Header Bidding Needs to be Easy - a Commentary from Netric CEO Daniel Ahlbert
“There is no other technology for header bidding that has as broad functionality as Prebid. Some 500 developers are constantly adding code”
He is so passionate on the subject, he has become known as ‘Mr Header Bidding’ to some on the Nordic media scene.
But why does Netric CEO Daniel Ahlbert think this phenomenon, as well as Rubicon Project’s ‘easy button’ for it, Demand Manager are so important for publishers?
In the following interview, we find out:
Header bidding still seems complex and difficult in some ways for publishers, how do we make it easier?
As the open source, industry standard for header bidding, Prebid is a big part of the way forward.
Crucially, it’s not just the preferred choice for transparency – but also for performance. I believe it to be the most advanced header bidding wrapper in the market – both in terms of what it can do right now, and how quickly new features can be added in future.
Not least because, as an industry-wide initiative, it can lean on the knowledge and skills of hundreds of the best developers in the industry.
Also crucial is the fact that it puts the publisher firmly in control of all commercial decisions – which is a lot harder to realize with a proprietary alternative.
“There are good reasons why both buyers and sellers are deploying a firmer supply path optimisation (SPO) strategy in 2020.”
Just as a quick recap, what are the origins of header bidding, why did it come about and what does it aim to do?
As a technology, the ad server was built long before RTB came on the scene. And it never really caught up. Even as we moved from open to private marketplaces, to guaranteed and ultimately managing all yield holistically, in real-time, regardless of where it was coming from.
Arguably, the ad server wasn’t even optimised to fit a waterfall structure – never mind a live, holistic auction model. In some ways, all header bidding did was to bring competition to the ad server market. To allow publishers to make money out of deals made in the programmatic world on an equal footing with what used to be called ‘direct’ – insertion orders.
Incidentally, header bidding was also a major part of changing the prevailing auction model from 2nd to 1st price – ultimately meaning more transparency for buyers and sellers alike across the market.
So how did Prebid emerge? How is it different to its competition - and how does it work exactly?
The industry came together and developed Prebid, in an effort to create a transparent and efficient standard all parties could use.
The advantages are clear - the industry, as a whole owns this transparent standard, no proprietary mechanism is involved. Where this is not the case, we’ve often seen inequalities in knowledge resulting in one side of the auction benefiting at the expense of the other. That is not how you build trust across a high value market.
Second, there is no other technology for header bidding that has as broad functionality as Prebid. Some 500 developers are constantly adding code, plus making checks and balances to ensure new functionality works as intended and supports the Prebid code of conduct. This level of commitment has led to a very well-functioning client-side (i.e. header or page-based), as well as a server-side header offering across desktop, mobile web, apps and video.
Some of the challenges that accompanied header bidding relate to complexity - in terms of extracting actionable data, setup processes and troubleshooting. This has created reliance on internal and, in some cases need for external tech resources.
All of the above has not gone unnoticed - and in fact is one of the main reasons Rubicon Project launched Demand Manager, which acts to simplify many of these areas.
Where should publishers be focussing their attention in 2020?
As buyer of ad exchange services, you don’t just need to understand their performance KPIs - now you really also need to understand exactly how the exchanges work through brand safety issues, quality standards and regulation compliance.
Ultimately, you want a partner that puts your P&L, short- and long-term at the forefront. There are good reasons why both buyers and sellers are deploying a firmer supply path optimisation (SPO) strategy in 2020.
Some have said Prebid could ultimately replace the ad server - what is still lacking for that to take place? And if it were to, what do you think would be the ultimate impact for publishers?
Prebid is soon to have the capability to monetize all ad formats. The community just needs to work through some of last remaining native and video formats for that to be a reality. There’s also lots of good work being done to make programmatic guaranteed fully supported within Prebid.
When it comes to operational procedures, making it easy to adjust your Prebid containers for various scenarios, as well as pulling all the relevant data you might want, we are getting closer to a scenario where the ad server might not be needed.
And what about for buyers?
The industry as a whole - but even more so on the buy side, has started taking a closer look at the programmatic food chain – all the way from activating a budget on one end, to a rendered ad on the page at the other.
Advertisers are asking their agencies to lay out a complete cost schedule of the technologies being used. And it is obviously important to understand the origin of the inventory, what’s the overlap and where exactly buyers find the outcomes they trust and overall provide value.
Overall, it’s likely that the entire process will reduce the number of partners buyers use.
What changes do you expect to see in this area in 2020? What should publishers be aiming to achieve in the immediate future to secure their futures?
Firstly, Prebid is and will be in future a major part of your monetization strategy - make sure you have all the data at hand to understand how healthy your setup is.
Additionally, make all of the appropriate wrapper configurations needed to test various scenarios. Conditions change over weeks, months, markets, devices and formats. Each and every publisher’s revenues will benefit from a better understanding of what the best solution is under different timings and conditions.
We expect to see further enhancements around video header bidding this year, which is still a growing part of publisher revenues, alongside native and other Demand Manager partner tools.
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