Smart AdServer has launched Smart Buyer Connect (SBC), a direct-first platform built for advertisers to manage deals and private marketplace (PMP) buying.
This offering signals the company’s shift from a publisher-focused platform to a vertically-integrated platform that serves the interest of both buyers and sellers following the company’s acquisition of demand-side platform, LiquidM, last year.
At a time when advertisers are moving away from open auctions and towards more direct deals, SBC provides buyers with the autonomy to manage their own direct deals with publishers in a fast, efficient, and trustworthy manner.
2020 has seen a shift in the market, with advertisers moving away from open auctions towards private marketplaces as they seek more direct and transparent transactions – programmatic direct is expected to account for $65 billion of US digital display ad spend by 2022. Now, more than ever, buyers want fast, efficient, and trustworthy deal management – this is what SBC offers.
SBC is a platform that provides buyers with a suite of tools to efficiently operate their PMP transactions on Smart’s inventory. Among these, the real-time media planning tool enables buyers to discover inventory with Smart’s publishers, providing an overview of the entire volume of auctions available on Smart’s supply side platform (SSP). With full visibility of the publishers available, buyers can create completely customisable auction packages in minutes, selecting bespoke targeting parameters – including formats, performance, audience segments, and semantic context – and immediately evaluating the reach they will achieve within a cross-publisher environment.
SBC provides autonomy to buyers to manage their own deals with powerful troubleshooting tools that address delivery issues during set up, as well as improve the delivery rate of live deals. These tools combined bring buyers and sellers closer together: reducing the time it takes to trade on media while boosting transparency and efficiency. The platform is complementary to demand side platforms (DSPs) and will further evolve to meet changing buyer needs.
“At Smart, we take a shared-interest business approach, serving the needs of both the demand and supply side, rather than the needs of the middleman”, commented Arnaud Creput, CEO of Smart. “We are very pleased to announce the launch of SBC to support this approach – facilitating direct and high-performing deals that improve our buyers’ user experience and results. In this way, we hope to rebuild trust within programmatic trading, offering value path optimisation built fundamentally on transparency, accountability, and data security.”
