Revenue Science Launches Network

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Revenue Science has unveiled a new network for brand advertisers to run behaviorally targeted banner and rich media ad campaigns.

The Audience Search Network will let advertisers buy aggregated audiences from a single publisher. The ads will appear on multiple sites across the extended network. The publisher who sells a campaign is paid by the advertiser, and a publisher who provides the behavioral audience segment gets a percentage of that CPM.

Some larger advertisers have been hesitant to try behavioral targeting, as the scale isn't conducive to large campaigns. Previously, a brand advertiser would have had to negotiate terms with each site it wanted to advertise on.

Competitor Tacoda announced plans for its own CPM-based network for brand advertisers last month, and has run a pay-per-click text ad network since November.

Under Revenue Science's new model, publishers in the network share complementary audiences, allowing a sports site to access an SUV buyer audience from an automotive site, then sell a brand campaign targeting that audience to an SUV manufacturer, for example.

An advertiser can also export behavior segments from their own sites to publisher sites where they advertise, enabling them to deliver customized campaigns to consumers who have demonstrated interest in their brand.

"Working out an economic infrastructure that ensures fair compensation for all participants is a real key to the value proposition," said Nick Johnson, SVP business development and GM account strategy for Revenue Science. "In existing co-op models, only the publisher who sells a campaign makes money while publishers who provide the valuable behavior used to create the segments are not compensated. This is why many publishers have been anti-network in the past."

Johnson said several brand advertisers, including Hyundai Motor America and Ford Motor Company, have expressed interest in advertising on the network. No advertisers are running campaigns yet.

The network is currently active, with Bolt.com and two other publishers signed, and several others in negotiations to participate, he said.