The session at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Programmatic Marketplace conference was titled, “Header Bidding: Fad or Future?” and panelist Sam Cox (above) opened by answering the question. “The technology could be a fad, but what the tech does could enable the future, because the future is to put programmatic first,” said Cox, VP of global partnerships at MediaMath.
Fellow panelist Tom Shields, a programmatic pioneer who launched one of the world’s first ad servers, was equally adamant that marketers take heed of the development. “Header bidding is transformational,” he said. “If you’re not paying attention, you may be missing out on something important.”
Header bidding is an antidote for programmatic advertisers who complain that the automated bidding process provides just remnant inventory. The technique has publishers offering premium inventory to multiple ad exchanges before releasing it to their ad servers. In this way publishers can test the true market value of inventory they usually sell direct and, perhaps, realize higher yields.
But the technique is new and still holds questions for publishers and advertisers alike. Reuters’ Global Head of Ad Operations Pilar Prassas, who moderated the IAB session, said her company had just recently begun a header bidding test. Because using the system means another tag must be added to a Web page already weighed down by third-party ad tags, Reuters was concerned that it could slow down ad load times.
But Shields thinks the double-positive of higher yields for publishers and better ad performance for marketers can’t help but make header bidding thrive. He said half of ad servers and SSPs have adopted the practice in the past few years.
Cox said header bidding should inspire technology-driven advertisers and agencies to go old school and call publishers to get a crack at premium inventory. “Whether it’s buy or sell technology, the idea is to get the most out of the advertising. If a publisher is doing header bidding, call them and ask them how they’re selling it up,” Cox said. In this way, advertisers can get guarantees on premium inventory, the publisher can realize a higher yield, and the publisher’s sales team still gets its full commission.
