Wout Van Damme is the CEO of Funbox, a multi-channel performance trading desk and here he talks about the Funbox offering of a performance based media buying service across display, mobile, video, social, search and affiliate channels. He discusses how being platform agnostic allows continuous innovation, the ability to split test across exchanges and DSPs for the most effective inventory source and how advertisers work with them on a CPC, CPL, revenue share or CPW (Cost-Per-Whatever) basis.

Can you give an overview of Funbox exchange offering in the Australian and international markets?

We see there is a gap between advertisers who have a growing appetite for performance traffic and publishers who still want get paid on an impression basis. We bridge that gap, by buying traffic on a CPM basis and selling it to our clients on a performance basis, which can be CPC, CPL, CPA or revenue share, essentially we’re happy to run on a CPW (Cost – Per – Whatever) basis. While doing this we take away or reduce the media buying risk for advertisers. Funbox was founded in Sydney in 2004 as a direct response advertiser and started to use its knowledge and expertise to help other organizations succeed online 2 years ago. Funbox is based in Australia were the majority of the 25 employees reside, but operates globally and generates most of its revenue outside of the home market.

Where does Funbox sit in the ecosystem?  Would you see yourself as Demand Side Network, DEM or exchange trader?

We view ourselves as multi-channel performance trading desk and our product is a media buying service for advertisers which will increases reach and reduces their media buying risk. Through Funbox advertisers have access to display, mobile and video ad exchange inventory on a performance basis.  In addition to that we also have a performance offering for the social, search and affiliate channels. Since we are heavily performance focussed we have a vested interested in click through rates and conversion rates and use our remotes in direct response to help develop better creatives and landing pages for our advertisers, which generally results in a higher ROI for both our clients and for us.

How are you helping advertisers and agencies deliver improved performance?

We are fully platform agnostic and have access to the latest and most effective technologies which ensures we achieve the best possible campaign results for our clients.  It is absolutely amazing how many new companies and new technology platforms are popping up all the time in this space and we’re always willing to test new platforms and explore their potential to add value.  For example, a recent development we found very effective is a dynamic ad unit which allows us to run 3 different banners in one ad unit, this drastically increases click through rates and conversion rates.  Another new product we are seeing great results with is search re-targeting on display which allows you to re-target users based on search keywords they have typed in a search engine. Being able to stay on top of these new technologies and testing their effectiveness is paramount for the continuous improvement of campaigns.

Are you just buying across dynamic inventory or do have managed publishers as well?  What exchanges are you buying from, ad exchanges or SSP sources?

We are demand side focused and our commitment is to making campaigns work for advertisers. In order to achieve this we keep our inventory completely dynamic; we only acquire custom inventory per campaign. Audience segments will be defined for each campaign and depending on campaign specifics we target certain inventory through multiple exchanges and DSPs. We are currently using four different DSPs and have our own seats on various exchanges. What we do is split test various exchanges and DSPs against each other and the most effective inventory source will win the most budget. We have seen a lot of performance differences between various DSPs and have experienced that the different DSP algorithms can greatly affect the campaign results in a positive or negative way. In addition to that some DSP’s have better features and functionalities than others or some are very good for specific purposes, like the 3 in 1 ad unit or search re-targeting on display or have excellent capabilities for certain types of clients. We will be launching a new product which is uniquely positioned to work in e-commerce, it allows you to personalize the retargeting of users based on abandoned cart items, previously browsed items and complimentary or related products

Are much of the exchange campaigns in Australia DR focused?  Is there much brand flowing into the automated channel?

The demand on exchanges is partly DR and partly performance campaigns from brand advertisers. Given the current remnant character of exchanges, especially in Australia, the traffic is more suited for performance campaigns than for branding campaigns.

The big five publishers have a pretty tight grip over inventory in the Australian market.  Is much of the available impressions Australian IPs from foreign publishers?

Yes, it is a known story that the Australian market is consolidated and that the big publishers have been reluctant to bring inventory to exchanges so far. We do see that there is a growing interest from some of the big publishers and they are experimenting with exchanges, but it will take time before we see substantial amounts of traffic flowing to the automated channel.  In terms of the current inventory, it is mostly made up by Australian long tail publishers and Australian IP’s from foreign publishers - which at the current demand level is sufficient.

 How advanced is the data market in Australia?  Are you buying third party data for any campaigns?  Are there any third party providers active in the market?

We are buying third party data in Australia, but at a limited scale. For the big international players Australia has not been a priority so far. The providers we have spoken with are moving into Europe first before entering into this market and will probably take another 6 months before there will be data at scale.

How do you see the exchange marketplace developing over the coming months?  What trends will dominate?

The exchange marketplace has gained a lot of traction in the last year and will keep building momentum in the coming year. The big agencies have launched or will launch their exchange buying offering and we will see more DSP platforms enter into the Australian market and set up data centres in this part of the world. More advertisers will directly or indirectly explore exchange buying and become more comfortable with this way of buying media. Overall the good news for advertisers is that there generally are still a lot of ways they can lower acquisition cost and increase sales through display advertising. Exchange buying is one element of this, but it needs to be looked at from an end to end perspective: creative’s, landing pages, conversion funnel, conversion attribution, data and media buying all need to be optimised to get the most out of the media spend and it will take some time before this will be achieved.

In the longer term the outlook for the RTB auction type media buying is going to look even brighter. We believe that this will become the standard for all digital media buying activities. There are already platforms live that will allow RTB for digital Out-of-Home advertising and with radio and TV being digitalized and convergence between TV and Internet on the horizon it will be a matter of time before will be able to bid for TV advertising space.

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