Ever since it went mainstream in 2016, header bidding has become a huge breakthrough in the programmatic space.
According to a study that observed 30,000 of the most popular website domains, 60% included tags from header-bidding vendors.
Many believe that header bidding products are the future of ad technology. Is it really, though? Well, that’s what you’re going to find out in this post.
Here, we’ll talk about header bidding, why plenty of publishers and advertisers have gotten into it, and whether it really is the future of the advertising industry like they say it is. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
What Is Header Bidding?
Also known as advance bidding or pre-bidding, header bidding is an advanced programmatic strategy where publishers can simultaneously offer inventory to multiple ad exchanges before they can call their ad servers.
As explained by Yieldbot CEO Jonathan Mendez during an interview with Digiday:
“Header bidding is a much cleaner and better tech integration between revenue partners, ad tech companies and publishers compared to what’s going on currently.”
The concept is to allow for multiple demand sources to bid on the same ad inventory at the same time. That way, publishers get to offer ad space out to numerous SSPs (supply side platforms) or ad exchanges at once, making it easier for them to increase their yield and earn more money.
Header bidding is a subset of real-time bidding (RTB), a mechanism for buying and selling ad impressions through an auction. It is referred to as “real-time” since it starts as soon as a user loads a webpage and finishes within milliseconds once the page is done loading.
The only difference is, header bidding enables all the ad exchanges to bid at the same time as the highest priority in the ad server.
How Can Publishers & Advertisers Benefit from Header Bidding?
Especially in today’s age of advanced technology, more and more publishers and advertisers have included header bidding as part of their strategy. Here’s why:
· More Control
With header bidding, publishers have total control over which sources have the ability to take part in the bidding process. They also have the freedom to prioritize certain advertisers involved in the auction, encouraging marketers to work with their favorite publishers.
· Higher Revenue
Header bidding allows publishers to increase the prices they’re charging for their premium inventory. They can also make their inventory accessible to more advertisers, building more revenue as a result. In fact, some publishers have increased revenue by 30-50%.
You might even be surprised to learn that MonetizeMore, a top header bidding partner, was able to gain 3x ad revenue overnight!
· Fewer Reporting Discrepancies
Since header bidding is a single auction taking place across various partners at the same time, there’s no sequential chaining anymore. This means lesser discrepancies in reporting.
· Transparency for Everyone
With header bidding, advertisers can get a real look at their publisher’s entire inventory, and that includes premium inventory that was previously exclusive through direct deals with publishers. Because these advertisers know what’s available at what price, they can bid high enough if they’re aiming to get that premium inventory.
The Final Verdict
Based on the facts above, one can say that header bidding has opened up the ad buying process in so many ways. Publishers now have more control, transparency, and most of all, higher revenue from their ad inventory. Plus, they can sell inventory on a per-impression basis.
As for advertisers, header bidding provides them more access and visibility of a publisher’s ad inventory, as well as an increased reach to find their target audience.
These might be enough to tell you that header bidder is indeed the future of the advertising industry.
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