Header bidding, the technology which now allows publishers to entertain bids for ads from multiple demand sources simultaneously to gain higher prices, has been operating for just about two short years.
But in that time it has gained much favor amongst display ad sellers.
Now it is ready to shake up one of the fastest-growing advertising segments, according to an ad-tech exec at the center of the explosion.
“There’s still tons of changes happening in the ecosystem,” saysOath publishing platforms SVP Matt Gillis in this video interview with Beet.TV. “I think we’re really just in probably about the third inning of this baseball game here for header bidding.
“I think we’ve seen header bidding have a massive impact for publishers on the display side. I think it’s revolutionized the access and the democracy of access to their supply. I don’t think we’ve quite seen that actually infiltrate the mobile ecosystem yet.
“We’re really going to see in 2018 I think quite a bit of disruption to the ecosystem on the mobile side. Ultimately, publishers who have lived header bidding on the display side know what it can do for their business. I think you’re gonna see app developers get quite excited about that.”
Gillis joined Oath through AOL’s acquisition of mobile ad platform Millennial Media.
This September, Rubicon Project, PubMatic and AppNexus launched Prebid.org, an open-source version of the client-side Javascript “wrappers” on which header bidding depends.
Oath uses PreBid and other wrappers to enable header bidding.
“For us it’s about making sure that publishers have choice, they have transparency, and they have openness,” Gillis adds. “Really, we’re unbiased when it comes down to whatever solution a publisher wants to choose.”
