The Video SSP is constantly evolving with new features being added on a monthly basis. Here Alex Berger, Product Marketing Manager, Supply Side at Adform, looks at some of the key things publishers should focus on when choosing a video SSP.
For a long time video has faced constraints from a variety of sources; concentration in one or two monolithic platforms, bandwidth limitations, and discoverability have all played major roles in limiting growth. For many publishers, video is a relatively new addition which has quickly become an urgent priority. Part and parcel of this we’ve seen the stranglehold on the industry change significantly, in no small part to key changes in discoverability over the last couple of years.
One of the key drivers of this change has been the introduction of programmatically accessible, scaleable, and high value outstream video. In recent months we’ve also seen a number of changes in the technologies available for enabling discovery and bidding on video inventory. These include the launch of dedicated video supply-side platform (SSP) point solutions or, as in the case of Adform, the expansion of existing supply side platforms to service and include video. In these instances, the ability for publishers who already had significant video inventory available through private marketplaces or direct deals, are readily opened up to programmatic demand which has in turn rapidly increased available supply in the market and overall quality.
In the current landscape, we’re seeing large differences between different video SSPs. This is in part due to development time, pedigree, and period of introduction. This has led to significant confusion for advertisers and publishers who may initially assume that all providers have key capabilities and every bit as importantly, the supply to support that capability.
Three Factors When Evaluating SSPs
The easiest way to evaluate potential SSP partners is to use a basic triangular model. You can evaluate each vendor based on if and to what extent they offer a combination of three primary factors; quality, scale and technology. When evaluating which features are most relevant, chart if they’re going to provide high quality demand, at a scale you need, and will support and/or deliver the technologies which will give you control over incoming demand while retaining the ability to choose and promote all of the formats and distribution criteria you want.
DSP Connections
While OpenRTB support opens up the ability for many SSPs to interface with key demand partners/DSPs, each SSP has different relationships, integration agreements, and terms. This is particularly true where video is concerned, as the level of support and how that support has been prioritized varies widely from vendor to vendor. Does the SSP you’re considering using have access to all major DSPs? Do they integrate with key local DSPs or only global providers? It’s important to have a firm understanding for what your distribution strategy is, and which buyers, by way of which DSPs, will provide the highest demand in order to ensure that your inventory is as easily discoverable and sought after as it deserves.
The easiest way to think of this is a bit like a road. Sure, you’ve turned down a road, but what type of road is that? Is it a driveway? A superhighway? A regional road? Ultimately, you need a road that’s powerful enough to get you where you want to go, won’t randomly dead-end on you, but which still isn’t bogged down by traffic jams, construction, tollways or detours that serve as surprise obstacles hindering you.
DSP Video File Conversion Capabilities
We’ve probably all gone through the frustration of trying to find the right player for a given type of video pulled from our phones or camcorders. There are few things more frustrating than having to hunt through a wide range of players, all in the hope of accessing what should be a straight forward process. With so many video formats, sizes, and codecs in play it becomes very important to have tools that do that searching, sorting, and preparing for you. This is particularly important when working cross-device and across borders, as each device and country has different video preferences that have the potential to have a significant impact on what does/does not work.
As part of a SSP’s communication with DSPs, key data about which file types a publisher is supporting are exchanged. The DSP should then possess the capability to convert the raw creatives it’s ready to serve into the appropriate format for distribution. In this way, a DSP with a robust video file conversion capability will be able to respond to a wide range of different bid requests from all relevant players. While this is on the DSP side, it is a small but important piece of the equation when analyzing which DSP connections the video SSP is integrated with. Once again, this all boils down to removing bottlenecks that potentially obstruct, limit or degrade access to demand.
Outstream Capability
The industry is rapidly pivoting to support outstream. However, full support for it is still very intermittent and comes in a lot of different forms from provider to provider. There are two big challenges right now that we’re running into when it comes to the adoption of outstream in an advanced way. The first is from Video SSP providers who need to differentiate how they handle in-stream and outstream. This is, unfortunately, something that there’s still not nearly enough support for which is resulting in missed opportunities and reduced data transparency.
The second is on the DSP side where few DSPs currently have the integrations in place and technical capabilities to target on outstream inventory specifically. Given the different profile provided by outstream compared to in-stream, we’ll rapidly see added functionality added to differentiate between these two with refined targeting options. However, in the interim, most count the two purely as video. This results in quality demand for publishers, but is less desirable than the ability to sell differentiated video inventory at a premium.
Outstream capability is particularly significant moving forward as it provides a number of key advantages. First, it allows publishers who may not currently have video inventory to add it at a volume that scales. Second, it allows for publishers with existing video inventory to add extra video inventory where necessary. Third, compared to mid-stream video ads, outstream provides what is often considered to be a less intrusive alternative that still serves video with high engagement.
Due to this, we’ll continue to see a pivot towards more specific classifications for the sale and purchase of video impressions. This bodes well for publishers but means that as this aspect of the market matures they’ll need to take great care in identifying which video-capable SSPs to use.
VPAID Support
While the majority of video is currently handled using VAST, it’s important to explore if VPAID support is available via your SSP of choice. VPAID provides a number of features and functionalities otherwise unavailable through VAST and has historically been used by some of the industry’s largest video publishers for value added offerings. While not dominant, there are sufficient demand partners actively using VPAID that integrated support should be a given part of the Video SSP’s profile to ensure you always retain the ability to support VPAID campaigns. Where VAST provides the foundational player, VPAID provides an added toolkit enabling rich ad experiences while delivering additional viewer analytics.
Our creative teams have been very excited about the potential posed by VPAID supported formats, as they allow for the creation of a dynamic layer that can serve as a powerful supplement and significant enhancement to existing video content. Increasingly, we’ll also see this as a great tool for publishers and advertisers looking to hone even better targeted and more engaging video content.
Source Extra Demand via Header Bidding
Header Bidding support via the Video SSP allows you as a publisher to unify multiple SSPs you’re already using, including those with Video SSP capability, and to grant them equal access to your inventory. By pulling these simultaneously into the same bucket, you’re able to compare bids coming from the DSPs more transparently while putting them in competition and evaluating them alongside your directly booked campaigns which makes choosing what gets shown more efficient and effective delivering better yield management, while eliminating waterfalls and other sources of inefficiency.
We’ve seen significant interest for video through our SSP when aligned with our header bidding solution. Feedback from our publishers has dispelled many of the running narratives which have been introduced by some of the large walled gardens. Mostly these have focused around speed, or the value served by SSPs. These almost invariably are based on Header Bidding and SSP technology solutions from several years ago and do not reflect the current state of these technologies or their capabilities. While some of these dated solutions or configurations may share the name header bidding, they are in other ways as different today as the modern DSP is from the DSP of 2010.
One example of this is our ‘Perfect Priority’ functionality which allows you, when paired with our publisher ad server, to dynamically balance guaranteed vs. non-guaranteed demand intelligently, without impacting speed and performance in order to get the ultimate mixture of programmatic and guaranteed.
The reality is that we’ve seen performance enhancements in some cases due to a simplification of the publisher’s setup and process, while in other situations where marginal differences in speed or performance were noted, the increase in demand and ability to monetize existing inventory or to add new placements has resulted in marked differences.
Picking the Perfect Video SSP
The search for the right Video SSP revolves around performance, integrations, and the ability to expose your inventory to as much high quality demand, as quickly and easily as possible. How well a Video SSP does this depends heavily on the company’s approach to working with external partners, development resources, adaptability, agreements, scalability, and underlying ability to access the markets you’re most interested in.
