Facebook is diving deeper into the Web video advertising business. The company announced on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement to acquire the ad technology firm LiveRail - a tech start-up that helps companies place more relevant ads in the videos that appear on their websites and apps. LiveRail also provides a real-time bidding platform for marketers looking to place ads on online videos.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. San Francisco, Calif.-based LiveRail helps media companies sell video ads programmatically. The company, sometimes referred to in ad tech circles as a “supply side” platform, works with clients such as A&E, Univision, Major League Baseball and BET. According to Facebook, LiveRail’s ambition is to become integral to the fast growing online video advertising business.
“What LiveRail ultimately offers is a complete advertising solution for video publishers,” Brian Boland, Vice President of Ads Product Marketing and Atlas at Facebook, wrote in a blog post.
“This is an excellent acquisition and consistent with the acquisition of Atlas, indicating an aggressive push to expand Facebook advertising and data to inventory outside of Facebook’s owned media,” said Brian Lesser, CEO of GroupM’s programmatic buying firm Xaxis.
Mike Henry, CEO of the Web video advertising firm Outrigger Media, theorized that Facebook has its eye on expanding its influence in digital advertising. “LiveRail gives them access to video inventory that wasn’t going to happen organically,” he said. “It’s a strong signal that their ad business needs to grow beyond the walls of Facebook.”
Indeed, Facebook is touting LiveRail’s ability to make Web video ads better for the entire online ad ecosystem.
“We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month,” Mr. Boland wrote. “More relevant ads will be more interesting and engaging to people watching online video, and more effective for marketers too. Publishers will benefit as well because more relevant ads will help them make the most out of every opportunity they have to show an ad.”
Facebook is saying that LiveRail’s technology makes advertising more relevant and interesting. An obvious question is, could Facebook’s rich trove of data on its users, combined with that technology, make those ads that much more relevant? Facebook isn’t currently positioning the deal that way–but it’s interesting to consider, especially if Facebook wants to challenge Google and others in the emerging battle for Web video ad platform supremacy.
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