supply path optimization

Supply-path optimization may not be the trendiest three-letter acronym in ad tech anymore, but the SPO trend is still playing out – especially in the CTV category.

Publisher comment sections remain an untapped source of intent-based data, according to Kelly Andresen, who recently left USA Today to head up comment monetization platform OpenWeb’s direct sales efforts.

GAM’s dinner with ad agencies sparked speculation that Google is preparing to spin off its bundled SSP and ad server as a remedy to its ad tech monopoly. But Google says it’s just part of the trend of SSPs going direct to buyers.

Curated deals were once seen as a smart way to bring structure to programmatic chaos. Today, they’ve become table stakes.

Former Goodway Group CEO Jay Friedman shares hot takes on everything from curation (“absurd”) to brand safety (“botched”).

On Tuesday, mobile video ad platform LoopMe bought mobile monetization platform Chartboost from mobile game publisher Zynga. That’s a lot of mobile. But with more scale and direct connections to app publishers, said LoopMe CEO Stephen Upstone, “more brand dollars are going to move into the app environment.”

Equativ (formerly known as Smart AdServer) announced its acquisition of Sharethrough, an SSP with a specialty in native advertising.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Path Less Traveled We all know what supply-path optimization (SPO) means and why it’s useful. Except, wait, what does SPO mean? “‘SPO’ – perhaps already a bigger buzzword than MFA. Every definition of SPO is different,” tweets Jud Spencer, engineering leader at The […]

Buyers could solve many of the issues they have with the open web by focusing less on viewability and clicks and more on driving performance outcomes, says Goodway Group director of strategic partnerships Andrea Kwiatek.

Programmers are using their Q1 earnings reports as a dress rehearsal for their upfront pitches. Meanwhile, programmatic platforms, including Magnite and PubMatic, also had upfronts in mind during their Q1 earnings.

For Magnite, the biggest growth opportunity lies in supply-path optimization. The trade-off is the pressure to differentiate itself from other supply-side platforms competing for agency deals.

PubMatic has its supply-path optimization initiative, its strategy to introduce direct deals for CTV and online video, to thank for its quarterly revenue growth.

The IAB projects digital video ad spend will rise to $63 billion in 2024, representing a 16% increase from last year. Of the three video ad categories the report breaks out (social and online video and CTV), the clear winner is social video.

In recent years, Vizio has undergone a metamorphosis, transitioning from a hardware company to primarily a connected TV ad platform. Now, its biggest growth opportunities lie in programmatic ad sales and home screen monetization to sell more supply.

TV inventory shrinks as supply paths proliferate. To help organize the chaos, video ad server Innovid launched a new SPO product called Harmony Direct to give media buyers the shortest path possible to CTV ad supply.

On Thursday, TEGNA-owned CTV ad platform Premion announced the acquisition of Octillion Media, a DSP launched in 2019 to serve local CTV ad buyers. Premion declined to disclose the terms of the deal.

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.

In 2023, supply-path optimization took off, brands took their scalpels to made-for-advertising websites and DSPs and SSPs launched SPO products to cut down on hops. Plus: lessons from the year in data privacy.

Three themes dominated our coverage this year: consolidation, transparency and measurement.

Broadcasters and brands love the idea of applying digital targeting to CTV ad campaigns. But there are still roadblocks stopping CTV advertisers from fully embracing programmatic, including price and transparency (or the lack thereof).

Healthy habits are hard to form and even harder to maintain, especially after a lifetime of neglecting the advice of doctors to eat better and exercise more.

Programmatic platforms are still unclear whether supply-path optimization is a way to compete or cooperate with each other.

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Magnite increased its purchase data reservoir through a partnership with Attain, a purchase data company. But the data upgrade is restricted to ClearLine.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. All Work And No Pure-Play … Nobody wants to be an SSP anymore. But is supply-side ad tech really in such bad shape?  Index Exchange is the loudest – if not the only – voice still backing the pure-play publisher ad tech role. Co-founder […]

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.

Cutting out hops in the supply chain means skipping over a DSP or an SSP – especially for video inventory. Plus, inside Cadent’s bid for bankrupt SSP EMX.

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

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

Among the most frequent benefits touted with SPO is improved efficiency. When costs are reduced while maintaining effectiveness, greater return on ad spend is achieved. But, asks InMarket’s Joshua Koran, is it really that simple?