Open Bidding Vs. Header Bidding: What’s the Difference?

January 2023

What is google open bidding vs header bidding and what’s the difference between the two? Any publisher who has been working to monetize their web and app locations knows all too well that consistent ad bidding is the name of the game. There’s always a push to find out what strategies should be implemented to maximize revenue from ads. No matter whether you are a veteran or a rookie in the programmatic advertising world, it can be hard to achieve your goals of higher impressions and increased audience members all on your own.

Ad management experts at OKO offer managed header bidding solutions as well as open bidding options that can help you determine the right strategy that works for you. Let’s review the advantages of open bidding vs. header bidding to find out how you can implement the most flexible bidding strategy into your website that will ultimately expand your digital bottom line.

What is Header Bidding?

Also called pre-bidding or simply header bidding, header bidding is an advanced bidding technique that can be implemented by tech-savvy publishers. By inserting a certain line of JavaScript code within the header section of your website, you can utilize either your browser or a third-party server to obtain several bids on your ads at once.

Header bidding is one of the most transparent, efficient, and flexible ways to automate programmatic ads and maintain constant bidding. With the ability to automate the auction process and receive simultaneous bids from many different demand partners at once, header bidding lets you open and diversify your revenue possibilities at a quickening rate.

Available ad inventory comes and goes in a flash, so it’s important to have an instant and automatic process that can continue capturing the best bids for you. Header bidding almost guarantees increased monetization for your web and app locations. Still, it is important to review both the pros and cons of this approach to bidding.

Advantages of Header Bidding

Google open bidding vs header bidding: Between the two, header bidding is particularly advantageous for publishers in a number of ways. Particularly, header bidding offers:

Better inventory insights: Most publishers set their prices based on average findings and third-party metrics, but header bidding offers direct insights to help publishers find out how much their inventory is actually being sold for. You’ll see just how much your inventory is worth, so you can adjust your floor prices and likely see an increase in sales.
Higher CPM (Cost per mille): CPM measures the highest price that most bidders are willing to pay for your ad impressions. Header bidding lets you pose a lot of your slots as premium ads by procuring the best ad placements, which can hike up your earnings even more.
Opportunities to increase processing speeds: On the technical side of things, there is an opportunity to reduce your computer’s latency when sending and receiving these bidding requests. Client-side bidding works just fine, but server-side header bidding reduces browser latency for users.

Header bidding was designed with publishers in mind, so it makes sense that this bidding type is most advantageous. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few cons to be on the lookout for when finding the right header bidding solution for your site.

Possible Pitfalls of Header Bidding

In addition to the somewhat steep amount of technical expertise required to implement header bidding, there are a few drawbacks that may cause publishers to experience more of a slowdown than a success:

Risk of duplicate bidding: Some advertisers will implement multiple DSPs (Demand-side platforms) at once, which can cause some bids to directly compete against themselves. It’s important to understand what strategies are being used to automate and maintain your header bidding efforts.
Possible discrepancies: Header bidding was created to combat the wide disparity of discrepancy with waterfall-style bidding. However, there still exists the possibility of small errors in reporting with this method. Leaving or refreshing a page too soon, disconnecting due to poor network quality, and running into non-compliance blocks can all cause a disruption in the collected data.

Now that you are a bit more familiar with what header bidding is and how you might use it to monetize your publishing site, let’s dive deeper into open bidding vs. header bidding so you can start your ad auctions the right way.

What is Google Open Bidding?

Open bidding, also called Google’s open bidding, is an auction source that allows multiple ad exchanges and supply-side platforms (SSPs) to compete alongside ADX, or Google’s own Ad Exchange platform. Unlike header bidding, open bidding is only available as a server-side option, with most operations being sent and received through Google’s own servers.

Google open bidding header bidding: Interestingly enough, open bidding was first implemented as a way to counteract the success of header bidding. Now, it exists as an alternative way for publishers to auction off ad impressions in a way that is less demanding on their users’ computers and their need for technical expertise, as the auctions are always handled offsite by Google.

That does not necessarily mean that setting up open bidding is a breeze; nor does it mean that this is the best choice for your website and app monetization needs. Take a look at the following pros and cons of Google’s open bidding method to see how easy it would be to integrate this type of programmatic auctioning with your site.

Advantages of Open Bidding

Some publishers will choose open bidding vs. header bidding due to its ease of implementation as well as a few other specific features. The major advantages of Google open bidding include:

Off-server auction host: Google controls all open bidding efforts, which could take a lot of stress off of a publisher’s shoulders and help support better automation.
Easy payment options: Publishers who go with this bidding option can say goodbye to the headache of managing different payment methods for different advertising demand partners. Open bidding has one simple and unified way to manage payments, which also reduces time spent on the more tedious tasks.
Less page latency: Open bidding offers the same latency advantages as server-side header bidding, which lets you manage multiple bids on a third-party server to keep your computer from getting bogged down.

There is still a roaring debate between header bidding and open bidding for a reason. What is advantageous to some, might be a pitfall to others.

Possible Pitfalls of Open Bidding

Open bidding does come with a couple of drawbacks that publishers of all sizes should be aware of:

A higher barrier of entry: Unfortunately, header bidding has a much easier margin of entry than open bidding. Google requires that publishers have a full ADX account and a premium subscription to Google Ad Manager 360 before applying for open bidding sources. On the flip side, all publishers can get started with header bidding right away.
Difficulty with cookie matching: There is a method that some publishers utilize while setting up bidding known as cookie matching, which tells buyers what bids are the most useful and valuable. Open bidding requires a few extra steps for cookies to be synced with past exchanges and therefore can be more difficult for some to use.

Open bidding vs. header bidding: no matter which sounds like a better option for your publishing site, you can find a wide range of auction types that can quickly foster higher and more efficient revenue for your publishing site.

Custom Header Bidding Solutions at Your Fingertips

Now you know the importance and differences between google open bidding vs header bidding. OKO offers professional ad management services to help streamline your web and app monetization efforts. From open bidding options to a customized, managed header bidding solution, our Google ADX-certified experts are here to help you implement a stellar strategy. Get in touch with us today to find out whether an open bidding or header bidding solution can launch you into a new level of revenue gains.

Interested in learning more? Learn about Google AdX and what a Google Certified Publishing Partner is from our team of experts.