Header bidding technology is one of the most important advancements in online advertising in recent years. This technology allows publishers to offer their inventory to multiple demand sources simultaneously, resulting in higher prices for publishers and better ad quality for advertisers.
However, header bidding comes with some difficulties of its own. We’ll start this article by answering what is a header bidding, and we’ll continue with all the benefits, drawbacks, opportunities, and challenges of header bidding technology.
What Is Header Bidding Technology?
Header bidding is a relatively new technology that is completely revolutionizing the world of web advertising. It gives publishers the ability to run auctions for their ad impressions simultaneously across multiple supply sources, increasing efficiency and yielding higher revenue from each impression.
Using this technology, buyers can bid on each impression before it is passed along to the publisher’s ad server. In doing so, buyers are able to see what type of pricing competition they may face from other buyers.
This transparent system helps advertisers decide how much they should bid for each impression in real-time and allows publishers to generate more revenue from each user who visits their site. Header bidding technology has quickly become one of the most sought-after tools in web advertising and looks like it will be here to stay.
Header Bidding Technology Advantages
Header bidding technology offers a wide range of advantages for publishers.
- It enables them to connect with multiple demand sources simultaneously, creating an open and competitive marketplace and giving publishers greater control over the impression-selling process.
- Header bidding offers unprecedented performance benchmarking opportunities, as publishers can assess exactly how their impressions are performing against competitors in the market. This data provides valuable insight into optimizing monetization strategies for maximum efficiency.
As header bidding technology continues to evolve and become increasingly accessible to all levels of publishers, it stands to reason that it is already well on its way to becoming an industry standard for modern-day digital advertising.
Header Bidding Technology Drawbacks
Though there are certainly advantages coming from this technology, it is important to weigh the potential disadvantages of header bidding before jumping into implementation.
- Header bidding technology can present serious drawbacks for publishers, such as reduced page-load speeds and the additional complexity of the ad-serving process.
- Monetizing lower impressions is difficult with header bidding, as well as monitoring latency or other inconsistencies between specific demand partners.
Combining these issues makes it tough to maximize revenue returns with header bidding in some cases, especially when manual operations are involved throughout the campaign. This can be a major headache for publishers who traditionally rely on mediated solutions that handle most of the requests before ever hitting the server.
Header Bidding Opportunities
Header bidding technology presents a promising opportunity for publishers to increase their ad revenue by allowing multiple advertisers to participate in the same auction in a fast and efficient manner. For example, header bidding gives publishers access to an additional pool of potential buyers in each auction and ultimately a greater demand for their inventory. Additionally, setting floor prices for different types of impressions ensures that publishers are able to gain more control over the price of their inventory and maximize revenue from their ads.
In summary, header bidding technology provides an array of advantages for publishers including increased competition, improved pricing control, and increased visibility into the auction environment.
Header Bidding Challenges
Header bidding technology can present a number of challenges for publishers, specifically related to workflow management.
One of the most pressing issues is the complexity that often comes with header bidding implementations. Not only do publishers have to work within their existing header bidding setup, but they must also add new partners and adjust existing bids if they want to remain competitive. This can lead to slow or inefficient processes, which can in turn lead to lost ad revenue.
Also, many mainstream ad servers are not yet equipped to handle header-bidding workflows, meaning publishers have to stumble through updates and optimizations without the right tools at their disposal. And with programmatic becoming ever more common and sophisticated, new challenges arise as well, making it increasingly difficult for publishers to keep up with all the changes being made in real-time.
Bottom Line
Header bidding technology is an interesting opportunity for publishers who are looking to increase their advertising profits. While there are some potential issues that need to be addressed, such as latency and complexity, the bidder pooling that header bidding offers may be worth the effort for many sites.
