Service Combines Behavioral Targeting, Natural Language Search and Audience Metrics to Create Major New Revenue Source for Web Publishers
NEW YORK (April 5, 2004) — Revenue Science, Inc., the leading provider of behavioral targeting for Web advertising, announced today that it has developed and launched Audience Search™, the world's first online service for Web publishers to interactively search for, validate and deliver customized, behaviorally-based audience segments for Web advertising campaigns. Audience Search opens the door for a new generation of online advertising based on interactive audience customization and relevance scoring to guarantee precise audience composition for online advertisers. For the first time, Web publishers can deliver the right audience for every request for proposal (RFP), and build up relevant reach instead of narrowing it. This enables Web publishers to sell specific audience segments to advertisers, creating new revenue streams while simultaneously monetizing unused inventory. Beginning immediately, The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web, will be the first publisher to offer Audience Search to its advertisers.
"Audience Search dramatically increases our capability to respond to advertisers because we can work directly from an RFP without having to translate their request into our own language," said Randy Kilgore, vice president, advertising, The Wall Street Journal Online. "Moreover, Revenue Science's Behavioral Relevance score is a huge step for the industry's ability to not only understand the quality of the audience they are buying, but also to analyze and plan media buys over time."
Using the patent-pending technology of Audience Search, Web publishers interactively describe and create audience segments using natural-language keywords taken directly from an advertiser's audience specification or Request for Proposal (RFP) and adjust them in real-time to build targeted reach appropriate for the campaign. The audiences are scored and ranked based on relevance—all within a familiar search interface.
"From this moment on the Web becomes an entirely new advertising opportunity for Global 1000 corporations," said Bill Gossman, CEO of Revenue Science, Inc. "And Revenue Science is leading the industry with Audience Search."
With this new offering, Revenue Science marries the ease and flexibility of search technology with the power of behavioral targeting in a way that provides the speed, quality, and precision needed for the Web to meet the demands of Global 1000 advertisers. Through Audience Search, Web publishers can now configure audience segments in real time and perform multiple iterations of the search to optimize relevance and build reach for the best ad buy. As a result, response time to RFPs—campaign proposals from advertisers and agencies—is significantly shortened and advertisers and agencies are guaranteed to reach their prime customer targets.
Metrics for Audience Relevance
For the first time in the history of advertising, audience segments can be scientifically verified through an empirical Behavioral Relevance™ Score. This score provides a standard, directional measure of audience quality that can be used to compare audience segments within-and even across-campaigns. This comparison is a core aspect of the reach and relevancy tradeoff publishers make to offer targeted campaigns that also build relevant reach and size. "Through the Audience Search service, Revenue Science is providing a fast, simple and powerful way to address the entire marketing funnel-from audiences to clicks," said Omar Tawakol, senior vice president of marketing for Revenue Science. "Our Behavioral Relevance score gives advertisers the insight into audience quality that they need to invest in the Web as a primary advertising channel."