The rise of mobile ad network aggregators

As we all know the mobile ad market is kicking off big time with a proliferation of different mobile advertising networks.  The more sophisticated mobile sites have for a while been tending to plug in a range of different networks in order to maximise revenues, using their own in-house ad servers.  In perhaps a sign of the increasing maturity of the mobile ad market there are now a range of third party providers emerging to act as mobile ad network aggregators or optimizers.  These services carry out the following functions:

• allow multiple ad networks to be integrated into a site
• determine the best ad network to use for specific countries or handsets 
• ensure higher fill-rates (if you have a large amount of traffic a single ad network is unlikely to be able to fill it, especially without resorting to very low value ads)
• keep advertising fresh to the user by showing a greater variety of ads
• seek out the highest cost per click available at any time across multiple networks
• provide integrated reporting and analytics tools 

Here's a quick run-down of some of the ad aggregators I'm aware of - let me know in the comments if you've heard of any others:

I had a demo of admarvel a while ago and was really impressed.  Admarvel is a spin-off from the Frengo.com startup which was setup by some former Verisign employees and has some great technology behind it.  It integrates multiple ad networks and also allows content providers to use their system to manage their own direct ad sales.  You can access statistics for all your mobile ad accounts from a single interface.  The system takes something like 7-9% of ad revenues in return for providing the service. 

Ringring Media are a UK mobile ad agency startup and the best in the business at getting the best out of mobile advertising on the buy-side.  They also offer a publisher platform that builds on their knowledge of the market and the various prices available to offer sites a platform that will deliver the best revenues.  Ringring have a nice page on their website which explains how their publisher platform works http://www.ringringmedia.com/publisher-solution.html

Smaato offer a similar kind of service to both Ring Ring and Admarvel - they have also signed up some big players like eBay and Mocospace.  They have a nice graphic on their site which helps to explain what an ad network aggregator does.

Do you have any experience of using mobile ad network aggregators - let us know what you think. 

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Comments

[Blackberry weather tracking william]

Mobile advertising revenues are expected to grow tenfold over the next five years, with various estimates ranging from $10 billion to $15 billion for 2011. Heavy Reading estimates a more conservative revenue growth for mobile advertising, but it is certainly true that service providers and technology companies are aggressively targeting this space. Similarly, venture capitalists are pouring funding into the mobile advertising sector, and established online giants such as Yahoo! and Google are increasingly becoming involved with mobile services.