Header Bidding – A Win-Win Situation for Both

Programmatic advertising is being accepted by more number of advertisers and publishers these days where header bidding is acting as a catalyst for its acceptance. They are now choosing the platform which is fully automated but still it’s also in developing phase. Publishers have to go through ‘waterfall’ approach for offering their inventory to the advertisers or ad exchanges which they find is not giving them the best returns.

Header bidding is the solution to such problems and it does not favor only publishers, it creates a win-win situation for both publishers and advertisers. Let’s discuss the advantages it is providing to both but before that take a look at the problem of Waterfall.

What is Publisher Waterfall?

Publishers want to make the most of their all available inventory but they have been compromising by getting some inventory left unsold they put on ad networks in India and other ad exchanges. Sometimes they manage by offering unsold inventory at lower rates.

Waterfall is a procedure used by publishers in which they offer different segments of the inventory at different floor prices in a sequence lower from last one. The procedure is also called Daisy Chaining.

What is Header Bidding?

Header Bidding is the process in which a piece of Java script is inserted into the header of the web page. The source simultaneously calls all the demand sources before the page loads. The technology is also known as ‘pre-bidding’ or ‘Tagless Implementation’. Let’s have a look, how does it create a win-win situation for both publishers and advertisers.

Supply side Benefits

• Header bidding increases the ad revenue since it makes the inventory available to all possible demand sources simultaneously increasing the competition for each impression for advertisers.
• It prevents the advertisers from gaining the understanding of the worth of each impression from publisher perspective and the inventory is sold at the higher price since the price is not pre-determined for advertisers by publishers.
• Header Bidding reduces the wastage since it lowers the risk of unsold inventory and selling some inventory at the lower price which is usually the result of Waterfall.
• The risk of unsold inventory is also prevented by eliminating Passbacks through the procedure.

Demand Side Benefits

• Header bidding gets the privilege to show inventory to the advertisers first time in Real-Time Bidding.
• It can also be used with other programmatic models like private exchanges getting more and better access to the premium inventory of the publishers.
• It avoids waterfall approach and therefore gives enhanced and fuller access to the all available inventory giving better chances to reach the specific audience with more transparency. Marketers get the opportunity to choose impressions from multiple channels since the inventory is made available through several marketplaces.
• It offers level playing field since the inventory is not categorised by publishers having different floor prices.

How does it benefit the industry? (Conclusion)

Header bidding is not only benefiting the publishers and advertisers rather it is boosting the industry growth by encouraging marketers for programmatic buying and selling. The publishers and lead gen network in India are offering their inventory online as they offer many benefits over direct buying. Advertisers also enjoy transparency in buying process programmatically.