• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, January 21, 2015

Smaato, a mobile ad exchange and supply-side platform (SSP), on Wednesday announced it has rounded out its offerings with the launch of Smaato Publisher Platform, an ad server for mobile publishers.

The ad server’s signature feature is what Smaato calls “dynamic demand.” Per Smaato, the ad server will scan all of a publisher’s direct sold and guaranteed campaigns, RTB demand and ad network demand at the same time, essentially pitting all three demand sources against one another in what Smaato dubs a “super auction.”

“Historically, ad servers deliver direct/guaranteed line items first, or with first priority,” explained a Smaato representative. “Publishers typically then use one or several indirect (RTB and/or ad networks) plugged-in demand sources to monetize inventory they have not sold directly. However, it can frequently be true that for any given individual impression there's an ephemeral demand source out there that would, at that moment, have paid more for the impression than the bulk pre-brokered CPM of a direct line item.”

It has happened before. Jason Fairchild, co-founder of OpenX, shared an anecdote at an OMMA RTB conference last summer “about a publisher that had the chance to sell an impression for $1,300 via RTB, but was never able to because the direct sale price point was set at $10, and direct sale trumped RTB.”

Per a release, the ad server is free and will carry no ad serving fees.