Pathmatics Uses Panel to Track Social Media Ads

Online ad intelligence firm Pathmatics has added social media ad tracking to its platform, powered by data continuously collected from an opt-in panel of mobile users.

The firm's technology analyzes digital advertising activity and delivers real-time intelligence to advertisers, agencies, publishers and ad tech providers. Uses include monitoring a competitor's online spending, identifying pitfalls in campaigns, and responding to market trends, all via a self-serve dashboard. Last year, the company acquired online media buying competitive intelligence service WhatRunsWhere.com (WRW).

The new feature will initially provide US Facebook ad intelligence, with other social media networks and regions to follow next year. In addition to providing breakdowns for mobile device targeting, creative type distribution, and US state and metro targeting, the tool analyzes so-called 'dark posts' that don't run on an advertiser's Facebook Feed. It is powered by passive monitoring of a proprietary, opt-in mobile panel of users on iOS and Android phones and tablets, including 'hundreds of thousands' of demographically representative users across the US.

CEO and founder Gabe Gottlieb (pictured) comments: 'We are pleased to be the first and only ad intelligence platform to offer this kind of visibility into the social advertising landscape. As the incredible rate of digital ad spend flowing to social (and especially Facebook) continues, it fuels demand for access to competitive intelligence. Pathmatics subscribers now get unprecedented views into their competitors' campaigns to improve ad strategies for themselves or for their clients'.

Web site: www.pathmatics.com .