Boston-based YouTube ad buying platform Pixability has raised an $18 million Series C round, led by new investors Jump Capital and Edison Partners, with participation from existing investors. The new funds will be used for product development and international expansion. The company has raised $28 million to date.

Pixability's core capability is enabling brands and agencies to create and manage data-driven video ad campaigns targeting specific audiences within YouTube channels. This is extremely valuable because while YouTube's massive user base is very attractive to brands and agencies, the site's diverse content makes it virtually impossible to understand how to optimize YouTube ad spending.

YouTube itself has tried to address this complexity by introducing "Google Preferred" a year ago, helping advertisers target just the top 5% of most popular YouTube content.

But by definition the most popular YouTube content is also the most expensive content for advertisers, and it won't even be the most relevant for many of them. The other 95% of YouTube's content is where where Pixability excels. By profiling YouTube's channels and presenting recommendations to advertisers based on their desired audiences and campaign criteria, Pixability dramatically simplifies campaign planning.

Once campaigns are running, advertisers can see a variety of key performance indicators and continually optimize their campaigns, re-allocating spending against top-performing content. Pixability makes extensive use of data, allowing different creative to be run at different times and places to drive users from awareness to action.

With the TV upfronts underway and the NewFronts starting soon, a lot is being written about the shift of TV ad dollars to online video. The essential building blocks for making this happen are the underlying technologies like Pixability, that give advertisers the tools required to optimize performance while streamlining their workflows.

(Note: Pixability is Premier partner of the June 16th VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summit in NYC. Register now to save and to win a 55-inch TCL Roku TV!)