Publishers on Google’s header bidding competitor: ‘It’s no game changer’
Last week Google officially debuted “DFP First Look,” a new feature for it ad serving tech that lets publishers offer up their high-value impressions to programmatic buyers before offering them up to reserved buys. Google promises both an easy integration process and better monetization through the feature: Publishers testing First Look have already seen yield lifts as high as 10 per cent, the company said.
With First Look, Google is taking its first big defensive move against the rise of header bidding, which lets publishers offer inventory to their programmatic partners before making calls to their ad servers, giving more buyers access to inventory simultaneously. While header bidding is great for publishers, which get higher CPMs for their most valuable ad spots, it’s potentially bad for Google’s ad exchange, AdX, which faces more direct competition for inventory from alternate bidding partners such as Amazon and Criteo.
But while Google is pitching DFP First Look as a more simple, integrated alternative to header bidding, publishers aren’t rushing to implement it.
“I don’t think it’s a game changer, nor do I anticipate it replacing header bidding in our ad strategy in the near future, as the two technologies seem to address different challenges,” said Cory Wheeler, head of programmatic at Graphiq, which operates search engines in verticals such as gadgets, real estate, personal finance.
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