AI attention metrics are now the key way forward to prove that users are engaging with content and to optimise ad spend. InsurAds’ André T. Parreira explains how publishers can make a compelling case, using AI to take attention metrics to the next level.
With brand advertising budgets squeezed as never before, ad buyers are under immense pressure to prove ROI and ensure ad budgets are working as hard as possible.
Key to this is the ability of brands to evaluate their ads using enhanced metrics – the old paradigm of traffic volumes, unique users, and even viewability are no longer considered robust enough to determine whether publisher inventory is delivering results in real time. Indeed, whilst viewability is important in determining ad inventory quality, it doesn’t go nearly far enough in demonstrating performance.
But the real game changer is AI. Using artificial intelligence, metrics can now be enhanced to a degree previously unheard of, allowing ad buyers to know in real time how their ads are performing, and crucially make changes to their strategies immediately to optimise performance.
In this interview, coinciding with last week’s Mx3AI event in Hoxton, InsurAds’ André T. Parreira discusses how AI drives advertising efficiencies, engagement and conversions…and more.
Can you tell us more about you and your company’s background?
InsurAds was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal – we have a strong international presence especially in Europe and other worldwide territories, and we’re just entering the U.S. market. In total, we have over 30 staff based worldwide.
We are the world’s first insurance company to protect digital advertising investments and the world’s leading attention monetisation platform for publishers and advertisers. We work across four continents and reach more than 1 Billion monthly unique users globally.
What is the key challenge your company is trying to solve?
We ensure that advertising investments are protected and fully optimised to extract the best return on investment. This can only be achieved using AI attention metrics – AI can monitor and control user attention time in a way that is otherwise humanly impossible to achieve accurately.
AI can measure, calculate and take action on data in real-time, saving it in a database for further analysis. To back it up for the correct decisions at all times, we have a bespoke rules engine where we insert the right parameters to define the boundaries and regulate what we can and cannot do, and the robot will act upon that.
Can you tell us more about the platform you have built to address the challenge?
AI allows us to take immediate actions based on user attention data. For instance, when a campaign is exposed, AI can identify website audiences that haven’t seen the ad yet and display it to them while they are still active on the site.
It also helps to become much more efficient and sustainable in terms of ad overexposure, for all the users that have been exposed to the same ad for too long – this guards against useless over-exposure and wasted ad spend for the advertiser while reducing the carbon footprint related with campaign delivery.
Additionally, AI can adapt on-the-fly the ad creative based on a user’s attention time and context making the campaign more engaging and effective.
AI is at the core of our Attention Management Platform. We have a unique rules engine (which works like a Constitution Fundamental Laws) that allows the AI system to take real-time actions per unique user and per impression. This is crucial in the fast-paced world of digital advertising.
Can you give us a real world example of your platform in use, and what impact it has had on a publisher/brand’s performance?
Of course. To give you one insight out of many, our platform is saving our advertisers approximately more than 60% of their digital ad investments in only 15-20% of their audience base impacted by the ad campaign, all this simply by ensuring the user only sees the ads for the amount of time they need, even if the servers display the ads over and over due to high frequency setups. This is huge. All thanks to our AI Robot Insurance.
On the other hand, for publishers, our platform is ensuring that no second of opportunity for attention goes unmonetised at premium CPMs rates, increasing revenues exponentially and making way, for example, to give publishers a new option for users to access their valued subscriptions at “Zero” out-of-pocket money, because advertisers will pay/sponsor it for you. Our SubSponsor product is also only possible thanks to AI managing impressive workloads of data to properly create and operate an attention and advertising ledger on a unique user basis.
Real-time advertising is a hot topic. Can you elaborate on how AI helps with real-time decision-making and ad placement?
Certainly. Real-time advertising is about understanding a user’s attention and activity at any given moment. AI makes it possible to send new ads, change content, or adjust the environment based on a user’s behaviour on the fly. For instance, if a user has seen a particular ad for the necessary amount of time, AI can suggest changing the creative and displaying a new one, maximising engagement and return.
In today’s world, where topics like war dominate the news, AI can analyse the context of the content being displayed. If a user is reading an article on war, AI can switch the ad in real-time to a more appropriate one, ensuring that the advertising remains relevant and respectful of the content context.
AI is moving at a fast clip, how are you planning to stay ahead and leverage developments in AI tech?
The rule at InsurAds is to keep challenging and breaking the “Impossibles”, keep inventing like a 6 year old child, and to always be the first to call our achievements obsolete.
What are the other key challenges with using AI (if any)?
I’d say right now the only challenge that is hard to predict is the Governmental Regulation that sooner or later will arrive.
What other innovations in AI (publisher/brand focused) have impressed you within the advertising ecosystem?
I love all the developments currently being made with GenAI around campaign management/operation and dynamic creative creation.
What is your roadmap for 2024?
The key is innovation, flexibility and agility. We’re excited about the potential of integrating our AI systems with Generative AI solutions. If anyone is using GEN AI systems, we’d love to discuss opportunities for collaboration. Additionally, we’re interested in hearing about any initiatives other media companies or brand owners might have related to AI in advertising. Let’s have an open conversation about the possibilities.
