The world of adtech is ever-growing and complex, with new terminology springing up often. There are many steps and parties in the ad buying and selling process, and a header bidding wrapper is one of them. These tech solutions are key to making ad auctioning quick and seamless. But how do they do that exactly?
In today’s blog post, we tackle header bidding wrappers, the technology behind them, and how to choose the right one for your business.
- What Is a Header Bidding Wrapper?
- How Does a Header Bidding Wrapper Work?
- Why Publishers Should Use Header Bidding Wrappers
- The Challenges That Come With Implementing Header Bidding Wrappers
- Different Types of Header Bidding Wrappers (And Why They Matter)
- How to Find the Best Wrapper for Your Business
- Maximize Ad Revenue With Brid.TV’s Managed Prebid Solution
What Is a Header Bidding Wrapper?
A header bidding wrapper, also known as a container or framework, is a piece of JavaScript code. Publishers add this code to their webpage or player to be able to run and manage header bidding auctions.
In programmatic advertising, the wrapper is used to merge all demand sources into a bundle (i.e., to wrap them together) during real-time bidding. If you want to put ads on your website, this will make the ad-serving process much quicker and the experience much smoother for the end user.
Wrappers aren’t entirely necessary for auctions, but they make the process much easier. Without one, publishers have to insert separate pieces of code for each individual demand partner. Wrappers, however, consolidate all demand sources into a single .js tag.
How Does a Header Bidding Wrapper Work?
The header bidding wrapper acts as an intermediary in the auctioning of ad inventory. The process looks something like this:
- A user visits the publisher’s website or plays a video.
- This prompts the wrapper to put an ad impression up for auction.
- The wrapper contacts SSPs asynchronously and requests bids. This contact can be direct, as is the case with client-side bidding, or through a third-party bidding vendor, as is the case with server-side bidding.
- SSPs have access to ad creatives from DSPs. Using these creatives, they return bids to the vendor or wrapper. There is usually a predetermined amount of time that the wrapper will wait for all the bids to return before it stops accepting them.
- All the bids are then evaluated, and the one with the highest CPM is forwarded to the publisher’s website or player, which then serves the winning ad.
As you can see, the wrapper’s main role is to consolidate all demand sources for easier and quicker bidding. However, wrappers can come with additional features, such as header bidding analytics and support.
Why Publishers Should Use Header Bidding Wrappers
According to Statista, over 70% of U.S. websites use header bidding for their ad-based monetization strategy. As vital and widespread as it is, header bidding can still be somewhat complicated to implement. This is where wrappers come in. Here are some of the biggest benefits of using a header bidding wrapper for your ad auctions:
- Easy Auction Management — Wrappers make it much easier to integrate new demand partners easily. They also allow publishers to remove demand sources that don’t bring the desired results and rarely win auctions without any coding.
- Asynchronous Bid Requests — Wrappers are capable of reaching out to all demand partners at the same time. This means that all demand sources have an equal opportunity to return a bid within the predetermined timeframe. It also results in quicker loading times for the end user.
- Timeout Settings — Speaking of predetermined timeframes, wrappers can be set to stop receiving bits after a certain amount of time has passed. The universal timeout for all demand sources provides equal opportunity to all bidders and weeds out the demand sources that are too slow. All of this results in lower latency and an optimal user experience.
- Integrated Analytics Tools — A good header bidding wrapper provides publishers with real-time data on their auctions. Publishers can use this data to optimize their header bidding preference and, consequently, generate a higher ad yield.
Track auction performance in real time across your entire header bidding stack.
Explore Analytics SuiteThe Challenges That Come With Implementing Header Bidding Wrappers
Although wrappers make the process of header bidding easier, implementing them can be somewhat of a challenge. This is especially true in the case of open-source wrappers. With these, publishers need to learn how to set them up themselves. This usually requires a bit of coding knowledge. If not set up correctly, wrappers can cause issues in the auctioning process, affect page loading times, and cost publishers ad revenue.
However, for publishers with multiple demand partners and a lot of ad real estate, learning how to implement a header bidding wrapper is a worthwhile investment.
Different Types of Header Bidding Wrappers (And Why They Matter)
If you’re looking for a header bidding wrapper, you will first have to choose one of the three available types — open-source, proprietary, and managed. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
Open-Source Wrappers
Open-source wrappers are free solutions with extensive customizability. Publishers can modify the code to their liking and implement the wrapper themselves. However, these wrappers require developer resources and adtech know-how to set up properly.
The most popular open-source wrapper on the market right now is Prebid.js. It has a huge community of users and developers. It supports native, video, and display ads and can integrate with OTT apps, too. While implementing Prebid poses a learning curve for most, it might be worth the effort.
Proprietary Wrappers
Proprietary header bidding wrappers are solutions developed by adtech companies using their own code. Unlike open-source options, they don’t necessitate a whole developer team to implement. However, they usually offer less transparency and may favor certain demand sources.
Managed Wrappers
Managed bidding wrappers bring together the best of both worlds. They are easy to implement and don’t require advanced coding knowledge. On the other hand, they offer more transparency than their proprietary counterparts.
These wrappers are usually managed by a third-party vendor. More precisely, a vendor can use an existing solution, even an open-source one such as Prebid, and implement it on behalf of their clients (publishers) for a fee.
Brid.TV’s video header bidding solution includes a managed Prebid wrapper. In other words, with our online video platform, you get access to one of the major players on the market without having to hire a whole development team to integrate it into your website.
How to Find the Best Wrapper for Your Business
Choosing the right wrapper for your business will require some careful consideration and thinking. Some things to keep in mind are the complexity of the set-up process and the coding knowledge required, along with the abilities of your team.
However, the easiest solution, regardless of the specifics of your business, is to find a managed wrapper where everything can be set up through a single CMS. Such solutions have a highly automated set-up process, so publishers don’t have to learn how to code or hire large teams.
Maximize Ad Revenue With Brid.TV’s Managed Prebid Solution
Are you ready to take your video monetization game to the next level with a low-latency, transparent, and easy-to-use header bidding wrapper? Then get started today with Brid.TV’s managed Prebid.js solution.
Easy-to-Set-Up Video Header Bidding
· Prebid.js
· SpotX
· Google ADX
· Amazon Publisher Services
