According to 2021 research by Kevel, 70% of U.S. publishers use header bidding to increase video ad revenue. However, just implementing header bidding in your monetization strategy isn’t enough to improve your bottom line. Publishers will also need to optimize their campaigns regularly, and they’ll need accurate and reliable data to do so. That’s why having access to header bidding analytics is essential to maximizing ad yield.
But what does this tool do, how can publishers use it effectively, and how do they choose the right analytics suite for their needs? We’ll answer all of these questions and more in this guide.
What Are Header Bidding Analytics?
Header bidding analytics is a tool that enables publishers to track, analyze, and evaluate bidder performance on header bidding auctions. Although each ad partner offers publishers plenty of third-party information related to their individual performance, it doesn’t allow them to compare this data to that of other partners easily.
Header bidding analytics software helps overcome that hurdle — it aggregates performance data for all SSPs and DSPs and displays it in a single dashboard. That way, publishers can monitor the performance of their entire header bidding stack in a single place.
Why Publishers Need Header Bidding Analytics
If we had to single out the primary reasons publishers need a header bidding analytics suite, it would be the following three:
1. It Allows Them to Make Data-Driven Decisions
Having access to extensive data like bidder insights, latency, and eCPM allows publishers to make more educated decisions about their campaigns. Knowing which videos users engage with the most can help publishers understand what their audience wants to watch and plan future campaigns.
2. It Aggregates the Performance of All Demand Partners in a Single Place
As we mentioned previously, header bidding analytics tools allow publishers to get a side-by-side look at the performance of SSPs. This convenience is essential for publishers with dozens of demand partners. It can save them hours and hours of dull, manual labor of sorting out different data from each partner individually.
3. It Allows Publishers to Identify Underperformers and Makes Pivoting Easier
Having access to all the necessary data in a single dashboard makes it easy to identify underperforming partners. Whether it’s due to high bidder latency or low auction participation, publishers can use this data to single out inefficient bidders and pivot.
Track ad performance and identify VAST errors across all devices and operating systems.
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Third-Party vs. In-House Header Bidding Analytics
OK — it’s clear that publishers need header bidding analytics to make optimizing campaigns easier. But how do you choose the right analytics provider?
The first thing you’ll need to decide is whether to pick a third-party provider to integrate with your video CMS or a provider with in-house header bidding analytics.
The primary difference between the two is the pricing. Third-party analytics software can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars monthly. On the other hand, migrating to an online video platform with in-house header bidding analytics often means you’ll get the software for no additional fee.
Your choice will ultimately depend on how satisfied you are with your current platform’s ad tech stack (and budget, of course). If you ask us, picking a platform that can cover all your needs with in-house technology is a much better option.
The Metrics You Want to Track With Header Bidding Analytics
The next step in choosing the right header bidding analytics tool for your business is checking if allows you to track all the metrics you need. Different analytics suites come with different data segmentation options, so not all may offer the same options. Here are just some of the metrics you’ll want to track with your analytics tool:
Bidder Latency
Bidder latency denotes the time a particular bidder takes to respond to a bid request by the ad server. Having too many slow bidders in an auction will increase the time necessary for the header bidding wrapper to do its magic, slowing down your pages’ load times. Tracking this metric allows publishers to identify the slowest partners and better optimize for user experience.
Bidding Frequency
Bidding frequency gives publishers insight into how often particular bidders enter auctions. These rates depend on many factors, like your bidding strategy, target audience, and available demand. Still, knowing the bidding frequency of each ad partner is a surefire way to identify top-performing bidders. That allows you to optimize any future campaigns for maximum profit.
eCPM
Knowing each partner’s eCPM is essential in making optimal decisions when adjusting your campaigns. This metric tells publishers how much revenue they’ll generate for 1000 served ad impressions. Remember, though, that having a high eCPM doesn’t necessarily make an ad partner profitable (they may still have lots of unsold inventory). Nevertheless, eCPM is an essential metric to know when looking to make changes to your ad stack.
SSP Win Rates
SSP win rates indicate the rate at which each ad partner wins an auction in proportion to the number of successful bid requests. This metric is one of the most valuable ones for identifying top-performing partners, though you should never take it for granted. For instance, some partners may have high win rates but low bid frequency. In those cases, they may look incredibly lucrative but, in reality, rake in little revenue.
Fill Rates
Fill rates represent the ratio of answered and sent ad requests. This metric helps publishers identify which SSPs sell the most demand. It also enables them to identify any configurational errors on their end and the overall demand received from each partner.
Best Header Bidding Analytics Tools for Publishers
Now that you know what you should look for in a header bidding analytics solution, here are a few reliable providers you could start with:
1. TargetVideo
TargetVideo is an enterprise video platform with a rich yield optimization suite that includes video, ad, and video header bidding analytics. The company’s analytics are fully integrated with the TargetVideo platform and come at no additional cost.
The best part about TargetVideo is that it offers publishers Google ADX, Prebid.js, and Amazon header bidding built into the player. So, they can get a video header bidding solution and an analytics toolset in a single platform.
Regardless of your video monetization needs, TargetVideo’s rich selection of instream and outstream video ads, contextual video advertising technology, and yield optimization toolset will ensure maximum revenue.
Key Features:
- Complete video platform for publishers
- Extensive in-house header bidding analytics
- Advanced advertising options (e.g. contextual video advertising, ad podding)
- Variety of instream and outstream video ad formats
- One of the most cost-effective analytics toolkits for publishers on the market
Track auction performance in real time across your entire header bidding stack.
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AssertiveYield is an analytics tool provider whose kit contains several tools publishers can use to optimize and maximize their ad revenue. One of the company’s most sought-after products is its yield analytics.
These analytics allow publishers to track their entire header bidding stack in a single dashboard, filter results across hundreds of metrics, and create custom audiences to make data tracking easier. What’s more, publishers looking to A/B test their creatives, optimize for user experience, or track individual content performance will have an easy time doing that with this tool.
These analytics have two major downsides, though. The first is that they are quite pricey. The company’s yield analytics suite can cost thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars monthly. The second downside is that Assertive Yield only offers analytics software, meaning you’ll also need to find a reliable video monetization platform to manage your ad stack.
Key Features:
- Supports video, native, and direct campaigns
- An extensive yield analytics suite for tracking header bidding performance
- Data filtering across hundreds of metrics
- Allows for easy A/B testing
- Custom audiences
- Analytics API
3. AdPushup
AdPushup is a revenue optimization platform that offers various advertising services. A real-time header bidding analytics suite is just one of them.
AdPushup’s header bidding analytics was built to increase auction transparency and help publishers make more educated decisions when optimizing their ad stack. This analytics suite lets publishers track various metrics like average bidder response time, bidder win rates, average CPMs, device breakdown, and more.
One of the biggest upsides to AdPushup is that its services also come with high-quality ad demand, allowing publishers to kill two birds with one stone. However, the platform still lacks the video ad serving infrastructure, making it unsuitable for anyone who doesn’t already have a video platform.
Key Features:
- Rich revenue optimization tool kit
- Data segmentation across dozens of valuable metrics
- Access to top-tier ad demand
- A/B testing support
- Dedicated support representative
So Are Header Bidding Analytics Worth It?
Yes. And they are more than worth it. Adopting a data-driven approach to header bidding will enable you to get better-optimized campaigns more consistently, resulting in more revenue.
The biggest challenge will be choosing the right analytics software. The major factors to consider when picking one will be the metrics you want to track, the software pricing, and whether or not you have a reliable infrastructure.
If you’re satisfied with your current video platform, you can opt for a third-party tool kit. Just keep in mind that will be quite expensive.
The most affordable (and convenient) option, though, would be to go with a solution like TargetVideo. Our platform gives publishers the entire video ad serving infrastructure, including an HTML5 player, a video platform, and an extensive analytics suite. Try our platform for free and see how much value you can get for yourselves.
