DL: Turns out, fixating on low-fee supply chains, or prioritizing ad tech intermediaries with the cheapest fees, was never the magic fix they hoped for. Cutting costs didn’t translate into better outcomes — just murkier supply chains and a whole lot of wasted ad dollars. The obsession with low fees had marketers optimizing for the wrong thing, propping up a system where the real winners weren’t advertisers or publishers, but the intermediaries skimming margins along the way. More marketers and agencies are forging deeper partnerships with programmatic marketplace operators, or supply-side platforms (SSPs). Supply path optimization (SPO) was supposed to fix this years ago by funneling ad dollars into fewer, higher-quality programmatic marketplaces. But for all the reasons above, it never quite stuck. The fact that conversations like this are happening more frequently speaks to how the dynamic between agencies and ad tech vendors is evolving. The decision is no longer just about costs and rebates — it’s about supply chain integrity, direct publisher relationships and access to premium inventory. For once, programmatic buyers are optimizing for more than just price.
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