Too Small for Most SSPs? Top 5 Supply Side Platforms to Try

Economics 101: If you’re a publisher, you’re the supplier. Your ad inventory is what you’re supplying. That inventory supply includes all the ad placements you run, and every visitor impression you deliver to them.

If you’re already up to speed on the intricacies of SSPs, please scroll down to our list of the top 5 that will work with some smaller publishers.

Top 5 SSPs That Can Work with Smaller Publishers

So what is an SSP (Suppy Side Platform)?

When ads are closely matched with a publisher’s content and user base, they deliver better results for advertisers. Raw metrics like clickthroughs and conversions are the objective. And that makes them more valuable.

So the SSPs specialize in matching up all their advertisers with their publishers — but optimizing conditions for the publisher.

Still here? Good. Have a quick sip of water before we go back in.

On the buyer side, advertisers, through an automated bidding process, bid for ad placements that best matched their criteria like geography, gender, income level, and more (see why data is so very important?!).

So the better publishers can match their inventory to advertiser demand the higher the CPCs or CPM bids go and that directly increases the earnings of both the publisher (you — if we got our targeting right) and the SSPs. Yes. Insatiable, automated capitalism at your service.

Now, If you’re savvy, you know that sounds awfully similar to an ad exchange but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll explain the difference.

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So why would you use a Supply Side Platform to fill your ad inventory?

Because SSP providers do this for a living and guess what, they’re better at it than you. They don’t let ad inventory go unsold, and they don’t sell it for anything less than the maximum bid.

You let their database of advertisers and ad budgets empty their pockets on your site. For the most part, this is a black box transaction. You just keep creating great content and let the SSPs maximize your ad revenue by bringing you high paying advertisers.

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How are SSPs successful?

Simple, they have access to large demand advertisers that you simply couldn’t recruit on your own. Without the SSPs aggregating (aka pooling) you and other publishers, you cannot easily access that larger scale advertiser spend.

If you like impressing your friends and co-workers with industry jargon than you can call this “yield maximization”, which is a more pretentious sophisticated way of saying “increasing ad earnings”.

Bottom line, SSPs add additional capabilities for metrics collection and price controls (i.e. setting minimum ad sale price or floor prices).

How are SSPs different from the plain old ad exchanges?

So the most straightforward answer is that ad exchanges are focused on the “exchange” bit. They do bring publishers and advertisers together. And that can be highly effective, especially with the larger networks.

Supply Side Publishers differentiate. Their focus is skewed more towards publishers. We mentioned yield maximization briefly already. A key value that they offer is building a statistical layer of the publishers ad inventory data.

Those content metrics and ad metrics can be key to unlocking additional ad spend. And pricing controls may include setting minimum prices even to a specific advertiser.

Don’t burn out an entire layer of neurons trying to find a clear and obvious distinction. The ad tech world moves fast, and the lines often blur between major ad networks of various types.

There’s a Studio-54-level interchanging of network DNA. It can get messy at times, but the convergences typically produce beautiful (i.e. to be read “optimal”) new hybrid networks.

Deconstruct that last paragraph? Sure. The big networks adapt and do whatever it takes to increase profits in ad tech. SSPs focus on the publisher’s side.

The Catch 22 of SSPs

There is always one of those. Just like in New York’s elite nightclubs, there’s a sort of dress code — or entry requirement. In the ad world, it’s actually a minimum level of impressions. And sometimes even when you are into the millions of monthly impressions, it isn’t enough to make the cut.

So why did we spend so much time bestowing the virtues of Supply Side Platforms if you can’t get in?

If you’re too small of a publisher, there still are some SSPs that may work with you. We want to direct you to the top 5 to check out.

Top 5 SSPs That Can Work with Smaller Publishers

Switch

Managing over 50 billion ad impressions a month, Switch bases it platform on “Demand Management”. The analyze over 300 data points for each ad impression. This data can then be utilized in their algorithms in order to maximize your earnings or yield. This includes integrating pricing floors so that your ad impressions do not get undervalued.

Rubicon Project

Rubicon is an independent advertising marketplace that offers a “Seller Cloud” for publishers. The reach of their network extends over 650 million unique consumers globally. They provide unified auctions to maximize yield.

Pubmatic

Pubmatic bills itself as a marketing automation platform for publishers (MAPP) — which is par for the course in the SSP world. They offer real time analytics and yield management.

AdMeld / AdX

Admeld found themselves a suitor in Google. They were acquired back in 2011. Starting back in 2008, they were leaders in private ad exchange technology. So their features are now transitioned into the Doubleclick Ad Exchange. This provides the stability and data of the larger global network, with publisher tools that give a great deal of precision oversight and control over ad sales.

AppNexus

AppNexus is the world’s largest independent programmatic marketplace. There is a commitment to transparency and tools for you to both own and manage your data. Side note, AppNexus is currently launching a new header bidding solution after they recently launched one for mobile. “What is this header bidding you speak of” You ask. Well, we got you covered below.

Header Bidding: What is the Next Big Trend?

Expect to see more SSPs incorporating header bidding strategies in 2016. Steve Jobs named his computer after an “apple”.

When they named this new feature “header bidding”, I’d say the ad tech techies didn’t eat much fruit. Alternating between a diet of Soylent and wheat grass makes for healthy inerts, but unhealthy technology naming abilities apparently.

Header bidding is an attempt to improve monetization automation effectively.

The inefficiency is as a result of the daisy chaining strategy that is used most often. Publishers ad space is essentially offered to advertisers one by one.

Maybe we can call it the “How ‘bout you?” approach. If you don’t like the bid you get, you move to the next one: “How ‘bout you?” and so on.
 
 By contrast, with header bidding, you simply send out your ad inventory availability to all ad networks simultaneously. And it much better reflects an efficient real world bidding process.

The offer gets presented to all those participating, and the best offer gets rewarded with the ad inventory from the publisher.

It’s a little bit techie. And no, “header bidding” is not the way Australian’s pay for haircuts. As far as we know they don’t get haircuts, in order to scare away all the venomous bitey things that live on their continent.

We’ve never been to Australia so as far as we know this is true. They also have big sharks and other great ways of ceasing to exist as a web publisher lurking in their waters.

Some header bidding tools you can implement:

By “you” we mean someone with some Javascript skills. If you’re not a coder, you’re going to need to get one before attempting these installations.

• prebid.org — Open source Javascript library for implementing header bidding.
• pubfood.org — Another open source header bidding framework in Javscript.
• Headerbid Expert — A Chrome extension by By AppNexus.
• Playwire — Header bidding for video.

*Since header bidding is a relatively new solution we recommend to proceed with caution. In other words, this is not an endorsement for the above solutions.

Supply Side Platforms — Try One

You have a lot to digest. It’s hard enough to understand the intricacies between different types of ad tech platforms. Finding a platform that works for you is going to require some experimentation. We’ve given you some good leads on five different platforms to try out.

The key to remember is that a true SSP is designed to skew in favor of the publisher. And that’s you.

While we’re not given to conspiracy theories, platforms that represent both sides of the ad exchange (SSPs and DSPs) have to serve two masters. As the bidding process becomes more optimal for publishers, that means it’s become more expensive for advertisers.

Ideally, as these algorithms improve with the help of technologies like “header bidding” (which we’ve indicated is not an Aussie thing), there will be a convergence of best interests of both advertiser and publisher. That is ultimately the long term goal.

Have you tried an SSP?

Tell us about your experience. What was the impact on your ad revenue?

I’m Head of Marketing Operations at AdNgin. Before coming to AdNgin, I was a marketing professional focused on SAAS business models. When I’m not working, which is rare, I sail and hang out with my son, Jonathan, and wife, Meital.