Implementing header bidding for optimal ad revenue growth
- January 24, 2025
- Posted by: Singhanio Sumeet
- Category: Line Items
Digital publishers aspire to streamline their advertising ecosystem, aiming for maximum ad revenue from their website’s ad space. Achieving this aspiration often involves embracing header bidding.
Header bidding empowers publishers to present their ad inventory to multiple demand partners simultaneously, fostering competition that elevates ad revenue potential.
This process, executed through JavaScript to construct a header bidding wrapper, enables advertisers to engage in more precise ad targeting by circumventing inefficiencies like Google AdX’s preferential bid position when a publisher employs Google’s ad server.
Prepare for an in-depth exploration of header bidding, the buzzword dominating the ad tech landscape for good reason. Dive into the details to master header bidding and elevate your ad revenue.
What Is Header Bidding?
In contrast to the traditional waterfall method, header bidding represents an advanced programmatic advertising approach allowing publishers to offer their ad inventory to multiple ad exchanges and networks simultaneously.
In essence, header bidding operates as a programmatic auction where bid requests are dispatched to multiple demand partners in real-time, maximizing the value of ad inventory.
Often termed as advance bidding or pre-bidding, header bidding has gained significant traction, with 84% of the top 10,000 US sites implementing it, leading to higher CPMs for more than half of US publishers.
By integrating a JavaScript code snippet into the <head> section of their website, publishers can trigger bid requests through browser resources. These bids undergo filtration based on certain criteria in the publisher’s ad server, with the highest bidder’s ad winning placement on the user’s screen.
Given its swift execution within a fraction of a second, publishers should consider adopting header bidding to optimize ad revenue for their web pages.
What Came Before Header Bidding?
Prior to programmatic header bidding, ad space was auctioned and delivered only as ad placements began to load on a webpage.
When users visited a website, the publisher’s direct orders received priority serving as they occupied the highest position in the ad server’s hierarchy. Once the frequency cap on direct orders was met, the ad server would cascade the impression to programmatic line items in a sequential waterfall system, akin to a real-time auction environment.
However, the primary drawback of the waterfall system was that the selling price of an impression did not necessarily reflect its true value. The top-ranked ad exchange would offer unsold inventory primarily based on size rather than the highest bidder’s bid. This process continued down the tiers until an impression received a bid, leaving potential revenue unrealized for the publisher.
How Does Header Bidding Work?
Header bidding initiates as soon as the page loads in the user’s browser. The header bidding code in the page header triggers, simultaneously inviting all demand partners to bid on the impression before calling the ad servers. This entire process occurs within a predetermined timeframe set by the publisher, typically within a second.
During this split-second window, many demand partners conduct their auctions to determine the highest bid they’ll submit. The highest bids from each partner are then relayed from the visitor’s browser to the publisher’s ad server before calling upon its direct inventory.
Header bidding ensures all demand sources actively participate in the auction, empowering publishers to regulate which sources engage in the process.
Crucially, publishers can elevate the prices for their premium inventory.
Elseandif, for instance, has observed publishers boosting revenue by 70% upon implementing header bidding within our Fuse Platform.
With reduced reliance on a single supply-side platform (SSP), overall yield increases, accompanied by enhanced ad fill rates and smarter allocation of impressions to the highest bidder.
Moreover, header bidding minimizes reporting discrepancies as it consolidates the process into a single auction without sequential chaining.
Why Header Bidding Is Better for Publishers
The foremost benefit of header bidding for publishers is heightened yield. By facilitating a simultaneous auction from all bidders, header bidding enables publishers to sell inventory on a per-impression basis.
Consequently, diminished reliance on a single SSP fosters a smarter allocation of impressions and heightened fill rates.
However, this isn’t the sole advantage; here are five benefits of header bidding for publishers:
- Increased control: Publishers wield control over the participating sources in the bidding process, retaining autonomy over their sites and prioritizing favored advertisers.
- Expanded bidder pool: Publishers can diversify the advertisers vying for impressions on their sites, bolstering business resilience and adaptability.
- Revenue augmentation: Broader advertiser access translates to higher CPMs and revenue growth, with reported revenue increases of 30-40% through header bidding.
- Enhanced ad quality: Increased competition results in higher quality and more relevant ads, as advertisers vie for a publisher’s audience.
- Faster loading times: Header bidding expedites the sale of impressions and ad rendering, enhancing user experience and SEO outcomes.
How Does Header Bidding Help Advertisers?
Advertisers also reap benefits from header bidding implementation. Beyond securing bids on premium inventory, header bidding extends advertisers’ reach to engage their target audience effectively.
Here are three benefits of header bidding for advertisers:
- Disintermediation: All advertisers gain equitable access to premium inventory, irrespective of their use of Google Ad Exchange.
- Transparency: Header bidding affords programmatic ad buyers a comprehensive view of a publisher’s impressions, enabling informed ad strategy decisions.
- Enhanced inventory access: Through header bidding, advertisers can access a publisher’s entire inventory, including premium slots previously reserved for direct deals.
How to Set Up Header Bidding
Given the technical nature of header bidding, guidance on its setup is imperative. Establishing header bidding necessitates continuous connections among the ad manager, header bidding wrapper, and SSP adapters.
To leverage header bidding, publishers must construct a header bidding wrapper using JavaScript. This code, integrated into the <head> of a publisher’s website, receives bids from SSPs and selects a winner.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to implementing header bidding:
- Identify relevant demand partners aligned with your website’s niche.
- Install and configure a header bidding wrapper to organize buyers and establish auction rules.
- Customize auction formats by setting time limits and floor prices for various ad segments to optimize efficiency and prevent website errors.
What Are Header Bidding Wrappers?
A header bidding wrapper, also referred to as a container or framework, organizes buyers and governs the programmatic auction process.
By centralizing code from multiple demand partners, wrappers maximize demand sources competing for impressions without adding complexity to the codebase.
Header bidding wrappers also feature timeout settings to manage auction duration and analytics tools for performance evaluation and partner management.
What Is prebid.js?
Among the prominent header bidding wrappers is prebid.js, an open-source project initially developed by AppNexus in 2015 and subsequently embraced by the Rubicon Project in 2017.
Functioning as a header bidding wrapper, prebid.js enables publishers to manage line items and conduct asynchronous, multiple ad calls with an ad server.
Pros and Cons of prebid.js
Pros:
Robust tools for ad server communications.
Notable improvements in auction speeds compared to the waterfall model.
Open-source and freely available with a supportive user community.
Cons:
Complex setup and maintenance.
Potential site loading speed impact due to wrapper execution.
Reliance on community support rather than on-demand assistance.
Despite its complexities, prebid.js offers substantial advantages, albeit requiring expertise for setup and operation. Nevertheless, numerous alternative wrappers are available, including Amazon’s Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) and Google’s Exchange Bidding in Dynamic Allocation (EDMA) tool.
What Is Open Bidding?
Open Bidding emerged as Google’s response to header bidding, aiming to introduce more competition to Google’s AdX, which previously wielded significant control over auctions.
With Open Bidding, all demand partners bid simultaneously, reducing Google’s influence and enhancing auction fairness.
Operating on server-to-server connections, Open Bidding minimizes page latency compared to header bidding, as auctions occur on ad servers rather than in users’ browsers.
Why Header Bidding Is Superior to AdSense
Transitioning from AdSense to header bidding is akin to moving from a small pool to the ocean.
While AdSense remains a viable option within header bidding, its adoption vastly expands the pool of publishers and ad exchanges bidding on inventory.
The decline in Google’s market share, coupled with the growing adoption of header bidding, reflects a shift toward transparency and increased advertiser spending through private marketplaces (PMPs).
Header Bidding Vs. Open Bidding (EBDA):
Understanding the Distinction Header bidding necessitates a more intricate setup than Open Bidding, which is overseen by Google and boasts a simplified interface. However, header bidding empowers publishers with greater control over their ad operations.
Although Open Bidding reduces latency compared to header bidding by conducting auctions on cloud-based ad servers, it sacrifices transparency, presenting a dynamic allocation process without granular insight into auction outcomes.
On the contrary, header bidding offers higher cookie-match rates than Open Bidding, facilitating targeted ad placement and fostering a competitive environment.
Client-Side Vs. Server-Side Header Bidding:
Differentiating Approaches Client-side header bidding entails running extensive JavaScript on the webpage, potentially slowing page and ad load times. However, it enables broader participation in auctions, thereby driving up prices.
Server-side header bidding, exemplified by Google’s AdX, mitigates latency by hosting auctions on external servers. While this approach requires minimal code integration on publishers’ sites, it may sacrifice some benefits of client-side bidding, such as enhanced cookie-match rates.
elseandif implementation prioritizes client-side header bidding to capitalize on higher cookie-match rates, increased CPM rates, enhanced transparency, targeted ads, and superior fill rates.
In conclusion, header bidding integration represents a significant programmatic advancement in the ad operations realm, offering publishers enhanced control, transparency, and revenue from their ad inventory.
Moreover, advertisers benefit from expanded access to premium inventory, enabling more targeted ad placements and improved campaign performance.
At Elseandif, we specialize in ad tech solutions, providing header bidding services to digital publishers worldwide. Contact our team to explore our header bidding offerings today.
Visit: ElseandIf Website
