adotas.com, April 20th.
Adotas caught up wth Dvir Doron, CMO of Cedato , to get his opinion about header bidding and how to maximize the process.
Q: How is most of the market approaching header bidding?
A: Header bidding–and video header bidding in particular–is more intricate than the market realizes. Many are exploring these intricate new technologies and they’re being oversimplified by the industry as a whole. The result is everyone getting caught up in the lazy buzzword debate of server-side v. client-side. “Server-side” or “Server-to-server” solutions are being touted as the better approach because they’re not overloading the client’s device.
This thought process misses the nuances and complexities of how video formats actually work here and now. There is no simple equation to header bidding, and in order to provide great performance, a more elaborate approach is required, which takes advantage of both the power of server-side, and the requirements of VPAID to run on client-side. While adoption has been slow and steady, the market is ultimately realizing that header bidding gives publishers the ability to be more open and transparent.
Q: How do you see header bidding evolving in the coming years?
A: Header bidding has emerged on the market as a direct challenge to real-time bidding. While it’s been previously dismissed as a “publisher hack,” over time it will become an industry standard. Header bidding has become a disruptive technology, with benefits for both the supply and demand sides. It evens the playing field for advertisers who can’t afford first-round bidding, as well as for publishers who aren’t readily visible.
The difference here is that header bidding (and particularly video header bidding), is primarily a sell-side technology and restores the power back to the publisher’s side. We’re already seeing great adoption by publishers, and I expect this trend to continue in the coming year.
Q: What do you wish publishers and other advertisers knew about header bidding?
A: That there are several different ways to efficiently execute header bidding. Savvy publishers are already deploying effective solutions, but we’ve identified a serious gap in the way mid-tier publishers execute due to a lack of awareness and minimal resources for onboarding new adtech innovation. Header bidding, and especially video header bidding is perceived as requiring huge technical expertise and effort, when in fact this is not really the case.
Q: What are your thoughts on the state of innovation within the adtech industry?
A: While some continue to harp on the challenges facing the industry, I feel adtech continues to be a vibrant and dynamic space for innovation. Growth is powered by new devices and consumer technology, and ever-growing digital advertising budgets that show no sign of slowing down. In recent years, we’ve seen a lot of attention devoted to adtech innovation that’s being channeled into exploitation of trading anomalies. This ultimately diverts too much value to the trading chains.
I expect the pendulum to swing back this year, as more emphasis will be given for transparency and SaaS business models. And while AI might be an overused term at this point (and not completely applicable for adtech), I do think leveraging data, analytics and machine learning will create more efficiencies for the industry in the long run.