If you are looking for a third-party ad manager but aren’t aware of the difference between open bidding and header bidding, this is the best place for you.

Increase Rev provides its clients with a combination of Open Bidding & Header Bidding advertising solutions that aid them in bidding their ad inventories with the intended market audience and highest yield rates.

What is header bidding?

Pre-bidding or advance Bidding are other names for header bidding. It gives publishers a mechanism to offer ad space to several SSPs or Ad Exchanges continuously.

Header bidding is a sophisticated programmatic approach that can be used instead of the waterfall process. Even before voice communication to their ad servers, publishers simultaneously provide several ad exchanges with a wide range of inventory.

In other words, header bidding is the concept that enables several demand sources to concurrently bid on the same stock, enhancing yield and improving publisher income.

A publisher can choose or prefer one of two methodologies for header bidding: client-side or server-side.

• Client-side or browser-side header bidding entails inserting some J-query between the tags on a publisher’s website. Their mutual partners begin submitting bids, the Bidding is won, and the winning bidder’s ad is served.
• Queries are transmitted from a primary server rather than the user’s browser on the server side. While giving publishers all the benefits of header bidding, it also shields them from many drawbacks, including latency.

What is open bidding?

Google’s server-to-server technology called “open bidding” enables publishers to invite numerous outside ad exchanges to compete for their inventory.

In a process known as a dynamic assignment, actual Bidding takes place between demand partners and Google’s Ad Manager line items based on a first-price basis. Dynamic allocation, however, what is it?

This is Google’s term for the automated procedure that “allows all non-guaranteed demand — Open Auction, open bidding, and remnant line items — to engage in real-time with assured line items,” according to Google.

Because of the increased competition for your goods, your yield should grow without harming the user experience. The deployment is simple and easy because the entire process is managed using Google’s Ad Manager.

Since the Bidding is conducted over a server-to-server connection, Google’s ad server, rather than the user’s browser, is where the Bidding takes place.

Although both open biddings and header bidding technologies strive to increase competitiveness and maximize yield, they do so in distinct ways, each of which has upsides and downsides.

See also Open bidding Guide

Is Google open bidding or header bidding?

Well, open and header Bidding is both used by Google. The primary offering from Google is its web browser, but it also provides other offerings in the way of services, applications, and advertisements. A website’s rating on Google’s search page is crucial because the search query has been employed to rate webpages by the volume of visitors.

Webmasters frequently use targeted marketing platforms like AdWords or AdSense, which let users bid on keywords that they desire the advert to display to achieve a high score. Webmasters must be registered with one of the following paid ads systems for such paid advertising to display on Google’s results page.

The issue with this approach is that numerous businesses cannot compete with the major players based on traffic levels and the cost per click (CPC). Smaller companies frequently lack bear the expenses associated with maintaining an online footprint.

How does header bidding work?

Header bidding starts as soon as the page loads on the user’s computer, as was previously described. Before calling the ad servers, the script in the page header succeeds and calls all demand partners concurrently to bid on the impression. Everything takes place within a time limit set by the publisher, usually in under a second.

While this is going on, numerous demand partners are launching their auctions to control the highest bid they transmit. The bids are transmitted to the header, which chooses the highest bid and only permits the highest bid to reach the ad server, where it will fight with other demands by the publisher, such as Google AdX and straight demand.

For instance, although header bidding has a more complicated setting than open bidding, it is superior in terms of visibility and has a higher cookie match rate.

Open bidding vs header bidding

Let’s compare open bidding vs header bidding in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of Bidding, which are covered below.

Reduce Page load

 In contrast to client-side header bidding, which occurs in the user’s computer; Open Bidding is carried out via a server-to-server connection, which means that the sale takes place at the ad server. This results in significantly reduced latency and an improved user experience, particularly on mobile.

Simple Operation and Execution

Google’s Ad Manager is used to set up and manage Open Bidding. Suppose you compare open bidding vs header biddingso open bidding does not require extra technical effort, unlike header bidding, which typically calls for a complex bespoke configuration with several line items and regular review.

Integrated Fast Transactions

Advertisers get paid once by Google at a net of 30 days, irrespective of the number of third-party exchanges participating in the open Bidding auction. This can be highly appealing in terms of operating cash flow flexibility. Additionally, since Google handles the billing, bid inconsistencies are highly typical in ad tech—are avoided, making one less thing to be concerned about.

Potential for rapid growth

To create demand for publishers’ ad stock, Google’s network uses a few exchanges, such as its own. The number of demand partners to provide platforms (SSPs) and marketplaces an author can add while using header bidding increases the possibility for demand.

Matching Cookies

Client-side header bidding gives advertisers access to user data through browser cookies, enabling them to target their adverts better and, as a result, increase their willingness to spend. Open Bidding, on the other hand, can lead to lower CPMs because some data is lost through servers.

Visibility

Header bidding was developed to promote clarity in the bidding process and add more rivalry to Google AdX. Publishers are given complete control over the auction structure and unfettered access to all bidding information. Open Bidding, on the other hand, lacks this level of exposure and, as a Google product, continues to be somewhat of a “black box” to writers.

In addition to Open Bidding’s server-to-server limitations, there is another warning related to the conditions for its use.

Easy Access

A publisher must agree to an open bidding extension to their agreement and have an Ad Exchange profile connected to Google Ad Manager to use open bidding. Unlike header bidding, which anyone may use with open-source programs like Prebid.

Despite its many benefits, EBDA is not without its drawbacks. For instance, because of the unitary auction that takes place on the Ad Manager system, publishers are unaware of the entire process and can only view the results after it is over.

It is fantastic to see that there are no techniques that do not have drawbacks, proving that there is no good or bad approach. You must research and put into practice the strategy that best describes who you are based on the characteristics provided in the article.

Which one must you use then?

There is no absolute, clear-cut solution in programming, as there is with most things. There is no superior option; each merely provides a different route to the same end. The truth is that combining the two approaches is feasible and might be the best option.

Whether you prioritize control, delay, or visibility more highly will rely on your technical abilities. To ensure the appropriate mix and setup for your specific inventory, objectives, and priorities, trial and item separation of inventory and line items are required.

Conclusion

The rise of bidding ad inventories such as open bidding and header bidding has created a fuss among publishers. They often get confused about which one to opt for in their marketing tactics.

Well, to conclude header bidding is probably a better option as it has let publishers rethink the way they do their biddings and has pushed them to implement different bidding solutions at the same time.

You’ll need a reliable partner for that. Many companies offer header bidding, but Increase Rev is among the best, using Header Bidding & Open Bidding demand to compete for each impression. We empower publishers to provide the highest revenue on their ad inventories.