{"id":2469,"date":"2019-04-08T09:35:43","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T08:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oko.uk\/?p=2469"},"modified":"2019-04-08T09:35:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T08:35:43","slug":"ad-waterfalls-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cool.co\/supply-side-platform-home\/ad-waterfalls-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Ad Waterfalls Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most recent update: September 2023<\/strong>
\nThis article was originally published in July 2018 and is periodically updated to keep it accurate and current.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ad waterfalls<\/a>, also known as daisy chains, are used to optimize revenue from setups with multiple demand partners. While largely replaced by more efficient strategies such as header bidding<\/a>, waterfalling is useful when a non-header bidding partner has high CPMs but limited fill.<\/p>\n

Why waterfall ads?<\/h2>\n

Waterfalling increases the advertiser\u2019s \u2014 and publisher\u2019s \u2014 chances of selling impressions to the highest-performing partner. A publisher who uses <\/span>AdSense<\/b><\/a>, a 100% fill solution, may receive a lucrative campaign that pays more for certain impressions. The digital advertiser wants to give the premium campaign the chance to buy every impression, but still wants to ensure that ads are served for the requests that the premium campaign doesn\u2019t fill.<\/span><\/p>\n

The simple solution to this is a <\/span>pass-back tag<\/b><\/a>. The premium ads are configured to call an AdSense tag whenever they see a request that they can\u2019t fill at the agreed price.\u00a0 This would look like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"simple\"<\/p>\n

In this example, the black bar represents all ad requests. The premium campaign fills a proportion of them (Green) at a high CPM, then passes the remainder (Orange) back to the remnant network to fill. The idea is to give the premium campaign a look at every ad request, so that it can serve as many impressions as possible at a higher rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking to move beyond waterfalls? <\/span><\/i>OKO<\/i><\/b><\/a> provides fully managed Header Bidding and Exchange Bidding for publishers, delivering more demand through a more efficient auction. See how we earn publishers more money <\/span><\/i>here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do waterfalls make more money?<\/h2>\n

Waterfalls aren’t ideal, but they can help maximize yield from multiple demand sources of serving ads. For much of the history of ad operations, waterfalls were the primary tactic of yield optimization, so they\u2019re obviously not without advantages. By putting some numbers to the example above, the value becomes clear:<\/span><\/p>\n