CEO Spotlight, AdMobix – Neil Raj

Having recently launched its mobile network, Ad Mobix is quickly starting to make a name for itself. A division of AdCommunal.com, it is a performance-based ad agency where advertisers do not pay for impressions or clicks, but only pay for leads. Using proprietary technology and advanced tracking, AdMobix produces the maximum ROI for advertisers. Neil Raj, the founder of Ad Mobix was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule and answer a few questions for the readers of RickyAhuja.com.

1) How did you get started in the industry?

Hmmm, where do i start  - registered my first domain, portello.com, in 1996, promoting it via PPC on GOTO.com.  Got a job at Azoogle Ads in 2004.  After a few years at AZ, I moved on and helped build out the CPA division at BlueLithium, which later sold to Yahoo for 300 Million big ones.

2) What are you involved in these days, I hear through the grapevine that you are launching some mobile network?

We just launched AdMobix.com, a performance based ad network focusing on mobile traffic and mobile offers.  We see the next forefront of digital advertising being on mobile devices, and we wanted to help initiate the CPA movement into mobile.

3) I have known you all for some time now and you seem like a close knit group, what do you account that to?

Rather than being all things to all people, we prefer to work with a select group and service them properly.  At the end of the day, with all the players in this space, the differentiating factor boils down to who can take care of you (the client or the publisher) better.  By working with select publishers, we have found that we can excel in service.

4) You guys run a very successful network already, what made you decide to launch Ad Mobix?

We found publishers were looking for additional sources of traffic and were moving to buying traffic on mobile platforms such as AdMob and InMobi.  However, the constraint was there were not enough quality offers for them to promote.  Since we use a proprietary custom platform, we were able to tweak it to accommodate publishers and advertisers on mobile devices.

5) How many offers and publishers do you currently have? How are you driving this growth?

On AdCommunal, we have about 300 campaigns and 3000 publishers.  AdMobix is very new, and we are still growing out the advertiser and publisher base.  Aside from a few shows we attend, we do not advertise our networks.  Our growth has been very Organic as our intention is to work closer, with a smaller group.

6) Everyone knows of your success in the industry, what are some thing you look for when deciding to work with a partner (advertiser or publisher)?

When looking at an advertiser’s campaign, one of the key elements we look for is the ease of conversion of the offer.  We realize that publishers not only entrust their traffic to us, they entrust their budgets to us by them spending money on traffic hoping that offers convert.  As such, we make sure that the offers we bring on pay on a lead, and the conversion to a lead is fairly simple.
In order to get higher payouts, we have to ensure we deliver high quality leads to our advertisers.  We often offer full disclosure to our advertisers so there is transparency as to the source of the traffic coming through to their offers.

7) Do you have a 3 strike rule with them in case of any issues?

Even before a 3 strike rule, we have a 3 tier approval process.  When a publisher signs up and we manually approve them, they have access to a certain class of offers.  Once they drive traffic and we are able to see the lead quality, we move them up to a second tier where they have access to a different class of offers.  Once we are able to gauge quality at that phase, we move them to the third tier, which usually involves higher caliber offers and even higher payouts as we are comfortable about lead quality.  If at any point during these stages, we get complaints from the advertiser, we lower the publisher on the tier level, and upon 2-3 complaints (depending on the severity of the complaint), we sever the relationship.

8) What are some of the trends you are seeing in this space that people should be paying attention to?

We are biased, but we do see the trend moving to mobile.  This would be a good time for publishers to start testing mobile traffic and getting their feet wet.  As with any trend, the early bird gets the worm, and the sooner you get into the vertical, the faster you can master it, and have a huge competitive advantage over the latecomers.

9) What are some challenges you expect?

With any new traffic source, and especially this being a new medium, there will be a learning curve.  Media buyers / publisher will have to spend time to identify the right formula.

10) What are some of the changes you see taking place?

On a macro level, we see changes such as overall consolidation in the industry.  On a publisher level, we see more publishers harnessing international markets and targeting traffic from untapped markets like the Middle East, China, and India, as well as lightly tapped markets like Canada and Australia.  The key being, using their expertise from what they have learned in the very competitive US market, and moving to where there is little competition.

11) What advise would you give to my readers who are looking to get into affiliate marketing?

Diversify…. see whats working in the mainstream market (US Web) and try the same or similar approaches in other markets and traffic sources (ie – Mobile or International markets)  ……. Shameless plug – www.adCanadian.com (for Canadian Traffic), www.AdIndian.com (for Indian traffic) , www.AdMobix.com (for Mobile traffic) & www.adCommunal.com (for US and International traffic)

12) Finally, Canadian Bacon or American Steak? ;-)

If you were to ask Canadian Hockey or US Hockey,  I would skew more to Canada, but dude… nothing beats an American Steak!

Top Related Posts: