Header Bidding

#asksovrn: How Header Bidding Works

Sovrn Publisher Advocate // January 13, 2016

writing on the window

For the next 14 minutes watch how Header Bidding, a new ad optimization technology, maximizes online revenue by re-inventing how ad networks and exchanges bid for your inventory. Frustrated with the pitfalls of traditional waterfall strategy and looking to reclaim your lost revenue? In this how-to whiteboard overview, Tony Casson, Sr. Director of ad tech products at sovrn, describes how Header Bidding places code on the header portion of your site, which then requests and receives bid prices from all your ad partners at the same time – every time someone visits your site. 

By requesting bids from all partners simultaneously, Publishers using Header Bidding;

  • no longer have to prioritize partners based on estimates. Bidding is based on real prices, so no need for guesswork.
  • maximize revenue for every impression. You now receive prices from EVERY partner at once, so the impression is always awarded to the highest bidder.
  • experience lower discrepancies. Less back and forth between the publisher and its advertisers means less likelihood for erroneous counting.
  • experience accurate and timely recording. If your ad server is set up in the right way, Header Bidding enables it to record the actual price paid for every impression
  • have less on-going manual work. Header Bidding requires some complex work up front, but once it’s done, the publisher doesn’t have to constantly tweak their ad stack to get the best results.

Have another question for us to answer, send your question to #asksovrn. We’ll bring in our experts to tackle your challenge.

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