Header bidding is the go-to when you want to earn the highest ad revenue. You can also make huge profits like thousands of publishers and app developers have already done. Therefore, a publisher or app developer can quickly generate a tonne of money through their traffic. This article will help you to become one of them. This article will get all the essential information you need to know about header bidding and ad networks with their main benefits.
Ad Networks
An advertising network acts as an agent for the deals between publishers and advertisers. The ad network represents media owners in the advertising marketplace and groups their inventory. It also vends programmatically, usually via auctions. Therefore, there are no processes of manual insertion orders and face-to-face discussions.
Ad networks first gather ad inventory from different supply sources like web publishers, apps, streaming platforms, etc. After collecting, it matches them with demand sources looking for appropriate audiences. You can also say that it acts as a commercial intermediary or is responsible for monetizing the supply side. However, creating an ad network requires excellent labor and time.
Why Are Ad Networks Important?
Ad networks are essential because they are the monetization elements of the mobile ad network. Also, they act as the technical and commercial intermediary between advertisers and publishers. Ad networks facilitate payments and transactions, and without them, all publishers would have to make deals with each advertiser individually.
How An Ad Network Works?
Here is the working of ad networks:
- An ad network collects many publishers that will provide a sufficient amount of ad inventory to the advertisers in an auction.
- The advertiser can create different campaigns by directly using an ad network’s campaign. Advertisers can also use a management panel or set up pixels from a third-party ad server for verification and consolidated reporting.
- The advertiser needs to set up the campaign parameters that include targeting, budget, frequency caps, etc. Also, the publisher needs to install the ad-network ad tags on their respective site.
- When an advertiser successfully finalizes the ad, he can interchange multiple banners on the website with the help of the ad network’s campaign-management panel.
How Advertisers And Publishers Can Take Advantage Of Ad Networks?
Here are the benefits of ad networks for publishers and advertisers:
Publishers
The most apparent advantage for publishers is that it allows them to sell their ad inventory which they can’t market via direct deals. However, even ad networks can’t protect the publisher from wasting impressions.
Advertisers
You know that ad networks are responsible for helping publishers sell their ad inventory, but they also benefit advertisers. Two of the main benefits are as below:
- Scale
- Time Savings
Header Bidding
Header Bidding in advertising is an automated auction technology that allows them to show their inventory on many DSPs. Also, they will be simultaneously receiving bids from multiple advertisers. It is a specific kind of automatic auction where all DSPs have a similar approach to bidding.
Furthermore, regarding traffic value, it helps eliminate the informational asymmetry between the publisher and the advertiser. It is also a programmatic technique that allows publishers to have a reasonable demand-based amount for their ad space.
How does Header Bidding work?
The header bidding process works as follows:
- A guest clicks on a particular website and it starts loading.
- The JavaScript snippet that is present in the website’s header and the header bidding wrapper calls out some ad networks
- Each ad network puts an offer on the ad inventory
- The highest offer wins the programmatic auction
- The winning offer or bid goes to the publisher’s ad server
- When the offer reaches the publisher’s ad server, it automatically connects the operator to the advertiser’s server
- Finally, the winning ad creative is shown to the user
You will see that the entire process will be complete within milliseconds. That is why it is also known as bidding. The process relocates the auction from the ad server onto the publisher’s web page’s header.
How to Setup Header Bidding?
If you want to set up header bidding, you will need a wrapper and adapters (or demand partners/SSPs). You also have to make corresponding orders and line items in your Ad Manager account. However, you don’t need to do it all yourself to make your work easier. Several managed header bidding providers are present in the market. If you are sure to go with one, they will take full responsibility for setup, demand partnerships, implementation, and optimization.
Although you are not comfortable selecting any bidding provider, you can also quickly implement it yourself. You get different open-source header bidding frameworks to help beginner publishers start header auctions.
Factors You Should Keep In Mind While Implementing Header Bidding
While implementing header bidding, you should consider the following factors:
Demand Partners
It would be best if you got strong demand partners to gain the benefits of header bidding quickly. Furthermore, it is crucial to get an adequate number of demand partners. If you have too high numbers, it can slow the page because the browser will receive more bids. Therefore, you need to be thoughtful about the whole header bidding wrapper setup. The number can’t be less, nor can it be too high.
Page Latency
In header bidding, your browser has to call the demand partners. After that, it has to wait for them to make their offer. It can also increase the page loading time, which results in a poor user experience. Therefore, you need to set the universal timing out to dodge latency issues. It means that you need to specify how long your browser should wait to receive the bids. Also, if you want to experiment, you can use a hybrid header bidding setup.
Asynchronous
With the help of a header bidding wrapper, you can keep header bidding asynchronous. With its use, the content won’t halt and wait for the ad. The page will load autonomously, and you can send the ad a bit later.
Pros and Cons of Header Bidding
Header bidding is a transparent and optimized technique for bidding ad inventory based on impressions. Also, publishers can track each image and get authorization for each selling ad. It directly puts the publishers in constant touch with several advertisers.
Pros of Header Bidding For the Publishers
- Higher CPM
- Higher Fill Rates
- High Inventory Value
- Better Management
Cons of Header Bidding
- Latency issues
- Limited ad requests
- Compatibility
Conclusion
Header bidding can certainly supercharge your ad revenue if you follow certain practices. However, if you can’t implement it properly, it might result in a poor user experience, and your revenue may drop.
Furthermore, Ad networks are the solution for automating media trading. Also, it saves time when it comes to face-to-face negotiations.
