A new real-time bidding marketplace for mobile ad inventory gives publishers a way to drive more revenue from their inventory.

MoPub is a mobile advertising startup founded by former AdMob and Google employees. The new MoPub Marketplace is a self-service, real-time bidding platform for mobile advertising.

?Mobile publishers are becoming increasingly sophisticated,? said Jim Payne, cofounder/CEO of MoPub, San Francisco.

?We are moving from a world where publishers were happy to turn over their inventory to ad networks and get a check at the end of the month to one where publishers want to turn their apps into a business and have the need to diversify their advertising opportunities,? he said. 

Real-time connections
MoPub Marketplace connects app publishers with ad buyers in a real-time market. Publishers can monetize through direct-sold ads, cross-promotional campaigns, ad networks and real-time bidding.

The new platform lets advertisers, ad agencies and demand-side platforms target specific audiences.

MoPub's open-source and flexible SDK means the publishers on MoPub?s ad-serving platform will have access to complete visibility on how much revenue they?re earning per impression.

The platform also offers ad performance statistics down to a specific ad creative, a single, lightweight SDK with self-service sign up, the ability for publishers to preemptively block ads from a particular advertiser or brand, and also block specific ads.

?MoPub Marketplace is like a trading floor for mobile ads,? Mr. Payne said. ?Publishers can offer their inventory to the marketplace, we go out and get bids from those on the platform in a split second, we figure out the highest one and pass the winning ad back to the publishers.

?Publishers can see in real-time what is selling and can take action,? he said.

MoPub launched a mobile ad server late last year that has signed up over 650 publishers and serves many billions of ads per month on apps.

The new marketplace service has been in private beta for a couple of months and is now open to any publishers, from major media publishers of mobile apps to emerging social games and long-tail developers.

MoPub Marketplace currently accounts for approximately eight to 10 percent of MoPub?s inventory.

The company was founded by ex-Google and ex-AdMob product managers and engineers and has raised over $6.5 million in venture capital from Accel Partners and Harrison Metal Capital.

?Real time bidding is really a huge shift form the way that buying happens through ad networks,? Mr. Payne said.

?In a network model, the advertiser is buying inventory completely blind,? he said.

?With real-time bidding, a buyer can actually look at the merchandise before buying and set a price. They know what app it is, decide how much it is worth and put a bid in.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York