In this both fast moving and confusing marketplace, the emergence of online advertising exchanges is helping to improve efficiencies and reduce the complexities, by providing an open and transparent platform through which advertisers can successfully target key audiences and publishers can generate a fair price for their inventory.

However, with the significant growth of websites and advertising being communicated worldwide everyday, it is no wonder that advertisers and publishers both want to protect their brands. 

Exchanges can help provide control and support for publishers and advertisers, despite some old and unfounded fears that an ‘open’ exchange can leave brands online susceptible to abuse.  The fact is, exchanges continue to evolve and today offer a range of controls to help create a safer environment for brands, encouraging trust and increased trading.   

Keeping Control of Business Partnerships

Obviously, in the business environment, you choose who to work with and how you work with them.  This is no different on an exchange. 

As well as providing full control over who you develop relationships with across an exchange platform, it’s easy to view who is on the exchange, decide who initially you wish to develop a direct relationship with and use the exchange to quickly establish those relationships.

They offer the facility to negotiate and agree the appropriate business terms then link up and commence the business relationship.

Above all, the exchange member is in control of their relationships based on what is best for their brand and business. 

Control and Targeting

Once a direct relationship has been formed the next question is how is it possible to define what is and is not acceptable for your brand (or client’s brand), whether you are a publisher or an advertiser?

Again, exchanges play an important role here.  Advertisers have the ability to accurately define their appropriate targeting criteria based on the type of sites/audiences they wish to reach and publishers can define the types of advertising acceptable for their website, allowing both to classify what is and is not acceptable to their business and brand. 

Tackling Subjectivity

Of course the fact that the web is global and is used by different cultures and markets highlights the issue of subjectivity around how creative may be classified for a worldwide audience.
  
The best way to do this is to have a universal exchange classification system for creative; something we offer.  By ensuring all publishers and advertisers stick to a single set of creative definitions, consistency can be effectively maintained.

Furthermore, as protection from problematic ads which may contain malicious content, some exchanges have a constantly running creative tester that detects such ads and prevents them from entering the exchange, helping protect the exchange and its members.

Grow and Protect Your Business

The belief amongst some in the industry that exchanges somehow allow the creation of a ‘wild west,’ uncontrolled environment when it comes to buying and selling advertising space is totally unfounded.

Exchanges recognise that, for any online business, brand sanctity is a real concern and have evolved and developed a range of tools to ensure brand protection.  Without this recognition the rapid growth in the use of exchanges would not have been possible.

Today, the use of exchanges is now moving into the mainstream media market - a move that is testament to the benefits they offer publishers and advertisers who are beginning to make full use of them to profit from their online activity while helping to safeguard their brands.