Balancing Multiple SSPs to

Maximize YieldAdMonsters OPS

Emry DowningHall

SSPs and Me: A Love Story• Began working as a ‘long tail’ publisher in 2007

• Have managed 100% of the inventory for 11 student-focused

websites

• Currently manage 3 Imagine Easy O&O websites serving

over 7B impressions/yearly

• 98% non-guaranteed inventory

• Teach a course at General Assembly on yield/ad optimization

• Currently work with or have worked with (just about) every

major US SSP partner in the space

What do you mean, SSP?

• A partner working with a publisher to help sell its

non-guaranteed inventory at agreed upon

impression volumes, price points/floors

• For the purposes of our discussion this includes:

• Ad Exchanges

• Ad Networks

• Re-targeters

• SSPs (non-exclusive)

Is a multiple SSP solution right for you?• Consider your website’s split between direct and

unsold inventory

• On average, what percentage of inventory goes

unsold to remnant?

• Don’t blend performance: establish a remnant

performance baseline for each ad unit on your

property.

The Good: Why work with multiple SSPs? • Maximize the value of your unsold

inventory

• Create more competition for your inventory

by opening it up to potential new partners

The Good: Why work with multiple SSPs?• Diversify your partner revenue streams

• Diversify your ad serving opportunities

• Free to take advantage of market changes

and emerging technology

The bad: Why (not) work with multiple SSPs?

• This complicates everything

• Ad quality concerns: harder to track the

supply source of a rogue ad, block lists

aren‘t (even close to) perfect

• Defaulted inventory: slow page loads, lost

impressions and a poor UX

The bad: Why (not) work with multiple SSPs?

• Conflict with your direct sales team

• Time: managing and optimizing is a full

time job(s)

• Payment concerns: cash flow, late,

inaccurate or defaulted payments

• Risk of over exposing/de-valuing your

inventory?

But if you’re feeling

froggy…

When Evaluating potential partners• Who are your peers having success with?

• Consider specifically how this partner will

add value to your stack

• Define your value: what CPM and what fill

% make sense for you?

When Evaluating potential partners• Set mutual goals with your partner and run

a controlled test where you can evaluate

specific results

• Don’t set it and forget it

What to look for in a partner• Where do they source their inventory?

• Do they have their own sales team?

• Do they have their own user management

interface (UI)? Defaults, tags, price floors.

• Payment terms/credit references?

• Will you work with a human?

Evaluation Form for inbound leads

Ad Serving: Multiple SSP best practices • Separate your ad units into individual ‘order

s’

• Segment your inventory by device and

largest geos

• Do not blend ad unit performance data

• Apply appropriate frequency caps based on

data

Ad Serving: Multiple SSP best practices• Price priority line item type (in almost all

cases) for non-guaranteed partners

• Capture incremental revenue with AdX and

‘dynamic allocation’

• Adjust ad unit specific line item pricing to

reflect performance of your SSP partners

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 1

AD Server

AD Server

SSP Partner 1

100% Fill Partner

PROS CONS

• Simplified setup • May lead to lower rates vs. a fully managed default stack

Pass unsold impressions directly to a 100% fill partner

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 2

AD Server

AD Server

SSP Partner 1

PROS CONS

• Additional dynamic allocation auction

• Fixed default swap control

• Discrepancy tracking

• Complicated setup• Added impression hop

AD Server

AD Server

SSP Partner 2

Pass unsold impressions back to your ad server

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 3

AD Server

AD Server

SSP Partner 1

SSP Partner 2

PROS CONS

• Less complex than ad server passback setup

• May monetize at higher rates vs. 100% fill partner passback

• Discrepancy• Reliant on ad partner

for changes (in some cases)

• Latency

‘Daisy Chain’your partners

Managing defaulted inventory: Option 4

AD Server

AD Server

SSP Partner 1

PROS CONS

• Blend of best practices based on data

• Requires extensive testing

• Human error• Maintenance

AD Server

AD Server

SSP Partner 2

Hybrid Approach

Data: consider this and look closely• Look at data on a per unit/partner basis as

often as possible

• Consider both CPM rate and fill percentage

equally

• Look for lost impressions (serving to and

being passed from partner) and factor that

into optimizations

DATA: CONSIDER THIS ANd LOOK CLOSELY• Use partner performance to leverage future

negotiations/allocation of inventory and

dynamic allocation pricing

• Track historic performance closely

For your (General) Consideration• Communicate and share partner experiences

with your peers

• Ad positions don’t need to be static (Ex.

300x250 or 300x600)

• Take advantage of emerging technology

• Take advantage of large formats if OK for UX

(728x90 to 970x250)

For your (General) Consideration• Test all tags before taking them live

• Create a strict category block list and have

partner confirm it’s in place before going live

• QA your own site weekly

• Understand how your inventory is being sold:

branded, semi-branded, anonymous

Thank you

AdMonsters OPS