• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 5, 2023

ArcSpan, two-year-old supply-side startup founded by the founders of independent trading desk Accordant (now part of Dentsu’s Amnet), are expanding from data management to market maker, launching a new product that will enable publishers to expand their audience reach and fill more programmatic campaign requests.

The new product, dubbed ArcTrax Reach, enables publishers to identify when their audiences are “off-platform” visiting other sites and apps so they can be acquired in programmatic exchanges to deliver more of the audience reach advertisers and media-buyers are looking to deliver.

Instead of simply identifying when and where the audiences are available, ArcSpan actually activates the programmatic buys in order to expand the reach beyond what its publishing clients are delivering organically. 

“We’re trying to overcome two myths publishers have” about audience reach extension, ArcSpan Co-Founder and CEO Art Muldoon says, citing perceptions publishers have that acquiring audiences off-site will commoditize the value of their own audience inventory and another that they must first sell-out their own direct inventory before aggregating audiences elsewhere.

Based on beta tests with as-yet-undisclosed publisher clients in various categories, Muldoon said the audience reach campaigns significantly boosted the profit margins of the campaigns they executed (see chart below).

Muldoon said the data proves audience reach extension increases – not decreases – the value of a publishers inventory, because it fulfills more of what brands and media buyers are looking for: unique, or incremental reach.