{"id":27692,"date":"2021-04-08T12:39:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T10:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/?p=27692"},"modified":"2024-07-22T19:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T17:27:12","slug":"top-supply-side-platforms-ssps-for-digital-publishers-2021-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/top-supply-side-platforms-ssps-for-digital-publishers-2021-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) for Digital Publishers [2021 UPDATE]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">There are several<\/span> Supply-Side Platforms on the market that publishers can choose from. Each works slightly differently, uses different optimization methods,<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> and has access to different advertisers.<\/span> <span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Which are the top SSPs in 2021, depending on Geo\/Region and Inventory type?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Supply Side Platforms (or SSPs for short) are used by digital publishers to sell ad inventory programmatically. These platforms are also referred to as ad exchanges (although SSPs and ad exchanges were developed separately in the Programmatic ecosystem, nowadays, from the publishers&#8217; perspective, they are almost the same entities,<\/span> and the names \u2018SSPs\u2019 and \u2018ad exchanges\u2019 are frequently used interchangeably). Examples of SSPs include Xandr (formerly Appnexus), Index Exchange, Pubmatic, Magnite (formerly Rubicon Project), GumGum,<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> and many others.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">SSPs are connected to different DSPs (Demand Side Platforms that give digital advertisers access to the publisher&#8217;s ad space and enable programmatic buying) and transact on behalf of publishers. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\"><strong>What are the main differences between SSPs?\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:26px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Some of the main differences between SSPs include:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>The UX<\/strong>: some platforms offer very comfortable UX so that publishers are able to spend a minimum time using their platform;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Reporting options<\/strong>: <\/span>some SSP platforms offer advanced reporting options, providing publishers with more insights about the value of their inventory for particular Advertisers (good examples here are AppNexus\/Xandr &amp; Pubmatic), while other platforms offer more basic reporting, with data only on the impressions and revenue. Another key aspect is the <span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">discrepancy in the standardization of reported metrics. For example, some SSPs report ad request data under different nomenclature, so it may pose a challenge for publishers to combine data from different SSPs;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Possibility of setting up private deals<\/strong> &#8211; enabled by platforms such as Adform, Sovrn, AppNexus\/Xandr, OpenX, and others;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Ability to serve particular formats<\/strong> such as outstream (e.g.,<\/span> AppNexus\/Xandr, Magnite\/Rubicon, OpenX, Teads) or native ads (e.g.,<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> AppNexus\/Xandr, Teads);<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Integration\/plugging options<\/strong>: <\/span>some SSPs that don\u2019t require header bidding &#8211; they can be set in,<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> e.g., waterfall, and some that do require header bidding or Open Bidding;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Finally, the costs<\/strong>: some SSPs charge a single flat rate fee, while others charge higher fees for the open auction and lower fees for PMP, PD, and PG deals, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:35px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\"><strong>Most used SSP platforms<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">According to the latest Advertiser Perceptions SSP Report, the top ad exchange partner for 51% of polled publishers was Google Ad Manager. However<\/span>, since GAM is also an ad server, this article will focus on non-Google demand platforms. In second place is <span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Amazon Publisher Services, with 10% of publishers listing it as their top partner.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Amazon was also the second <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1201364\/supply-side-platforms-worldwide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">most popular SSP according to Statista\u2019s 2020<\/a> survey, carried out among digital ad sales and operations professionals. As of May 2020, 46% of the polled publishers worldwide stated that they used Amazon demand. The top 5 platforms also included OpenX (35%), Verizon Media (26%), Rubicon (26%), and Index Exchange (25%)<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/statista-top-ssps-share-1024x823.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27695\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->\n<link href=\"\/\/cdn-images.mailchimp.com\/embedcode\/horizontal-slim-10_7.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\">\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;}\n\t\/* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.\n\t   We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. *\/\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup\">\n<form action=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.us7.list-manage.com\/subscribe\/post?u=0a65a0626fcc516279eb5d544&amp;id=53c5dbaf01\" method=\"post\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate\" target=\"_blank\" novalidate=\"\">\n    <div id=\"mc_embed_signup_scroll\">\n\t<label for=\"mce-EMAIL\">Would you like to get the latest AdTech &amp; Digital Marketing news &amp; insights delivered right to your inbox every Friday? Subscribe to The Yieldbird Digest!<\/label>\n\t<input type=\"email\" value=\"\" name=\"EMAIL\" class=\"email\" id=\"mce-EMAIL\" placeholder=\"email address\" required=\"\">\n    <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->\n    <div style=\"position: absolute; left: -5000px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"b_0a65a0626fcc516279eb5d544_53c5dbaf01\" tabindex=\"-1\" value=\"\"><\/div>\n    <div class=\"clear\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Subscribe\" name=\"subscribe\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"button\"><\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--End mc_embed_signup-->\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\"><strong>How to choose the best SSP\u00a0for your inventory and business model?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:26px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Publishers typically use multiple ad exchange platforms (Supply<\/span>&#8211;<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Side Platforms). According to the latest reports, there are six SSPs on average. However,<\/span> this number is said to continue to increase thanks to Header Bidding (especially with the increased popularity of server-side solutions that support using several SSPs with no impact on page latency). The idea behind using a substantial number of platforms is to achieve greater demand, which, however, can vary<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> depending on the exchange.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Before choosing the right Supply-Side Platforms, it&#8217;s a good idea to compare a number of them, as SSPs tend to perform differently based on the geolocation of the user or the type of inventory.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:35px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\"><strong>The top SSPs 2021 per Geo\/Region<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/yieldbird-top-ssps-2021-publishers-1024x259.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27696\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">SSPs with a global demand perform well regardless of the user&#8217;s GEO<\/span> (that is the case with Google AdManager or Amazon). This applies especially to Tier 1 traffic with high eCPMs. Below we have compiled a general guide to top-performing SSPs per <span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">region.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Western Europe<\/strong>: Xandr\/AppNexus, Next Millennium<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DACH region<\/strong>: Adform, Improve Digital<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>France<\/strong>:&nbsp;Criteo, SmartAdserver<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The UK<\/strong>:\u00a0Teads, Magnite\/Rubicon Project, OpenX, Xandr, Criteo, TripleLift, Alternatively, Just Premium is a smaller player that might be worth looking into, thanks to their interesting ad formats and demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Central Europe<\/strong>: YOC (Germany &amp; Poland), eTarget (Slovakia), ConnectAd (Baltic countries)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The U.S.<\/strong>: Xandr\/AppNexus, Oath (Verizon Media), Magnite\/Rubicon Project, Pubmatic, Sovrn, 33across, 152Media, TripleLift<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>LATAM<\/strong>: RTB House,\u00a0OFT Media, Xandr\/AppNexus, Magnite\/Rubicon Project, DistrictM, Pubmatic, TripleLift, Sovrn,\u00a0Smart Adserver<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:36px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\"><strong>Top SSPs 2021 for your inventory type\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">For <strong>In-app (plugged via Open Bidding),<\/strong><\/span> the Supply-Side Platforms showing good performance levels, especially in the French, German, Polish, and Czech markets, are: Smaato, TripleLift, and <span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">OpenX.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Video SSP top pics are<\/strong>:<\/span> <span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">ViddyAd, Teads, Unruly, FreeWheel, SpotX, Telaria, Xandr\/AppNexus, Oath (Verizon Media), OpenX.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>Desktop\/mobile SSP<\/strong> \u2018must haves\u2019 include the platforms with global demand, such as: Xandr\/Appnexus,&nbsp;Magnite\/Rubicon Project, Pubmatic + regional ones.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:35px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 20px\"><strong>Eligibility requirements for Publishers to use Supply-Side Platforms<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:26px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Usually,<\/span> the SSPs require a certain volume of traffic to accept a publisher. Publishers must also meet SSP policy requirements (mostly related to content quality). Accessing platforms with strict whitelisting criteria and only accepting Publishers generating a certain number of ad requests may be time-consuming<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">. To avoid going through a complicated application process, publishers may team up with Publishing Partners such as Yieldbird (we can support you by providing extra demand from multiple ad exchanges either with a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/quickwrap\/\"><strong><span style=\"color:#ff2450\" class=\"has-inline-color\">standalone QuickWrap tool to manage Header Bidding<\/span><\/strong><\/a><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> or as a part of full stack Yield Management).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">This way,<\/span> you can test additional Supply-Side Platforms much quicker and increase demand in your Header Bidding without signing separate contracts with every bidder. If you\u2019re looking for recommendations on<span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> which of the top SSPs 2021 are worth testing, we will be happy to contact you for a chat!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:36px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/#contact-section\" style=\"border-radius:10px;background-color:#ff2450\"><strong>Contact our experts<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are several Supply-Side Platforms on the market that publishers can choose from. Each works slightly differently, uses different optimization methods, and has access to different advertisers. Which are the top SSPs in 2021, depending on Geo\/Region and Inventory type? Supply Side Platforms (or SSPs for short) are used by digital publishers to sell ad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-27692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33362,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27692\/revisions\/33362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27692"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yieldbird.com\/research-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=27692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}