Maximizing Your Programmatic Efficiency

While programmatic advertising may offer publishers the opportunity for increased revenue and faster growth, not all publishers are maximizing ROI according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report titled “The Programmatic Path to Profit for Publishers.”  Their research may be used to evaluate why working with a programmatic consultant can help publishers strengthen their positions in the marketplace, focus on value-creating activities and improve the value of their online assets.

Spending Time Effectively

According to BCG research, publishers often do not spend time on the right activities. Rather than spending time driving revenue or serving customers, they found that typical publishers spent around 80% of their time on administrative tasks. To improve ROI, programmatic consulting strategies could focus on:

• Inventory segments actively attracting bidding.
• Active bidders and their target inventory.
• Floor prices & timeout settings.
• Forecasting inventory availability.

Translating Data Into Action

A programmatic consultant can enhance a publisher’s analytical data with insights and knowledge to build a clear understanding of how to improve a Bidders performance. In depth data analysis may be able to predict which audience segments will drive the best financial results. It can also provide valuable insights by showing how viewers are interacting with ads and what their next actions may be. Testing changes and understanding the differences in the viewer reactions, and the points in time when they take action, can also drive better results.

Using Technology to the Fullest

Since programmatic spending is typically automated spending, understanding the technology behind the spending patterns can mean getting a better return on those dollars. A programmatic consultant may understand ad technology at a deeper level than an in-house ad operations team. By manipulating the technologies, the consultant may be able to deliver better results for automated header bidding, forecasting inventory availability and inventory management. Consultants may also be able to better determine why some demand sources are working for certain inventory, but not for others.

Focusing on the Right Activities

With a consultant steering programmatic advertising efforts, publisher team members can be freed up to spend more time working with clients and potential clients, driving sales and creating more value for the company. Programmatic consultants may help publishers find efficiencies in the following ways:

• Setting the right number of demand partners. When publishers work with too many sources, it can result in inefficiencies from administering the high number of contracts. By using a single source, publishers may spend up to 30% less time on managing processes.
• Adding quality assurance reviews and measurements. Implementing procedures to review and block unwanted ads early in the process, for example, can save time in the long run.
• Standardizing and automating reporting and billing functions. Adding efficiency by using technology to perform functions when possible can help redirect staff to higher value activities.

As the sophistication of programmatic advertising continues to improve, the value added by working with a programmatic consultant may continue to increase as well. Publishers who use the full range of knowledge and tools available may benefit with better financial results driven by a greater number of satisfied customers.

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Take Header Bidding to the Next Level with a Prebid.js Wrapper

Header bidding technology has greatly improved the online advertising world and continues to grow in popularity. Having significantly improved older processes, the benefits of header bidding are obvious. Not only does header bidding increase revenue by simplifying the bidding process, it also improves user experience by ensuring access to all available inventory. While the benefits of header bidding technology are clear, it can be complicated to manage on your site. Header bidding requires more script, which can lead to slower page loading and difficulty maintaining performance. The header bidding wrapper aims to improve these systemic issues and optimize header bidding functionality. While multiple sources for header bidding exist, a prebid.js wrapper offers significant benefits, making it a top choice to consider for your site.

What are the Benefits?

Prebid has become extremely popular due to multiple factors.  First, the technology is absolutely free and open source, making it widely accessible to everyone. Auctions run fast, decreasing response time and delays. Because of this, the experience is optimized for customers and publishers. The technology is flexible, working with both mobile and desktop channels and multiple formats including display, native or video. The system maintains analytics to help you understand what is working and what to include. Additionally, prebid has its own community network. Because of this sense of community, set up help is readily available and professional help is available from experts when you need it. Of course, the ultimate goal of your online advertising is to make money. When header bidding runs effectively with a prebid.js wrapper, perhaps the most important benefit you’ll see is an increase in profits.

How Does It Work?

It’s relatively easy to get started with prebid. First, you’ll need to add the code to your page and establish ad networks or SSPs that are supported. Without significantly interrupting the loading of content on your page, prebid contacts bidders to determine available bids. You will need to set a time limit for the auction to avoid significant delays and keep the process running in a timely manner, though prebid does work to optimize efficiency as much as possible. As bids are received, the price and content become query string parameters when added to your server.

Are There Downsides?

While the prebid.js wrapper is popular in the world of header bidding, there are some downsides of header bidding to consider as well. While prebid may be free and easily accessible, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s easy to set up and maintain if you don’t have any experience with this type of technology. You may need help getting up and running, as well assistance with optimization. Additionally, while the header bidding wrapper is meant to improve slowdowns and help prevent issues with page loading, the amount of script required for header bidding will inevitably cause some delay. This can lead to frustration or even incongruities in ad serving. While there are multiple factors to consider when thinking about using a prebid.js wrapper, try it for yourself to determine if it’s the right way to go for your site.

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The Evolution of Programmatic Buying and Selling

Although programmatic selling was developed in response to a need for scale and price efficiency in an open marketplace. Over the next several years, private marketplaces became more common, where only those who received an invitation could complete transactions involving video inventories. This type of marketplace offered one-to-one relationships between advertisers and publishers with controlled access to high-quality inventory in a brand-safe setting. Buyers also enjoyed a more transparent environment. Today, the world of programmatic video advertising continues to evolve. One example of this is header bidding on video.

Curated Marketplaces

The curated marketplace is one of the new types of buying options that are emerging. These marketplaces are a hybrid of those open marketplaces of nine years ago and the more recent private marketplaces. One of the advantages of these new marketplaces includes the access that buyers have to carefully-selected inventory from a wide variety of publishers. Some of the factors involved in selecting the video include audience composition, content vertical capabilities, screen type and viewability. Another change that the curated marketplace has embraced is the use of header bidding on video.

Header Bidding

Video header bidding is basically a method used by publishers to optimize ad inventory. This approach can be described as an auction that is completed separately from the ad server and within the header of the web page. The header generally loads before anything else on the page and typically contains relevant metadata regarding the page, scripts, formatting, etc. This makes it the ideal location to handle new auctions. It is worth noting that, although the publisher remains in control of the auction, it actually takes place in the visitor’s browser.

Control Exchanges

Within the curated marketplace model, advertisers retain full control of the buying criteria but use a single Group Deal ID to spread a single buy across several publishers. In other words, multiple private marketplaces with campaign criteria that meet a certain eligibility can be grouped into one single buy. Advertisers can meet their goals with just one transaction, rather than spending time search separate private marketplaces and the crowded open marketplace.

Guaranteed Buys

Another change in programmatic selling is the use of guaranteed buys. This situation involves a setting where various buyers are able to reserve a certain type of inventory through a demand-side platform. The DSP is one system that offers buyers the chance to manage several data and/or ad exchange accounts with just one interface. The DSPs are vital components for the success of header bidding on video because of its real-time bidding capabilities.

Will You Benefit From an Evolving Marketplace?

These new buying options offer plenty of benefits. The options allow buyers, publishers and advertisers to experience control over both transactions and inventory. Parties on both the buying and the selling end of these transactions experience increases in efficiency. It seems that these new buying options are on their way to becoming some of the most common transaction methods. Have you tried header bidding on video? Have you completed transactions in a curated marketplace? Maybe it’s time to give these options a try.

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Server-to-Server Connections Make the Perfect Match

There has been quite a bit of buzz in the online ad industry over unified auctions over the past year, with much of it centering on server 2 server connections and header bidding. Some consider the former to be a more effective way to accomplish the same goal as the latter.

Of course, as with any strategy, opinions about s2s vary according to the people talking about it. The best way to figure out whether or not it may prove a good fit for your business is to discuss why the need for unified auctions arose and how each bidding approach works.

 

In the Beginning, There Was Header Bidding

For several years, publishers suffered from lack of sufficient information about projected bids and a place at the back of the line in terms of bidding order. This often cost publishers money and also damaged important relationships, as it contributed to a certain level of alienation between Google and publishers.

One initial solution to this issue was header bidding, which leveled the playing field for demand by allowing buyers to bid on ads simultaneously. Unfortunately, as more demand sources are added to a wrapper tag, the risk of page-load latencies increases. In an era when ad blocking is a major concern for publishers, the latency factor poses a serious problem. This factor has led to some industry players dismissing this approach as a hack.

However, in order to fully understand the merits of server 2 server connections, it is critical to first take a look at the benefits that header bidding offers. Namely, by empowering buyers to bid simultaneously, it helps improve publishers’ programmatic ad yields. Publishers reap the rewards of the spike in competition.

 

The Advantages of S2S

But the latency issue remains. It is the main reason server 2 server exists. Theoretically, publishers who choose this option can offload the bidding process to the ad tech vendor’s server, thereby circumventing the risk of page-load latencies. It also liberates publishers to plug in a virtually unlimited number of demand sources, as they no longer need to concern themselves with the risk of overload.

And by integrating all partners into the server, this approach streamlines the process for publishers – a significant point because of the technical issues posed by the browser port limitations associated with header bidding. The excessive number of partners in relation to ports can knock some partners out of the running, potentially denying publishers access to the best bids. S2S, on the other hand, makes it possible to call multiple partners simultaneously. The end result? A higher yield for publishers.

History is often the greatest indicator of future successes and the same could be said about this strategy. Developers have been incorporating server 2 server into mobile in-apps from the beginning to meet the demands of their speed-sensitive environment. With loading time being a make-or-break factor for mobile, this widespread adoption speaks volumes about its performance.

No approach is perfect and s2s has its drawbacks. That said, it is quickly gaining a reputation as an improvement on header bidding and a valid way to increase yield for publishers. MediaFuse is here to consult publishers with server 2 server connections.

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Google Creates a Bold Alternative to Header Bidding

In April of 2016, Google turned the ad tech world on its head when it announced that it was in the process of testing a pilot program that would give all bidders equal footing in the competition for ad inventory on websites. Industry media erupted, proclaiming that the program, which the search giant dubbed exchange bidding in dynamic allocation (EBDA), was the death knell for header bidding.

Publishers and demand sources have been fans of the bidding tactic because it gives them a head start and an edge on submitting bids on impressions. It accomplishes this in two ways: by allowing partners to act before the ad call goes out and by providing precise tags within the ad server. This gives partners the power to compete with AdX’s real-time bids, theoretically decreasing the chances that publishers will lose money due to inaccurate bid impressions. Historically, it has been used by competitors of Google to reclaim their stake in the auctions.

 

Debunking the Mystery of EBDA

Header bidding was created in response to discord in the ad space over the information advantage Google held in auctions. It gets its name from the code, placed in the headers of websites, that displays ad inventory for rival exchanges. They could access this information before Google, essentially cutting in line to bid for desirable impressions.

With EBDA, Google is making the auction process more transparent by allowing rival exchanges to view the same information available to Google’s ad exchange. It is a major departure from the previous policy, which weighed heavily on publishers. Now, AdX will shoulder the burden.

Unlike in header bidding, publishers can invite SSPs and trusted third-party exchanges to submit real-time prices using industry-standard RTB calls. The publisher’s reservation campaigns and DoubleClick Ad Exchange will also toss their hats into the ring. In the end, the highest-paying ad will prevail.

 

The Industry Impact of EBDA

The rise of EBDA will not necessarily precipitate the demise of header bidding. First and foremost, the bidding tactic’s future depends largely on just how open Google makes dynamic allocation. If publishers are left wanting more, header bidding may remain available as an option.

In order for EBDA to obtain a foothold, it must also deliver on its promise that publishers can work directly with the demand partners they find most desirable. Its success hinges on demand partners benefitting, as well; if EBDA pushes a tax requirement on demand partners, header bidding could retain its advantage.

In a competitive marketplace, the two methods can co-exist, with a number of formidable companies creating their own server-side integrations. Ultimately, in order to succeed, they will need to develop an effective publisher product before the servers who are also in the game build server 2 server connections. This equation is clear: publisher product plus server connections equals winners.

Google stands to gain a great deal if it can gain favor with the publishers that AdX and the information imbalance alienated. In fact, the number of publishers stepping up to partner with Google in the EBDA pilot continues to grow. Regardless of the outcome, this is undoubtedly a time of epic transformation for the ad tech space.

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Best Aspects of Programmatic Mobile Advertising

Every day, more people are using mobile devices for consumer purposes. Programmatic mobile advertising is a method advertisers can use to best target these consumers. It utilizes sophisticated consumer tracking systems to ensure that consumers are seeing the right ads in the right places. To sum it up, the ad decisions are determined by data-fueled, automated computers to ensure that they are specific to the consumer viewing them. Knowing how this type of advertising might benefit advertisers and understanding the best aspects of this advertising method helps ad professionals to make the best decisions as to how to advertise to garner the best results for their efforts.

 

Whitelisting Anno 2017

There is a mobile website or application for just about every profession and interest imaginable. This creates a number of opportunities for advertisers, but not many have taken advantage of this yet. A Demand Side Platform (DSP) has the potential to put ads on approximately 200,000 individual mobile sites and apps. The range is very diverse, and it includes both mostly unknown applications and those that are rather popular. No matter a person’s profession or interests, it is not hard to find an app for it. This means that when it comes to specific products, whitelists are something advertisers can use. Whitelisting is a type of programmatic mobile advertising that is considerably practical and flexible.

 

Simultaneous Effort Between Wi-Fi Hotspot, Device IDs and Beacons

Advertisers utilizing a versatile DSP, both the managed service type and the self-serve option, make it possible to serve ads and upload device IDs on relevant devices. A device ID is a type of digital signature that is unique to the specific device. Wi-Fi hotspots and beacons have the potential to both observe and save them. This allows for devices to essentially collect information and provide ads that encourage consumers to take action. This type of programmatic mobile advertising is essentially based on gathered intelligence associated with a specific place, such as a college or a hospital.

 

Ensure Very Specific Locations for Advertisements to Reach the Intended Audience

This type of programmatic mobile advertising makes it possible to involve a wide array of mobile websites and applications in a specific ad campaign. This helps an advertiser to supply ads to a specific audience. For example, advertisers targeting nurses can use the right DSP to upload a large amount of nursing-related company addresses. Then, when a consumer goes to a website or application served by this DSP in a certain location, the ads are served to this consumer. This makes it possible to use an extremely local approach to reach thousands of different mobile websites and applications.

 

Consider Programmatic Mobile Advertising for your Company

As you can see, there are a number of things to consider to ensure effective and efficient programmatic mobile advertising. Having a strong understanding of the best aspects helps ad professionals to ensure that their ads are properly placed and that consumers are seeing the ads that might interest them the most. Since this is an automated process, it might also save advertisers some time since systems are making the decisions instead of people.

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How $7 Million was Wasted in Ad Fraud Operation Dubbed “The Traffic Alchemist”

As a provider of anti-fraud solutions, Protected Media unveiled a fraud operation they have dubbed “The Traffic Alchemist,” with company representatives pointing to fraud artists who have been disguising junk traffic as views on reputable sites – all of which have boasted high Alexa ratings via from Twitter and Google. The catalyst city for the scam was New York and began in April 2016, managing to evade detection because it involved actual users rather than bots, masqueraded traffic and blanketed fraudulent online portals so they’d be off the radar of scientists.

The real barn burner of the whole situation is this: The wool-over-eyes scam burned through some seven million eye-watering dollars per month at its peak – and is still continuing, albeit at a reduced rate.

How Fraud Advertising May Not be that Unusual

According to Asaf Greiner, CEO of Protected Media, this Traffic Alchemist scam, as it came to be known, isn’t unusual – not due to one single technique’s sophistication, but because it combined several methods together in order to keep the ad fraud activity under the radar. Here’s a good analogy of what is being suggested here: Remember the scene in Office Space when Jennifer Aniston’s character inquires of Ron Livingston’s character what he’s trying to do with the pennies “stolen” from the company he works for, and how he likens his plot to taking pennies from the disabled children’s jars in stores? The essence was that “Peter’s” company wouldn’t catch on to the fraud because so little was being taken at a time. This isn’t the exact same thing that was occurring in the Alchemist scam, but the concept is similar – keeping the fraudulent activity off or under the radar.

Greiner also feels that by looking past the technology and revealing the algorithms that manipulate traffic attributes, it is indeed possible to detect similar complex ad schemes that are always in place…but with “slightly different variations.”

Beware of Junk Traffic

Protected Media analyzed the entire situation and came to the conclusion that the fraud began by purchasing junk traffic, usually found on adult/porn or torrent sites, and which is infamous for extended viewing times. From there, expanded/longer sessions were divided into hundreds of short sessions on “legitimate, lucrative” sites operated by the source of the fraud; these sites ended up being shielded to seem reputable as to attract direct traffic, but in actuality were inundated with pop-up ads that couldn’t be viewed. Up to 35 ads were reportedly served per user in the operation and which were refreshed every 15 seconds, ultimately yielding 140 ad impressions per minute. As the phony websites were clustered together into groups of seven to 10, each site cycled traffic through it to keep “realistic measurements” so anti-fraud software wouldn’t be issued a warning. Clever, indeed.

Touching again on what was mentioned earlier, the path to these pop-under sites was cloaked so that the viewers appeared to be arriving “organically” from Google or Twitter and from legit search and social activity as opposed to views on torrent and pornography-oriented sites. The “decontaminated” traffic was shared via Google Analytics and subsequently reported by legitimate third-party platforms, ensuring advertisers were confident the traffic was reputable.

At the conclusion of several weeks, when the activity was deemed no longer “good enough” to keep the sites on target publisher lists, the websites were abandoned for a fresh cluster; thus, the scam relentlessly continued on month after month.

Protected Media’s presence in this investigation was timely and crucial, as the company’s solutions ensure those who are buying and selling digital advertising that mobile and video ads are legitimately grounded, visible and seen by actual people.

Infographic by Video Ad News

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