Supply Side Platforms (SSP)

What is a Supply Side Platform?

A supply side platform is a layer in ad tech where which acts on behalf of the publishers in order to sell publisher inventory and maximize yield. Publishers can utilize multiple SSPs in their monetization strategy. SSPs can monetize display, video and mobile ads across many device types. An SSP is essentially the advertiser/agency equivalent of the DSP.

What can an SSP do?

Monetize leftover data that a publisher’s sales team did not sell. This has generally been long tail inventory that is less premium, but premium inventory is being increasing monetized here with the advent of Private Marketplaces (PMPs).
Enables publishers to automate an (Real Time Buying) RTB based selling system which is not traditionally possible via the manual direct sales process.

Blurred Lines

With more and more companies wanting to take a larger piece of the pie, it’s becoming very common for companies these days to act as both an SSP and Ad Exchange. Some companies even act as a full stack solution. One key difference of the SSP as compared to the ad exchange is that the SSP can connect to many different ad exchanges but the ad exchange can connect to many different DSPs.

Benefits of an SSP

Manage a complex inventory through an automated system
Brings in more traffic than possible via the manual route
Eliminate the need for you to manually cater to marketers
Ability to do everything in real-time

DMPs and SSPs

Although DMPs are commonly used on the buy side for advertisers/agencies to make targeted purchases towards data driven audiences, DMPs can also play an important role with SSPs. It houses information on a publisher’s visitors such as their online behaviors. SSPs can then utilize this data from the DMPs to decide where is the most effective place to send the publisher inventory.

Criteria for Evaluating an SSP

Ad Quality Standards. No publisher wants harmful or malicious ads on their site. Does the SSP have a good way to filter out these types of creatives?
Auction Protocols. What kinds of auction methods does the SSP support? Does it have access to open marketplace, private marketplace, and header bidding?
Customer Service. Does the SSP provide support through email, phone, or even a dedicated account manager?
Integrations. How many and which exchanges is the SSP linked to?
Data Collection. Can the SSP collect and analyze real time data?
Ad Quality Metrics. What type of measurement does the SSP provide? Viewability, fraud, location?

Notable SSPs