PubMatic and xAd Expand Partnership with the Industry’s First Geo-Enabled Mobile Private Marketplace

New Offering from PubMatic and xAd Bolsters Mobile Programmatic Targeting Capabilities

New York, NY – PubMatic, the programmatic advertising platform for leading publishers, and xAd, the industry’s leading global location ad platform, today announced the launch of the first ever location-enabled private marketplace for premium mobile ad inventory. Expanding on the companies’ shared location-verified mobile marketplace announced in May, this latest offering will provide publishers, media buyers, and brands a new, high-quality channel to buy and sell premium location-aware mobile inventory.

“We have believed for a long time that mobile’s ability to reach and influence consumers’ purchase behavior when they are in close proximity to a store location represents a significant opportunity; the ability to identify premium supply coming from in and around key points of interest can do for mobile what search did for the Internet in the early digital days,” said Dipanshu “D” Sharma, CEO at xAd.

While mobile is often used to browse for products and services, most retail transactions are still happening in-store, a fact that has limited overall media spend due to the complexities of measuring the offline impact of mobile advertising. However, today’s announcement represents a breakthrough in the effort to link mobile advertising directly to sales. PubMatic and xAd are doing so through the use of rich location data to pre-define categories of inventory originating from high foot traffic locations such as grocery stores, shopping centers and auto lots.

The ability to geo-target potential consumers at key decision making moments that can influence visitation into physical store locations is widely regarded as one of the most direct ways to spur consumer engagement. Underscoring this point, a recent report from eMarketer forecasts that local-mobile advertising spend will rise to $10.81 billion by 2017, surpassing spending on national campaigns for the first time[1].

“Since we launched the exclusive xAd location-verified mobile marketplace in May, our partnership has produced tremendous results for both companies,” said Bob Walczak, GM & VP of Product at PubMatic. “A premium location marketplace at this massive global scale delivers on the promise of mobile marketing by delivering relevant ads based on the combined context of what a consumer is doing and where they are doing it. It’s innovative partnerships like this that are pushing the industry forward and benefitting every party involved.”

The new mobile, location-enabled Private Marketplaces launched this month, serving tens of billions of monthly impressions in a variety of categories, including 2.4 billion monthly impressions in the Automotive category, 2.3 billion in Shopping, and 1.2 billion per month in the Grocery category. This inventory will meet PubMatic’s high standard for providing premium mobile inventory, the majority of which is application-based, location-verified and aware, transparent, rich media-enabled, and will pass IDs whenever possible. The new Private Marketplaces will enable the targeting of a range of mobile specific parameters, including IDFA, MRAID, and lat/long.

About xAd

xAd is the global location marketplace bringing together buyers and sellers with ad targeting solutions focused on driving in-store traffic and sales.  The company is uniquely focused on capturing in-store visitation behaviors for ad targeting, insights, and measurement solutions. The first to visualize real-time foot traffic, xAd customers include 1.5 million advertisers – including direct brand relationships, agencies, ad networks, and other demand side media companies. Connect with xAd at www.xad.com, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

About PubMatic

PubMatic is a technology platform that powers the programmatic advertising strategy of leading publishers and premium brands. Its innovative solutions help content providers drive the highest value for their digital media assets and provide consumers with a more personalized advertising experience across display, mobile and video. PubMatic’s One Platform, proprietary technology and advanced mobile capabilities are utilized by a global roster of comScore publishers. Pioneering online auctions for the buying and selling of media through Real-Time Bidding (RTB) and Private Marketplace (PMP), the company also works with hundreds of advertising partners. Ranked by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing companies in the US Internet sector in both 2012 and 2013, PubMatic has offices worldwide with headquarters in Redwood City, California.