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Chaos to Clarity

The buzz around supply path optimization in recent years has been real.

As open web programmatic is looking at utilising each ad dollar effectively, the supply chain has come under pressure, and for good measure. The curation till a couple of years back was skewed to the buy side, case in point Yahoo shutting down its SSP, early 2023 treating its buy side business as the favourite child. It did have to pivot later in the year, by embracing the sell side with the launch of Backstage. On the back of cookie deprecation, the industry is now leaning towards SSP curation. Data providers like Experian or Lotame would integrate with a DSP and give a custom audience list at the behest of the advertiser. However, this exercise started to become difficult as the third party data started to get phased out. This is when the first party data provided by the SSP sourced from the publisher has started to have a moment.

In this new environment, PMPs are also becoming increasingly popular, with the advertiser directly collaborating with partners on the sell side. The DMPs which were also available through the DSPs are now being built by the SSPs. The whole process is now faster, more effective and streamlined. SSPs are creating a Private Marketplace for the advertiser with the audience data set provided by its DMP and the measurement and reporting of data now happens in real time as opposed to the 30-90 days it took earlier when curation was happening on the buy side. The SSPs are having their moment in the sun as they realise that the cookie deprecation would bring first party data at the forefront and that can be capitalised through closer partner integrations with the publishers.

Adtech companies like TeCreo have identified this opportunity and are now building their capabilities on the sell side. Take for example TeCreo’s Meta SSP or their DMP, Datatec, technologies that will integrate the process on the sell side and optimise the supply path. But consolidation is also happening on the supply side, where both the advertisers and publishers want to cut down on the number of SSPs they are working with. There is a call for the SSPs to bring more value, way beyond providing just the vanity metrics. Especially the CTV space that is extremely fragmented, needs to rid itself of the intermediaries. Research has indicated that there can be up to 114 different supply paths to the same TV inventory, prices of which can vary by over 250%. Buyers and sellers are now collaborating to figure out ways to have fewer tech intermediaries to make programmatic buying more efficient. As this space becomes more streamlined, it will be a win-win for all the players. As the buyers will get more bang for their buck, the publishers would also be justified in charging a higher CPM.