ADOTAS – Mobile signup ad platform Pontiflex launched a self-service feature called AdLeads today. The new service, said Pontiflex CEO and co-founder Zephrin Lasker, is “the next step after Google AdWords — a very analogous situation with us.” According to a release from the company, AdLeads allows businesses to create geotargeted signup campaigns for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, and according to Lasker, “It takes anywhere from five to 20 minutes to build a campaign.” And because these are signup ads — while using an app, the user sees a notice on his or her mobile screen with an offer to which he or she can either opt into or decline — the advertiser pays when users actually sign up, which differs from a cost per click or cost per impression model and potentially (if not certainly) brings a more engaged kind of consumer to the business. The prospect of being able to create targeted ad campaigns in a self-serve model, within minutes, and with a possibly higher chance that you’re attracting users who want to know about your business, clearly has appeal for smaller businesses. In fact, Lasker said that since AdLeads’ beta launch, “we’ve had close to 500 inquiries.”
While AdLeads might appeal to SMBs, Lasker pointed out Pontiflex has “had a few years to test this with major advertisers,” and “that gives us a great model. The system is very good at guessing what you should spend and who your audience is.” After designating a budget and selecting a business category, he said, “when you hit the ‘next’ button, we have an algorithm that figures out what data you’ll need for what apps.” And after the ad is completed, Lasker explained, “the goal is to keep people in the app. Mobile apps [often] kick you out of the app and into a browser,” but he elaborated, “We’re not particularly rich-media. There’s always a big ‘No Thanks’ button. Always, the point was to be as minimally disruptive as possible.”
It sounds simple, but Lasker said his company operates from “the idea that the user knows what they want and they’ll find it,” he said. “If you ask people to tell you what they want, they will. Pull, based on what they want, instead of pushing something on them.” With the signup model, he said, “you’re only going to [opt in] if you’re interested,” and he described the end result as “ROI-positive.”
