Balancing Multiple SSPs to Maximize Yield AdMonsters OPS Emry DowningHall

SSPs and Me: A Love Story Began working as a ‘long tail’ publisher in 2007 Have managed 100% of the inventory for 11 student-focused websites Currently manage 3 Imagine Easy O&O websites serving over 7B impressions/yearly 98% non-guaranteed inventory Teach a course at General Assembly on yield/ad optimization Currently work with or have worked with (just about) every major US SSP partner in the space

What do you mean, SSP? A partner working with a publisher to help sell its non- guaranteed inventory at agreed upon impression volumes, price points/floors For the purposes of our discussion this includes: Ad Exchanges Ad Networks Re-targeters SSPs (non-exclusive)

Is a multiple SSP solution right for you? Consider your website’s split between direct and unsold inventory On average, what percentage of inventory goes unsold to remnant? Don’t blend performance: establish a remnant performance baseline for each ad unit on your property.

The Good: Why work with multiple SSPs? Maximize the value of your unsold inventory Create more competition for your inventory by opening it up to potential new partners

The Good: Why work with multiple SSPs? Diversify your partner revenue streams Diversify your ad serving opportunities Free to take advantage of market changes and emerging technology

The bad: Why (not) work with multiple SSPs? This complicates everything Ad quality concerns: harder to track the supply source of a rogue ad, block lists aren‘t (even close to) perfect Defaulted inventory: slow page loads, lost impressions and a poor UX

The bad: Why (not) work with multiple SSPs? Conflict with your direct sales team Time: managing and optimizing is a full time job(s) Payment concerns: cash flow, late, inaccurate or defaulted payments Risk of over exposing/de-valuing your inventory?

But if you’re feeling froggy…

When Evaluating potential partners Who are your peers having success with? Consider specifically how this partner will add value to your stack Define your value: what CPM and what fill % make sense for you?

When Evaluating potential partners Set mutual goals with your partner and run a controlled test where you can evaluate specific results Don’t set it and forget it

What to look for in a partner Where do they source their inventory? Do they have their own sales team? Do they have their own user management interface (UI)? Defaults, tags, price floors. Payment terms/credit references? Will you work with a human?

Evaluation Form for inbound leads

Ad Serving: Multiple SSP best practices Separate your ad units into individual ‘orders’ Segment your inventory by device and largest geos Do not blend ad unit performance data Apply appropriate frequency caps based on data

Ad Serving: Multiple SSP best practices Price priority line item type (in almost all cases) for non-guaranteed partners Capture incremental revenue with AdX and ‘dynamic allocation’ Adjust ad unit specific line item pricing to reflect performance of your SSP partners

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 1 AD Server SSP Partner 1 100% Fill Partner PROSCONS Simplified setupMay lead to lower rates vs. a fully managed default stack Pass unsold impressions directly to a 100% fill partner

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 2 AD Server SSP Partner 1 PROSCONS Additional dynamic allocation auction Fixed default swap control Discrepancy tracking Complicated setup Added impression hop AD Server SSP Partner 2 Pass unsold impressions back to your ad server

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 3 AD Server SSP Partner 1 SSP Partner 2 PROSCONS Less complex than ad server passback setup May monetize at higher rates vs. 100% fill partner passback Discrepancy Reliant on ad partner for changes (in some cases) Latency ‘Daisy Chain’your partners

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 4 AD Server SSP Partner 1 PROSCONS Blend of best practices based on data Requires extensive testing Human error Maintenance AD Server SSP Partner 2 Hybrid Approach

Data: consider this and look closely Look at data on a per unit/partner basis as often as possible Consider both CPM rate and fill percentage equally Look for lost impressions (serving to and being passed from partner) and factor that into optimizations

DATA: CONSIDER THIS ANd LOOK CLOSELY Use partner performance to leverage future negotiations/allocation of inventory and dynamic allocation pricing Track historic performance closely

For your (General) Consideration Communicate and share partner experiences with your peers Ad positions don’t need to be static (Ex. 300x250 or 300x600) Take advantage of emerging technology Take advantage of large formats if OK for UX (728x90 to 970x250)

For your (General) Consideration Test all tags before taking them live Create a strict category block list and have partner confirm it’s in place before going live QA your own site weekly Understand how your inventory is being sold: branded, semi-branded, anonymous

Thank you AdMonsters OPS