• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 24, 2010

MyBuys plans to introduce Monday a predictive retargeting platform that serves up dynamically targeted ads to consumers. Technology made possible through the acquisition of Veruta powers display advertising for the new suite of services. A handful of clients have been testing the platform -- MyBuys Predictive Remarketing -- for several months.

The technology supports remarketing and personalization for display ads, emails and direct mail services. Consumers landing on a site supported by MyBuys will see targeted ads in a dynamic carousel-like ad unit based on the prior search or Web site visited just before arriving. Then each click on the Web site feeds the platform another data point to help determine the types of ads the platform will serve up.

When it comes to retargeting ads, recent clicks on the site carry more weight than those in the past, along with items bought versus clicked on and viewed. "Our goal is to think like the retailer, making it possible to increase conversion rates and revenue," says Paul Rosenblum, MyBuys vice president of products and strategy. "We keep data for a long time, but never collect sensitive data such as names and addresses," he says. "We keep the targeting data about what people look at and are interested in buying."

That strategy enables companies that rely on the platform to see more than 500% improvement in click-through rates (CTRs) compared with other non-personalized remarketing solutions and over 50% improvements over all other remarketing offerings, Rosenblum says. "It's one click to opt-out," he says. "No questions asked. No hassle."

The retargeting tool, combined with preferences captured on 200 million anonymous profiles and an understanding of each retailer's catalog and merchandising events, allow MyBuys to predict what shoppers want to buy, and to dynamically present multiple options to each consumer through display ads.

The personalized ads have motion similar to kinetic ads, but are customized for each viewer. Rosenblum likens the experience to a personal shopper at Nordstrom -- someone who keeps the personal data so the next time the shopper visited the story she would know sizes and preferences. In the store, that's an important customer service feature that most shoppers value in the retail-consumer relationship.

Veruta, which MyBuys recently aquired to serve dynamic retargeting, supports kenetic adverting ad units, a carousel of products that more easily catches the eye of consumers. The ads can be changed on the fly for every ad impression.

The companies began integrting back-end systems about six months ago and have already begun to serve ads for the little more than 100 clients MyBuys added to its 175 customer base such as Delia's, Hush Puppies, The Container Store, Skechers and WineExpress.com. Rosenblum estimates without the acquisition it would have took two years to build the platform.

Scentiments.com, an online fragrance retailer that has seen success with MyBuys products for email and direct mail conversions, began testing the platform several months ago after mail conversion rates rose 16%; overall site revenue, 11%; and sales of the most popular item grew 56%.

With MyBuys, Scentiments.com achieved click-through rates at least twice of those with other unnamed retargeting platforms it had tried in the past. The company saw a 623% return on ad spend from MyBuys Predictive Remarketing service.