How to Choose the Right Type of Header Bidding for Your Overall Marketing Strategy?

Header bidding is an advanced programmatic advertising technique where publishers can offer inventory to multiple advertisement exchanges. It allows the publishers to offer ad space simultaneously to multiple SSPs or Ad exchanges before any calls to the advertisement servers. This technique gives the publishers more control over the process. Here’s how to determine the best header bidding strategy that fits in your overall marketing strategy –

Client-Side Header Bidding

Client-side header bidding is also known as browser-side header bidding. In this type of bidding, the publisher can take the inventory to multiple demand partners soon after the impression is available. The whole process can be carried on the user’s computer, so the bidding is also known as browser-side bidding. The working of this one is quite simple. As soon as an impression is made available, the ad request is sent to the demand partners to ask for their bids.

The process then goes to the partners, wherein they place their auction bids and return the prices to the page header. After the auction occurs, the header sends the information to the publisher’s system through some set key values. The bids are then compared with the floor price (as set by the publisher), and the highest bid wins. The winning bidder then gets to display the ad. This is how header bidding works.

Server-Side Bidding

Server-side bidding is also known as server-to-server bidding. Here the bidding is sent from a central server rather than a user server. There are some limitations with the client-side bidding, and for this reason, the publishers came up with this alternative for header bidding.

In this, the page loading time is less significant. After the impression is made available, a request is sent to the server from the browser, and the server then requests the demand partners to carry out the auction process.

EDBA

To enter the existing competition among client-side bidding and server-side bidding, Google launched header bidding – EDBA (Exchange Bidding Dynamic Allocation), also known as Open Bidding. You need to be a Google Certified Publishing Partner to enter this bidding type.

Open bidding offers comparatively low demand and reduced competition bidding than its counterparts and thus is a less opted bidding strategy by the publishers. The steps involved in the contractual partnership take more time and commitments and thus discourages the publisher.

Also, the process is controlled by Google, and the publishers have transparency issues regarding the process.

What Strategy To Choose To Fit Your Overall Marketing Strategy?

You can choose either of the above strategies, but it is best advised to go with a test and result basis. Each of these header bidding strategies can have its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, you can go with the one that best fits your business considering the following factors: your choice as a publisher, market trends, inventory type, and demand factors.

You can go with either of the strategies mentioned above or a hybrid strategy to run client-side bidding and server-side bidding simultaneously. You must understand how header bidding works in the first place. The important thing is, there is no tailor-made strategy that best fits your overall marketing strategy. Going with the result analysis of each is the wisest decision.