OpenX Launches State-of-the-Art Forecasting System for Digital Ad Serving

OpenX Launches State-of-the-Art Forecasting System for Digital Ad Serving

LOS ANGELES, October 23, 2013 OpenX Technologies, Inc. (OpenX), a global leader in digital and mobile advertising technology, today announced the launch of a forecasting system that enables major publishers to maximize their revenue through accurate inventory management and sets a new standard for the digital advertising industry. The new OpenX forecasting system is a core component of OpenX Ad Server’s innovative technology and provides digital media companies with the data necessary to plan campaigns, measure accuracy and manage their inventory and impressions. It also provides extensive insights into both historical and future web traffic that incorporates information on seasonal trends. The proprietary forecasting system offers a combination of control, speed and accuracy that is unique in the industry and is available now.

While digital advertising growth has skyrocketed, technology that enables publishers to predict and manage their inventory has stagnated, leaving publishers with few options to understand the impressions they have available. Too often, the tools available are plagued with inaccuracies and limited historical data. These inefficiencies prevent publishers from capitalizing on traffic patterns for maximum revenue growth. Without this critical information, publishers have been unable to make key decisions that maximize revenue. Specifically, publishers face the perennial issue of over- or underselling inventory, resulting in lost revenue or inventory shortfalls. In addition, this problem can be compounded by the decoupling of ad serving from forecasting, which leaves publishers with a lack of integrated insight and controls. Advertisers also suffer from these inefficiencies, in particular through campaigns that under-deliver.

OpenX has solved these problems by designing a forecasting system that is tightly integrated within its own platform and therefore gives publishers insight into their analytics and control of their forecasting models. With this information, publishers can predict future web traffic volume and composition and analyze proposed campaigns prior to their launch, resulting in significantly better performance. On average, the system provides 12 percent more accurate daily impression volume estimation than other industry leading ad servers, increasing sell-through rates and allowing publishers to reclaim significant revenue that was previously lost because of under-delivery. Advertisers also benefit from the new system since it helps ensure that their campaigns are delivered on time and in full, preventing the problematic issues associated with make-goods.

The new OpenX forecasting system also greatly improves inventory predictions for targeted audience segments. Publishers now have full control to forecast across multiple targeting variables – including customer-defined variables such as geography, demography, user interest, etc. – and manipulate the data to account for sporadic fluctuations in traffic and, as a result, more accurately predict future trends. This multivariate (rule-based) ad unit level forecasting is on average 45 percent more accurate than traditional single variate site-level forecasting.

Importantly, the system automatically accounts for seasonal traffic adjustments. Publishers may use these adjustments – or their own – at their discretion. Moreover, the system also gives visibility into its own forecasting performance: a process of self-review that ensures its own accuracy through an appraisal of forecasted versus actual results.

“The OpenX forecasting system is a powerful addition to any ad serving platform,” said Andrew Sumitani, manager, business operations, BuddyTV. “The simple reason for that is it’s difficult to improve what you can’t measure. This technology helps correctly project inventory volume and value ahead of time. This is vital to delivering high-impact campaigns and driving meaningful revenue.”

“We’ve made a major investment in helping our publishing partners understand how much inventory they have available to sell, information that is critical to maximizing revenue and achieving their business objectives,” said Nicholas Cumins, senior vice president, products, OpenX. “This major addition to OpenX Ad Server removes the guessing from selling digital ads and gives publishers accurate insights into their future inventory based on historical trends. By working closely with publishers, we are continuing to innovate and solve the fundamental challenges they face and we’re excited to launch our new forecasting system.”

About OpenX

OpenX is a global leader in digital and mobile advertising technology. OpenX’s vision is to unleash the full economic potential of digital media companies. OpenX solutions provide a unique Software as a Service platform by combining ad serving, an ad exchange, which includes Supply Side Platform technology, and content valuation.

OpenX Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenX Software Ltd., is based in Los Angeles and is backed by leading investors including Accel Partners, Index Ventures, SAP Ventures, and Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.

For more information, please visit www.openx.com

OpenX is a trademark of OpenX Limited.