Header Bidding: Why It Matters for Publishers

You have probably encountered header bidding and wonder if this trend is worth your time and attention. In programmatic advertising, it is one of the rapidly developing trends that can make a difference in anyone’s campaign. But, what exactly is header bidding and why publishers should consider it a game-changer?

 

What is Header Bidding?

Header bidding is not an entirely new concept but a poorly adopted strategy, making it one of programmatic advertising’s most promising innovations. With it, publishers can permit several ad exchanges to bid on their inventory simultaneously, which somehow unifies a publisher’s auction, thereby allowing them to gain from a higher return of investment. Essentially, it gives publishers an efficient option of monetizing their inventory by getting a representative overview of the current market and the ongoing demand.

As such, this innovation is more than a trend. In fact, it presents a viable opportunity that both advertisers and publishers can benefit from. In particular, those who want to compete with tech giants. And this is why header bidding matters.

 

Changing the Landscape for Ad Exchanges

Before the advent of header bidding, digital sellers would have to find ways on how they can efficiently monetize every ad impression they give to their buyers. One of those ways is to do manual ranking in their ad servers or the use of traditional waterfall model, and those that have the strongest impressions land on the laps of those who can pay the highest price for the given inventory and willing to reserve it before their competitors can.

However, this posed an issue for ad exchanges. Often, ad exchanges have to deal with leftovers after reserved impressions have been used up. To prevent this, most publishers would often sell it at a discount. And this does little to improve the ROI of publishers.

More recently, those who delve into the digital advertising industry are now seeing ad exchanges in a new light, and this has allowed both sellers and buyers to fuel the demand for header bidding as a solution for their needs.

Thanks to advertising technologies, ad exchanges can gain access to private marketplaces. This opportunity allows them to negotiate directly with buyers and sellers. Through header bidding, sellers can quickly unify the building demand for impressions, thus maximizing the potential for revenue. Similarly, buyers are now given a chance to acquire high-value consumers, which they would not have access to if not for header bidding.

By unifying their inventory into one server-side supply (SSP), they have the freedom of selling their inventories on a per-impression basis. This then results in increased transparency in terms of identifying the actual worth of their impressions. Ad exchanges can get rid of the back and forth of their inventory.

 

Win-Win Opportunity for Advertisers and Publishers

Header bidding is a game-changer in the sense that it allows publishers to benefit from the growing competition of advertisers, which means they have better chances of profiting from them.

Aside from increasing their yields, publishers can also address fill risk by deciding which impressions come with the highest average rate and adjust accordingly. Similarly, header bidding allows publishers to manage and optimize their inventory since they can easily automate the process.

Advertisers, on the other hand, can enjoy the opportunity of growing their market reach by getting access to a publisher’s broader market since they can vie for high priority impressions, and their ads reach more people.

Header bidding allows programmatic consumers to get first dibs on a particular publisher’s inventory, and they can also opt to pay a higher rate for premium ad space, such as a publisher’s landing page.

As we enter the second wave of programmatic advertising thanks to header bidding, the current ad exchange landscape would change, bringing in more effective monetization of digital inventory. When applied appropriately, header bidding can fill in the gap and address inefficiencies that still haunt the programmatic advertising industry.

AlgoriX’s programmatic technology allows advertisers and publishers to benefit from the power of automation to maximize their profit by balancing the needs and requirements of both parties. If you want to know more about our programmatic and mobile advertising offerings, contact us.

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Pranav Kataria

Senior Director, Programmatic Strategy

As the Senior Director of Programmatic Strategy, Pranav brings over 8 years of experience in the adtech industry working with Publishers, DSPs, Agencies, and Advertisers from global regions to improve their monetization, performance, and strategies. With great understanding of the mobile market, his expertise lies in analytics, account management, strategy, and ad sales. With this refined skill set, he brings customer-centric mindfulness that enables growth and innovation.

Before joining AlgoriX, his keen business perspective and skills have earned him opportunities to work across different organizations and verticals in the advertising ecosystem; be it improving the processes, sales enablement, and managing client relationships.

Ray Xia

VP, AlgoriX Partner Studio

Ray Xia was a mainstay at Tencent Games, having worked at the company for 13 years. There, he took on various roles including backend developer, application development manager, and game producer. During this time, he actively participated in the development and operation of popular titles such as QQ Pet, QQ Pet Fight, and games involving the Naruto franchise. To date, these games have over 10 million daily active users. Through this rich well of experience he has accumulated covering all aspects of game development and operation, he aims to spearhead more creative endeavors via AlgoriX Studios.

Naomi Li

VP, Research and Development

Naomi Li has a decade’s worth of experience in research and development for the adtech industry. At present, she is responsible for the overall direction of AlgoriX’s R&D efforts, which include product planning, technical architecture design, and talent training.

Frederic Liow

Chief Revenue & Operations Officer

A veteran in the digital advertising industry, he began his career during the early days of the dotcom era. To date, his passion for the digital industry is still as strong as ever (and getting even stronger). Spanning twenty years of his digital career, he has worked for leading companies like Nielsen, MRM McCann, Omnicom Media Group, Millward Brown and Smaato. Currently, Frederic is the revenue officer for AlgoriX spearheading global revenue growth, business expansion and strategic partnerships. He has set up and built AlgoriX’s global mobile ad exchange, hiring talents, establishing best practices, and injecting global industry standards into the company. Prior to his current role, he was the Head of Demand for Smaato, overseeing the demand business and operations in APAC. Frederic is currently based in our Singapore HQ.

Xinxiao Guo

Chief Operation Officer

Equipped with a decade’s worth of experience in global product operation as well as a deep understanding of emerging markets, Xinxiao brings her expertise in mobile traffic monetization and programmatic advertising to the table. Before her role at AlgoriX, she was a core member of iQIYI’s research and development unit. After that, she moved to Baidu as Head of Programmatic Advertising.

At present, she is AlgoriX’s co-founder and Chief Operation Officer. Together with the team, she aims to help game developers effectively reach global audiences and implement better monetization strategies.

Ruiz Xie

Chief Executive Officer

With nearly 20 years of business experience, Ruiz Xie founded AlgoriX with the vision of creating a global advertising platform and entertainment ecosystem. Through AlgoriX’s services, he aims to create a more inclusive tech ecosystem by providing customized solutions that meet the needs of businesses at every stage. At the same time, through AlgoriX Studios and its third-party partner studios, the company is currently bringing to life a greater goal of providing a comprehensive entertainment platform for people worldwide, which covers games, IP, comics, movies, and more. At present, he leads nearly a hundred employees with concrete plans to expand the company by establishing more offices worldwide.