What’s a DSP?
A DSP (demand-side platform) is the SSP’s counterpart on the advertiser side. Brands, agencies, app developers, and pretty much anyone that wants to advertise digitally, can use DSPs to set up their ad campaigns.
Before DSPs, selling and buying ads were handled by salespersons, which made the process long and costly. DSPs made the process easier and cheaper by automating the process and reducing the human resource required because the process doesn’t need negotiation.
The DSP connects advertisers with multiple SSPs, ad exchanges, and networks, allows advertisers to buy impressions with a specific target audience, customize ads with specific parameters, and define their terms for maximum bids, budget caps, the target audience parameters, and their campaign goals.
What’s a SSP?
An SSP (supply-side platform) is a programmatic software used by digital publishers. SSPs enable their users to manage and sell their ad inventory to advertisers at the highest possible price.
The SSP automatically offers inventory to multiple platforms such as DSP, ad agency, ad exchange, and marketplace sells it for the best price, helps to optimize website monetization strategy, and maximizes revenue.
Publishers can also set price floors (the minimum price a publisher will accept for an impression), create guaranteed deals, and define a wide range of very simple rules around which advertisers or buyers can (and cannot) purchase their inventory and at what minimum price.
What is an ad exchange?
An ad exchange is a place where publishers and advertisers come together to trade digital media, like display, video, and mobile ads.
Publishers make their ad inventories available through ad exchanges, while advertisers purchase them via real-time bidding (RTB). Thus, there are no humans involved, and impressions are sold to the highest bidder.
