The word ‘Prebid’ is something that is used very often in our industry. However, it is a term that have many meanings as well, Prebid Demand, Prebid Supply and even Prebid IVT tool. Let’s look at each of these so we can better understand what prebid is, and how it can positively impact your exchange.
Describing what Prebid is, is actually very simple – it is an action that occurs prior to the bidding within the oRTB ecosystem.
In the case of a Prebid IVT tool, this is scanning and filtering of supply prior to that supply being passed onto your demand partner. As such this can significantly reduce the amount of IVT you send to your demand partner. However, unlike post-bid IVT systems, which scans IVT after an impression has been delivered, the cost of prebid IVT solutions can be significantly more, unless you are only scanning a small proportion of your supply. Which may not have the intended effect.
You can of course implement most prebid solutions in the Limelight system. However, we do offer all of our clients, free of charge, a prebid IVT solution for IP addresses and Device IDs.
Moving onto Prebid supply, this happens in the form of header bidding, which can be found as a Publisher Type in the Limelight UI. Header Bidding is a system for direct Desktop/Mweb inventory whereby the publisher hosts an auction on their own site. This has therefore allowed direct supply to not only use the Google Adsense which dominates the direct supply industry but also allows adexchanges to make a potentially higher offer. Allowing publishers to get the best possible price and allowing you access to direct supply which may not have previously been made available to you.
The third type of Prebid can be found on the demand side. This works in a very similar way to oRTB with a bid request being passed onto a prebid server via an Endpoint, which then hosts the auction. This is a style of integration that is being well received by many of our clients working with tier 1 demand partners such as Xander, Pubmatic, or Rubicon with some very positive results due to the efficiency created through this prebid system.
If you have any further questions about the different types of prebid and how to set them up in the Limelight UI please feel free to contact a member of the Limelight Client Success Team.
