Why Keep Ads? AdKeeper Keen on Coupons

AdKeeper launched this month with a range of major brand partners, but CEO Scott Kurnit says the startup is waiting to see how advertisers extract value from the platform. One strength could be in the online coupon and offers space, he suggested.

The product encourages users to click a small icon within display ads to save them to a personalized gallery on the AdKeeper site, to which they can return at a later date to continue their interaction with the ad or research the brand or product further.

The success of the platform depends entirely on consumer uptake of the ad keeping practice, so how can brands promote that behavior? Speaking with ClickZ this week, Kurnit suggested one incentive could be through the provision of special offers or coupons. An agency source confirmed that AdKeeper is pitching itself in part as a delivery vehicle for deal offers.

“Obviously offers and coupons are a good thing for consumers and they make complete sense for this platform,” Kurnit said, adding that the company also owns the trademark CouponKeeper. However, the firm chose to adopt the wider label of AdKeeper in order to attract a greater range of advertisers, he said. “There’s no question that we like offers, but product research and brand merit also have value.”

The company’s existing roster of 60 advertisers are making use of the service for free until August, with the vast majority using existing creative rather than custom executions tailored for use with the button. Down the line Kurnit hopes advertisers will create ads specifically designed to be kept. One example he used was the auto industry, for which advertisers might include detailed specifications designed to aid the consumer’s purchase consideration process.

Kurnit said he could not predict which portion of those 60 launch partners might turn into full-fledged paying customers. He suggested the free period would extend beyond August to prove value to advertisers and agencies.

In terms of pricing, the AdKeeper icon can be implemented free of charge across any campaign, with advertisers charged only when a user returns to view ads in their AdKeeper gallery, on a CPM, CPA, or CPC basis. Advertisers aren’t charged when a user clicks to keep an ad but fails to view it later, though Kurnit argues that action is in itself an act of engagement.

If and when the product scales, AdKeeper might build detailed behavioral data sets with which to retarget users. But Kurnit stressed that the company has no intention of using or selling user data, apart from providing aggregate reports to its own first-party advertisers.

“We aim to be the most respectful advertising company in the world, and will not use data for retargeting or remarking… We don’t need any of that stuff, were not a data play,” he said.