How to make the most of next-generation SSPs

It’s been a difficult start to the year for supply-side platforms (SSPs) with high-profile closures in the news such as EMX filing for bankruptcy and lay-offs rumoured elsewhere in the industry.  At the same time, buyers are also asking for more transparency, efficiency and performance from their supply partners, using supply path optimisation (SPO) techniques to drive towards a more effective and efficient programmatic ecosystem.

Fortunately, a new generation of SSPs has been gradually developing - platforms that are agile, innovative and smart. This has accelerated the move towards a transparent and lightweight supply chain that prioritises innovation over pure scale. In fact, it presents the perfect opportunity to embrace those innovative platforms and better understand the importance of premium, quality SSPs.
 

Simplify your future revenue stack

The idea of more demand being better for the supply side, and more supply being better for the demand side, has led to an overcrowded ecosystem with a lot of duplication and reselling. Many in that ecosystem are still quite heavily cookie-reliant and still scrambling for a privacy-first strategy. 

As publishers analyse their demand stack, they will naturally look for SSPs that pursue direct, premium demand relationships, higher efficiency, better service and ease of implementation, while catering to the privacy-first future of digital advertising.

The role of an SSP should be to understand a publisher’s ad placements, sites, and pages, and provide these details to demand-side platforms (DSPs) via automated bid requests. The SSPs that do this best are those that are able to provide DSPs with information, discovery, transparency, and performance in an effective and efficient manner. And that’s exactly what the next-generation of SSPs are doing.
 

Embrace the next generation

Publishers can harness the power of next-generation SSPs by benefiting from their innovative technology, which provides premium and direct demand access. This technology can be quickly integrated with ease, and help to deliver a far more streamlined programmatic process.

These intelligent SSPs are able to evaluate the best-performing publisher inventory, and then price that inventory in a way that is suitable for buyers on the demand side.

Importantly, these platforms have been built with both the privacy-first and environment-first future in mind, both of which are incredibly important to the industry. A focus on semantics, and the adoption of privacy-friendly retargeting features from browsers, open the door to continuing to serve consumers with relevant ads while respecting their privacy. Meanwhile, any platform that helps to reduce the overcrowded nature of the programmatic ecosystem, naturally, lowers the industry’s carbon emissions.

Ultimately, for publishers, this means being able to unlock the true value of their audiences, while enjoying all the other benefits of a more simplified and transparent supply chain.

Now isn’t the time for publishers, and the wider industry, to turn their backs on SSPs. Instead, it’s time to embrace a new generation of SSPs that are able to deliver exactly what publishers and buyers are looking for. SPO is a positive step for the industry to take, and it’s these SSPs that will be the driving force towards a more simplified, efficient, and effective supply path.