Right Media Spurs Network Sparring Over Small Site Inventory

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As more and more small publisher ad networks come on board, Right Media has created an exchange system forcing network competition to serve ads on lesser-trafficked sites. RMX Direct pits networks against one another, awarding ad serving rights to the one agreeing to pay the highest cost per impression. Right Media has selected nine partner networks for the service, which also provides publishers with reporting.

"RMX Direct is about providing a tool for you to manage those small advertiser solutions... making them compete with each other," said Right Media Director of Business Development Patrick McCarthy. While in beta, the system has signed on 750 publishers. These are sites "that don't have sales forces so they're primarily using ad networks to fill their ad space," added McCarthy, who said sites from blogs to gaming sites and community forums are using the service. Sites with any amount of traffic are welcome to join the exchange, which is free to them.

In addition to employing the system for use with any or all of Right Media's nine partner networks, publishers can also send networks such as Google AdSense and Advertising.com into the ring to duke it out, if they are part of those networks. The system keeps track of all bids from all ad campaigns and creatives and knows how much its network partners are willing to pay to place those ads. In the case of non-partner networks, the system estimates the maximum amount a network might pay, according to McCarthy. If a partner network pays the highest, Right Media serves the ad, while it redirects that ad call to non-partners paying the most.

In December, 3.75 billion ad impressions were served through the system, earning publishers more than $1.4 million in ad revenue, according to the company. Each network pays publishers separately on a monthly basis, McCarthy added.

In addition to its own Remix Media ad network, the firm has chosen CPX Interactive, Bannerconnect, Adtegrity.com, Oridian, Active Response Group, Rydium, Accelerator Media and Directa Networks as network exchange partners.

Managing and understanding which networks are delivering the most revenues can be a challenge for publishers using multiple networks. RMX Direct provides full reporting by advertiser and ad size, in addition to showing publishers which networks perform best in which countries. It also offers frequency reporting, which determines the amount paid the publisher each time the same user is served the same ad. "The earlier ad views might be paying a lot more," said more McCarthy, noting cost per impression often dwindles each time the same ad is served to a particular user.

Publishers also can use the company's Media Guard system, which lets them eliminate certain advertiser categories from the pool of potential ads that could be served on their sites. They also have the ability to choose to run only ads priced in particular ways, such as CPM or CPA.

Right media charges networks a monthly fee to access its ad inventory, in addition to taking a cut of the revenues from ads run through RMX Direct. Yahoo purchased a 20 percent stake in Right Media in October.