Search »

Platform-A Steps into Online Ad Exchange Space with BidPlace

AOL’s Platform-A is getting into the online ad exchange space with BidPlace, a self-service marketplace exchange with an eye toward helping marketers better manage their display campaigns.

BidPlace is expected to launch in the first half of next year. The marketplace will let advertisers bid for CPM, CPC and CPA ads on AOL, across other partner sites and across Platform-A’s third party network, according to Platform-A.

Platform-A pres Lynda Clarizio says the difference between BidPlace and other online ad exchanges, like Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange, is the power of the AdLearn optimizer, which AOL acquired when it purchased Advertising.com for in 2004.

For marketers running a CPA campaign, they can use a simple set of tags and have AdLearn discover the best places on the network to run media to meet a specific ROI, without having to compute each place individually. “With other exchanges, you can bid on inventory, which is a fantastic thing for an advertiser, but how do you know that you have the algorithmic intelligence to bid on the right places?” she says, via paidContent.

Another online exchange, ADSDAQ, says it offers a similar capability: The technology “machine-reads” millions of content pages, in real time, to deduce what they are about so that ads are put into a context that supports the ad message.

William Morrison, partner and senior internet analyst at ThinkPanmure, says the online ad exchange marketplace is now a $1.1 to $1.2 billion market.