‘TAGLESS(?)’ OPTION THE Note: Requires Tags Thanks for coming – Introduce yourself and what you do My background with ‘Tagless’ – 4 solutions, 16% lift in 2015 Audience background: Who’s familiar with this tech? | Who has absolutely no idea what this is? | Who is actively working with this enabled on their site right now? Discussion vs. lecture

WHAT IS A ‘TAGLESS’ SOLUTION? Javascript that’s placed in the header of a website, giving partner(s) the ability to evaluate impressions and dynamically compete for them at price ‘buckets’ and priorities enabled by the publisher. The javascript is placed directly onto the page There is both a page and ad server element to this technology

WEBPAGE LOAD PROCESS WITH ‘TAGLESS’ ENABLED : STEP 1 Web browser reads the webpage Web browser downloads the page resources One of those resources is your ad server code Webpage registers ad units with ad server code To better understand exactly what’s going on here, let’s take a general look at the page load process with tagless enabled These specific steps are standard to the page load process with or without tagless

WEBPAGE LOAD PROCESS WITH ‘TAGLESS’ ENABLED : STEP 2 ‘Tagless’ enabled partner(s) register a bid with ad ser ver Using key-value pairs, bid value is then passed to ad server These steps are ‘tagless’ specific Evaluating the specific impression

WEBPAGE LOAD PROCESS WITH ‘TAGLESS’ ENABLED : STEP 3 Ad server code hits the ad server Ad server determines which ad to serve based on setup priority Ad serves on the page Ad server still functions normally, only serving the ‘Tagless’ bid if it’s of the highest value

THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT THIS TECHNOLOGY: A direct response to Google’s market dominance (DFP/AdX) Provides ’Tagless’ partners the ability to bid on inventory they can’t currently compete for Requires implementation and resources outside of the ad server (header/source code) Relationships are typically non-exclusive Doesn’t necessarily replace an existing tagged solution with demand partner

WHAT’S REQUIRED TO MAKE THIS WORK? Partner-specific changes to the publisher's head tag and invocation code Partner-supplied key-value pairs added within the ad server and applied to line items Line items that enable price-specific bidding on eligible inventory Each partner setup is slightly different (Your dev team will be thrilled) KVP process also varies between partners Line item build out can often be automated but be careful it’s done correctly

WHY IS THIS BENEFICIAL FOR THE ’TAGLESS’ PARTNER? Enables their ability to compete for available ‘first look’ inventory No longer restricts the ‘Tagless’ partner to a fixed position within an ad stack (as with standard tags) Harder for AdX dynamic allocation to cherry pick mispriced impressions Can evaluate 100% of a publisher's impressions

(POTENTIAL) PUBLISHER BENEFITS: Increase dynamic inventory competition Forces AdX buyers to bid higher through more competive pricing of impressions Incremental revenue: Even if AdX ends up wining the impression, the 2nd price auction was more competitive Long tail publishers: Less inventory lost via passbacks Multiple partners bidding on multiple price levels

(POTENTIAL) PUBLISHER DRAWBACKS: Runs outside the ad server (thus requires a deploy/testing) May increase page load latency More opportunity for line item setup errors Time investment: vetting, learning, teaching and building Partners have full insight into your inventory as they see 100% of impressions No way to guarantee peformance/lift

PLAYERS IN THE SPACE INCLUDE… Amazon (A9) Casale Index* Criteo Conversant OpenX* PubMatic* Rubicon Project* Sonobi YieldBot* Anyone I’m missing? *Conference sponsors

STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS ‘Tagless’ price buckets can be set at premium or remnant price levels Line item pricing strategy should be controlled by the publisher Solutions available for mobile and desktop inventory Performance varies widely between publishers

Why? SHOULD WE REBRAND THIS? For your consideration: ‘Tagless’ is a flawed moniker because this tech requires tags. Lots of tags! For your consideration: Browser bidding | Header implementation | Header bidding

QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP: How many tagless partners is too many? How real are the page latency concerns? Which partners have yielded the best results? Pricing strategies? Where is this technology headed next? How will Google respond to this disruptor? Are we OK with these partners seeing 100% of our incoming impressions?