RightMedia Launches RMX Direct for Publishers

Right Media’s RMX Direct for publishers network has just completed a six month beta test and is opening to the public this morning. RMX Direct for Publishers is a simple and free solution for managing advertising networks that allows publishers to make more money from their websites by placing ads from partnering merchants and program sites.

One of the differentiating factors of RMX Direct is that it’s built for publishers who sell their advertising primarily through multiple ad networks. The acknowledgment of the economic reality that publishers are working with various networks to fill their ad inventory (whether it’s email, website placements or registration path placements) presents a different outlook than most competitors in this space who unrealistically hope to reign in publishers in a binding partnership which offers little room for a fluid relationship.

At the moment, RMX Direct is working with nine other networks. RMX Direct allows a publisher to create competition for their ad inventory by letting them create direct relationships with those nine ad networks that are participants in the Right Media Exchange. In addition, publishers can increase the competition by adding in additional ad networks such as AdSense, YPN, and Valueclick.

Michael McNeely of RightMedia writes:

“These networks see the characteristics of each ad impression such as the user’s geography, frequency of ads they’ve viewed, and more. They bid in real-time what they’re willing to pay for each impression based on those characteristics. Additionally, publishers can add any ad network they already work with to the competition, guaranteeing that RMX Direct will only earn them more money than they are making today.”

This idea of an exchange aggregation point for a number of networks is a unique twist on the CPA/affiliate network space. Right Media even has some big names giving endorsements for the program as a result. One of those is Matt McAlister, Senior Product Manager for Yahoo who writes:

“It’s plenty robust enough to serve any small publisher’s needs, and some of its clever capabilities may prove useful to large publishers as well. You get a simple self-serve ad management system where you can drop in new creative including ad code from your ad networks like YPN or AdSense or even Feedburner. I’ve also loaded in a house ad. It took only a couple of minutes to setup each ad. Then you get your Right Media ad code to post into your web page templates. Done.”

When asked for a few stats or number from the beta test of RMX Direct, RightMedia responded with these numbers:

– Over 11 billion ad impressions served
– 3.75 billion ad impressions served in the month of December alone
– Over 16 million clicks on ads
– Over 300,000 conversions
– Over $1.4 million in publisher revenue run through RMX Direct
– 750 publisher accounts
– 350 discussions started in the community forums

Interesting. Particularly interesting in my opinion is the inclusion of the “350 discussions started in the forums” stat. Most web2.0 companies collecting beta test data don’t even keep track of that metric, so it is impressive to see an online advertising networking placing value in the community forum discussions going on about the product.

Is this type of partnering aggregation exchange network a sign of things to come as platforms and traditional advertising networks continue to fragment as publishers search for the best use of their ad inventory? I think so.