Online ad-optimizing service PubMatic is now publishing an AdPrice Index with the average rates collected for remnant ads by 3,000 Web publishers. These are the ads that sites place from the big ad networks when they cannot sell the inventory themselves at normally higher rates. Small sites (those with less than one million page views per month) command nearly three times as much per ad as large sites (those with more than 100 million page views per month): an effective CPM (cost per thousand) of $1.18 versus $0.38. The effective CPM across sites of all sizes is $0.49. All of these figures are for March, 2008. Ad rates are also growing faster for small sites, up 18 percent since January versus 12 percent growth overall.

The low average rates for large sites reflects the poor returns on social networks, entertainment, and gaming sites. Effective CPMs for social networks are amongthe lowest at $0.37 in March. But there is hope, that was up 69 percent from $0.22 in January.

TechCrunch 40 finalist PubMatic has taken $7 Million Series A in a round led Nexus India Capital that included original investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Helion Ventures.

PubMatic offers a meta ad server that sits between online publishers and online ad networks like Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network and Value Click. Their service helps small and medium sized publishers manage and maximize their advertising inventory by communicating with multiple ad networks to help them find the optimal ad layout and the highest paying ad network. They also provide users with a central dashboard to track all their ad networks and ad configurations.

Although still in beta, PubMatic has over 1500 users using their service and supports dozens of ad networks. Rajeev Goel, co-founder and general manager of PubMatic said that the investment will allow PubMatic to expand their user base.

See our previous review of PubMatic here, and a video of their TC 40 presentation below.

Update: PubMatic let us know that their first round was Angel so this is Series A.

Advertising has gotten a lot more complicated since the early days of the internet. There are hundreds of ad networks out there. With targeting being the name of the game, efficiently allocating your ad space to visitors is nearly impossible. In response, automated ad optimization engines have started up to help manage these advertising complexities. Using one seems like a no-brainer for publishers concerned about making the most of their advertising. Advertising rates change too quickly over time and the complexity of serving the right ads to your different demographics is simply too hard to handle by hand, particularly on websites with large footprints.

There are several engines out there already, including YieldBuild and The Rubicon Project. Now TechCrunch 40 finalist Pubmatic is hosting a contest to draw more publishers to their platform. Every month, the two publishers who see the greatest gains using Pubmatic will receive thousands in free advertising on top “web 2.0 web sites” (i.e. blogs). The amount is still unknown because they are still finalizing the sites they are advertising on. You can sign up for the program here.

PubMatic’s ad optimization engine is similar to YieldBuild and the Rubicon project. Unlike these earlier two, Pubmatic is actually live with 1,300 sites and open to anyone else. The engine serves as a meta ad server that serves the highest revenue ad network for each visitor given the time, geographic, demographic, and layout aspects of your site. It currently supports ad networks like Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network and Value Click. They also provide them with a central dashboard to track all their ad networks and ad configurations. Below you’ll find more information from their TechCrunch 40 video.

Pubmatic has already picked the November winners WinCustomize and BikerOrNot, which they claim have seen over 100% increases in their ad revenue since using PubMatic. YeildBuild and The Rubicon Project have boasted similar increases for their publishers. To a degree, it all just depends on how poorly monetized your site was to start. However, Pubmatic is looking for sensible successes from fairly well trafficked sites and will double check your previous monetization metrics to ensure the increase in revenue is real.

Session six as follows, including our live notes.

Spottt (Adbrite)

Spottt helps like-minded sites promote each other for free. Just put a Spottt on your site, blog, or MySpace profile. Every time you show someone else’s ad, they’ll show yours. Spottt was created by AdBrite, with the assistance of Tony Hsieh, co-founder of LinkExchange.

Simple model, 1:1 exchange model. Same as original link exchange program bought by Microsoft.

More useful than original program. Original co-founder of LinkExchange.com on board

Clickable

Clickable provides a service for creating and managing online advertising. Their technology provides campaign management tools and an intuitive interface to view and manage performance and direct spending across all major ad networks. In addition, advertisers are empowered to self-manage their ad buying to yield transformational results.

TC40 anouncements: Ex AOL CEO has join board, adding Adbrite on site, and released in beta.

advertising aggregation tool, slick interface. Manage campaigns on Yahoo, Adwords.

GotStatus

GotStatus is a community-driven systems management and monitoring tool that is aiming to become “Google Analytics for servers.” Users are able to place a snippet of javascript and start managing and monitoring the server side of their web applications in the same way Google Analytics does for their browser side. They will be able to track metrics on items like new accounts per day, database size, and Amazon S3 usage.

Intro is a comparison to Google Analytics, but states that Google only solves half the problem, no coverage of the server.

Another nice interface, provides server stats including email.

Multi-user platfrom, supports customers/ clients. Can customize results with dashboards, widgets.

“User Generated Monitoring”

PubMatic

PubMatic is a meta ad server that sits between online publishers and online ad networks like Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network and Value Click. Their service helps small- and medium-sized publishers manage and maximize their advertising inventory by seamlessly communicating with multiple ad networks to help them find the optimal ad layout and the highest paying ad network. They also provide them with a central dashboard to track all their ad networks and ad configurations.

Pitch: we’re the first company presenting at TC40 that offers revenue opportunities for publishers.

Pubmatic works as the middle man.

Offers optimization tools as well, color choices, sizes.

In alpha testing until today, now in open beta

Sites using the service have seen 70-110% increase in revenue.

Data is pulled from other ad networks.

Also offers dashboard widgets.

Nice idea, I’ll be keen to try it.

ZocDoc

ZocDoc is an online service that lets consumers find, search and book dentist and doctor appointments. Their service is integrated into dentists’ and doctors’ appointment systems so that last minute cancellations can be filled by other patients. ZocDoc also provides consumers with information on specific dentists’ and doctors’ office including what insurance they take.

Intro: there is a problem with easily finding doctors.

Online way to find and book medical practitioners. Site has just gone live now.

Nifty feature: site shows available time slots.

Play acting on stage, guy trips over, role playing using ZocDoc, something different.

Doctor listing include bio details + user ratings…I can feel a law suit coming on in the next 12-18months…but nice to get reviews of doctors from the user view point.

Experts panel and spotty Wifi. grrrr.

Guy likes Spottt…because it’s the only model he understands.

Esther Dyson likes Clickable, heart is with ZocDoc

Some good discussion around ZocDoc and lawyers, no live blogging as Wifi was down.

Experts seems to like ZocDoc, Clickable, Pubmatic. A strong session, I’d think Pubmatic just as the best product but only because I’ve got a publisher bias.