Pathmatics raises $3M to tell companies where ad dollars are really going

When it comes to online advertising, one concern publishers, agencies, and marketers share is in determining where programmatic ads are being displayed. Everyone wants to get their money’s worth, but what happens when ads are served on sites where brands don’t have an audience? Pathmatics offers actionable data from across the industry in order to promote transparency and ensure that advertisers are getting the attention they’re paying for.

The company announced today that it has secured $3 million in new funding from Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments. Pathmatics plans to use this funding to make investments in its sales and product teams and expand its customer base.

Formerly known as Adomic, Pathmatics was founded by Gabe Gottlieb and Tom Lorimor in 2010. Its technology enables anyone to analyze what’s going on with their ads, specifically, but it also provides intelligence around what competitors are doing and the industry as a whole. It looks at programmatic ads, which covers those on the desktop, mobile and tablet Web, pre-roll ads on videos, and native advertising. Gottlieb said that Pathmatics isn’t tracking apps specifically but is “very interested in it.”

“We have crawlers in the crowd covering the top 9,000 publishers in the United States, gathering samples of what’s happening. When we load the page, we’re listening to all the calls, tags, redirects, etc. and stitching it together. Publishers are able to look up any advertiser to see what they’re spending and more,” Gottlieb shared with VentureBeat in an interview.

The company has more than 60 customers today, including two of the top four ad holding companies, and four of the top ten ad networks. Gottlieb is looking to target more of the higher-end market, specifically agencies and advertisers who will gain the most from the data. These are firms that risk losing their clients or customers if ads don’t deliver as they should. Pathmatics isn’t a reactive solution — it’s proactive, enabling companies to maximize their spend and perhaps establish a strategic advantage.

The idea boils down to accountability. If you become wary of using a specific ad network because you learn that it cares more about your money than offering up a site with the right audience, then Pathmatics has done its job. Publishers can also look to see what advertisers typically spend for a site like theirs, and agencies can optimize their media budgets to provide sound advice to their clients.

Pathmatics charges between $10,000 and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for its service. This enterprise-level pricing depends on several factors, including the size of the organization, how much data it wants, the number of users it’s interested in, and more.

To date, the company has raised nearly $5 million in funding, including a $1.7 million seed round raised in June 2014 from Upfront Ventures and GRP Partners. Pathmatics didn’t provide a valuation for its current round, but in the past it was said to be worth $6.5 million.