Project Agora and Exit Bee – two fast-growing companies in Media Tech – recently announced that they would be joining forces to launch a new advertising format called Exit Ads to the MEA region.
The format promises major benefits for advertisers and publishers alike. We sat down with Dimitris Tsoukalas, Regional Director MEA at Project Agora and Pavlos Linos, CEO of Exit Bee to find out exactly what their collaboration is about.
What are Exit Ads?
Dimitris Tsoukalas: Exit Ads is a new “micro moment” advertising format that we are bringing to the Middle East and Africa in collaboration with Exit Bee. The format leverages Exit Bee’s behavioural technology to precisely identify the moments when users disengage from a website’s content, and deliver a contextually relevant ad to capture their attention.
What is micro moment advertising and how does it work?
Pavlos Linos: Exit Ads use pattern recognition and machine learning to analyze users’ behaviour and identify the “exit” or “in-between” moments – we call these “micro moments”. So micro moment advertising is advertising targeted specifically at these instances.
On desktop, Exit Ads track signals like where the visitor moves their cursor; how far they scroll down the page; how long the visitor remains idle; and previous site activity and history. Whereas on mobile, we track things like scrolling behaviour; whether the users switch tabs or apps; and whether they turn the screen off.
What are some of the benefits Exit Ads offer?
Dimitris Tsoukalas: The format offers benefits to both advertisers and publishers. For publishers, they present a brand new advertising real estate that will minimize any interruption for engaged visitors. By producing high Engagement Rates, Exit Ads deliver premium and sustainable CPMs. And by re-engaging “lost” visitors, publishers can promote content, increase subscriptions, run surveys and much more.
For advertisers, they provide an ad experience that ensures brand-safe, premium and targeted placement – with 100% Viewability and Engagement Rates 20x higher than standard banner ads. They also enable advertisers to explore new creative avenues, as their ads will be tailored to specific moments.
Why are Exit Ads more effective than standard banner ads?
Pavlos Linos: Classic ads try to distract the visitors from the reason they’re on the website, disrupting their experience. It makes total sense they would want to get rid of them – and perhaps be irritated at the brands whose messages they keep seeing.
With Exit Ads, the ads are targeted specifically at moments when we will not be disrupting the user. Exit Ads are also targeted based on real on-site behaviour, which means we are able to tailor them far more effectively. The more relevant the ads to the context a user sees them in, the more likely they are to grab the attention and produce a conversion.
Why did the collaboration appeal to you?
Dimitris Tsoukalas: For us at Project Agora, working with a company as innovative as Exit Bee unlocks new opportunities. Exit Ads allow us to further enhance the monetization services we offer publishers – as well as providing another high-performing, creative ad experience for advertisers.
Pavlos Linos: It’s a strategic moment for us, too. We have successfully launched Exit Ads in several European countries, and Project Agora’s regional expertise is helping us bring the success of Exit Ads to the Middle East and Africa. This makes us very enthusiastic for the future of this partnership and the results it will yield for local publishers and advertisers.
