Commentary

Private Exchanges, RTB Offer Benefits For Advertisers And Publishers

Publishers are looking to find a way to respond to the increasing requests from advertisers to make their inventory available via RTB. A recent study by PubMatic and Digiday showed that 74% of brand advertisers polled would increase RTB budgets if they had direct access to publisher inventory via RTB.

It’s easy to see why there’s so much demand.

More and more, advertisers are buying online video inventory using audience data. The industry is seeing a slow shift away from targeting specific consumers through customized, content-centric video buys.

The use of RTB enables advertisers to be more selective about inventory and place premium bids on the most valuable audiences. It also gives them impression-by-impression control as they bid on video ads, which ultimately allows advertisers to identify new trends and discover new insights about their consumers, context and creative.

For advertisers, the benefits of RTB are clear. For publishers, the challenge is often how and when do they respond to the call for RTB without sacrificing control over their inventory or yields. Many are turning to private video exchanges to combat this problem.

A private exchange is simply an agreement where a publisher allows select advertising partners to access their inventory via an RTB integration. Within this agreement, the publisher maintains control over availability, floor pricing and volume. Critically, the publisher maintains the direct relationship with the buyer and therefore can use RTB access to drive greater spend.

Creating multiple layers of demand for inventory has always been key to driving yield; establishing a private exchange simply adds to this without causing channel conflict -- the publisher is in control of the end-to-end process.

By making inventory available in a private exchange -- where multiple buyers are competing for each impression -- publishers can structure their inventory at multiple price points to maximize yield across their portfolio. The use of RTB gives publishers access to a new channel of buyers and campaigns, which can increase competition and CPMs.

Ultimately, RTB will greatly impact all areas of online display and increasingly, video will be bought in this way. This change in the market represents a real opportunity for all parties involved.  Publishers should take the lead at a time when advertisers are looking to build partnerships and increase their RTB budgets.

As the market moves toward RTB buying, and advertisers increasingly look to target audiences in real-time across a wide range of publishers, demand for premium video inventory will remain high.

The potential for increased revenue can’t be ignored -- publishers must capitalize on this shift toward RTB. Those that do will benefit from early mover advantage and will develop the skills and knowledge to compete effectively ahead of the market.

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