Admeld announced today that it has entered a number of RTB partnerships for the European market. The company's initial RTB partners include AdJug, AppNexus, Infectious Digital, Invite Media and MediaMath. Publishers should see a lift in yield with the introduction of buyers, who can purchase impressions in real-time.

As well as the dominant US DSPs, Admeld has partnered with some of Europe’s leading exchange players – namely Infectious Digital and Adjug.

Infectious Digital remains Europe’s leading exchange-buying media agency. This technology-driven agency has deep knowledge of trading across the Europe’s ad exchanges, and has delivered strong campaign success for its clients. Martin Kelly, Managing Partner, had the following to say about the new link-up:

It's a big step forward for the industry that premium publishers' inventory is going to be available via Real Time Bidding. Through our partnership with AdMeld, this represents a huge new opportunity for our advertisers to more efficiently reach the quality audiences at scale that they are looking for.

Outside of the Yahoo Right Media Exchange and the DoubleClick Exchange, Adjug is the biggest exchange marketplace in the Europe. This year has seen big growth for Adjug and in July they passed a significant milestone when they sold over two billion ad impressions. The Adjug marketplace has access to large numbers of European media buyers. Michael Stephanblome, CEO of Adjug, sees the RTB partnership as an opportunity for its advertisers to get better ROI on their media buy:

AdMeld and AdJug have had a very successful partnership this year and we are looking forward to driving further expansion of our relationship through AdMeld's RTB in the UK. Real Time Bidding will enable us to drive more campaign performance for our advertisers through optimisation.

What does this all mean for the publisher? How does this technology actually work? And will it improve yield? FarneyMedia caught up with Tom Jenen, Admeld’s EMEA Commercial Director, to get an overview of Admeld’s RTB and the significance of the new European integrations:

How does Real Time Bidding actually work on The Admeld platform?

Real Time Bidding on the AdMeld platform is quite straightforward. Premium buyers connect to the AdMeld marketplace via APIs and bid on a per impression basis. Because they only bid on the impressions they want, there are no passbacks. Also, the days of the paper IO price change are a thing of the past. Buyers adjust their bids per impression call based on the user/publisher site represented at that moment in time.

How does the publisher benefit?

RTB has three main benefits for the publisher: It enables increased competition for their inventory, enhanced transparency and protection, and it is much more efficient operationally than working with traditional network ad tags.

How would you describe RTB to a skeptical publisher, which sees little value in real-time trading?

RTB is a tool like any other in the sense that the value you get from it depends entirely how it’s used. If it’s executed in an environment in which your best interests as a publisher are protected, we think RTB can deliver great results. Simply put, RTB represents one more in a series of methods for you to get the most from of your ad inventory, and in today’s market environment, having every arrow in your quiver is a distinct competitive advantage. That’s not to say RTB is perfect for everyone, but at the very least it should be on every premium publisher’s radar screen.

Can RTB really help to raise CPM rates for publishers?

In the US, RTB is delivering on average higher CPMs than traditional network ad tags—we’ve seen this over more than 6 billion real time bids. That said, the dynamics of each market are different, so time will tell if that trend persists in the UK and European markets. One benefit we’re sure about in all cases is the efficiency RTB brings to bear in the selling process.

Can publishers opt-out of the RTB process?

Yes. It is each publisher’s choice how they wish to manage and monetise their inventory.

What are the technical criteria for ad networks and exchanges to participate in real-time trading on your platform?

Each RTB partner has their own “secret sauce” decisioning algorithm that operates behind every bid, but beyond that, much of the technical challenge of RTB comes in minimising latency so bids can be received effectively and in a timely fashion. AdMeld has a hard limit when it comes to bid response time. All buyers must respond in 150ms or their bids will be ignored. Thus this challenge is overcome by co-locating servers and infrastructure, using caching devices, and effectively using CDN technology to create an effective RTB environment for both buyers and sellers.

Are many European networks using RTB on your platforms?

Beyond the partners we mentioned in our press release, we’re talking and working with several companies about RTB in Europe, but we can’t reveal those relationships right now.

Are European publishers really ready for RTB?

Many are, yes. Granted, RTB is a nascent technology, so there’s still a lot of education to do on both sides of the Atlantic (and elsewhere), but what we’re finding that almost everyone is ready to start talking about it.