15 percent is sold off as leftovers, and even more is undersold.
In other words, buyers are struggling to find the most efficient way to access and selectively target the inventory they want at the right price.
“DoubleClick Advertising Exchange addresses the challenges of buyers by providing a platform where buyers can selectively target only the inventory they desire at scale,” Mr. Rubenstein said. “Without the exchange, advertisers trying to purchase an exclusive set of consumers – say users that had abandoned an online shopping cart – could not easily acquire that audience.”
The DoubleClick Advertising Exchange provides advertisers, agencies, publishers and ad networks with a marketplace where they can buy and sell online display advertising with efficiency, transparency and control.
The exchange service is currently in limited testing with a select group of buyers and sellers in the United States. It is expected to go live in the third quarter and be available worldwide by the end of the year.
Sellers benefit from complete control over how and to whom impressions are sold, what ads are run and at what price. Buyers can use a range of targeting features to improve campaign performance in real time, including tools that enable them to continuously test, measure and modify characteristics such as frequency, reach and location.
“With DoubleClick Advertising Exchange, buyers can target the audience they want without acquiring inventory they don’t,” Mr. Rubenstein said. “For sellers, the challenge is getting the most revenue for every impression regardless of sales channel. Through our integration with DoubleClick’s existing advertising management products, DoubleClick Advertising Exchange can dynamically allocate every impression to the highest paying advertiser regardless of whether that buyer came through the traditional sales channel or the exchange.
“To achieve this, DoubleClick Advertising Exchange also addresses two key elements of an exchange: control and financial clearing,” he said. “Buyers and sellers need control over whom they transact with as well as the type and format of the creative.
“The exchange moves participants from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat in terms of control over their inventory,” Mr. Rubenstein added. “The final challenge is associated with reconciling the financial transactions across thousands of buyers and sellers DoubleClick solves this by acting as the financial clearinghouse for transactions run through the exchange.”
