OpenPath

The past decade has been tumultuous for supply-side platforms. But SSPs will be fine, according to SSPs. They’re simply evolving.

Disney just took the next stop on its journey to automate as much of its ad sales as possible by the end of this year with the release of DRAX Direct, an expansion of its real-time ad exchange.

Third-party cookie deprecation creates an opportunity for publishers to increase inventory value, efficiency and partnerships in the open exchange. Here are some efficiency initiatives that should make your inventory more valuable to advertisers.

In today’s newsletter: could an open-source website template fix programmatic advertising?; The Trade Desk’s new tool for targeting only the top 500 sites; and some of Apple and Microsoft’s services won’t fall under DMA regulation.

In today’s newsletter: The Trade Desk opens up OpenPath to CTV inventory; subscriptions remain an important revenue source for news publishers; and a class-action lawsuit alleges PHE violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

Since advertisers now treat connected TV more like a digital performance channel, expect programmatic CTV demand to keep ramping up – including in the open exchange.

2023 saw SPO become further cemented in the strategies of DSPs and SSPs for capturing market share. But the long-term trend might see SPO become the default for programmatic advertisers.

With last year’s lingering slide in ad spend, PubMatic sees itself playing the long game by innovating in CTV and retail media, leaning into the SPO trend and adopting cookieless tech.

Why are publishers accepting this reality – in which The Trade Desk is now bidding below floors and, in many cases, bypassing the sell-side vendor ecosystem altogether with OpenPath – without batting an eyelash?

While Backstage does cut out SSPs for the most part, it also resurrects some aspects of Yahoo’s own SSP tech.

Publishers are facing enough headwinds to make their heads spin. These challenges mean opportunity for publisher tech companies like Freestar, which announced Wednesday that it hired Heather Carver as its first-ever chief revenue officer. Smaller publishers will need help navigating an uncertain future, Carver told AdExchanger. The deprecation of third-party cookies and other identifiers, the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Pulling The Strings  Disney-owned TV channels went dark on Charter Spectrum last week when the two companies failed to reach an agreement on a new carriage pact, Variety reports. The blackout affected over 25 networks, including ESPN. It was particularly bad timing, too: […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Floor Plan The Trade Desk will start undercutting SSP price floors in its bids starting next month, Insider reports. Publishers often set minimum asking prices for their ad inventory. But their SSPs then typically tack on their own costs on top of these […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. A Voyage Of Discovery Newspaper publisher Gannett is suing Google for alleged ad tech monopolization. Google, of course, disputes the charge. Dan Taylor, VP of Google Ads, tells The Wall Street Journal Google will “show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers […]

The Kokai upgrade is the culmination of multiyear investments in AI-driven campaign optimization, measurement, reporting and data-sharing partnerships with publishers, CTV platforms and retail media networks.

Supply-path optimization conjures an image of SSPs and DSPs dueling it out to each render the other obsolete. But it’s actually not that dramatic.

In addition to buy-side integrations, content curation, proprietary ad formats and flexible pricing models are also helping set SSPs apart.

CEO Jeff Green pushed back against the idea that DSPs are increasingly competing with SSPs and vice versa, saying it was a fabrication of the trade press.

On the heels of the launch of its latest supply-path optimization product, PubMatic posted $55.4 million in Q1 revenue, growing 2% YOY.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Video Jockeys The Trade Desk publicly adopted the IAB Tech Lab’s new video protocols, which create more specificity around the type of online video ads being bought, Adweek reports. The news worried some publishers who run low-quality videos, like easily ignored spots or […]

PubMatic’s end-to-end platform, Activate, lets advertisers buy CTV and online video inventory via direct deals, bypassing DSPs.

While an SSP’s primary function as the technological connection to advertising demand for publishers remains, the strategic value an SSP provides has changed. So it might be time for SSPs to abandon revenue sharing with publishers in favor of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Purity Test Independent ad tech companies – namely, The Trade Desk and Magnite – have taken their first awkward steps across the exchange with products that bridge directly to publishers (in TTD’s case) and right to agencies (in the case of Magnite).  This […]

Disintermediation is in the air. If The Trade Desk’s OpenPath cuts out SSPs (while claiming not to), Magnite’s ClearLine cuts out DSPs (while claiming not to).

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Go Big Or Go Home Apple, Amazon and Google (via YouTube) are now presumptive leaders for major sports broadcast deals.  Apple snapped up Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball rights last year, while Amazon and Google had National Football League coups.  These […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. SP-Oh, It’s On Call it supply-path optimization, transparency or premium publisher marketplaces. Whichever you choose, Digiday writes, it “amounts to disintermediation.” In recent years, DSPs have leapfrogged SSPs to establish direct connections with media companies. The marketers are interested in media, after all, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Pass The DOJ Google faces a DOJ lawsuit that could compel the company to spin out its sell-side ad tech business. But the company isn’t overly concerned about this development, per a conversation between Marketing Brew and Google VP of Global Ads Dan […]

Yahoo pulling the plug on its SSP demonstrates how difficult it’s become for supply-side platforms to prove their value in a commoditized marketplace.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Trade Punches In 2016, The Trade Desk cracked open the DSP market by sticking with agencies. DSPs such as Turn and TubeMogul attempted to go brand-direct but were dropped by agencies and AppNexus, the top dog DSP at the time, refashioned itself as […]

Whereas brands and DSPs are whittling down the number of supply paths they use to purchase ad inventory, publishers are financially incentivized to work with as many partners as possible. But there are changes afoot that could alter the economics for publishers.