It was mid-2014 when CPAX (the real-time ad exchange established by Rogers, CBC and Shaw in 2012) gambled that quality would trump quantity by restricting access to its inventory to all but 40 qualified buyers, down from as many as 400.
Prior to the re-launch, it had been plagued by DSPs capitalizing on its premium reputation in an effort to woo advertisers, only to deliver vastly inferior inventory from other exchanges. It hurt CPAX’s reputation for quality and caused CPMs to plunge.
One year and eight new publisher partners later, the revamped “CPAX 2.0” has emerged as the undisputed champion of Canada’s estimated $1.2 billion programmatic advertising market. Its stature is such that it is commonly referred to internationally as “Canada’s exchange.”
CPAX currently offers high-quality inventory from 19 publisher members reaching an estimated 21 million Canadians – approximately 71% of the online population. In October, it sold more than 1 billion impressions.
Launched in 2012 by Rogers, CBC and Shaw, CPAX (its full name is Canada’s Premium Audience Exchange) has grown to include a who’s who of Canadian publishers.
New partners in the past 12 months include Postmedia Network, Blue Ant Media and St. Joseph, all attracted by its promise of premium CPMs without the fear of low-quality ads (while publisher holdouts are few, they are notable, including Bell Media, TC and Torstar).
In November, after spending several months measuring a representative sample of billions of monthly impressions auctioned by Index Exchange (which has been powering CPAX since the 2014 re-launch), research firm Moat said that 98% of its inventory is human traffic. That is an impressively high number, given that bots typically account for approximately 14% of traffic across all networks and exchanges.
Research firm eMarketer said 31% of Canadian marketers were concerned about the validity of premium content, yet CPAX has amassed a reputation for quality.
Philippe Kleim, director of advertising operations at Corus Entertainment, said his company saw an immediate impact when it joined CPAX three years ago. The exchange is not only more attractive to buyers, he said, but allows publishers who share the same values to come together.
Likewise, Pam Laycock, senior vice-president of strategy and digital at Metroland Media, which joined CPAX in November, said CPAX is an extension of the company’s belief in community and real relationships.
In an era of dodgy online inventory, CPAX has proven that it is no fraud.
