• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 15, 2011

PLYmedia has developed an ad-serving platform that it will begin to roll out Thursday to support midsize publishers in the $9 billion long-tail global market. The free service -- ad2k -- aims to make ad serving easier through a more self-serve platform.

The engineers that designed the system made it more automated, removing the complexities of placing and serving up ads, yet keeping the focus on geographic targeting and frequency capping.

Avishay Raviv, PLYmedia COO and president, said marketers can set up the system in less than 15 minutes, a task he estimates could take publishers days when they are not familiar with the system.

Through advanced analytics tools intended to improve optimization and monetization of international traffic, PLYmedia's free adk2 ad server allows publishers to increase ad revenue, which in turn better enables marketers to reach their target audience, he said.

The ad2k ad server will roll out internationally. Today, Israeli-based PLYmedia supports 30% of its clients in the United States, and the remainder in other locations around the world. The company also has an office in Palo Alto, Calif. Through international locations, the platform offers advanced analytics to analyze and optimize traffic, as well as international traffic monetization for U.S. publishers and marketers.

The free platform offers an alternative to services from Google, as well as OpenX, which has a limited free version.

PLYmedia operates 30 networks -- most international -- but the free ad server will support midsize publishers, generating between $100 and $10,000 in revenue monthly. They do not have a sales force. These 1 million online publishers generate about $9 billion in annual revenue.

International traffic has become a significant challenge for most publishers, especially in the U.S. To build a business in ad serving, companies will need to expand into other countries. Kleiner Perkins Partner Mary Meeker notes that 81% of Internet users are not from the U.S. -- confirming that U.S. ad companies must reach out and build global businesses.