• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, April 21, 2014

Included in the real-time-ification of media trading is a hunger for faster analytics. Smaato, a mobile ad exchange, sees additional, improved automation as a major benefit of real-time analytics.

To foster that additional automation, the company last week announced an upgrade to its offering to provide “business intelligence data on all auctions” to demand-side platforms (DSPs) in real-time.

Per the company’s blog post announcing the news, it already provided real-time auction data to its DSP partners, so I spoke with Ajitpal Pannu, Smaato’s chief strategy officer (formerly SVP of product strategy), to find out what was new here and why Smaato felt the need to make more data available faster.

“Auction data is only one component,” Pannu said. As the name suggests, auction data provides information about the auction itself. But he said the ability for buyers to know a host of information -- ad placements, Web properties, bid buckets, closing prices, etc. -- in “near” real-time can change the way they run their campaigns.

The format in which the data is provided to the DSPs is key here, Pannu maintained. He said it is given to the buyers in “a raw log file,” meaning it would be difficult for a human to dissect but easier for a machine.

“The bidders are making the decisions, not humans,” he said. “This data will allow your bidder to modify a given campaign -- or anything related to your spend -- within a minute or less.”

Before this update, Pannu said it could take up to 15 minutes for this type of data to be processed and acted upon. He estimated that a 15 minute delay could cost advertisers up to $10,000 on an uncapped campaign.