THE BEST 10 SSPs FOR PUBLISHERS IN 2024

The best 10 SSPs for publishers in 2024. Boost Display Ad Revenue for digital publishing. The top 10 Supply Side Platforms to monetise your digital advertising.

Brought to you by Mau, a Senior Digital Marketing Specialist at eDigital.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST SSP PLATFORM

Are you a publisher who wants to monetise your website or app via display ads? or looking for an Adsense alternative?

Optimising publisher revenues is harder than ever – SSPs, DSPs, Display, Mobile, Video, etc. Publishers are overwhelmed by the number of technologies and providers they must work with and optimise against, to maximise revenues in today’s programmatic environment.

Using a simple but effective supply-side platform will connect you to the entire programmatic ecosystem, so you don’t need to. Your SSP platform should optimise your billions of ad impressions with the best yield.

No surprise, many online publishers are using specialist SSP platforms in programmatic advertising as it is the largest growing segment in online advertising today.

Google Adsense is just one of the most popular options as it is easy to install but may not generate the best yields per ad impression. You may want to review some of the top Adsense competitors listed below.

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THE TOP FACTORS WHEN  CHOOSING AN AD PLATFORM FOR YOUR ONLINE PUBLISHING BUSINESS

VIEWABILITY

Choose an SSP that offers viewability metrics. Viewability will determine whether an impression was actually seen by the user. Such a metric can be added to your reports.

AD QUALITY FOR LEGIT AD SERVING

It is crucial to make sure that the SSP you chose is integrated with the best real-time technology scanners to protect yourself from substandard or malicious ads. Ask your potential SSP if they have partnerships in place with companies such as GeoEdge and/or The Media Trust to ensure that your ad quality standards are high.

DIFFERENT AUCTION PROTOCOLS

Look for an SSP that is merged with an ad server and supports different protocols (programmatic direct, open auctions, etc.) Does it offer Header bidding options? or other advanced programmatic solution for websites and apps that increases yield by making premium inventory available to multiple ad exchange buyers at the same time?

INTEGRATIONS

Look for an SSP platform that manages multiple ad network partners under one roof. The dashboard must be also easy to use and navigate.

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THE RIGHT AD TYPES & FORMATS

Choose a flexible SSP, one that incorporates the type of ads that your online publishing business would most likely need. Go for an SSP that offers a variety of ad formats, such as video ads, banners, native ads, interstitial ads and so on. This will allow your team to experiment and see what works and what does not!

REAL-TIME DATA

An important factor when choosing your SSP is real-time data. Your SSP must be able to collect raw data in real-time, aggregate it and use it for yield optimisation. This data would be the basis for building smart algorithms that will drive your revenue-yield campaigns.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Does the SSP offer real-time customer support? by phone, email? Can you have access to their latest customer satisfaction survey? Do they have other happy online publisher clients in the country where you operate?

Below is a list of the best Supply Side Platforms that can help you set up, manage and monetise your visits via Display ads. You do not need more than one, you need only one. if you are new start small with a test or trial before engaging in a long-term contract.

Your initial goal should be to select an initial top 5 SSP platforms and then review them against your unique selection criteria taking insights from the above tips or other industry professional advice. Take your time to review your options or hire a consultant to review and present you with the best options, before devoting your time to fully thinking only on monetisation.

Need support reviewing the best SSP option? Contact us

THE BEST 10 SUPPLY-SIDE PLATFORMS (SSP) FOR ONLINE PUBLISHERS IN 2024 LIST

10. Open X

Open X works with publishers with at least 50 million page views a month. Smaller ones might want to consider Sovrn or Criteo.

9. Genesis SSP

The Genesis SSP powered by Page Intelligence improves the performance of outstream video. The platform tests and selects one of multiple formats on the fly, adapting to how the user is consuming the content

8. Adbook

Quite simply, it is the next evolution of revenue management. Faster, more scalable, and even easier to use, AdBook+ brings sales enablement, yield management and workflow automation together in a single platform: a Revenue Management Platform

7. TheViewPoint

TheViewPoint is an innovative video ad monetization platform for CTV/OTT publishers and broadcasters.

TheViewPoint is designed to provide every ad tech player looking to monetize video inventory with a transparent demand chain and higher margins. TheViewPoint enables content owners to manage direct deals with demand partners. A wide set of tools developed specifically for the connected TV environment allows publishers to effectively upscale their business

6. Google Ad Manager

Google Ad Manager (also called: DoubleClick for Publishers) is a complete ad revenue engine that helps publishers capture the full value of every impression across demand sources and channels. Seamless integration with DoubleClick Ad Exchange provides instant connection to millions of quality advertisers, while the natively integrated sales management platform streamlines operations for maximised sales at minimised costs.

5. PayTunes

PayTunes helps you run audio ads on famous audio platforms like Spotify, Gaana, Jio Saavan, and many more in India using the DSP.

4. Automatad

Automatad is a digital media products company that provides a suite of programmatic monetisation solutions that drives efficiency and superior monetization at scale. Using our platform digital publishers can create, monetise and optimise for the best ad experience.

3. Sharethrough

Sharethrough is an omnichannel supply side platform underpinned by advanced RTB tech and enhanced ad experiences that are proprietary to Sharethrough.

Sharethrough aims to bring human-centric technology to programmatic advertising with the goal of creating a sustainable advertising ecosystem for journalists, content creators, and app developers

2. Adsuite

Ad Ops and client portal solution for traditional and digital-first publishers.

Modules accelerate order management, in-flight management, reporting, invoicing and billing for cross-platform publishers. Adsuite comes integrated with Google Ad Manager, SFDC, Oracle ERP and other leading industry platforms.

1. 33 Across

33Across makes the programmatic advertising ecosystem work without cookies, across supply-side platforms, demand-side platforms, publishers, data companies, agencies, and everything in between.

Leading global advertisers, platforms, and publishers rely on 33Across to move past cookies and reach consumers in a simple, fair, and transparent manner.

OTHER POPULAR SSP PLATFORMS FOR PUBLISHERS

  • Adthrive
  • Applovin (Former Mopub)
  • Appnexus
  • Criteo
  • E-Planning
  • Equative (Former Smart Adserver)
  • Galeforce Media
  • Gumgum
  • Index Exchange
  • Inmobi
  • Magnite for sellers
  • Media.net
  • Mediavine
  • Mgid
  • 360 Polaris
  • Pubmatic
  • Publift
  • Pubwise
  • Pulse Point
  • Rubicon
  • RhythmOne
  • Sovrn
  • Springserve
  • Taboola
  • Tapjoy
  • Teads
  • The Trade Desk
  • Unity Ads
  • Unruly
  • Xandr
  • Yahoo One (1)

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Expert tip: When choosing an SSP, we recommend choosing one that offers Header bidding technology so you can get paid higher per CPM.

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Benefits of a Header bidding SSP compared with a Waterfall bidding SSP

  • Increased yield and revenue: Publishers can use real bid prices to make better decisions around ad revenue optimisation
  • Reduced discrepancies: Daisy chaining often leads to inconsistencies between the publisher’s system and the advertiser’s system, leading to billing disagreements that require time and resources to resolve. By removing the need for daisy chaining, publishers no longer suffer discrepancies.
  • Decreased time to get an ad on the page, which increases inventory and performance

What’s Daisy Chaining bidding (Waterfall bidding)?

It’s a relatively simple concept: Different demand was being placed in different buckets, and some buckets were given priority over others. Some SSPs aim to pour the content of all individual buckets into one large bucket. Daisy-chaining can be inefficient because it does not give a publisher full transparency into the fair market value of the publisher’s inventory, this means publishers often lose revenue by unknowingly offering and then selling a specific ad impression to one advertiser when another partner is lower in the chain would have paid more.

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Understanding the volatility of CPM demand

  • CPMs rise at the end of months and quarters as agencies try to spend client budgets. They also rise at the beginning of each hour and day as DSPs reset their frequency caps.
  • Sophisticated advertisers (Procter & Gamble is an oft-mentioned example) back off from their spending during periods of artificially high demand.
  • CPMs climb well before Thanksgiving. Starting Nov. 12, Amnet (a DSP platform) sees a 10% to 25% increase in average CPMs, and a 50% spike above average on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. “The irony is the largest budgets are at the time when it’s most expensive to buy. Because more consumers are in a shopping mindset the last couple of months of the year, campaigns still perform better” said Amnet platforms head Chris Romano.
  • On Xandr’ exchange, people are three times more likely to convert during the fourth quarter, with the average conversion rate going from .1% in Q1 to .3% in Q4. making CPM’s prices higher.
  • CPMs drop on Christmas and remain low through January. But people still buy after Christmas.. Xandr showed conversion rates ranging from .07% to .09% from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2, when CPMs are at their lowest.
  • Among other holidays, the Fourth of July and Memorial Day both also bring big traffic dips. According to Xandr, traffic in the US dipped 25% compared to non-US traffic on July 4. For these warm holidays, consumers aren’t just away from the Internet. They’re not shopping, either. There are holidays like July 4 or Memorial Day, where the performance is not there unless you have a promotion at that time. For something like a March Madness package, DSPs negotiate these packages well in advance and offer them to clients.
  • During holidays desirable to brands, advertisers will pay more to get near the hot content. MediaMath (A former ad-tech company) observed that private marketplace deals rise 20% to 30% around special deal packages for holidays like the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day.
  • Competition becomes fierce to reach the right consumers on Black Friday or Cyber Monday because of the brief sales cycle. That’s when top brands are willing to pay top CPMs to secure those users.
  • Daily rhythms factor into how advertisers reach consumers. Traffic dips when people sleep and rise as they wake. Many advertisers like to reach users as they’re logging on first thing in the morning when traffic volume is rising. The assumption is that advertisers are trying to grab users’ attention first thing, to get that first impression of the day,” CPMs peak at 60% to 80% above the early morning hours (2 a.m to 5 p.m.). That spending tapers off until the evening, when there’s a second peak of people going on the Internet from home, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
  • Weekends see lower traffic, and a higher percentage of mobile traffic, than weekdays. Some advertisers avoid the weekends because they don’t see as many conversions. Weekends are never great performers for hotels because people are in the hotels on the weekend.

Next > Not sure what SSP to implement or need a freelance trafficker to manage and optimise your ad server or SSP? Contact us today!

Conclusion

SSPs enable publishers to monetise their digital inventory by connecting them with a large pool of potential advertisers. They provide tools and functionalities that help publishers manage and optimise their inventory, set pricing rules, and maximize revenue from their ad space.

eDigital can help you conceptualise, plan, develop, run and optimise successful digital marketing campaigns that generate leads and sales for your brand.

Our digital marketing services include:

  • Strategic planning for social media and other digital marketing channels.
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THE BEST 10 SSP PLATFORMS IN 2024

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