I sat down with Roy Peleg, CEO and Almog Even, Chief Web Officer of FirstImpression, a company which began in Israel, and one that specializes in ad placement and offers a revolutionary solution for online advertising. FirstImpression describes for us what the company does and how they are changing the way the Internet operates and targets customers with ads.
Q: What does your company, "do," exactly?
A: We have basically changed the online advertising industry forever. First Impression creates the perfect ad placements for websites on the fly without any coding. Since online advertising is very much confined to code placement, our technology develops ads on any part of a website that optimizes easily, and only appears under set conditions. The result is that our ads outperform standard placement and help engage users in a way that no other code placement does.
Q: How big is your company?
A: We have five employees now and will add a sixth member shortly. We got our first investment in December 2014.
Q: You mentioned you were able to raise angel funding?
A:Yes, we were fortunate enough to receive angel funding. We raised $100,000 and found that we were growing enough to keep First Impression going. We grew 70 percent in the first month. The changes we can make in the ad world provides a dynamic solution for companies, and is a sign of what is out there. Our work depends on the volume, so we store many of the page layouts for other customers. We also work with four large applications and approximately 80 publisher websites like Fox News Affiliates, CVS, NBC, all major newspapers, and all newspapers in Central and South America.
Q: So you're mainly working through ad networks to grow your business?
A: Yes, we are basically able to get a lot more stickiness with the publishers because we create the inventory. If a publisher stops working with us, they lose inventory. We will actually approach other publishers and monetize for them. We find that websites really like us a lot, once they see what we can do for them, they stick with us.
We are able to dynamically publish ads for websites based on a company's understanding of what the page looks like. We can mix and match what our customers want on their pages and really change the user experience with advertising on the fly - again with no coding.
FirstImpression has a completely different ad program that we developed to meet different user experiences and functionality. For example, with video overlay, we can open any kind of video player on the market without any interruption. We can use any video you would want, like YouTube, Hulu, or any other media site.
We help develop what the pages look like and the user can view them directly from the site. We can use this process with many different websites and use their same coding. We just use one line so nothing changes which really helps the marketing and coding people relax a little. Say you wanted to have an ad placement where the user could see it without interrupting content, we are able to change the size of the ad to make it customized for the content on the page. As such, we can find untapped opportunity to better monetize the existing placement for the customer.
We also help our customers connect to different markets because we are able to work on different platforms.
Q: Who are your competitors?
A: We have a few competitors in Israel that are trying to tackle this product from different angles. There is one called Dynamicfield that tries to do what we do through e-commerce sites and there is a company in India who is trying to do this with AdSense. However, these company's cannot do what we do in this space.
Q: Do you optimize ad placement for revenue as well? Does First Impression dynamically optimize?
A: Yes, we can optimize ad placement for revenue. For example, what I can do is take a newspaper platform and put an ad inside the platform anywhere it is needed, based on the layout of the page. We can place the ad absolutely anywhere that our customers may desire.
The revenue will change for companies based on the performance, and the placement can be changed for virtual results. FirstImpression can help give these businesses extra revenue that they would otherwise be missing out on, and this is especially true for mobile websites which have become so vital nowadays.
Q: What if I install the code? Do you change the code and fix the ad placement?
A: What we do is predict the outcome of the placement with specific devices. These devices show where we can put the ads to make them much more engaging than they currently are on the page. FirstImpression does not have to tell the platform that this place - or that place - is best for the ad, because the predictor figures it out. We get that one piece of code and put it in the plug-in for an ad server. The predictor will help find the specific ad that you requested and then the predictor will place the ad in that perfect location on the page. The endgame for us is to create a new type of change based on the placement. These methods have a high impact impression on the pages. This process will not cut off an image, and will not cut off a video, but, instead, it will place what is needed around the image or video.
Q: How many page views are you currently getting?
A: The process is more about the company ad placement than it is about page views. We don't monetize most of them because the publishers see the results for that. When it comes to an ad placement, the program will ask how many ads you want to post per page. It would only make sense for you to put fewer placements than there is content.
Q: Who is your largest client at present?
A: Our biggest client is Twitter. FirstImpression has been working with Twitter for about nine months. We ran a lone pilot with them and we are now in the planning stages for the next quarter. Previously, Twitter had a problem with users getting ad placement over the content. Our technology has made it much easier for them. Twitter has specific ads which will only pop up to the users who actually care about the ads, while the rest of the users will not be bothered with that particular ad.
Q: Can you use your unique process on a user basis?
A: Yes. For example, if we know advertisers are interested in a certain demographic or certain people, then we can target those particular people and the other users will not see anything where the ads would normally be located.
Q: Do you use services, like the Cloud so that you can have a larger list of publishers?
A: No, we have not needed to use the Cloud because we are currently working with eight major publishers along with their networks and storage. If you watch, you will see this unique technology we provide, coming out from different brands. FirstImpression has been doing a lot of research to look for specific users. We need to figure out what each specific page is going to look like and find out how the various users react to the old ads so that we can plan for the new, future ads.
Q: What goals do you have for FirstImpression?
A: I have a lot of experience with different companies and working with ad placement among different publishers. Monetizing seemed like an issue with them, and the old systems held them back. We would see ads stacked on the sides of the pages. Now, we put the ads inside the content. We are continually thinking outside the box and our process and approach makes the entire page look and feel better and fresher.
Q: How did you find your first customers?
A: I am almost embarrassed to say, but our first customers were quite small websites. In the beginning we were getting about 100 dollars in revenue. A few days ago we had our highest paid day ever for the company, but we are only making a percentage. The publishers made around $48,000 and we made $2,000. Most publishers start with a single unit and then they build up and get more, which increases revenue for both of us. We had a company which moved over to a Linux+ and we monetized the website for them. Merely by using a single line of code, we managed to double their profits.
Q: What is the average uplift they get from using your system?
A: Of course, we see averages which are at 30%, and the most uplift we have seen is 150%.
Q: Where are most of your customers located?
A: We have many customers in Israel, but most of our customers are in the United States. We also have a large amount of customers in Central America.
Although FirstImpression has not been around for long, they are making a positive and significant change in the way that companies are placing their ads. This is a seemingly simple solution - but one that is quickly becoming the most effective. Imagine this, FirstImpression has a code system that can generate the perfect ad placement across any platform. The question doesn't seem to be, "who needs this system, but rather, who doesn't?"
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Q: What does your company, "do," exactly?
A: We have basically changed the online advertising industry forever. First Impression creates the perfect ad placements for websites on the fly without any coding. Since online advertising is very much confined to code placement, our technology develops ads on any part of a website that optimizes easily, and only appears under set conditions. The result is that our ads outperform standard placement and help engage users in a way that no other code placement does.
Q: How big is your company?
A: We have five employees now and will add a sixth member shortly. We got our first investment in December 2014.
Q: You mentioned you were able to raise angel funding?
A:Yes, we were fortunate enough to receive angel funding. We raised $100,000 and found that we were growing enough to keep First Impression going. We grew 70 percent in the first month. The changes we can make in the ad world provides a dynamic solution for companies, and is a sign of what is out there. Our work depends on the volume, so we store many of the page layouts for other customers. We also work with four large applications and approximately 80 publisher websites like Fox News Affiliates, CVS, NBC, all major newspapers, and all newspapers in Central and South America.
Q: So you're mainly working through ad networks to grow your business?
A: Yes, we are basically able to get a lot more stickiness with the publishers because we create the inventory. If a publisher stops working with us, they lose inventory. We will actually approach other publishers and monetize for them. We find that websites really like us a lot, once they see what we can do for them, they stick with us.
We are able to dynamically publish ads for websites based on a company's understanding of what the page looks like. We can mix and match what our customers want on their pages and really change the user experience with advertising on the fly - again with no coding.
FirstImpression has a completely different ad program that we developed to meet different user experiences and functionality. For example, with video overlay, we can open any kind of video player on the market without any interruption. We can use any video you would want, like YouTube, Hulu, or any other media site.
We help develop what the pages look like and the user can view them directly from the site. We can use this process with many different websites and use their same coding. We just use one line so nothing changes which really helps the marketing and coding people relax a little. Say you wanted to have an ad placement where the user could see it without interrupting content, we are able to change the size of the ad to make it customized for the content on the page. As such, we can find untapped opportunity to better monetize the existing placement for the customer.
We also help our customers connect to different markets because we are able to work on different platforms.
Q: Who are your competitors?
A: We have a few competitors in Israel that are trying to tackle this product from different angles. There is one called Dynamicfield that tries to do what we do through e-commerce sites and there is a company in India who is trying to do this with AdSense. However, these company's cannot do what we do in this space.
Q: Do you optimize ad placement for revenue as well? Does First Impression dynamically optimize?
A: Yes, we can optimize ad placement for revenue. For example, what I can do is take a newspaper platform and put an ad inside the platform anywhere it is needed, based on the layout of the page. We can place the ad absolutely anywhere that our customers may desire.
The revenue will change for companies based on the performance, and the placement can be changed for virtual results. FirstImpression can help give these businesses extra revenue that they would otherwise be missing out on, and this is especially true for mobile websites which have become so vital nowadays.
Q: What if I install the code? Do you change the code and fix the ad placement?
A: What we do is predict the outcome of the placement with specific devices. These devices show where we can put the ads to make them much more engaging than they currently are on the page. FirstImpression does not have to tell the platform that this place - or that place - is best for the ad, because the predictor figures it out. We get that one piece of code and put it in the plug-in for an ad server. The predictor will help find the specific ad that you requested and then the predictor will place the ad in that perfect location on the page. The endgame for us is to create a new type of change based on the placement. These methods have a high impact impression on the pages. This process will not cut off an image, and will not cut off a video, but, instead, it will place what is needed around the image or video.
Q: How many page views are you currently getting?
A: The process is more about the company ad placement than it is about page views. We don't monetize most of them because the publishers see the results for that. When it comes to an ad placement, the program will ask how many ads you want to post per page. It would only make sense for you to put fewer placements than there is content.
Q: Who is your largest client at present?
A: Our biggest client is Twitter. FirstImpression has been working with Twitter for about nine months. We ran a lone pilot with them and we are now in the planning stages for the next quarter. Previously, Twitter had a problem with users getting ad placement over the content. Our technology has made it much easier for them. Twitter has specific ads which will only pop up to the users who actually care about the ads, while the rest of the users will not be bothered with that particular ad.
Q: Can you use your unique process on a user basis?
A: Yes. For example, if we know advertisers are interested in a certain demographic or certain people, then we can target those particular people and the other users will not see anything where the ads would normally be located.
Q: Do you use services, like the Cloud so that you can have a larger list of publishers?
A: No, we have not needed to use the Cloud because we are currently working with eight major publishers along with their networks and storage. If you watch, you will see this unique technology we provide, coming out from different brands. FirstImpression has been doing a lot of research to look for specific users. We need to figure out what each specific page is going to look like and find out how the various users react to the old ads so that we can plan for the new, future ads.
Q: What goals do you have for FirstImpression?
A: I have a lot of experience with different companies and working with ad placement among different publishers. Monetizing seemed like an issue with them, and the old systems held them back. We would see ads stacked on the sides of the pages. Now, we put the ads inside the content. We are continually thinking outside the box and our process and approach makes the entire page look and feel better and fresher.
Q: How did you find your first customers?
A: I am almost embarrassed to say, but our first customers were quite small websites. In the beginning we were getting about 100 dollars in revenue. A few days ago we had our highest paid day ever for the company, but we are only making a percentage. The publishers made around $48,000 and we made $2,000. Most publishers start with a single unit and then they build up and get more, which increases revenue for both of us. We had a company which moved over to a Linux+ and we monetized the website for them. Merely by using a single line of code, we managed to double their profits.
Q: What is the average uplift they get from using your system?
A: Of course, we see averages which are at 30%, and the most uplift we have seen is 150%.
Q: Where are most of your customers located?
A: We have many customers in Israel, but most of our customers are in the United States. We also have a large amount of customers in Central America.
Although FirstImpression has not been around for long, they are making a positive and significant change in the way that companies are placing their ads. This is a seemingly simple solution - but one that is quickly becoming the most effective. Imagine this, FirstImpression has a code system that can generate the perfect ad placement across any platform. The question doesn't seem to be, "who needs this system, but rather, who doesn't?"
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