Header Bidding

Under the Hood: SpanishDict.com and Their Header Bidding Journey

sovrnmarketing // December 9, 2015

header bidding case study spanishdict sovrn.com
Waterfall Optimization Headaches

Each morning, Ahmed Karim, Ad Operations Lead at SpanishDict dedicated significant time adjusting price floors and passbacks to maximize their revenue. As demand partners were added to their stack, it became apparent the winning bid wasn’t always the highest bid. To optimize revenue, Ahmed dedicated more time adjusting price floors and dove deep into their ad performance analytics. However, the static nature of the waterfall ad stack prohibited SpanishDict from obtaining the top bid for each impression, leaving revenue on the table.

“We had previously attempted various optimizations such as segmenting our international inventory, playing with frequency caps, and resetting line item rates on a daily basis. All of which didn’t seem to make a great deal of sense when dealing with a multitude of partners and we were left with a sense that we were basically chasing our tails.” – Ahmed Karim, SpanishDict.com

Removing the Guesswork

SpanishDict decided to implement header bidding to capture lost revenue and simplify their ad management. Compared to a waterfall approach, dynamic bidding enables SpanishDict to obtain the top bid for each impression.

“When there’s an individual impression for a certain user worth $40 versus what we have the CPM set at, we can actually get that value. We were definitely missing out on that before,” stated Ahmed.

Header bidding eliminated the need for price floor optimizations, passbacks and constant ad stack optimization with demand partners. In addition to eliminating these steps, Ahmed no longer has to update their international audience segments for their demand partners. Header Bidding takes care of this – allowing Ahmed to focus on ad performance optimization.

“When there’s an individual impression for a certain user worth $40 versus what we have the CPM set at, we can actually get that value. We were definitely missing out on that before.”

Set It and Forget It

“Certain partners, when we have them up and running, it seems like it’s a ‘set it and forget it’ type of scenario. Sovrn is one of those partners.” – Ahmed Karim, SpanishDict.com

SpanishDict now has 9 partners – including Sovrn Header API – for their header bidding auction. On average, they experience 7% discrepancies with no significant impact in latency. More than anything, Ahmed and his team were pleased with the level of support they received from Sovrn.

“Sovrn support has been great. You guys have been super responsive. We’ve been able to get answers to ad quality problems and other issues faster from you guys than just about anyone else. Customer service has been awesome.”

Going forward, SpanishDict plans to increase their revenue trajectory by building sophisticated analysis using dynamic bid data now captured through header bidding.

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