Ad Network Optimization Service Helps Publishers Sell Unused Inventory Online

AdMeld acts as publisher-ad network go-between.

By Vanessa Voltolina
05/20/2009

AdMeld, an ad network optimization service, works as a liaison between publishing clients and 400-plus ad network partners to sell online publishers’ unsold online inventory.

At a time when many direct sales teams have more unsold inventory than ever—sometimes as much as three-quarters of their total, according to AdMeld—this service is filling the need to match the right ad networks to online publishers and to increase publishers’ revenues from those networks.

“We differ quite significantly from ad networks in that we aren’t one,” said AdMeld CEO Michael Barrett. “We partner with ad networks and have them integrate onto our platform, but our client is actually the publisher.”

The Huffington Post and Sporting News are two of AdMeld’s current 65 online publishing clients. Sporting News uses AdMeld as a “soup-to-nuts” solution. “There are a myriad of networks with value, but we just don’t have the resources to work with them individually,” said Sporting News national digital sales manager Gary Strauss. “They do a solid job of vetting networks for us, handling the paperwork, tagging delivery, etcetera. We rely on them to get us the best CPM.”

How It Works

Each time a page is rendered and an ad is called, if a publisher has not sold it directly, it is sent over to AdMeld’s technology and—based on the user, topic and demographics—AdMeld sends it to the ad network that will pay the highest amount for it. If for some reason the network refuses to serve an ad at that rate, the impression gets sent back to AdMeld, which gives the opportunity to the next highest paying network.

The service is able to make three or more ad network decisions before the ad is rendered. “It has a substantially increasing yield for our publishing partners,” said Barrett.

Recently, AdMeld increased the Huffington Post's revenues from ad networks by 200 percent. “The Huffington Post is an example of a site that has grown in popularity and has a terrific direct sales team,” said Barrett. “They have so much inventory and a partner like AdMeld can help simplify the process of monetizing it. We have found many ad networks that fit in their profile.”

Barrett told FOLIO: that AdMeld’s model has no fixed fees, but publishing clients pay “a percentage of the total revenue that we optimize,” which is “around 10-15 percent.”

IMAGE: AdMeld