Aiming to simplify its header bidding offering, SpotX on Thursday said its server-to-server bidding product will allow media owners to integrate third-party header bidders into their
yield management programs.
The video ad-serving platform said it is enabling publishers to better manage demand partner latency, set price floors, allocate priority tiers to campaigns, and
access integrated analysis and reporting tools.
Essentially, the move allows publishers to access demand sources from different header bidding providers, as well as from the more than 70
demand-side platforms (DSPs) that are directly integrated into SpotX's platform, from a single point. The goal is to cut the complexity of the process for publishers, as well as allowing them to
increase the number of demand sources that can compete in the auction for the ad space at the same time.
This avoids what's known in the business as the "waterfall" -- or the auction calling
demand sources one right after the other.
“Publishers need flexible options to manage video monetization in a rapidly evolving ad industry. Header bidding implementations are often
necessary options for maximizing video revenue, particularly where contractual obligations or ties to legacy platforms exist. But we expect unified systems offering advanced ad serving and robust
server-side infrastructure to emerge as winners in the future,” SpotX’s senior director of product management, Kevin Hunt, told Real-Time Daily via email.
Hunt said server-to-server bidding via direct server integrations between supply-side and demand-side platforms help reduce latency, data leakage and errors associated with client-side
header bidding.
SpotX said in cases where media owners have contractual obligations or technology limitations that require a different kind of header bidding execution, it will
offer the aforementioned direct integration, and Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP).
With DFP, media owners continue to use their third-party header bidding partners, but SpotX
will submit the winning bid to DFP, regardless of whether the winning bid is from SpotX or from one of the third-party header bidding partners.