ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space, and in this week’s edition: Facebook's ad tech future; Countdown to ATS Paris kicks off with first European Programmatic survey; more consolidation; and more funding in the European ad tech space. 

Ad tech cited as key to Facebook's future

Facebook is planning even more investment in ad tech this week with the company's COO Sheryl Sandberg claiming the shift to mobile was spurring this drive, and CFO David Wehner promising 2015 would be a "significant investment year”.

The comments were made during the social networking giant's latest financial results, where it also revealed revenues of $3.2bn for the third quarter, an increase of 59% year-on-year, with mobile accounting for 66% of total revenues.

During the company's subsequent earnings call, Sheryl Sandberg said the recent relaunch of its ad server Atlas was a significant milestone, and identified ad tech as crucial to the company's development.

Facebook spent an eye-watering $20bn on acquisitions last year, including the $500m purchase of video ad server LiveRail, and most significantly the $19bn takeover of WhatsApp.

Sandberg added: “We are investing in ad tech for a simple reason; consumers are shifting to mobile, and the advertising industry is failing to keep up with that change.”

She elaborated on the thinking behind the focus on ad tech, and how it plays a crucial role, as we enter the 'mobile-first' era.

“We [as an industry] are in the middle of a fundamental shift from cookie-based marketing on desktop, to people-based marketing across mobile devices,” she said.

Sandberg further highlighted the importance of such investments to the wider advertising sector, claiming the industry’s current “overemphasis on last-click” attribution, as well as reliance on cookie-based advertising, was unfit for purpose in a mobile-first era.

“We’ll look to invest in ad tech… and aim to help solve all of these problems,” she added.

This comes as Facebook prepares to make its debut on ExchangeWire's ATS New York and ATS Paris stages, where Lori Goode, Facebook, head of Atlas product marketing, and François-Xavier Pierrel, Facebook, Atlas, regional manager Southern Europe, will take to the stage to talk about its recent Atlas ad server launch.

French survey data unveiled ahead of ATS Paris

ExchangeWire this week lifted the lid on the debut European Programmatic Advertising Survey, which indicated a strong desire for programmatic advertising in the country, although a skills shortage was stunting its development, ahead of ATS Paris on 13 November.

The survey revealed that in line with a lot of other Western European markets, French advertisers’ increased desire to conduct mobile and video ad campaigns across multiple devices is spurring the programmatic market, with data widely recognised as fuelling ad tech.

When survey participants were asked to suggest what they thought some of the key themes for the next 12 months would be, 21% of responses claimed ‘mobile’, while 20% claimed ‘data’, with 13% answering video.

Other notable trends include ‘transparency’, with 9% of responses claiming this would play an important role in how the programmatic industry is shaped over the next 12 months.

Click here for more insights.

Matomy builds on Publicis partnership

Matomy this week announced it has bought UK-based mobile programmatic specialist firm MobFoc for $17.6m, building on its tie-up with Publicis Groupe announced earlier this month.

The deal consists of $10.1m in cash, as well $7.5m in newly issued shares, with MobFox shareholders entitled to an additional payment two years after the closure of the current deal.

Matomy has claimed that once MobFox is integrated into its platform, mobile advertising will generate 20% of its revenues, with Matomy clients able to access its newly-acquired assets, with this share forecasted to rise to 50% within five years.

MobFox's assets include mobile-orientated demand- and supply-side platforms (DSP and SSP), video and native ad unit management platform, as well as a real-time bidding (RTB)marketplace. MobFox's London office will now become Matomy's UK base.

As part of the acquisition, MobFox executives and other key personnel will join the Matomy team, which already has nine offices around the world, including its global headquarters in Israel, and regional headquarters in Germany, Spain, Mexico and the United States. MobFox's London office will become Matomy's UK branch office.

Ofer Druker , Matomy CEO said: "The impressive growth of programmatic and mobile advertising has made it clear that both will form an important part of the future of digital advertising.

"MobFox has built an excellent mobile programmatic advertising solution, and its business fits perfectly into our vision, complementing our performance-based advertising capabilities."

The deal follows the announcement earlier this month that Publicis acquired a 20% stake in Matomy for £40m, with the option to raise this share to 24.9%, raising the value of the purchase to £51m.

The investment in the Israel-based ad network signals the holding group's intention to invest in ad tech, in a move that mirrored rival ad holding group WPP taking a 15% chunk of AppNexus.

Publicis continues ad tech acquisition round

Publicis Groupe is continuing its transition to become a digital-first, cross screen outfit with the purchase of mobile-focused data management platform (DMP) RUN although the transaction fee was not publicly undisclosed.

The purchase brings to Publicis' command RUN's diverse datasets from several sources including mobile operators, ISPs, and feeds into a cross screen DSP for media buying, and will be aligned with Publicis' Starcom MediaVest.

Although other Publicis entities including VivaKi, ZenithOptimedia, DigitasLBi and Razorfish, will also be able to leverage the technology.

In addition, Publicis’ VivaKi will also leverage RUN’s DMP and demand side platform (DSP) technologies across the Publicis group to further enhance its Audience On Demand (AOD) media buying platform.

Laura Desmond, Starcom MediaVest Group, global CEO, said: "The role of the agency has changed. We are no longer negotiating on traditional currencies. We’re negotiating on data and technologies.

"RUN provides the opportunity to break down walled gardens of data across all screens and devices to become a real, meaningful differentiator in how we service current clients and beyond.”

Digital now accounts for 42% of Publicis revenues amounting to €1,748m, and aims to increase this share to 50% within the coming years.

PowerLinks funding raised to $4m

UK-based native advertising company PowerLinks has announced it has closed its second round of funding, with $2.75m in private funding, building on its $1.25m in seed funding dating back to 2012.

The latest round of funding is being used by the company to fuel growth in the US and to further invest in R&D efforts to support the ever-expanding variety of content being traded in the company's native marketplace.

PowerLinks, which served two billion ad impressions per day, also offers advertisers both a buy- and sell-side platform that links to all major ad exchanges, networks, publishers and trading desks, and aims to solve existing fragmentation in the native advertising space.

Similarly, German mobile ad targeting firm AdSquare announced $4.3m in funding this week to accelerate the Berlin based company’s growth and international expansion.

Venture capitalist firm Target Partners made the investment in the location-based targeting firm which analyses the current local context of anonymous users in real time, based on billions of data points.