• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 14, 2011

Nexage, which operates a real-time bidding marketplace for mobile advertising, has launched a private exchange aimed at giving publishers more control over their inventory. In what Nexage says will be the first private exchange for mobile advertising, publishers will be able to sell only to buyers “that represent brands and campaigns that best fit their business.”

The new system will also allow publishers to set price floors and preview ads in real-time to help ensure brand safety.

The private offering is built on the Nexage Exchange, which handles 12 billion impressions a month on behalf of 200 publishers and 125 buyers, including demand-side platforms, agencies and ad networks. The company says bid volumes and revenues on its RTB-powered exchange are growing about 70% a month.

The move by Nexage to form an alternate, private ad marketplace for mobile follows similar efforts by online ad exchanges and publishers in the last year or so. That includes data exchanges like Exelate and publisher-based ad exchanges such as quadrantOne, IDG’s TechMediaExchange and similar initiatives by NBC Universal and CBS Interactive.

Whether on desktop or mobile Web, the goal of setting up a closed environment is intended for publishers to gain more control over their consumer data -- who can buy their inventory and at what cost. Victor Milligan, CMO, Nexage, said the company built its private exchange in response to requests from premium publishers and developer customers.

“The key business design issue is how to take advantage of the efficiencies and liquidity of programmatic markets while maintaining control of who they sell to and how they sell,” said Milligan. To that end, he cited the ability to set minimum price levels on the fly to adapt to a dynamic market, as well as one-click ad screening.

The system is geared toward publishers and developers with sufficient scale to create a reasonable market for their data. Through the private exchange, publishers also have access to Nexage’s analytic and reporting tools, including intra-day and daily reports on performance metrics including eCPM, fill rate, click-through rate and revenue.