06/06/2001 -- Advertising.com, Inc. today announced enhancements to its proprietary AdLearn tool, the first technology to automatically optimize online advertising campaigns in real-time. AdLearn technology takes advertising beyond the traditional predictive methods of "targeting" to a specific group or demographic, instead determining the actual best placement for each impression served and maximizing revenue through precise ad delivery. Enhancing this ability to pinpoint ad placement, features such as time-of-day and banner size optimization allow advertisers to consider when an ad will work best and what size ad appeals most to consumers.
 

AdLearn

AdLearn technology is based on a complex mathematical algorithm that factors in properties including placement, creative and site performance-- in addition to time-of-day and banner size-- to “learn” where campaign’s work best and automatically refine placements. AdLearn combines traditional metrics such as reach and frequency with metrics unique to the Internet, such as conversions, to provide advertisers with real-time performance measurement and return on investment data. Based on a full spectrum of advertising objectives, AdLearn provides the highest return for online advertising dollars by eliminating waste and maximizing campaign effectiveness.

"We are the only company delivering true mathematical optimization and guaranteed performance," said Scott Ferber, chief executive officer of Advertising.com. "While other companies may give an estimated best placement, eliminate the worst placements or rely on manual calculations, AdLearn is the only technology to automatically determine the single best ad to show to a particular person, within a particular context, given all possible variables. This precision provides advertisers with guaranteed return for their campaign dollars, ensuring each ad served reaches the most qualified consumers."
 

Time-of-Day Optimization

Much like television advertising, where key placement is geared toward 'prime-time' viewing hours, each website has distinct periods of time when audiences are more likely to respond to a particular advertisement. AdLearn measures when an ad will deliver the maximum return for each campaign and automatically adjusts placement - creating an individual “prime-time” for each site. "With time-of day optimization, every placement is the 'SuperBowl spot’," said Ferber. "We know exactly when our advertisers can reach their greatest audience, defined as that audience most likely to convert based on pre-determined objectives. However, unlike the SuperBowl audience, we are reaching highly-targeted consumers - guaranteeing interest and action for a brand or product."
 

Banner Size Optimization

AdLearn's banner size optimization feature places each ad, regardless of size, in a manner that maximizes the performance of the entire ad campaign, not just its individual ads. Internet campaigns employ up to twenty creative sizes and designs per campaign. AdLearn automatically determines which ad sizes and creatives -- including 468 x 60s, odd-size banners, skyscrapers and pop-up ads-- will generate optimum results. Size optimization allows advertisers to extend their reach and exploit an expanded set of impression opportunities, including the new interactive marketing units endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). According to the IAB, these new ad sizes are designed to allow increased creativity and interactivity for advertisers online. Advertising.com's size optimization capitalizes on these guidelines by considering ad size when determining the most successful elements of an online campaign.
 

Suite of New Technologies

Advertising.com is continually updating its comprehensive suite of technologies to deliver marketing messages through web, email and wireless channels:

• Conversion Tracking and Optimization - Advertising.com's proprietary CTO service tracks conversions -- advertiser-defined consumer actions such as responses to requests for information, actual purchases of products or services, downloads and other actions -- as they occur and automatically adjusts placement for maximum results.
• Geo-Targeting - Through geo-targeting, advertisers have the ability to target across specific cities, countries and regions to anyone connected to the Internet.
• User-Data Targeting - With user-data targeting, Advertising.com can target users based on language, browser and operating system.

Advertisers and publishers utilizing geographic and user-data targeting benefit from precise identification of the target audience, yielding increased traction for superior performance and economic efficiency.