Epom

Programmatic auction starts – OpenRTB goes brrrrr…

We’re all used to seeing programmatic as the quintessence of open marketplaces. Pubs set prices for their placements, advertisers compete with their bids, and the highest one wins.

But it’s not always like that. Today, we’ve decided to remind you of how the deals happen behind the closed doors🌚 So, there are three programmatic deal types besides traditional open auctions:

⭐ Programmatic guaranteed (guaranteed deals) – there is no auction; publishers and advertisers negotiate a fixed price one-on-one for a guaranteed number of impressions.

These are bought through an API, but publishers reserve traffic exclusively for certain advertisers.

⭐ Preferred deals – the auction is closed, only negotiated fixed pricing. These follow a similar principle of one-on-one deals with no auction. That’s why both fall into a programmatic direct category.

The difference? In the case of preferred deals, the inventory is not reserved specifically for the advertiser. Moreover, the advertiser isn’t required to buy inventory when there’s an ad request.

⭐ Private auctions or PMP – a programmatic auction for VIPs, invite only. Publishers set deal terms (price, timing, etc.), and advertisers validate they can comply with these requirements.

For those who have tons of stuff to do besides reading, we’ve simplified the differences into one simple picture.

If the ad placement had its Bible, this would be it!🔥

Blasphemy aside, our ad placement guide has received a major update. If you still haven’t checked out this pinnacle of high-effort Epom content then jop on and discover:

📖 What is ad placement terminology;
📖 How are digital ad types different from each other;
📖 Which ad placement strategy suits which type of business (with examples);
📖 How to place ads with an ad server.

This article shines both for newbies and veteran advertisers, go check it out!

Ad Placement Deep Dive: What You Should Know as a Publisher [+ Quiz] What is the difference between ad unit and inventory? What is digital ad placement, and how do you optimize it? Read on to discover publisher’s must-learns.

How to post programmatic video ads⏯

From promo videos on TikTok to annoying instreams on Netfix, Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) is the beating heart of 90% video ads that you see online. As of today, there are 4 versions of this tag.

It matters because the VAST supported by your publisher is the VAST you’re going to make ads with🎥

So check out the short list of VAST versions and what makes each different so as not to waste your time and resources in vain!

Header bidding or waterfalling – which takes the cake?

Our techy-savvy publisher readers already know the answer, but is header bidding really a definitive winner? Since only Siths deal in absolutes, we’ve updated one of our articles and are now going to explain:

First-price vs second-price RTB auctions
The viability of waterfalling in 2024
Advantages and disadvantages of header bidding
The best choice for every user

What are you waiting for? Click the attached link!

Header Bidding vs Waterfall: Two Ways to Optimize Ad Serving Waterfall bidding or header bidding? What is best to use in 2024? Find the answer in this header bidding vs waterfall comparison article and boost your campaigns.

An ad tag – a small piece of code that makes the grand world of online ads possible. What is its secret?

In our updated article, we dwell upon the inner workings of advertising and discover:

✔️How ad tags function on the basic level
✔️How ad tags differ from header wrappers
✔️How JavaScript ad tags differ from iFrames
✔️How to generate your own ad tag

All of these and even more are in the attached link!

What is an Ad Tag and How to Generate It [Examples Inside] A world without ad tags would be too sterile and boring — no flashing banners, no Youtube pre-rolls, and (!) no extra revenue for you. Since we're not living in a stir-crazy ads-prohibiting dystopia, we are all able to use small yet mighty ad tags. Invisible from the outside, these chunks of code ...

Whether you’re a beginner website owner or a shark of publishing, you know about header bidding. It’s benefits are hardly the recent news for nearly 60% of internet publishers.

What holds the rest 40 % back? The setup is complicated is expensive. Well, we’re here to help with both of these. Here’s how to get started with Prebid.js adapter – the heart of the whole thing.

By following these steps you can check out free basic configuration of header bidding and decide if you should use it or not!

Who makes the deals between the advertisers and publishers? The devil? Nah, better – ad networks.

The ad tech for independent users has come a long way, but the ad networks and their services haven’t lost any popularity. Let’s find out why along with:

What ad networks are, exactly
What types of ad networks are there
Which types of inventory do ad networks operate
What are the top 10 platforms on the market

More on the grey cardinal of advertising in the attached link!

https://epom.com/blog/digital-advertising/display-ad-network

Hi, folks! Tomorrow is the event of events✨

Our webinar, "How Not to Screw Up With DSP Setup: Top Mistakes to Avoid and Save a Fortune."

📅 Thursday, July 25th at 10 AM EDT | 2 PM UTC. Mark your calendar!
🔗 Register here: https://bit.ly/4cKY0EX

Your instructor & host – programmatic expert Helene Parker.

This webinar is for you if you’re:
⭐ struggling with inefficient ad spend due to poor DSP setup.
⭐ not seeing the expected return on investment from your programmatic campaigns.
⭐ dealing with common mistakes that lead to campaign underperformance.
⭐ feel overwhelmed by the technical aspects and lack of in-house knowledge.
⭐ losing out on potential leads and conversions due to suboptimal setup.
⭐ and many other challenging issues.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from one of the best in the industry. Secure your spot now and transform your DSP setup strategies.
Can't join live? No worries! You'll receive the recording to review for up to 3 days post-webinar.

🔗 Register now: https://bit.ly/4cKY0EX
See you there!

Hi, folks! We have a super-announcement for you, so buckle up and note the details✨

We're thrilled to invite you to our upcoming webinar, "How Not to Screw Up With DSP Setup: Top Mistakes to Avoid and Save a Fortune."

📅 Thursday, July 25th at 10 AM EDT | 2 PM UTC. Mark your calendar!
🔗 Register here: https://bit.ly/4bKmWuV

Meet your instructor & host – programmatic expert Helene Parker!
With nearly a decade of experience as a programmatic trader and paid media strategist, Helene has held various leadership roles, making her a true expert in the field.

This webinar is for you if:
✨ You’re struggling with inefficient ad spend due to poor DSP setup.
✨ You’re not seeing the expected return on investment from your programmatic campaigns.
✨ You’re dealing with common mistakes that lead to campaign underperformance.
✨ You feel overwhelmed by the technical aspects and lack of in-house knowledge.
✨ You’re losing out on potential leads and conversions due to suboptimal setup.
✨ And many other challenging issues.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from one of the best in the industry. Secure your spot now and transform your DSP setup strategies.
Can't join live? No worries! You'll receive the recording to review for up to 3 days post-webinar.

🔗 Register Now: https://bit.ly/4bKmWuV
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Nothing stands still, everything changes... Even our corporate video about Epom🫣

We have updated the design and messages to be as clear as possible. Please give us some likes so that we understand that we have not suffered over the music in vain.

If you are not yet our client and want to quickly understand how we will be useful to you, please watch the video👇

Introduction to Epom: Empowering Digital Advertising 💙💛 Epom stands with Ukraine. You too? Stop war, prevent WW3: https://bit.ly/3IIkUhdWelcome to Epom!We are a family of white-label products, designed for me...

If you're seeing this post, then it's a sign that you're travails with ad server already and completely exhausted you 😩

But Epom is always on your side - we prepared a free checklist for those who is a bit lost in the saturated market of ad servers and need some hands-on guidance: what criteria to consider, what questions to ask.

Grab a checklist and feel safe and sound👇

Our dear CEO Anton Ruin had a lovely talk with Authority Magazine and their host Kieran Powell.

Shared highlights about adtech industry, the most prominent future technological advancements, advertising and AI, data privacy and other cool adtech staff.

Check it out, and don't forget to clap to this article!

Anton Ruin Of Epom On The Future Of Adtech An Interview With Kieran Powell

Another day - another ✨adtech wisdom✨ from Epom Team!

Today we're looking for an answer for a hot questions for most adtech newbies:

❓What is the difference between programmatic advertising and real-time bidding🤔

First: programmatic advertising is a form of technology that automates media buying.

Second: real-time bidding is a protocol by which this technology is implemented.

The process of RTB in programmatic advertising follows the following steps:

1️⃣ The RTB process begins when a user visits the publisher's website.

2️⃣ This triggers an ad request from the user’s browser which is sent to the SSP.

3️⃣ The SSP then analyzes the user information and passes it on to the ad exchange.

4️⃣ The ad exchange passes the user information to the DSP.

5️⃣ The DSP puts an RTB in on this user impression. The value of the bid is pre-set by the media buyer based on their target audience criteria.

6️⃣ The highest bidder wins the impression.

7️⃣ The highest bidders ad is presented to the user.

These steps are all taken in the blink of an eye. Before the webpage has loaded for the user the highest bidder will already have won the auction and their ad will load with the webpage.

Hope we enlighted you a bit on this hot summer day 🌞 Happy advertising!

In anticipation of another one cool longread about header bidding, we're answering the question:

✨How Did Header Bidding Change Programmatic Advertising?✨

So, when programmatic advertising first emerged it used waterfall auctions. What this means is that publishers pre-established priority for the ad networks they used and the advertisers why worked with.

The platform that sells ad placements on a website would determine the customers (ad networks, direct advertisers) who want to buy their placements and sell their ads.

Direct media buying through the waterfall bidding model would have a priority purchase inventory. If the impression was not bought, the right is transferred to the next participant.

The approach was highly inefficient. Then came one of the most important advancements in ad tech — the header bidding auction. Unlike waterfall, header bidding involves a simultaneous auction. Publishers display their inventory at several ad exchanges. In turn, these ad exchanges allow multiple demand partners to bid on those “lots” at the same time.

In header bidding, the highest bid wins, while in a waterfall, the winning bid is the bid with the highest priority. This allows for far more premium inventory to be available to media buyers programmatically. For publishers, higher competition has also created more revenue.

Both of these aspects are important for creating a sustainable advertising system.

☀️☀️☀️

This is it for today! Go outside and take some Vitamin D (it's summer, folks!) while waiting the big article about The Header Bidding💪

Our avid readers already know how DSPs have changed advertisers’ game, but what about the other side of programmatic? Publishers have their own multitool to solve their advertising problems, and its name is a supply-side platform!

We’ve updated one of our most popular articles on SSPs to enlighten you on:

✨ What SSP is;
✨ What are SSP examples;
✨ How SSP works with other ad tech elements;
✨ How to use an ad server as an SSP.

If you’re a publisher, or an ad network, this one is a must!

https://epom.com/blog/dsp/what-is-an-ssp

Almost solved the mystery of DSP? Or maybe you're looking for The Right One to boost your performance, cut monthly expenses and avoid middlemen?

Say no more! We prepared a longread with all ins and outs of DSP and add some juicy examples of the platform to choose the Best of the Best. Check it out 👇

Using DSP Platforms to Boost Media Buying [+ Top-9 DSP Examples Inside] Discover the best DSP platform to enhance your ad campaigns. Learn how top DSPs optimize ad buying, targeting, and performance for maximum ROI.

Watching stuff is simple and fun; even ads can make someone’s day if they masterfully use their video format. Today, we’re here to teach you to do that!

No, not in the style of “make it short and engaging.” Instead, we focus on the tech aspects such as:

📹 Which DSPs specialize in video advertising
📹 How programmatic video works
📹 How video ad serving works
📹 How to set up a video campaign in Epom DSP

What are you waiting for? Check it out!

https://epom.com/blog/dsp/programmatic-video-advertising

Name more iconic duo than our Lina Lugova and AdMonsters 😉

This time, Lina reveals the secrets about how small and medium business can benefit from programmatic and why they should do that.

If you were waiting for some sing to bring programmatic in-house, this is it. Check it now 👇

Smarter Advertising: How Small and Medium Businesses Can Harness the Potential of Programmatic Buying - AdMonsters Programmatic revolutionizes the industry, making it easier for global companies and SMBs to access large target groups.

What makes a good ad server for publishers?

Recently, we’ve written an article on that, but with how oversaturated the modern web is, you could’ve easily missed this natural banger.

Don’t worry; we all have short attention spans these days. Here’s a short (and illustrated!!) version of five non-obvious factors that define a high-quality ad server ✨🦾

No time to explain: new article is released on our blog, and here we revealed why you need programmatic advertising (if you're still not the adherer of that).

Apart from that learn about:
✨ 4 main types of programmatic media buying
✨ Programmatic ecosystem
✨ Expert tips for programmatic advertising mastery
✨ and many more

Check it here 👇
https://epom.com/blog/programmatic/benefits-of-programmatic-advertising

Programmatic is the king, and there’s simply no denying that. Missing out on the power of automated media buying operations is irrational, to say the least.

But how do you get into the game without knowing what this DSP talk is all about? More importantly, how do you choose a single DSP when there are as many vendors as the stars in the sky during the dark summer night?

We’re here to help! In this new article, we discuss:
🚀DSP vs SSP, in short;
🚀How programmatic works;
🚀Which DSP type to choose;
🚀Top 5 DSPs on the market right now (in our opinion)

Click and choose the DSP most suitable for you here👇

https://epom.com/blog/dsp/dsp-programmatic-top

For you to understand the targeting specifics, you need to start with the million-dollar question: "How programmatic advertising differs from social media advertising?"

I would say comparing programmatic targeting is like comparing an epic sword fight to a friendly game of ping pong. What is a sword fight, and what is ping pong in this situation – it's up to you.

Created a table for you with a comprehensive comparison between Facebook, Google and Programmatic targeting, feel free to save it and use 🔥

Programmatic targeting is like having a perfectly guided missile that precisely locks onto your desired audience😎

With programmatic targeting, you can unleash the power of data-driven strategies to create ad campaigns that hit the bullseye every time🎯

So, get ready to reveal the techniques and types of programmatic targeting and delve into the nitty-gritty details in this video with our Lina Lugova.

5 Programmatic Targeting Types and Use Cases Programmatic targeting is like having a perfectly guided missile that precisely locks onto your desired audien...

CTC vs. VTC, viewable vs. served impressions, CTR vs. ad clicks – if you know the detailed differences between each of these, you are really cool (and a bit of a nerd too). If you don’t, no worries. Even ad tech gurus often get lost in the ocean, which is ad server metrics.

Our new article is your bulletproof cheat sheet for each and every question regarding ad tech metrics. This colossus of useful content dissects:

✨ What clicks, conversions, fill rates, impressions, and many more metrics mean
✨ Which pricing model you should use in combination with each metric
✨ How metric tracking works on the tech side

No jokes, this one’s really huge; feel free to find the answers to any of your ad metric questions here!

👉 https://epom.com/blog/metrics/ad-server-metric-guide

Recently, Latin America has become a hotspot for the betting industry due to its significant growth. According to a report by Statista, the online gambling market in Latin America is projected to reach USD 10 billion by the end 2024, so there is immense potential available.

While the market is booming, it’s critical to see the unique challenges and opportunities for small betting brands in emerging markets like LatAm. We made a short research for Gaming & Media News and wrap all our suggestions in one longread. Feel free to check and comment 👇

Promoting your small betting brand in Latin America: Tips & tricks you might need by Epom - Gaming And Media Recently, Latin America has become a hotspot for the betting industry due to its significant growth. According to a report by Statista, the online gambling market in Latin America is projected to reach USD 10 billion by 2024, so there is immense potential available. While the market is booming, it.....

What is eCPM? How to calculate eCPM? How is it different from CPM and other pricing models?

In the new (at last! long time no see, huh?) YouTube video, together with Lina Lugova, we're uncovering the mystery of effective cost per mile. We’ll figure out why it can be low, how it correlates to your revenue, and how to increase it in 5 steps.

Watch and boost your revenue 👇

How to Increase eCPM in 5 Steps: Full Publisher’s Guide What is eCPM? How to calculate eCPM? How is it different from CPM and other pricing models?Today, we’ll uncover the mystery of effecti...

During the last 10 years, native advertising won its place in the sun and even overtook the display ads. It might sound crazy, especially if you never thought about native ads and their benefits for your business, but that’s the way it is.

Higher engagement rates, folks actually WANT to interact. Plus, it's like a chameleon, adapting to the platform's vibe, so no jarring interruptions. It builds trust, not just clicks, because it feels like part of the conversation. And bonus points: it's cost-effective.

We prepared a loooooongread about native advertising for you to know why you should pay attention to this type of ads and how it can benefit your campaigns. Check out and leave your thoughts about the matter 👇

https://epom.com/blog/ad-server/a-guide-to-native-advertising

If there is one thing that popular TV-series like the Game of Thrones and House of Cards could teach you it is – do not trust anyone! Unfortunately, this is hardly an option in ad tech.

In this article we make a thorough comparison of three main supporting players in the ad game: ad agency, ad network and ad exchange.

Which of those defends your interests in the best way possible? How are they different? When and how do you use each? Click and find out!

https://epom.com/blog/programmatic/ad-agency-vs-ad-network-vs-ad-exchange