PreBid Header Bidding Implementation & Malvertising Solutions

GeoEdge has launched a new module in collaboration with Prebid Org to block malicious, offensive, and low-quality ads and landing pages served through header bidding.

With nearly half of industry publishers– 48% counting low-quality ads or malvertising as one of their most serious header challenges, the intention behind this collaboration is to reduce the harmful impacts publishers and their users experience from the fragmentation in the market and introduce control to the header bidding process.

GeoEdge’s Real-Time Blocking module facilitates the long-sought-after safety of more direct partnerships with trusted advertisers. Moreover, the module provides reliable protection to confront the unknowns of the market by detecting inappropriate ad creative swiftly and effectively.

Here’s a deep dive into the Prebid auction process, GeoEdge’s Real-Time Blocking module, and how to configure it.

How Prebid Was Born?

Header Bidding, also known as Pre-Bidding was created as a response to the highly inefficient waterfall method. In short, header bidding is an advanced programmatic technique where publishers offer inventory to numerous SSPs or ad exchanges simultaneously before making calls to their ad servers.

The idea here is– by diversifying demand, publishers increase their yield and boost their revenues.

Born out of necessity PreBid.js launched in 2015, providing a simple open-source solution that allows publishers to quickly implement header bidding on their websites and mobile apps. More than a technology, Prebid is a product suite, community, and organization.

Above all, by creating a simple, open tech layer upon which industry players can add their code to a standard but optimized foundation, Prebid.js has become the most popular header bidding wrapper today.

How Does Prebid.js Work?

For starters, the Prebid product suite provides publishers solutions designed to foster a better header bidding experience.

Firstly, while many solutions use synchronous calls, PreBid org avoids the long delay between when the web page is called and when it is actually loaded by concurrently calling selected SSPs and ad exchanges within the set timeout.

As a result, the asynchronous method allows the entire auction to run more efficiently by decreasing page load time and therefore, provides a better user experience.

Not to mention, the technology is quite flexible, Prebid.js provides a simple and easy-to-implement code set to improve header bidding for display and video ads on a publisher’s website and within OTT applications.

The Prebid Auction Process Explained 

In fact, Prebid.js carries out the auction in only a few steps:

• The ad server’s tag is paused by a timer while Prebid.js sends out bid requests to selected SSPs and ad exchanges.
• Creatives and bids are returned from the SSPs and ad exchanges.
• From the bid responses, Prebid.js finds a winner if applicable and caches the creatives.
• Prebid passes the winning bid parameters to the ad server as key-values.
• The ad server takes those key-values and finds a matching line item and compares to other line items that bid on this impression.
• If the ad server determines Prebid wins the auction, it returns a signal to Prebid.js library to write the winning creative to the page.

The State of Programmatic Inventory

In order to understand the benefit of this collaboration, first, we need to understand the state of programmatic inventory by taking a deep dive into the web of demand.

Firstly, publishers are receiving their demand from any combination of Google’s Open Bidding, Amazon’s The Ad Marketplace, a managed header integration from a different SSP or exchange, managed header wrappers, and the Prebid.js wrapper — and that’s not even counting the whole programmatic waterfall.

According to our research, the median number of header bidding partners publishers have onboarded is 8-10, and their median number of server-side Google Open Bidding partners is 7-9.

Meanwhile, 30% of publishers have 10 or more header partners, and 18% of those have more than 12. Similarly, 18% have 10 or more Open Bidding partners.

In particular, examining header wrappers tells an even more complicated story; 45% of publishers use more than one header wrapper — driven by the imperative to access more buyers, access unique demand, facilitate A/B testing on header partners, and blend the benefits of client-side and server-to-server wrappers in the header.

In fact, many publishers report they’re putting the same preferred demand source (an SSP or exchange) both in the header wrapper and server-side, in order to open up supply paths for them as clearly as possible.

GeoEdge’s Real-Time Blocking Prebid Module: 

Give the current industry concerns about transparency brand safety and fraud, The real-time module provides complete security for publishers and platforms.

“By collaborating with PreBid Org on the Real-Time Blocking module, we are actively setting an ad quality industry standard and breaking the once rigid barriers of integration while following strict community guidelines. Now, publishers and ad platforms implementing Header Bidding can effortlessly integrate our code without hassle or fear of the unknown. This partnership is a testament to GeoEdge’s holistic approach which secures the space between ads and users. “ – Guy Brooks, VP Product, GeoEdge

Simply put, given that the ultimate goal of running ads is to make money– the underlying benefit here for publishers is an increase in profits and added peace of mind.

How GeoEdge’s Technology Protects the Ecosystem

Let’s talk tech, How do we do it?

For starters, GeoEdge equips and protects the ecosystem with multiple detection engines that examine the underlying code of the ad. Our unique machine learning algorithm is comprised of a dozen mechanisms including de-obfuscation, and anti-cloaking capabilities which analyzes code through both the cyber and social engineering perspective.

Additionally, our post-click malware protection guards users against all compromised URLs along the delivery path.

Moreover, overlaying multiple layers of precision detection, GeoEdge identifies the techniques and identity of attackers across attack vectors ranging from malware, clickbait, and other threats to user experience to block the attacks.

How GeoEdge’s Real-Time Blocking Module Blocks Malvertising

Users want an overall page/ad experience they can trust, and they’ll abandon publishers that host ads that feel untrustworthy. There’s a lot more at stake here for publishers than the look and feel of their site, when it comes to ads with deceptive content, or ads that link to deceptive sites, publishers should be most concerned with user experience and reputation management.

Reputational risk is real, because it leads directly to engagement risk, traffic risk, and revenue risk. Automating QA has obvious benefits for allowing a publisher’s team to work more efficiently and effectively — but automation needs to be reliable, consistent, and granular enough to let the largest possible number of quality ads through.

At this moment, publishers need to think about users’ lifetime value, which means they must think about continuous protection for their audiences.

Managing A Web of Demand

Publishers understand it’s better for monetization to cultivate a loyal return audience, as opposed to drawing users to the site for one-time visits where UX and reputations are less serious concerns.

With the number and variety of demand sources, publishers are partnered with today, it’s extremely difficult to troubleshoot or root out the sources of inappropriate, deceptive, and low-quality ads.

Therefore, A robust QA strategy is a necessity in this programmatic landscape. Deceptive and inappropriate ads can come through any available point of entry. And no publisher should be resigned to the mistaken idea that the problematic parts of programmatic are simply a force of nature.

These problems were created by humans and technology, and they can be solved by the same; starting with GeoEdge’s Real-Time Blocking module.

Integration 

Altogether, the Prebid.js library is composed of the Core wrapper code, the Adapters a publisher wants to work with and optional modules the publisher wants to utilize.

Moreover, Prebid’s modular architecture lets you add exactly the functionality you need, and Prebid.js Modules including GeoEdge Real-Time Blocking module plug right into the Prebid.js Core.

1) Build the GeoEdge RTD module into the Prebid.js package with:

gulp build --modules=geoedgeRtdProvider,...

2) Use setConfig to instruct Prebid.js to initilize the GeoEdge module specified below.

Configuration

This module is configured as part of the real Time Data . data Providers object:

pbjs.setConfig({
    realTimeData: {
        dataProviders: [{
            name: 'geoedge',
            params: {
                key: '123123',       // obtain your key from Geoedge support
                bidders: {
                    'bidderA': true, // monitor bids form this bidder
                    'bidderB': false // do not monitor bids form this bidder.
                },
                wap: true
            }
        }]
    }
});

Parameters details:

Example

To view an integration example:

1)in your cli run:

gulp serve --modules=appnexusBidAdapter,geoedgeRtdProvider

2) in your browser, navigate to:

http://localhost:9999/integrationExamples/gpt/geoedgeRtdProvider_example.html

Need additional support setting up your Real-Time Blocking Module? Get In Touch!