AppNexus, an ad tech company, has announced the launch of AppNexus Programmable Bidder (APB), a technology that enables advertisers and agencies to upload their proprietary algorithms directly to the AppNexus open platform.

The APB allows advertisers and agencies to test and refine algorithmic strategies to optimise campaign outcomes.

Previously constrained by the cost and complexity of building their own bidders, advertisers and agencies can now deploy their own formulas on the AppNexus platform to match audience and message.

“Real-time algorithmic bidding will revolutionise marketing,” said Brian O’Kelley, chief executive office of AppNexus. “Until now, the technical challenges and financial costs of real-time bidding have prevented most buyers from investing in algorithms. By allowing data scientists to upload complex models directly into our scaled real-time bidding platform, we will finally see the industry take full advantage of the power of algorithms to maximise the impact of every ad impression.”

With the launch of APB, AppNexus extends an unparalleled level of control and autonomy to buyers seeking to leverage proprietary algorithms. APB enables buyers to upload decision trees through the AppNexus platform’s open APIs and access them directly through its user interface.

“We’d ultimately like to see a world in which advertisers and agencies evaluate their proprietary optimisation formulas against AppNexus’ algorithms and refine and adapt their campaigns accordingly,” O’Kelley continued.

According to Catherine Williams, AppNexus’ chief data scientist, “Until now, advertisers who wanted to leverage their data assets had to make an unhappy choice: incur enormous cost and complication to build their own bidders, with all their attendant latency and scale challenges, to be able to apply their own models and algorithms; or turn their data over to a third-party black box. We’re saying goodbye to the black box and providing a third option. APB empowers buyers to leverage their own proprietary algorithms and models, extracting maximum value from their data while staying in full control.”

APB also opens the door for a new generation of programmatic media companies to sell packaged optimisation services on the AppNexus platform. In such a future market, buyers would be able to access, assess and rent algorithms designed by optimisation partners with seamless adoption and financial clearing.

“It makes sense that AppNexus broke through the wall, and not someone else, because we’re the leading open, independent, end-to-end platform for online advertising,” O’Kelley added, “Our underlying thesis is that open beats closed. We don’t just allow — we invite —the most innovative technology companies to build their tech on top of ours. It means that buyers can fashion campaigns that deliver the right message to the right audience, without turning their data over to a black box.”