The need for more efficient supply paths in the adtech industry is widely discussed, but how do you achieve that?
Digilant, the digital media partner of choice for mid-market advertisers, set out to do just that when they reviewed over 260 tech partners to determine the best supply path for their clients.
Based on Digilant’s analysis, FreeWheel was named their primary video ad partner, so we sat down with Kyle Malone, VP of Solutions at Digilant, to hear more about the process and what made FreeWheel stand out in their review.
Why did you decide to take on this huge review of your tech stack?
Malone: At first, the review started by simply wanting to better understand the supply side platforms (SSPs) we were tapping into for our client’s campaigns to analyze performance, price efficiency, and inventory quality.
Once we realized how many SSPs we were using to reach similar inventory, it snowballed into a massive review of “why” certain demand side platforms (DSPs) prioritize certain supply paths. On top of that, we wanted to identify the most direct paths to inventory that still offered scale and advanced targeting for regionalized campaigns.
From our findings, we evaluated the most direct path to publishers while maintaining maximum differentiation through their supply path and capabilities. This way, no matter what buy-side platform we utilized, we knew that we were prioritizing the best performance, best price, and sustainability via these select SSPs.
Supply Path Optimization (SPO) gets thrown around a lot, but what does it mean to Digilant?
Malone: To us, SPO is so much more than brokering the initial agreements for better paths to inventory. With many other stops to get there, we wanted to dive into all aspects of how we can work with our supply partners to better understand:
- All the bidding signals available to make the most effective media investment
- How to develop more transparent supply paths
- How to be more strategic with how we apply audience data
We pride ourselves in saying that by consistently evaluating our SSP partnerships, we can ensure that we are offering our clients the best path to reach their goals.
What were your criteria for potential partners?
Malone: We vetted 268 SSPs across the five key categories of:
- Transparency, both into viewer partners’ endpoints and content
- Unique reach – the ability to reach incremental audiences
- Ability to layer on data and scale unique audiences
- Unique capabilities, such as differentiated inventory, advanced creative solutions, etc.
- Price efficiencies: Which partners gave us access to the highest quality direct inventory at the most effective price?
We also considered performance variations among the supply sources when looking at the same publishers through different delivery paths. You could look at the same networks and publishers performing differently on the same inventory within a campaign (viewability, clickthrough rate, cost per acquisition, etc.). The cost of accessing the same networks/publishers across supply sources also became a key factor.
Finally, we had to consider each DSP’s preferred supply path and consider whether we were tapping into the best path for supply for our campaigns or whether we were simply defaulting to the supply partner that financially benefits the DSP most.
What were the biggest surprises you found when reviewing potential partners?
Malone: Two of the biggest surprises were the sheer number of SSPs that have entered the ecosystem over the years, and the amount of overlap for the same inventory across different SSPs. When you realize that you are effectively bidding against yourself for the same inventory, you have to wonder – how much of the cost is being artificially inflated?
Why did you select these four partners (including FreeWheel)?
Malone: Digilant primarily works on regional campaigns that need to be geo-targeted while maintaining reach and client KPIs. FreeWheel has clearly been the best partner to do this, which is why we selected you as our primary video ad partner.
Being the ad server for a large portion of connected TV/over-the-top inventory for publishers, Freewheel also has the most direct path to inventory, and offers us transparency into where our media is placed.
The other companies we chose all have specific benefits and areas of operational value. We wanted to choose partners with differentiated values to ensure minimal overlap of capabilities.
What advice do you have for companies who want to build a better supply path?
- Start by being curious and asking questions. This simple mindset will help to guide you as you try to understand what the most strategic routes are, specific to your business, to reach audiences.
- Know the goals you’re looking to achieve. Without a clear focus on what you hope to achieve, you won’t know who the best partners may be for your business.
- Continuously test and learn. Our industry is always evolving, and it is necessary to test new partners to understand if any strategic differentiators with new partners could enhance your current stack.
