TLV Media’s Ohad Gliksman talks about using optimization technology to boost campaign performance
This is the second in our series of profiles on Right Media seatholders—who they are, what they do, and their views on today’s digital marketplace.
Ohad Gliksman, TLV Media
Founded in 2007, TLV Media built an industry-leading optimization platform that helps agencies, networks, advertisers and publishers maximize the performance of their online display advertising campaigns.
TLV is growing fast, reaching 300% annual growth each of the last three years. Today it manages about 15 billion impressions a month (mostly on Right Media Exchange), with more than 10,000 campaigns running at any given time. The 20-person company handles 20% of its campaigns with only two managers; the rest are managed by advertisers using the self-service interface of TLV’s platform. Based in Tel Aviv, TLV does 40% of its business in EMEA, 40% in the U.S. and 20% in other regions, led by Latin America.
The Right Media Blog spoke with Ohad Gliksman, co-founder and CEO of TLV Media, about the company’s technology, strategy and relationship with Right Media.
Right Media Blog: Give us a quick history of TLV Media.
Ohad Gliksman: My partner Ofer Zinger and I founded TLV four years ago as an algorithm development company that focused on optimizing direct response campaigns over display inventory. We saw an opportunity, because the technology for running performance-based campaigns over display inventory was highly inefficient, as opposed to the technology stack in the search ecosystem.
We initially set up TLV as an ad network on Right Media and started developing algorithms that optimized the performance and targeting of the campaigns we ran on the network by analyzing campaign parameters and automating the workflow. With the growth of campaigns, clients and partnerships with Right Media and other platforms, we added account management teams to put our technology to use across all these channels.
RMB: What do you think you do better than your competitors?
OG: I think we’re one of the more advanced technology companies on RMX today, which allows us to manage more campaigns and more partners with less effort, and deliver better performance at greater scale.
We’re now moving toward sharing more of our technology to our partners. A year ago, we launched a self-service platform for our large-scale advertisers, allowing them to upload, manage and optimize their own campaigns. Last November, we launched a self-service DSP platform intended for smaller-scale, occasional advertisers that gives them access to the same campaign management tools, algorithms and technology that we use to optimize our own campaigns.
RMB: How have you been able to grow so much over the last three years?
OG: Most of our growth comes from the continuous refinement of our optimization technology. We’re automating more and more performance parameters, such as workflow automation, campaign uploading, creative trafficking—and that helps us manage a larger number of campaigns. The rapid evolution of our optimization algorithms—we have around 200 of them today—allows us to scale advertisers who are looking for maximum volume and capacity.
RMB: What are the biggest challenges that you face today?
OG: The biggest challenge is trying to get more brand advertisers to integrate into the direct response part of the ecosystem. It’s a big change for many brand advertisers to run their campaigns in a measureable manner, and they need to figure out the exact parameters they want to measure. Those parameters tend to be more complex and sophisticated than most direct response advertisers use, such as leads, email submits and software downloads.
Brands want to measure things like user engagement and e-commerce purchase history. Getting those kinds of campaigns to perform across the wide inventory available in our platform today would be our biggest challenge.
RMB: There are a lot of marketplaces out there; why have you chosen RMX?
OG: When my partner and I set up the company, we came from 17 years of experience in technology development, so it was important to find the best partner in terms of the flexibility and potential of their technical infrastructure. We both agreed on RMX as our first and primary partner, and we haven’t regretted it since.
We get good service from the Right Media teams, both in EMEA and the U.S. When Right Media updated its predict algorithm last year, it helped us increase campaign performance by 50%. From my perspective, Right Media is still the most powerful platform out there, and the largest and most liquid marketplace for trading display inventory.
— Bob Pickard
Thanks’ for the interview, it was really interesting.
I have great experience with TLVMedia’s platform and its nice to learn a bit more about the company and its history.