Online ad-serving company Poindexter Systems introduces a tool today that lets advertisers gauge ads that are underperforming and return that inventory to publishers.
The new PassBack functionality is built into Poindexter's optimization product, called the Progressive Optimization Engine. With it, advertisers can track underperforming ad placements in real time and shift money to areas that are performing well. The underperforming inventory is sent back to the publisher.
Rich Person, chief executive of New York-based Poindexter, said the tool is another step to wring waste and inefficiencies from online advertising. The goal is to give advertisers better targeting, letting them pay only for reaching an audience receptive to their message.
“The [ad agency] clients are demanding it,” he said. “They want verifiable results.”
Poindexter works with agencies like Zentropy Partners, Digitas, Hill Holliday and Semaphore Partners.
PassBack works by developing a predictive model based on the first two weeks of a campaign. It maps the performance of different ad placements, then automatically shifts ad placements to the most responsive audience segment. Normally, about 10 percent of inventory is returned, Person said.
Person said publishers readily agree to PassBack as a way to build advertiser loyalty and use their inventory better. Many online publishers themselves use tools from companies like Tacoda Systems and Revenue Science to offer targeted advertising inventory.
