Marfeel Docs

# Header Bidding

Header Bidding maximizes the competition among ad exchanges when selling ad inventory to increase revenue performance. It is a technique that runs code for SSPs and ad exchanges in a publisher's source code so they can auction their inventory in multiple ad servers. The returned bids are then passed to the primary ad server. This enables the inventory to compete with direct demand and the primary exchange to leverage competition and get the full value of a publisher's inventory.

For OAP tenants, header Bidding setup is done in the inventory.json.

# Vocabulary

  • SSP: a supply-side platform (SSP) or sell-side platform is a technology platform that enables web publishers to manage their advertising inventory, fill it with ads, and receive revenue. A supply-side platform interfaces on the publisher side to advertising networks and ad exchanges, which in turn interface to demand-side platforms (DSP) on the advertiser side.
  • Ad exchange: An ad exchange is a technology platform that facilitates the buying and selling of media advertising inventory from multiple ad networks. At Marfeel, we use Adx, which is part of DFP.
  • Primary ad server: the ad exchange platform used in combination with header bidding.

DFP name

Doubleclick for Publisher (DFP) is the historical name of the Google ad platform. It is referenced throughout Marfeel, but is now called Google Ad Manager.

# Prebid

Prebid is an open source library (opens new window) and community that helps publishers implement Header Bidding.

The Prebid library is composed of two pieces:

  • the Core wrapper code, where Prebid foundations are located
  • the Adapters a publisher wants to work with. There are two type of Adapters:
    • Demand Adapters represent the SSPs & Exchanges the clients work with. In the case of Prebid, this ad server is for example DFP, Smart or AppNexus.
    • Analytics Adapters are where the line items are configured based on targeting, location, etc..

The process for each ad placements looks like this:

sequenceDiagram
    participant Ad Placement
    participant DFP
    participant Prebid
    participant Bidder 1
    participant Bidder 2

    activate Prebid
    Prebid->>Bidder 1: Request bid
    Prebid->>Bidder 2: Request bid
    Bidder 1 -->> Prebid: Offers price & give html for ad
    Note left of Prebid: Timeout reached
    deactivate Prebid

    Prebid ->> DFP: Sends best bid
    DFP ->> DFP: Computes winner
    alt DFP wins
        DFP->>Ad Placement: Sends creative
    else DFP loses
        DFP->>Prebid: Please use your creative
        Prebid->>Ad Placement: Sends creative
    end

# MBid

MarfeelBid or MBid is Marfeel's server-to-server Header Bidding solution. More specifically, it's a server-to-server sub-system where Header Bidding auctions take place on the server-side.

Using MBid, a unique ad call is made to a third-party server, rather than multiple ad calls from a client’s browser as is the case in client-side Header Bidding. This server, unconstrained by a limited number of ports or processing power, then makes multiple, simultaneous real-time calls to the publisher’s various demand partners.

MBid allows publishers to work with many header bidding demand sources without affecting the page load speed.

MBid works in conjunction with client-side header bidding in a dynamic and optimized hybrid solution.

By offering a dynamic solution that uses MBid and client-side Header Bidding, Marfeel is able to deliver highspeed page loading, increased competition in bidding, and data-fed, curated ads. As more SSPs adopt server-side header bidding and match rates are improved, Marfeel is able to optimize advertising revenue by automatically leveraging the advantages of both types of header bidding.

# Google AMP monetization

In 2018, Google AMP has deprecated support for remote.html which was the hook used for client-side Header Bidding. Server-side Header Bidding is now the only Header Bidding option to monetize AMP pages.

To give publishing partners maximum revenue on this channel, Marfeel implemented RTC (Real-time Configuration) where AMP makes a pre-flight request for each Ad Placement - the response for this request dynamically sets Key-values on the AdServer request.

# Higher speed

Client-side Header Bidding solutions require dedicated connections which can introduce network latencies. As it operates on the server-side, MBid removes this delay to maximize speed and performance.

# Increased competition

Server-side Header Bidding with MBid allows more bidders to be introduced without compromising speed and performance. The added competition of more bidders increases the value of a Tenants's ad inventory and the diversity of the yield.

# Creative quality control

With MBid, Marfeel has integrated a layer of quality control at the server level to pre-emptively identify and remove malware and bad creatives.

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