In the world of digital advertising, the goal is to put the advertiser’s message in front of the exact audience that would react or “engage” with their message. Of course, that is the theory. With an industry-wide average of .005 click-throughs, however, there seems to be something NOT working. That click-through rate is another way of measuring the engagement a business has with its potential audience. These lousy engagement metrics are resulting in a decline in the cost of getting the ad up on the sites that might attract those audiences. It has also lead to all sorts of creepy tracking of individuals as they use the web.
Four years ago, a company in Houston decided there was a better way for the consumer and advertiser to get together online. YouData was created to match these two groups in a way that gave each what they really want:
Advertisers – a targeted audience that actually engaged with their message and with an ad model where they only paid if this engagement actually happened; and
Consumers – hyper-relevant ads (geared to that consumer’s specific interests), protection of identity and rewards for giving up time to interact with the message.
Since releasing the first version of YouData, the company has also added a video ad player and will soon release their own version of the popular coupon sites such as Living Social and Groupon.
What has been particularly interesting is the recent news that Facebook , in order to counter this “lack of attention”, is now looking at rewarding the consumer as they watch ads through “credits earned”….. hmmm where have we heard that before? This move validates the YouData model, especially when certain pundits put the value of the test credits at $0.10. See article.
The reason why Facebook (and most other ad networks) need to do something (anything) to fix their models is their inability to engage the audience with their current ad model. In other words, their click-through rates stink. According to a recent Webtrends Article, on average only 2 people click through (or engage) out of 1000 impressions on their website.
YouData has been perfecting this model for over 2 years. Since that time, advertisers using the YouData model are receiving over 95% click-through rates. Simply put, the businesses’ ads are receiving the attention they need, and it is getting in front of a targeted audience that is actually paying attention.
One of the other key differentiators is YouData’s intimate relationship with great publishing content partners (like 1560TheGame ,The Bloggess, Tyler Paper, The Kids Directory, Click2Houston, The Brazoria Facts, etc.). The YouData ad player or “Adget” resides on these and over 400 other web sites. The Adget is a portal back to YouData’s system where the consumer can get more information on YouData, sign up for a consumer profile called a “MeFile”, or sign in with their ID and password to start getting ads specifically targeted to them.
With over 350 advertisers working with YouData, already representing everything from upscale restaurants to burger joints, from roofing companies to TV stations, charities to hockey teams, there is something for everyone… and the consumer is being rewarded each time they engage with that company’s message.
YouData is taking off because YouData respects each of the players in this mixed-up on-line ad game….. now to get THAT message out 
Jim Prather is a native Houstonian, who after 9 years with Deloitte, went to work with the UK Media company Pearson in New York City. This lead to him being the CFO and COO of Mindscape and brought him to San Francisco for 7 years. His corporate experience ended up as CFO of the $1 Billion division of Mattel, Mattel Interactive. In 2000, he started his first technology company, Corporate Radar, which he eventually sold to Fast Search (which was subsequently purchased by Microsoft). In 2007, he and Trae Nickelson began working on the plans for YouData and in October of 2007 started the company, based here in Houston.
YouData works from both a consumer and advertising perspective. I reccomend them highly!