Start-up Turn offers automated online ad market
A Redwood City, Calif. start-up called Turn is launching on Monday a beta of what it says is the first fully automated market for online advertising.
The Turn Smart Market has more than 500 advertisers and agencies placing ads and 3,000 Web sites offering up inventory. What makes it different from other online ad marketplaces is it handles all types of ads, pricing, and targeting methods and uses a machine learning platform to predict what combination will generate the most revenue for the publisher.
For instance, Turn Smart Market automatically blends contextual, audience, behavioral, and other targeting methods and does not require category, site, or keyword selection to increase the chances that the ads will be effective. It also gives advertisers and publishers the ability to control fair market pricing and brand reputation.
"When we get an ad request from a publisher we search through the database of ads and rank them based on the probability of an action," such as a consumer clicking on it, said Jim Barnett, chief executive of Turn. "We automatically figure out where your ads should be displayed and blend all the targeting approaches."
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
