When AdStage launched earlier this year, the big selling point was the ease with which small businesses could create ads that ran across Google, Bing, Facebook and LinkedIn. Today it’s launching what co-founder and CEO Sahil Jain said is “an entirely new platform product,” which should expand the customer base to a broad range of advertisers.
To illustrate that point, Jain told me that AdStage Express, the company’s initial product (which had 2,300 sign-ups), is now just one of several applications available. And to turn AdStage into a true platform, the company is integrating with a number of tools for things like writing ad copy and A/B testing. Those services will be available in an app gallery, with rankings determined by customer votes.
“We’re becoming more of a one-stop-shop by integrating point solutions into an advertising management platform — not something the other similar companies in the space are doing,” Jain said.
The initial app partners are ReTargeter, Unbounce, Bigstock, Canned Banners, MixRank and Thinkstock by Getty Images. For example, AdStage customers can use ReTargeter to run retargeted ads through the Facebook Exchange. CEO Arjun Dev Arora said ReTargeter is both a partner and a customer for AdStage, which he described as “a huge step forward for online marketing.”
Other new features include support for new ad formats (on Facebook, Jain said AdStage only supported one ad type, and now it supports all of them, plus there’s been a similar expansion in support for other platforms) and the ability to import existing campaigns. Both additions seem to bolster Jain’s claim that AdStage can become a central platform for advertisers to manage their campaigns.
The new AdStage platform is now available in a beta version for $99 a month, with five apps included for free. The company said more than 380 businesses have already signed up, and that their monthly ad spend ranges from $1,000 to $700,000.
By the way, the AdStage website seems to be having uptime issues right now. I will update this post when they’re resolved.
Update: The website is back up.