Business & Money, E-Commerce & Internet Marketing

AdWords Alternative AdBrite Makes A Strong Case – Part 1

Posted by Jay Williams on


Image by: adBrite
By Charles Lewis

In the ad game since 2002, online advertising exchange adBrite is the closest thing to competition for established league-leading behemoths Google AdWords and Yahoo!. Yet, many shy away from adBrite because they don’t know what it is. Is it a scam, they wonder?

First, no it is not a scam. They are just rougher around the edges than the billions-backed big boys (hint: “the big G” and “the big Y”). AdBrite is independent to the core, yet does significant numbers with text ads, banners, inline ads, full page ads and interactive picture ads.

On their website, they claim monthly unique visitor numbers topping 300 million strong worldwide, with half of those in the U.S. They also have a network of 80,000-plus websites ready to hawk your wares.

Video Games

They are also a heavy player when it comes to the online video advertising arena, a buzzing industry if there ever was one. A recent published article featuring an adBrite exec threw around shocking numbers, saying adBrite was “directing as much as 1.5 billion video ad views per month.”

NOTE: adBrite. Yes, that’s how they spell it, but in titles and at the beginning of sentences, I have no choice but to capitalize it. So deal with the inconsistency. This is what happens when you get rid of bullying.

And it will only get better for “little a, big B” – a recent aggressive move in that should push those numbers higher (more on that later).

Movers, Shakers & Moneymakers

After a few fits and starts, adBrite strengthened its offerings by re-launching as an ad exchange back in 2008. The company is know for its open platform, real-time bidding and transparency.

AdBrite, now run by a couple of former Yahoo!-ers, made some big moves as of late, possibly positioning themselves for acquisition. This is not much of a surprise as the company is propped up by Sequoia Capital – who had its hand in Instagram and PayPal, among others – and DAG Ventures (of Yelp and Friendster fame).

But that doesn’t mean that their product is not getting better. Rapidly. The company, based in San Francisco, just struck a deal to partner with Jivox, which specializes in video ads. Now adBrite video advertisers are able to give viewers tools to share the video ad content easily through Twitter, Facebook, email, etc.

In “AdWords Alternative AdBrite Makes A Strong Case – Part 2,” we’ll discuss the pros, cons and actual user experiences.