ContextWeb has just launched an interesting new feature for publishers on its site. The new service, entitled Pubvantage, allows publishers to learn about and connect to ad networks in the US market. Publishers have the opportunity to anonymously rate ad nets on two key criteria: a) the quality of ads served by networks; and b) how quickly they pay their bills. It’s quite useful for any European publishers looking to work with an aggregator, given that most of these players listed on ContextWeb’s Pubvantage site also have a presence in the European market. This will no doubt become an excellent resource on ad nets – and the commentary on their performance will become compelling reading for publishers. Everybody loves a bit of public sneering (well, I do). I do think that ad nets should be allowed to respond to any criticisms about their service - in order to show publishers they’re actively addressing any ongoing problems. I would love to see one of these review sites popping up in Europe. Word of mouth seems to be the only to get ad nets to change any wrong doings in this market. And of course it does help that IASH carries a big stick over here. {Pubvantage]

» There’s some interesting numbers in Adsafe’s industry report for the first quarter of 2010. The most striking is the percentage of campaigns running through automated platforms:

The composition of the buying channels utilized by AdSafe clients varied across the course of Q1 2010, with Ad-Exchanges / Real-Time Bidding Platforms / Demand Side Platforms serving the majority of traffic at 47% of inventory. Ad-Networks served 34% of traffic and Direct Sales served 19% of traffic. This percentage of traffic served by Ad-Exchanges / Real-Time Bidding Platforms / Demand Side Platforms increased significantly from Q4 2009’s share of traffic, suggesting that premium brand advertisers are beginning to shift a larger percentage of media dollars to these channels.

These numbers relate to the US market - and are based on Adsafe clients only. It does suggest a significant change in buying habits for display. Why is this significant for Europe? We tend to be about 6-12 months behind the US in ad-tech development. And you are already seeing significant volumes flowing through exchanges in Europe. According to Adscale CEO, Mathias Pantke, the automated market is expected to rise from 40 million euro to well over 120 million by the end of 2010.