• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, November 2, 2016

In a bid to further extend its investment into header-bidding technology, AOL on Wednesday announced the general availability of header bidding containers. AOL also said it has signed 100 publishers to use its header-bidding technology. The launch caps 18 months of investment by AOL in this technology.

Header bidding containers enable publishers to thread multiple inventory demand sources through a single piece of JavaScript code within the header of the page. By managing different header tags within a single integration, containers generally offer publishers more control over how their partners work together. Containers can reduce latency (page load times, etc.) for publishers by aggregating individual bidders and setting an overall timeout threshold that applies to the auction as a whole.

About 50% of all publishers use header-bidding technology, according to AOL’s 2016 Publisher Outlook Report.

In a blog post today, Matt Gillis, SVP publisher platforms, AOL, said that the containers offer a holistic solution for publishers seeking transparency and greater yield. He also said that in the 18 months since AOL launched header-bidding technology, it has added a significant amount of revenue -- though he declined to state what that figure is.

AOL’s header bidding technology enables publishers to bypass the traditional waterfall and increase yield across all demand sources. Among the services AOL offers: the ability to increase CPMs and content that arrives before ads thereby decreasing the potential for latency. A dedicated team sets up the container for headers and manages integrations with all demand partners, automatically facilitating API updates.

AOL said its header bidding container hosts a non-biased auction across all integrated bidders, competing in real-time for mobile and desktop display audiences. AOL will offer campaign performance across every integrated bidder to help publishers monitor demand partners, conduct A/B testing, and better understand the value of inventory and audience monetiziation decisions.

AOL said that CafeMedia brands including CafeMom, Baby Name, and Wizard, along with the brands of Multiply (formerly Answers.com), are among the 100 publishers using the company’s header bidding containers.

Gillis said that some publishers are seeing as much as five figures worth(that’s anywhere from $10k to $90k) of incremental revenue per day since using AOL’s header bidding solutions.