The supply-path optimization (SPO) trend is catching on with video publishers.
Future Today, an ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) platform, credits SPO for the 336% increase in ad spend it’s seen through Amobee’s DSP within six months of Tremor International acquiring and integrating Amobee into its tech stack.
Future Today, which also uses Unruly (Tremor International’s SSP), was already plugged into Amobee’s DSP before Tremor bought it.
But that setup wasn’t ideal, because Future Today was also working with multiple other SSPs and DSPs, and the supply paths were duplicative, Katya Shkolnik, Future Today’s head of partnerships and programmatic, told AdExchanger.
Now that Future Today has a direct pipe into a main DSP (Amobee), it’s been getting an influx of unique connected TV demand and it’s able to be more transparent with buyers, Shkolnik said.
Plan your path
Direct paths simplify the selling process. With a full purview into Amobee demand, the Unruly SSP can help publishers package their inventory as a managed service.
Future Today now uses Unruly to bundle supply into programmatic guaranteed and PMP deal IDs for Amobee, “which is a first for us,” Shkolnik said.
Managed service revenue is a new revenue stream for Future Today, she added. Prior to September (when Tremor completed its integration of Amobee), Future Today’s programmatic sales team was tapping minimal hands-on support from Unruly.
Which is not to say that demand from other sources, including open auctions, isn’t helpful. The more avenues of demand, the more revenue sources for publishers.
“Most publishers in the TV space are highly dependent on SSPs,” Shkolnik said.
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But at the same time, the TV industry is moving toward consolidation, and SPO makes programmatic ad spend more efficient.
Be transparent
Speaking of efficiency, Amobee clients also get more accurate audience targeting on Future Today now that the DSP is connected directly to Unruly.
End-to-end platforms can increase match rates significantly because both parties are accessing the same centralized data management platform, which, in this case, is also under Tremor’s umbrella.
Direct paths to supply also mean fewer middlemen and resellers, which makes it easier for publishers to be more transparent with buyers about revenue projections and where their ads are actually running, Shkolnik said.
Sharing more information about the media environments in which ads run could help meet some advertiser demands for better content signals in real-time TV bid requests, including channel and show title.
“This angle of transparency is very lucrative and attractive for brands,” Shkolnik said. “Show-level metadata can potentially have even more predictive value than some forms of behavioral audience targeting.”
