Pixability offers a new self-service video ad platform

Video ad platform Pixability is out with a new self-service integrated platform for YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

The Boston-based company says the new offering is unique because marketers can conduct their campaigns for those three environments via a single interface that tracks them as a unified effort.

This is the first integrated platform that enables video ad campaigns across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Chief Product Officer Alan Beiagi told me, and the first outside of Google to offer self-service for buying and dynamically optimizing video ads for YouTube ads. The platform can scan more than 7.8 million YouTube channels, which the company says is nine times what any other tool offers.

Previously, Pixiability had been utilizing a similar internal platform for a managed service that provided comparable capabilities, and now it’s making a version of that platform available as self-service. The company says its services have been utilized by such major agencies as Dentsu-Aegis, Havas, Interpublic Group, Omnicom and WPP.

The new platform is intended to make “apples to apples” comparisons easier, Beiagi said, through analyses that normalize performance and cost. It enables targeting of 50 prepackaged audience segments across the three networks, such as Auto Enthusiasts. Segments can be combined into super-segments, and marketers can generate their own segments. Here’s a screen shot:

Machine learning optimizes bidding and budget strategies across the board, which Beiagi said can involve the testing of hundreds of campaign variations at the same time. In addition to a common bidding strategy, the platform also tracks performance across common video views, such as all 30-second ads, or against common device types.

Based around key performance indicators (KPIs), he said the integrated and optimized campaigns available on the new platform can typically lead to a 30 percent performance improvement.

Last month, Pixability launched a 100 percent brand-safe guarantee for YouTube advertisers, and its brand-safe capabilities are integrated into this new offering.