Diverse Publisher Inventory and Campaigns Optimized for Mobile Enable Audience Hyper-Targeting for Global Brands and Advertisers
SAN FRANCISCO – Smaato, the leading global mobile Real-Time Bidding (RTB) ad exchange (SMX) and Sell Side Platform (SSP), announced significant growth in 2014. Smaato more than doubled its demand side partners (DSPs) to 340+ from 120 in 2013. Smaato’s SMX now connects more than 80,000 publisher partners, 110 Ad Networks, and 230 DSPs.
“Big brand advertisers are starting to see beyond the black hole of self-fulfilling, user-generated platforms like Facebook and Twitter (MoPub)”
Across the US, EMEA and APAC regions, Smaato boasts 540 million monthly unique visitors and an average of 120 billion monthly ad impressions — up from 40+ billion monthly ad impressions in 2013. Furthermore, 91 of the top 100 Ad Age brands appear on SMX with Consumer Product Goods as the largest buyer category. As a result, Smaato is the largest global mobile RTB ad exchange.
Smaato’s growth was fueled by increased demand from big brands and advertisers leveraging Smaato’s independent mobile-first platform and SSP for a wide array of inventory. This diverse inventory allowed optimization of their campaigns by leveraging new technology in the mobile programmatic marketplace.
“Big brand advertisers are starting to see beyond the black hole of self-fulfilling, user-generated platforms like Facebook and Twitter (MoPub),” said Ragnar Kruse, Chief Executive Officer of Smaato. “Brands are finding ways to optimize their mobile campaigns with a broader and more diverse supply of inventory that Smaato can offer. Our growing number of publisher partners deliver the most relevant content and audiences. With this data advertisers can better hyper-target in the global mobile market.”
SMAATO KEY GROWTH DRIVERS – 2014:
Diverse Platforms Offer Broader Audience Inventory
Smaato’s owned and operated advertising technology was built for mobile first publishers and application developers. This year, Smaato invested heavily in a supply side-focused platform, branded SPX, which provides supply partners a free mobile ad server with access and controls to Smaato’s Real-Time Bidding exchange (SMX) and its entire mediation network. 2014 heralded the importance of this platform for publishers who needed an independent mobile ad-tech partner not focused on serving their own inventory.
According to Smaato’s Chief Business Officer, Ajitpal Pannu, “SPX allows publishers to manage all direct and indirect campaigns including RTB and mediation, leveraging Smaato’s own Dynamic Demand logic. Globally, larger audiences across 80,000 publishers and a wide selection of applications now provide brands and advertisers more options beyond Facebook and Twitter.”
Anonymous User Data Yielded Higher eCPM on Smaato Exchange (SMX)
Smaato’s accelerated growth was also a result of higher advertising rates commanded from anonymous user data (e.g. location, age and gender data). When this data was made available in a privacy-safe manner to bidding advertisers, it yielded significantly higher eCPMs and fill rates for publishers. Publishers on Smaato’s platform can build, control and offer first-party data segments, similar to what Facebook does. However, unlike Facebook, Smaato does not tap into the same, user-generated content.
Mobile Advertising Spending Follows Exponential Growth in Smartphones
Smaato’s growth continues to be fueled by the install base of smartphones in the global market where 1 billion devices are projected to be added each year for the next three to four years. Recent eMarketer and Gartner studies predict that global mobile ad spending is on pace to rise another 75% to $31.5 billion this year. Consumers now spend 32% more time on mobile than on desktop. Aligned with that growth, the Smaato RTB exchange has experienced 466% growth YOY in RTB and 140% growth in RTB spending, excluding Q4 numbers. Marketers and advertisers are taking heed of the capacity of mobile programmatic advertising’s impact. Big brands, particularly those in the CPG buyer category, have paid attention to this trend. From Q2 2014 onward, CPG has been the largest spend category of RTB advertisers on the SMX exchange, according to data from Smaato’s RTB Insights Report.
About Smaato
Smaato is the leading global mobile RTB ad exchange (SMX) helping mobile app developers and publishers increase ad revenues worldwide. As an industry pioneer and leader, Smaato operates the leading mobile RTB ad exchange and Supply Side Platform across 80,000+ mobile app developers and mobile publishers. On the demand side, Smaato globally connects 340+ Demand Partners (110+ Ad Networks and 230+ Demand Side Platforms and Trading Desks).
Smaato is an initial member of the OpenRTB Mobile subcommittee and an active member of the Mobile Marketing Association, Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), Singapore Infocomm Industry (SITF), Singapore IT Federation and the German Digital Media Association BVDW. Smaato received a Top 100 Private Company Award by AlwaysOn Media (2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009 & 2007), is one of the AlwaysOn Global 250 winners in the Mobile category (2014, 2013, 2012 & 2011) and was named a “company to watch in 2010″ by Financial Analyst Company GP Bullhound.
Smaato’s global headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The privately held company was founded in 2005 by an experienced international management team. Smaato’s European office is in Hamburg, Germany. The APAC office is in Singapore.
Learn more at www.smaato.com, and follow us on Twitter @Smaato and on Facebook.com/Smaato.
