Programmatic ads on course to generate revenue for engage:BDR following trifecta of integrations

Advertising company engage:BDR (ASX: EN1) has unveiled a further series of partnerships that will directly expand its ability to provide high-value online programmatic ad services.

In geographic terms, the ad company’s latest deals with Appodeal, Mobikok, and Showcase Ads will see it taking a more assertive role in Europe as well as the Asia Pacific region.

This year marks its 10th year as a fully-fledged ad company. Over the past decade, the company has built up its activity in the US, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia, but is seeking to push its influence globally.

As part of its bid to generate market traction later this year, engage:BDR published positive performance metrics last week.

The ad company reported that net cash from operating activities improved by 85% during the 12 months of 2018, research and development costs decreased by 93%, while staff costs decreased by 42%.

As part of an extensive cost-cutting exercise, product manufacturing and operating costs fell 69% in the same period.

Engage:BDR also raised almost A$2 million in the past 2 weeks and says the net effect of its multifaceted improvements – including its recent bout of integrations – meant the company is on course to capitalise on the revenue potential of approximately US$100,000 (A$137,000) per day.

Latest additions

In a recorded interview, the company’s chief executive officer Ted Dhanik revealed that engage:BDR had signed three new integrations and has reached over 175 integrations in total, thereby extending its growth path over the past 12 months.

The trifecta of new business partners means that engage:BDR will extend the capability of its programmatic ad platform and also supplements the recently announced inclusion of ThirdPresence and AcuityAds onto its platform.

The first on the list of integrations announced today is Appodeal, a mobile app monetisation company that is considered one of the leaders in Europe – a rapidly growing market on the global stage.

The company is headquartered in San Francisco but has quickly grown its presence to include Minsk in Belarus and Barcelona in Spain.

According to engage:BDR, the Appodeal integration serves as a “cornerstone” in expanding its opportunities in the European marketplace.

Mr Dhanik said that Appodeal’s inclusion is key because it wields an ad monetisation platform that includes a mediation solution with 60 demand sources in one software development kit (SDK).

This feature is expected to improve upon the existing method of ad network supplementation by saving developers time and effort. Another strong caveat is that Appodeal is already working with over 30,000 apps, ranging from the independent to enterprise level.

The second integration is Mobikok, a Chinese demand-side platform with significant business in China and within the Asia Pacific.

The thinking behind this specific integration is to enable growth in the Asia Pacific region and to both expand, as well as diversify engage:BDR’s ad platform.

The third and final integration is Showcase Ads, a self-serve demand-side ad network for marketing professionals and agencies.

The company specialises in video, display and native ads with a current a reach of over 750 million mobile web, in-app and desktop users worldwide.

Furthermore, Showcase says it has approximately 20 billion daily impression opportunities through various user interactions.

Coming at the right time

Another key caveat underpinning today’s series of integrations is timing.

Mr Dhanik explained that by partnering with engage:BDR at the beginning of the year, the new integrations can gain momentum throughout 2019 and quickly provide incremental revenue once they’re integrated, validated and deployed into a live market environment.

Given engage:BDR’s business model, the more integrations it can onboard, the higher the supply and demand opportunities further down the track as a “network effect of mutual benefits” is generated via a de-facto multiplier effect.

If the ad company can create an active database of ad buyers and sellers, the net effect will ultimately be to drive up bid rates as competition develops and companies vie for the best slots on high-profile websites such as CNN and YouTube.

“Integrations help determine the strength of the company’s revenue. Therefore, starting 2019 with a number of new integrations paves the way for higher revenue potential for the year,” said Mr Dhanik.

Mr Dhanik added that “in the next few months, the market can expect updates on when the new integrations will go live and begin generating revenue.”