• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 15, 2008

Lead-generation company Pontiflex will begin inviting advertisers today to create "cost-per-lead" banner ads using its ad management platform. The new AdUnit X banners are designed to let consumers opt-in to advertiser offers within the actual banner, without clicking through to a landing page.

Founded in February, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company connects publishers with advertisers who pay each time a reader signs up for a promotion or registers at a site.

"Advertisers can now buy display advertising on a CPL basis and not just through CPM (cost-per-1000) and CPC (cost-per-click) pricing models," said Zephrin Lasker, CEO and co-founder of Pontiflex.

Brand and direct-response advertisers can create custom AdUnit X banners using drop-down menus on Pontiflex's ad management platform, which can then be deployed on specific publisher sites with Pontiflex's GENList publisher directory.

In addition, Pontiflex's patent-pending data transfer technology automates the delivery of the lead data from the publisher to the advertiser.

With AdUnit X banners, advertisers can achieve higher conversion rates by avoiding the large drop-off commonly found in traditional banner campaigns that use a combination of banners and landing pages to generate leads.

In April, Pontiflex raised $2.5 million in series-A funding led by venture capital funds New Atlantic Ventures, and Greenhill SAVP. That month, Pontiflex's network included 17 million leads across 12 industry categories.