LocalResponse, a network that targets ads based on social network data (such as check ins), is sharing some news about its growth. The big number: It says it’s serving more than 7 billion impressions per month.
To be clear, it isn’t actually filling all of that inventory, or even close to 100 percent, as CEO and co-founder Nihal Mehta admits. However, he says that if LocalResponse could fill even half of it, say at a $6 CPM (the rate for each thousand impressions), it would still be a big business.
Mehta argues that by looking at a social data, the company (which was formerly a location-based network called Buzzd) does more than just tell you someone’s location. For example, he says that if someone happens to be outside a Babies R Us, that’s a much weaker signal of their intent and interests than if they actually check-in to the store.
“We think that being able to create much more targeted ads based on social can close the gap between mobile versus desktop ad spend,” he says.
Mehta adds that LocalResponse currently works with more than 75 advertisers, and that it has run campaigns for Coca-Cola, General Motors, and Walgreens. The company is “very close to profitability,” with revenue in the second quarter of the year four times what it was in the first, and he says he expects it to become profitable in Q3.
LocalResponse, which is headquartered in New York City, is also opening an office in San Francisco, led by newly-hired Jennifer Bennett, who previously worked at Google and Admob. The main focus of the West Coast office will be sales, Mehta says, though it may add some engineering team members too.
As for what comes next, Mehta says the company will be focusing a lot of its attention on its new pro version, which helps advertisers understand more about the impact of their ad campaigns, for example seeing “the secondary and tertiary effects of that campaign through the users’ immediate social graphs.”
LocalResponse is a social advertising platform that aggregates public posts and ‘check-ins’ across multiple platforms to help brands and businesses identify intent and respond to it. Brands and agencies use LocalResponse to leverage real-time inventory for mobile activation. Local businesses use LocalResponse to manage their customer relationships through a self-serve web interface at http://www.localresponse.com
With over 12 years experience in innovating marketing technologies through founding five startups to date, Nihal Mehta, is a noted expert in the emerging adoption of mobile technologies for media properties and consumer brands. Named one of the “25 People Every New Founder Should Meet in New York Tech” and a top “25 Up-And-Coming Startup CEO in New York” in 2012 by Business Insider, a 2012 AlwaysOn “Power Player NYC,” a top 10 NYC ‘Game Changer’ in the 2010...
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