Microsoft Advertising is launching third-party ad serving for mobile in the United States in a play to make the campaign management process more similar to online.

Microsoft?s platform lets agencies and advertisers use third-party ad servers such as Microsoft Atlas and Google?s DART to serve mobile display ads on all Microsoft mobile media properties, including MSN Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger, MSNBC, Fox Sports, CNBC and Wonderwall. Advertisers and agencies can centrally manage their ad campaigns and reporting using the third-party systems with which they are already familiar.

?The benefits of third-party ad serving are well known in the online space, where it has been used for years,? said Jamie Wells, director of global trade marketing and mobile advertising solutions at Microsoft, Redmond, WA. ?However, in mobile it has been relatively lacking, so we hope to solve that with this launch.

?The benefits of third-party ad serving include greater transparency and accountability?the ability for advertisers to verify the performance of their mobile campaigns,? he said.

While third-party ad tracking has accomplished that to a certain extent, Mr. Wells believes that third-party ad serving goes even further.

With third-party ad tracking, in theory every time a publisher serves an ad, a tracking pixel automatically counts clicks, but it does not always work out that way, as various factors can skew the results, per Mr. Wells.

?Ad serving where the ad is actually served by a third-party system, not the publisher, offers much more transparency and accountability in the delivery of the campaign,? Mr. Wells said.

All about accountability
Agencies and advertisers have told Microsoft executives that they view third-party ad serving as a reliable way to improve campaign management, optimization and accountability for mobile ads.

The lack of broadly supported third-party ad serving is among the biggest challenges facing the mobile advertising ecosystem today, according to ad agency Razorfish.

"Mobile advertising continues to grow significantly, and as the dollars increase, so too does the demand from agencies and marketers for consistent, transparent tracking," said Jeremy Lockhorn, vice president of emerging media at Razorfish, New York.

"The industry at large continues to wrestle with broad support for third-party ad-serving, and it?s great for a big player take this step," he said.

"The mobile advertising ecosystem still has a very long way to go to reach parity with the kinds of metrics and tracking we?re used to on the wired Web, but every little bit helps."

Solving pain points
Advertisers and agencies want transparency and consistency, and that is what Microsoft Advertising?s launch of third-party ad serving for mobile is designed to provide.

By enabling third-party ad serving for both online and mobile together, Microsoft Advertising intends to provide advertisers and agencies greater transparency and a more holistic, scalable view of digital campaigns for both online and mobile.

While Microsoft is currently focused on third-party ad serving in the U.S., the company will be rolling out third-party mobile ad serving for mobile in markets outside the U.S. in the future.

Other benefits of third-party ad serving include efficiency and scalability.

?If you?re using DoubleClick or Atlas, you can very simply add mobile to these campaigns without having to generate new reports,? Mr. Wells said. ?Our platform can integrate into same dashboard of the same system you?re already paying a licensing fee for, with reports appearing in the same guide you already receive.

?Another big benefit is creative control?for example, if agencies want to provide creative for a new campaign, they can add it themselves,? he said. ?They don't have to wait for publisher to upload it, and the agencies want that flexibility.

?They already expect it online, and this is bringing online and mobile together.?

OMD: OMG
Third-party ad serving in mobile has been an issue for some time.

While online has trusted platforms such as Atlas and DFA for agencies and clients, mobile has always had to rely on site served campaigns, according to ad agency OMD.

"For some that created a lack of true insights and management, and some agencies were slow to embrace mobile for that very reason alone," said Joao Machado, director of Airwave at Omnicom Media Group's OMD, Los Angeles. "Campaign reporting was often a nightmare.

"With Microsoft stepping up and providing a real third-party ad solution allowing for integration with the two trusted platforms mentioned above, concerns may start to ease," he said. "Ideally other media providers in the mobile space will follow Microsoft?s lead and begin to provide a similar solution.

"This is the right move that agencies have been asking to see for some time."

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Marketer

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