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Source:CenterNetworks -

Companies offering advertising for 3rd party Facebook applications is hot. Last week I spoke with VideoEgg about their Facebook ad solution and today I spoke with one of the newest players in this market, Lookery. Lookery is founded by Scott Rafer, former CEO of MyBlogLog. To learn more about Lookery (both for the Web and for Facebook), I poked Scott for an interview and our discussion is below.

Allen: What is Lookery?

Scott: Lookery for the Web (our new service) is an ad network that fixes the economic problem of social networks: great user profiling and so-so inventory for advertisers. We make it safe and easy for social networks to distribute their data as targeting information outside their sites, in order to make money on web sites that have great inventory and little or no targeting information.

Allen: Why Facebook?

Scott: We got started with Lookery for Facebook because I kept hearing from people that they wanted to buy and/or publish traditional marketing campaigns in Facebook apps. We saw demand and just went for it.

Allen: Can you explain what Lookery for the Web and Lookery for Facebook is, and what are the differences?

Scott: Lookery for Facebook is a traditional display advertising network that runs exclusively on Facebook applications. Like all other Facebook-only networks, we exist at Facebook’s whim. We’ll do very well by our Facebook application publishers as long as they let us, but they have a lot more data than we do to run a network on their site. Lookery for the Web is a service in which we’re building a unique market position, building out revenue programs for content publishers and sharing back to social networks. Bridging across networks lets us add more value and more unique value.

Allen: How does Lookery for the Web compare to other similar services that will be launching soon, ie.. Google’s new rumored service?

Scott: I’m still waiting for GDrive, so it’s tough to comment. The critical issue for us is that user anonymity is strictly maintained and that our services are easy to sell. The vast detail underlying behavioral advertising both requires very sophisticated advertising buyers and puts user privacy at grave risk. We’re sticking solely to Age, Sex, and Location in order to provide concrete value to marketers while holding no data that puts users at risk.

Allen: How does the service work?

Scott: It’s a big third-party cookie system with APIs for adding profile info and for using demographic targeting.

Allen: Are the ads across Facebook or only within the apps that 3rd party developers create?

Scott: Only in the 3rd party apps.

Allen: How large is the Facebook advertising market pegged to be?

Scott: Third-party application traffic is easier to talk about. It seems to be a few billion pages a day, about 10% of Facebook’s total. The apps should generate a tenth of Facebook’s revenue as they become a fifth of its traffic over time.

Allen: What pricing models work with Lookery?

Scott: We optimize for eCPM, using whatever models we can to maximize it.

Allen: Who are your competitors?

Scott: It’s not clear how we stack up against the behavioral networking players for our web advertising. That’s a field rife with co-opetition, which we’ll likely be part of in the normal way. The only competitor anyone should consider on Facebook is Facebook themselves. If they decide to be an ad network directly (instead of a tax), they’ll win. Until that’s resolved, nothing else matters.

Allen: I met with VideoEgg last week and discussed their Facebook ad platform for app developers - how does Looker compare to VideoEgg’s offering?

Scott: Publishers manage their advertising as a pyramid. A small number of very valuable ads at the top and a large number of "remnant" ads at the bottom. The VE guys are doing a beautiful job of taking over the top, and we’re trying to raise people’s expectations about the bottom.

Allen: Can you speak about the analytics/reporting behind Lookery?

Scott: To date, it’s nothing exciting. With Dave Cancel’s background as founder/CTO of compete.com and my experience at MyBlogLog, we’re looking to change that.

Allen: What’s the team makeup? Funded/unfunded?

Scott: There’s three fulltimers (Dave Cancel, Rex Dixon, and me) plus some contractors including Todd Sawicki. There’s some angel funding coming in, though it’s not the focus yet.

Allen: What’s coming in the next 3 months for Lookery?

Scott: Getting Lookery for the Web to critical mass. Please drop our JS on CenterNetworks if you get the chance.

Thanks for your time Scott!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 7:30 am and is filed under facebook, advertising, Interviews, Lookery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.