H is for Header Bidding

As part of our A-Z of Adtech series, this week we are looking at the practice of header bidding.

Header bidding, also known as advance bidding or pre-bidding, is the programmatic technique that allows publishers to offer their inventory to multiple ad exchanges at the same time. It’s grown significantly over the past year it shows no sign of stopping as we head into 2019.

New to header bidding? Check out our article on ‘What Is Header Bidding, How Does It Work And Who Benefits?‘ before carrying on to swot up on your header bidding knowledge!

This week we sat down with two of our programmatic wizards to find out what their thoughts are on header bidding, and where they see it going in 2019.

Heath Irving, Head of Programmatic & Partnership, ANZ

I think we will see more interest in and adoption of header bidding for video this year, particularly in the outstream video space. Whilst the promise of header bidding is to bring significant yield improvements and decrease latency, early adopters realised they needed a different approach to video inventory as they would display.

Video inventory, especially premium long-form inventory, is scarce, sold upfront at fixed rates and publishers are wary of selling it the same way they do display ads. Yet with outstream video, there are fewer restraints on supply, plus it comes at a lower price point so publishers can start to dip their feet in the water with less risk involved.

Wout Gijsbers, Programmatic Ops Solutions, EMEA

Despite header bidding’s current shortcomings, which include the client-side’s toll on user experience and the server-side’s infrastructure cost, header bidding’s ability to open up and equalize the auction process will continue to play a key role in shaping a more transparent, efficient (and ultimately path-optimized) programmatic playing field for both advertisers and publishers as we continue into 2019.

Click here to check out other posts in our A-Z of Adtech series.