• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, December 7, 2016

Purch, a digital content and commerce firm, on Wednesday  announced a new server-to-server integration for video header bidding in partnership with Index Exchange. The integration aims to reduce latency issues to offer a better online experience for consumers, while also improving transparency and competition for both publishers and third-party exchanges.

While header bidding is known to reduce latency compared to the traditional tag-based waterfall, server-to-server integrations represent the next step in the evolution of bidding on inventory. Through the new integration, Purch can simultaneously auction banner and video ads with unlimited demand sources, without adding extra latency on the page.

“We’ve invested in building our own solution to connect to multiple exchanges via server-to-server connections, which we believe is inherently faster and leads to a better experience for our users,” John Potter, chief technology officer, Purch, told Real-Time Daily via email. “Through the Index Exchange partnership, we’re expecting a 30%-50% increase in yield.”

Potter added that most of the industry still relies heavily on a traditional header bidding approach, which runs on the client side and can affect site speed and performance. Server-to-server integrations enable multiple bids to be collected in the background without impacting a consumer’s online experience. Bid responses are also believed to be faster, resulting in more competition between bidders and higher revenue. With the new integration, “We’ve now taken this a step further, bringing this technology to video, an area of programmatic that is far behind display,” Potter said.