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Yahoo has entered the ad tech curation fray, focusing on supply-side news ties in a series of partnership announcements at its Consumer Electronic Show event.
It hopes it’s a position that will set it apart from rival demand-side platforms like The Trade Desk, and says its approach can help simplify the growing complexity of the programmatic ecosystem.
In particular, Yahoo says it will help sophisticated advertisers manage transparency and path optimization issues with CTV — an intuitive key topic of conversation at CES — while giving them more control.
Yahoo’s solution integrates data from vendors such as bid path optimization specialist Jounce Media, contextual advertising company Peer39 and sustainability company Scope3. led by Brian O’Kelleyto your DSP.
According to Yahoo supporters, this approach represents an industry-first approach to providing inventory information to advertisers, with tools to evaluate bid quality, optimize spend and align with their unique goals before they start bidding on inventory.
Unlike traditional DSPs, which make supply decisions for merchants – a criticism that is increasingly leveled at curatorial service providers — Yahoo says its approach offers more autonomy to advertisers, as found by Jounce Media et al. allow advertisers to (effectively) self-determine what media inventory they bid on.
The program environment continues to struggle with inefficiencies. ANA’s 2024 comparison revealed that 26% of advertising budgets are spent on invalid traffic (IVT), MFA inventory or invisible placements.
Yahoo says its approach can better help advertisers insulate themselves from the headaches that continue to plague their programmatic media buying, such as invalid traffic or websites dedicated to advertising.
“By integrating data from trusted vendors directly into Yahoo DSP, we aim to give you more transparency in managing your media buying strategies and let you make the decisions,” wrote Nicole Kilaita, Director of DSP Strategy, Delivery, Yahoo.
In addition, DSP is also the named launch partner for Roku’s Data Cloud, or its data clean room, through Yahoo’s Backstage offering, integrating with publisher inventory using its own ConnectID.
Curation has been one of the cornerstones of ad tech stories in 2024, with the debate firmly focused on whether DSPs or their ad tech supply-side peers should play a more active role in ad tech.
Such market developments have blurred the lines between DSPs and SSPs, dividing opinion on which scenario provides more value for primary partners in the programmatic ad business.
One premium news publisher source, who requested anonymity because of the commercial sensitivity of such arrangements, explained some of the complications surrounding curation.
“Stong.” [editorial] titles don’t necessarily need curation and can often hold their own in terms of prices on the open market, but then there’s the issue of things like brand safety and news attitudes,” they told Digiday. “Then you also have to consider the conflicts of whoever is doing the curating and their own motivations [i.e., their revenue priorities].”
https://digiday.com/?p=564858
