This post was most recently updated on January 9th, 2020
Before we talk about header bidding partners, it is essential that you have a clear understanding of header bidding and why it is so crucial in the current ad technology landscape.
It is an advanced programmatic advertising technique that offers publishers a way to simultaneously provide ad space out to numerous Supply Side Platforms or Ad Exchanges.
Header bidding enables publishers to offer their inventory to advertisers outside the ad server they are using (commonly being DFP). It is a way for publishers to sell their ad space, maintain control, and also gain valuable information about buying habits and the average spend of different advertisers.
This is vital for a publisher to find out just how much their ad inventory is worth. With header bidding, every competing partner in your ad stack bids all at once, which evens out the competition and pushes the price much higher, resulting in even more revenue for the publisher.
In the past, where advertisers who have spent the most on your inventory gets in first, the prices they usually pay does not necessarily reflect the real value for your inventory.
Equal ground means you will get bids that are equal to the demand your traffic generates, and every advertiser has a fair chance of serving, unlike the traditional waterfall or daisy chain method.
If you’re a publisher and you’re considering adding header bidding, you’re well on your way to sell your ad inventory more efficiently than ever before.
With header bidding, a single impression on your site is auctioned out to multiple partners who all compete with their bids to win and be able to serve an ad.
As a publisher, you have total control over these partners, and you get to decide on which ones you want to run. In the past, publishers would have to manage these partners manually (outdated and very inefficient).
However, header bidding has evolved and now allows for header bidding wrappers.
Header bidding wrappers are containers that help publishers run several partners. These wrappers allow for the translation of each partner’s unique parameters into universal values, which then get passed to the ad server of your choice in a normal setting.
Being containers, these wrappers also allow publishers to play with the settings of how each partner serves/bids, such as centralizing the timeout.
If you’re tech-savvy enough, there are open source solutions available such as Prebid.js and Pubfood.js, which you can try implementing on your site.
However, for those publishers who have a limited understanding with regards to their site’s technical aspects, they can opt for a proprietary solution.
Choosing this option means the entire process of adding header bidding to a publisher’s website is simplified. An example would be using Monetizemore’s header bidding wrapper, an efficient and easy way for publishers to try out header bidding!
Be sure to check out our PubGuru header bidding solution for more information.
Here’s a list of some ad networks whose campaigns can be served via header bidding. Please note that each partner performs differently for each site, some might be strong additions to your ad stack as a publisher, while others may not provide as much value.
The key to effectively utilizing header bidding is to identify those who perform the best for your site and add new strong additions as well to increase competition within your ad stack.
Adding new partners to your ad stack for header bidding depends on your wrapper. If you’ve chosen to go with Open Source solutions such as Prebid.js or Pubfood.js, then you would probably have a rudimentary to intermediate grasp regarding coding.
They have provided detailed instructions on how to add new adapters/bidders and all a publisher needs to do is follow their guides for implementation.
If you’ve chosen to use proprietary solutions instead, then most likely you would have not much to worry about. More often than not, the partner you have selected will be responsible for getting your site approved and have these networks added to your header bidding wrapper.
Even adding a new network to your ad stack would be internal and you would not need to do the implementation yourself.
Header bidding makes sure that publishers can get the most from their inventory. Typically, those who decide to run header bidding, tend to see an increase in their overall CPM’s as advertisers are given access to premium inventory at an equal ground.
However, as previously mentioned, implementing header bidding can be very technical and complicated. If you’d like to find out if you should implement header bidding for your ad inventory, sign up to MonetizeMore and we’ll help you determine the best solution.
Kean Graham is the CEO and founder of MonetizeMore & a pioneer in the Adtech Industry. He is the resident expert in Ad Optimization, covering areas like Adsense Optimization,GAM Management, and third-party ad network partnerships. Kean believes in the supremacy of direct publisher deals and holistic optimization as keys to effective and consistent ad revenue increases.
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