New software technology exceeds publisher expectations for control, efficiency, and revenue
The programmatic advertising space is full of inefficiencies, with adtech vendors cutting into publisher revenue. Sovrn’s Ad Management software fixes this by using advanced tech and real-time data to boost revenue while simplifying operations.
This overview highlights how the Sovrn Ad Management software delivers superior performance, operational ease, and a unique commercial model. Now, with a self-serve platform, publishers can control their ad settings and demand relationships without giving up revenue share, gaining access to tools like unified reporting and dynamic flooring.
The rev-share problem
Today’s programmatic marketplace is unnecessarily complex, creating an online experience cluttered with ads that decrease the value of marketers’ ad spending while diverting revenue from publishers’ pockets. In fact, a recent study found that less than 65 percent of advertising dollars ever reach the publisher.
In late 2023, we transitioned many of our legacy managed service customers, who were operating on competitive rev shares of between 85-90 percent), to our SaaS-based (volumetric CPM) pricing. The results of this pricing model transition showed an average 48 percent reduction in publisher fees.
Auction technology
Sovrn’s Ad Management software supports page-level auctions (i.e., bid pooling), which aggregate bids across multiple ad slots on a page. This approach contrasts with the traditional slot-level prebid setup, where each ad slot is auctioned independently.
Results:
- Page-level auctions delivered 8-10% higher session RPMs compared to slot-level auctions.
- The efficiency of aggregating bids provides more competition and, ultimately, higher earnings for publishers.
- Benefits also included a reduction in latency when compared to standard prebid. Utilizing Sovrn’s software resulted in a 20% lower total blocking time “TBT score” as part of Chrome’s Lighthouse Scoring methodology.
Manual traffic shaping
Manual traffic shaping allows publishers to create different versions of wrapper settings targeted at specific user agent fields such as browser, device, and geographic location. By tailoring floor prices, bid throttling, and other settings to these parameters, publishers can optimize their ad revenue.
Results:
- Implementing manual traffic shaping resulted in a 4-6% lift in yield.
- Targeting different floors based on device and geographic information proved particularly effective in maximizing ad revenue.
Sovrn is set to enhance this feature with AI-powered automation, promising further improvements in targeting efficiency and revenue.
Dynamic price floors
Sovrn’s dynamic pricing tool, integrated within the Ad Management platform, enables real-time adjustments to floor prices based on market conditions and demand signals. This dynamic flooring approach ensures that ad inventory is sold at the optimal price, reflecting current market value.
Results:
- Dynamic flooring yielded a 5-15% increase in yield.
- The ability to adapt floor prices dynamically ensures publishers capture the highest possible revenue for their inventory.
Identity
With Google canceling its plans to deprecate third-party cookies, the focus remains on scaling privacy-safe solutions for all environments (including Chrome users opting out of third-party tracking) through universal identifiers and other privacy-safe solutions.
With Ad Management, publishers benefit from a unified approach to identity deployment. A centralized UI to automatically deploy all industry-leading universal identifiers (UIDs) and analytics to measure the direct impact of identifiers on their inventory.
Results:
When a UID is present in the bidstream vs. no identifier (on cookieless environments):
- Probabilistic UIDs: +10.34% average lift in eCPM
- Deterministic UIDs (when including HEM identifier): +41.5% average uplift in eCPM
Overall, deploying multiple UIDs is an essential tool in augmenting the signal across all browsers and optimizing a modern programmatic ad stack.
Zero take rate
Sovrn’s direct-to-demand feature connects publishers directly with demand-side platforms (DSPs) without intermediary fees, offering a zero take rate. This feature not only increases revenue for publishers but also reduces their net effective take rate for all SSPs.
Results:
- Our direct-to-demand case study demonstrated a 67% increase in win rates for the Sovrn exchange and a 16% increase in media share for all bids transacted through the Sovrn SSP supply path.
- Sovrn ranked #2 (vs. #5 before take-rate removal) in revenue SOV in an ad stack of over 50 demand partners and was the top-performing independent SSP.
- Sovrn has already delivered over $500K in cost savings for Ad Management publishers by eliminating the SSP take rate.
The software opportunity for adtech
Sovrn’s Ad Management software stands out as the most efficient platform in the market, delivering substantial revenue increases, lower latency, and operational efficiencies for publishers. The combination of page-level auction support, manual traffic shaping, dynamic flooring, and Sovrn’s direct-to-demand feature showcases Sovrn’s commitment to innovation and publisher success.
By leveraging these advanced features, publishers can optimize their ad revenue and streamline workflows, ensuring sustained growth in a competitive digital advertising landscape. Sovrn’s ongoing enhancements, including the upcoming AI-powered automation for traffic shaping, promise to further elevate the performance and usability of the Ad Management software made available with SaaS pricing to ensure publishers lower their ad tech and service costs.
