Torstar-owned demand-side platform Eyereturn has launched a new self-service interface for brands and agencies that want hands-on control of programmatic media buying.
Eyereturn’s DSP services have primarily been managed by a team of in-house experts who make day-to-day trading decisions on behalf of clients, but with a new user interface that’s been streamlined for media buyers, the company’s clients can license the platform and have their own traders operate it.
The company is calling the new self-service offering Eyecontrol, to emphasize that clients will be able to choose their own settings for frequency, site selection, optimization and fraud protection.
“There’s a demand for self-serve platforms. People like to turn the knobs by themselves,” said Renee Hill, CEO and co-founder of Eyereturn. “It’s for the smart marketer who really wants an integrated platform that offers the uniqueness of our full-feature assets.”
Eyecontrol is powered by the same proprietary technology that Eyereturn’s in-house traders use. It will offer the same features as the managed service, which includes Canadian audience data aggregated from Eyereturn’s data partners.
Hill said that in the past two months, Eyereturn has also rolled out geotargeting, audience forecasting, and real-time tactical insights, which helps clients compare different trading approaches like retargeting or prospecting.
Self-serve clients will also have access to the Canadian Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX), a private exchange hosting inventory from 11 of Canada’s top publishers. CPAX integration is a big differentiator for Eyereturn, since it’s currently one of a handful independent DSPs with direct access.*
Throughout the industry, tech vendors have been rolling out self-serve DSPs to give clients direct access to trading. Self-serve is appealing not only to marketers that want to take programmatic in-house, but to agency trading desks and other third-party buyers like The Exchange Lab, since they execute complex multi-DSP campaigns that require hands-on control to coordinate.
Self-service is also a growth opportunity for tech vendors since technology can scale better than human-managed services. With a managed-service model, bringing on new clients means hiring more traders, whereas with a self-service model a small number of support specialists can accommodate a large number of clients.
*Correction: Marketing initially wrote that Eyereturn was the only independent DSP integrated with CPAX. This was incorrect — Eyereturn is the only fully managed DSP integrated with CPAX, but several self-serve DSPs like Google DoubleClick and Turn also have access.
