Engage:BDR Launches A Real-Time Bidding Platform With Direct Buying From Publishers

Ad network engage:BDR has launched a new platform for real-time bidding that it’s calling First Impression.

Real-time bidding is already a big part of the online advertising landscape, but Vice President of Platforms Nick Lynch says engage:BDR is bringing a different approach to the problem.

“Most of the RTB companies out there, they come from technology,” he says. “They weren’t networks before they saw a need and built the technology. We’ve been an ad network for four years.”

So Lynch says First Impression is building on the company’s strengths, which include building direct relationships with publishers and serving performance advertisers.

More specifically, he says First Impression is the first real-time bidding platform that allows advertisers to buy inventory directly from publishers in the engage:BDR network, rather than just from ad exchanges. That means advertisers don’t have to worry that their ads are just going to end up running on some random website. In fact, engage:BDR points to a study conducted last year by PubMatic and DigiDay, where 74 percent of brand advertisers said they would increase their RTB spending if they could buy directly from publishers.

President Ted Dhanik says First Impression customers will also have access to engage:BDR ad exchange traffic, and to inventory outside the company’s ad network: “We buy more like an agency. We buy appropriately for what the campaign demands.”