PlaceAd is the first mobile demand-side platform (DSP) to deliver reach for location-based campaigns with dynamic localized ads, store level analytics and partnerships with the industry’s leading exchanges and SSPs including PubMatic, MoPub, and Smaato

With over $7 billion in ad dollars shifting to mobile in 2013, advertisers are increasingly looking for ways to generate and measure real-world purchases via mobile marketing. Until today, a major pain point for these advertisers has been the inability to execute a location-based display advertising buy that reaches a large number of mobile consumers with consolidated campaign reporting down to the individual store level. Today, Placecast, the leader in the location-based mobile marketing space, is announcing the launch of a new platform that solves this problem: PlaceAd.

With the launch of PlaceAd, the company is making it easier than ever before for media buyers to target and reach mobile audiences based on their location. In addition to location, advertisers can target and optimize messaging across criteria including age, gender, interests, device type / operating system, time of day, and weather.

PlaceAd is a demand-side platform (DSP) built uniquely to maximize the value of location-based inventory on mobile. PlaceAd’s programmatic buying tools, analytics and included dynamic rich media engine are optimized for location-based campaigns. Placecast’s decision engine automatically optimizes campaign performance, and has been refined over four years, thousands of location-based campaigns and millions of geofences created. By employing Placecast’s patented technology, PlaceAd can manage geotargeted campaigns based on the quality of the location data across billions of impressions with integrated reporting and store-level analytics.

Placecast is also announcing partnerships with some of the largest ad exchanges and SSPs, including PubMatic, MoPub, and Smaato. With these key partnerships in place, Placecast can provide substantial reach for brands across thousands of mobile publishers and billions of monthly impressions.

PlaceAd leverages Placecast’s seven year track record of delivering location-based campaigns for over 300 of the world’s largest brands including Starbucks, L’Oreal, Kiehl’s, Pizza Hut, HP, Subway, and SC Johnson. According to industry estimates, as much as 40 percent of mobile advertising campaigns in categories like consumer packaged goods (CPG) use location-based targeting.

“Mobile advertising, location and real-time bidding are the key ways to reach consumers today, and ad agencies can’t get enough of them,” says Karsten Weide, Program Vice President, Media & Entertainment, at IDC. “PlaceAd is hitting a sweet-spot in the advertiser market and provides a timely solution for the pain points in reaching mobile audiences locally.”

Besides access to many different sources of ad inventory, media buyers also get comprehensive location-based reporting down to the most granular level, including heatmaps that provide a visual illustration of the intensity of impressions and engagement by targeted locations.

Key features of PlaceAd include:

Reach across thousands of safe mobile publishers for location-based mobile display inventory: Via partnerships with PubMatic, MoPub, and Smaato

Transparency on publishers where campaigns run

Real-time bidding: The ability to price and deliver on a per-impression basis in real-time; IAB OpenRTB 2.1 spec compliant

Machine Learning and Optimization: Placecast’s decision engine optimizes campaign performance based on activity across placements and publishers to maximize performance.

Dynamic Creative: Clients can change elements in the ad based on location, time of day, or other info on the consumer

Store-level analytics and reporting: Consolidated campaign reporting shows deliveries, clicks, and other actions across different inventory down to the individual store location. Heatmaps can be used to see campaign activity near targeted areas.

Geotargeting using both proximity geofencing and metro-level data.

Audience targeting though a number of methods: 

  • Contextual targeting based on content
  • Place profiles
  • 3rd party audience data

Third Party Ad Serving Support: Agencies can track their campaign data in DoubleClick for Advertisers or Atlas

“PlaceAd is the latest addition in our toolset that makes it easier for advertisers and agencies to buy location-based mobile campaigns,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of Placecast. “This new offering combines years of geofence marketing expertise with great tools and analytics, that together reduce the friction in buying location-based mobile advertising campaigns at scale.”