PubMatic emerges as the leading header bidding solution in A/B testing conducted by 9GAG

Header-bidding and wrapper solutions have been gaining momentum for the last few years. While the technology in itself is a complex phenomenon, there are certain players that have carved a niche for themselves in this sphere and offer easy yet efficient solutions for businesses across the world. One of the leading players- PubMatic is a sell-side advertising platform that aims to empower independent app developers and digital publishers with solutions to maximize their revenue. 

With an impressive portfolio of products and solutions, PubMatic caters to publishers, buyers, video publishers, and app developers. It enables businesses to drive their digital advertising and ROI by effectively engaging their target audience in premium environments across multiple formats and platforms. Established in 2006, and headquartered in California, PubMatic has managed to create a premium global infrastructure and remains a step ahead in programmatic innovation. 

The platform’s enterprise-grade solutions include RTB advertising technology, programmatic media buyer platform, cross-platform videos, ID-agnostic solutions, private marketplaces, and its header-bidding and wrapper solution- OpenWrap.

In the ad tech ecosystem, header bidding capabilities of multiple platforms have been doing rounds over the internet, owing to the array of benefits that this technology offers. 

Header bidding refers to a programmatic auction wherein publishers are enabled to offer their ad impressions to multiple demand partners in real-time. It not only ensures that every ad impression can be purchased at its maximum value but also allows buyers to access the publishers’ premium inventories while ensuring high levels of transparency. In order to conduct this process smoothly, a wrapper solution is used by publishers.

A wrapper is essentially a Javascript tag that is embedded on the publisher’s website and organizes multiple demand sources. It sets the rules for running the auction and makes it easier for the publisher to tackle technical complexities.

Keeping up with the technological developments,  9GAG, a social media platform based out of Hong Kong, decided to conduct A/B testing of multiple wrapper solutions including PubMatic’s OpenWrap. The organization was keen to understand which wrapper solution would drive the most optimum results for their business. 9GAG deployed a robust and randomized A/B testing methodology to compare header bidding wrapper performance.

While 9GAG decided to be a step ahead and conduct objective testing, it needs to be noted that testing wrapper solutions is still not a standard practice amongst digital publishers. 

While RFPs and RFIs solutions are compared often based on the information provided by vendors, it is uncommon for the publishers to conduct tests that would deliver empirical data. A major factor behind this lack of testing could be the lack of technical bandwidth in order to properly conduct a test and achieve accurate results. Moreover, the expectations of getting superior results from one vendor are extremely high, which in turn compels the publishers to believe that a more detailed test is not required.

However, what most publishers fail to understand is that the benefits that testing header bidding technology offers are manifold. A superior header bidding solution can directly impact the revenue of a publisher. Since there’s too much potential revenue on the table to be ignored, it is advisable for publishers to conduct tests and compare multiple solutions in live environments in order to find what suits their business best.

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The test by 9GAG included three wrapper solutions and resulted in PubMatic being the leader amongst its competitors. PubMatic outperformed both wrappers in driving net revenue, net CPM, and net RPM- +36% Net Revenue, +36% Net CPM, and +37% Net RPM. 

Safe to say that the test was a win-win situation for both 9GAG and PubMatic as 9GAG  replaced its existing wrapper with PubMatic’s OpenWrap and has made immediate improvements in monetization.

For more details about the test, you can download the study here: https://pubmatic.com/case-studies/9gag-openwrap-case-study/

What made this A/B testing standout are the facets of PubMatic’s OpenWrap that came to the forefront. While a difference in the NET revenue was expected due to the different prices and charges by different vendors; it was noted that not all the prebid-wrappers managed to reach the same gross monetization, despite running on the same adapters, for the same ad units and even in the same markets. The differences between the three players were stark enough for PubMatic to be the leader amongst its competitors.