Last Thursday I was able to get a sneak peak at a up and coming Advertising solution which is doing a semi-private beta launch today. Its called the Rubicon Project and out of a few self optimizing advertising solutions I have heard of Rubicon is by far the most robust and feature rich.
So what does Rubicon do? – short explanation: The Rubicon Project ensures your website is making as much money as possible by optimizing it for not only the highest paying advertising company but also for demographic/geographical data.
Well that is the short definition anyway and what it does by default. You can also override all the defaults and give preference to various networks or demographics if your main goal is not just to make money (i dunno why =P ).
So it sounds good right? Makes sense? Let me tell you this…. I have talked to about 3 companies in the last couple months who are talking about doing the same thing… to a extent but 1) none of them have any clue how they are going to setup the relationships with companies and 2) have no clue about reporting or anything else…
Well I was pretty stunned when I actually got to play with it and saw exactly how it done it is.
Check out all these Advertising networks I selected from there huge list. You might recognize a few contextual advertisers like Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network. Or some of the top CPC networks like Chitika… or Affiliate networks like Commission Junction and CPA Empire… Or CPM like Tribal Fusion. Yea… they have a TON of networks that are already integrated. Check this screen shot (click any image in this post for the full sized image)
Also as you can see there is a rating about the networks to help you select.
I really loved the functionality and the ease of adjusting preference between networks:
The Demographic and Geographic targeting is something that most publishers I think are going to love. So many people just run Adsense and call it a day… they dont even know about the hispanic and other geographic advertising networks out there which can be targeted based on the visitors ip address.
Also with Rubicon you can override these default geotargeting functions and specify what you want to be shown to who you want…. For instance if you had a search engine marketing website and you wanted to show all us visitors Yahoo/Verizon affiliate offers form CJ but if people came from the UK you wanted to show them the UK Yahoo search marketing offer you could easily do that with Rubicon.
The Rubicon Project simplifies all aspects of advertising including setting up the accounts with all these networks for you. Of course you can still use your own account if you prefer. Rubicon will also collect all the money owed to you from all the networks and issue you 1 consolidated payment OR you can choose to keep getting checks from each one on your own if you choose.
Now I am guessing your asking yourself the same/first question I posed to the Rubicon people. How are you guys going to make money? They told me at this time there was no revenue model in place. Which I then kind of assumed that they are getting a kickback from all the advertising networks referring people (via the all in 1 sign up).
Anyway like I said self optimizing ads is something I have heard from a few companies but it looks like Rubicon is going to be the first real player with a full blown solution for people.
So… what questions do you have about the Rubicon project? Ask them in the comments and I will ask them to Frank Addante, Founder & CEO, on my radio show Tuesday!
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2414 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 82 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that is one kick-ass concept, that really looks like it will eliminate a lot of work.. I hope it’s not just available to the US only.
Rubicon looks great. I definitely could use something that helps me optimize my ads so that I can make the most possible.
I saw a similar service called pubmatic on that techcrunch40 thing, but I wasnt all that impressed. Maybe I’ll try this one out
This sounds good. Does it also look at content at all (or would it only scrape if the ad they recommend scrapes)? It seems adsense could easily add functionality for region/demographics. It seems the benifit is that they would optimize different ads from different groups.
This looks awsome. Have you looked at Atlas and if so how do you think it compares. I currently use Altas but recently its been bought out by Microsoft so obviosuly I am wanting to migrate!
Are there any easy ways to import existing campaigns, also do you have some info on their CPC commisions. Cheers.
Looks phenomenal! Certainly would put any user into another gear for their site. Only, the name, rubicon . . . A rube is an olde term for a sucker, whom would be the victim of a con. Hmmm.
Does anyone know of any requirements for the private beta? Anyone else in on it?
Wow that looks great, thanks for the news Jeremy. I am wondering if the guys there have any plans to integrate some support for streaming media advertising in the future, or if at least the way it is built it can be made to work later?
Very interesting product. first i ahve heard of one of these all in one setups close to full launch.. the interface looks slick.
How much money went into the development of this? Im sure he wont give you a straight answer, but it would be interesting to know what kind of man hours + Machinery is backing this up. Looks like it will definitely blow up, from the screen shots it looks very intimidating though, how easy is it to use?
The site looks very well organised. I would really like to profile and review the site on my website. Can someone please send me an invite to the private beta!
I’m concerned about how Rubicon can track your performance on these networks. If it’s anonymous that’s ok but I would like to see a privacy statement to see what they’re tracking.
How will they use the data that they track? If they are seeing that you are making x amount of dollars to get money out of say CJ for a certain product, and then they are telling everyone else using the service to start promoting the same product, then won’t that just dilute your earnings? It seems that in order for them to be most effective that the high earners would be giving up all their stats, and the stats tracking itself is one of the ways the high earners keep making money and the low earners don’t.
It’s nice to see all the features in one place. This sort of thing is going to make management of all your programs easier.
Good points but again you can override any of the defaults (see the slider screenshot)
This good be an interesting service but privacy issues abound. It will save time by not having to login at every afilliate and advertising provider. But do I really want everyone to know all my stats!
Do they allow for directly sold banners? I currently use .htaccess to direct IP traffic and this looks alot easier, so I’ll be crossing my fingers for a beta invite.
Shallow comment here, but as a designer…I love their logo. GG!
I’m waiting for this kinda program for a long time…… Thanks for the info Jeremy.
This looks awsome. Have you looked at Atlas and if so how do you think it compares.This sort of thing is going to make management of all your programs easier.
Thanks.
Wow, what a great service. They really found a needed gap in the market, great service and it looks great to use. It would be good if you could manage direct advertisers also, then you could just use Rubicon for literally everything, are Rubicon going to do this?
It looks great, I would use something like this. Keeping it tied into all the different networks api’s or however they plan to access tracking, seems like a nightmare. Good luck to them!
I’m one of the founders and the CEO of the Rubicon Project. On behalf of our entire team, I’d like to thank everyone for all of your kind words and interest! We’re very excited! Our team has been working night and day to bring this all together.
Also, if you want a sneak peek at the full functionality, we have put a demo on our site (just click on “Watch a 3-minute demo”)
Thank you!
The service works with contextual networks that do look at and optimize ads by content. Part of the benefit of the system is that it uses a combination of contextual (content), demographic and geographic criteria to pick the best ad networks to deliver the best ads.
Currently, the system doesn’t allow you to upload direct campaigns. However, you can continue to use your existing ad server for that and insert the Rubicon Project in as the default, unsold remnant ad campaign.
Wow! Just Wow. I’ll be joining this program for sure. Should be interesting to see how well it does.
Thanks for the tip Shoe!
The service currently doesn’t currently have functionality to upload direct buy campaigns. It’s focused on optimizing ad networks. However, it works with existing ad servers. All you need to do is insert the Rubicon Project ad tags into your ad server as the default, unsold/remnant campaign.
This looks really professional. Did I understand correctly that this would be free? When will they be launching it officially? The only thing that puts me off is having a middleman collect my fees. This could cause lots of complications – especially if they decided to hang onto people’s cash for a while to make a heap of interest.
Damn, that looks like an amazing service – I have never seen all those features in one place, looks awesome!
I asked the same question to myself unti lyou answered it, how they make money. It’ll be interesting as there are open source ad rotating options out there but this is certainly more complex than those… definitely worth seeing.
This one seems more polished in terms of graphics, functionality, etc.
Looks like a great concept.
I would really like to play with it.
I am wondering how long it would take for this to be effective or if it is effective immediately. Just using the Chow example, would he make more plugging this into some of his add spots that aren’t sold for cash. Seems interesting.
looks like they spent a fortune in its creation. Looks like it has potential.
How soon will they be letting in sites?
Wow this is really amazing.
I don’t think is available just for US only. If they don’t make any money right now why they will just get US? I think is international.
I agree with you. As webmaster we really need to test them, wish to be accepted as a beta tester.
Rubicon seems more professional in many ways, just hoping to get as a beta tester and will really enjoy it I am sure
As a viral marketing I think sites that may talk about them You know Publicity… And for sure those who have good traffic.
I’d find the answer to this interesting too, as there is no revenue model in place. If this is venture funded how easy is it to get funding on a project when there is no revenue model?
I don’t think it will necessarily eliminate work. If anything, it will make people aware of different advertising opportunities. At the end of the day, you’ll probably end up putting just as much ‘work’ into it, but you’ll see much better ROI no doubt.
Wow, looks amazing
Hi..sounds cool! I signed up for beta. I was wondering if they were going to be including the clickbank affiliate network. I sell my info products on there.
Thanks for letting us know, Shoemoney!
I didn’t notice Amazon in the available advertisers. Are they going to support Amazon.co.uk/.de/.com/.ca etc> ?
I guess the best aspect of this system is that we can see which ad services sould receive our “prime” locations on the websites. It will probably take some trial and error, but to have it all on one page definitely makes sense (beats clicking through 5 or 6 other websites for states).
This looks really good. I signed up for the beta.
Not really hmmm, the rubicon is the name of a river that when Julius lead his troops over said the die is cast. So crossing the rubicon is the same as saying crossing the point of no return. Of course they could be using the more militant meaning but I doubt it.
One word: awesome!
Looks great. At least I have another alternative for making money on my websites and hoping it will be better than the rest.
Seems more like a good informational service. You still have to do a lot of work
Me to. How long before they evaluate my profile ?
Off topic … Shoe, what happened to the website ? It’s so fast, it’s scary
Now THAT is the way to manage your ads. I wonder how it will do.
Hey Jeremy,
Cool resource!
Cheers,
Carlo Selorio
WOW !!!
This will gain massive popularity soon, who will not be interested to increase therevenue and this can also make split testing easy like anything … just wondering how will they earn .. ?
What if they start charging a good amount once people are used to it ?
Who are the stakeholders ?
Whats their revenue model ?
What happens to users if they go away ?
Looks pretty, but what is it really ?
Thx
There is such a thing of using too many ad networks, but i am very impressed will all the tie ins Rubicon has.
Another question which comes to my mind is that will we have to sign up for a new account for ad sense …
If no how will they consolidate the money from adsense ?
If yes how will they solve the issue of multiple accounts of same person ?
What about the risc factors involved?
Is this just an option to OpenAds?
I am reading mixed reviews all over the web. Though I think this will be a great tool, it will be upto their marketing blitz for this to catch on like fire.
I do have an important question that I’d love to get answer to. There is another free program called PubMat that Rubicon is no longer only option.
do you know it? Which are the differences? Rubicon seems more better.
Let keep the debate on.
i don’t think its viable for small bloggers like us … small businees and up who can afford it perhaps?
still the features available will make any webmaster monetizing plans easier
I had the same idea. I wondered if it is funded by Google?
Shoe,
Have you really used this? It looks great but have you stress tested it with your sites?
Looks pretty good, but still it would be great to hear from people who already employed this and get any results. Still it looks like it worths getting a try! Thanks for the hint, Shoe!
Hi there,
I’m Nicole, working on the PR side of things at Rubicon. This response board is impressive. We’re humbled by everyone’s interest! So, thank you for that.
Julia, FYI…I asked one of the folks here your question and they said that Clickbank is definitely on our radar.
Im on it.
that’s just as acceptable as spending less time.
smart algorithms only make you more effective, they don’t do all your homework.
me too
I’ll probably take a wait-and-see on this one. It seems like a good idea, but if the execution is off, it could result in lost revenue for sites. If they’re able to do it well, it will be super convenient to manage everything from one place though.
Earnings likely come from an affiliate style agreement they have with the advertisers. Think about it – they’re going to be bringing in tons of new signups for smaller ad networks, giving them revenue they never would have had before. Even if they peel off a couple cents per click across the network, that would be HUGE money for Rubicon if enough people signed up. Plenty of monetization potential here.
This has already been implemented in http://www.adsdaq.com I am using it, and it is pretty nice. Doesn’t look as easy as rubicon tho. Plus adsdaq has their own advertisement solutions. Forget waiting for rubicon when adsdaq already does this and more!
WOW!
That really is innovation at its finest.
It’s all about optimization
I agree with Ken above, I would have to see a privacy statement. You can never be too cautious these days.
I added this network’s ad tag in my blog. Now it show public service ads. In the management area, this system asks every ad networks user login information. can I earn money without adding other ad networks in my account… ?
i dunno it just seems like the perfect tool, maybe i am too skeptical but i will believe when i see it.
Another question which comes to my mind is that will we have to sign up for a new account for ad sense …
If no how will they consolidate the money from adsense ?
If yes how will they solve the issue of multiple accounts of same person ?
What about the risc factors involved?
I like it! Keep it coming…
Just ran accross this. Probablly old now but looks amazing as a new web devloper.
This looks awsome. Have you looked at Atlas and if so how do you think it compares.This sort of thing is going to make management of all your programs easier.
Thanks.