• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, November 15, 2012

Targeting some of the marketers and agencies that the big DSP market may not fit, self-serve platform SiteScout is extending its demand-side ad-buying model to embrace mobile. The company already soft-launched the mobile extension of its DSP three weeks ago and has seen 100 million mobile impressions served daily. “We have seen a huge demand in terms of customers accessing mobile inventory,” says Terry Taouss, director of business affairs. “We have seen our revenue numbers increase 30% on the strength of mobile.”

SiteScout plugs into some of the major mobile ad exchanges, including MoPub, Nexage, Smaato and Tapit, with claimed access to 30 billion impressions a month. The self-serve technology integrates mobile in with the existing online display choices a marketer can make. Customers can choose to direct banners to mobile apps, mobile-optimized Web sites and standard Web formats for viewing on phones or tablets.

SiteScout claims exceptional transparency, with targeting down to the app level, says Taouss. “We report in real time and we can target down to the device and the carrier. The technology was built in-house." SiteScout tries to overcome the limitations of mobile ad tracking by leveraging postback URLs that can record when actions are performed and tracking tokens to detect carriers, devices and geolocation.

Taouss says the company is bringing to mobile the same qualities for which it is known among desktop DSPs. “We carved out a niche by bringing best-in-class technology to small and medium-sized businesses, brands and agencies,” he says. The company boasts 6500 customers, and Taouss says many of these might not be a good fit for the larger and more costly DSPs that may be scaled for blue-chip clients. “We have a $500 minimum sign-up that we are lowering to $100.”

Director of Marketing Ratko Vidakovic says they are helping these SMBs navigate the shoals of mobile ad buying with integrated tools. “We have an ad planning feature on our platform where we help differentiate the kinds of traffic -- Web, mobile-optimized Web, and app,” he says. “We build tools to distinguish among these experiences and to help them design creative in the appropriate ways.”

For now, SiteScout is serving mainly banners, and app-based gaming is its strongest segment on mobile along with health and horoscope content. About 60% of clients are in the U.S. and tend to be independent developers and agencies.