GroupM vets APAC programmatic partners for supply path optimisation tool

GroupM has conducted a supply path optimisation project in Asia-Pacific, in which it tracked how its clients' advertising dollars filtered through the supply chain over a six-month period in order to determine and eliminate relationships with bad actors.

Supply path optimisation aims to inject greater transparency and efficiency into the programmatic supply chain by removing the number of partners taking part in any given bid. Tools often employ algorithms to determine the bid with the highest probability to win, as well as turn off partners that employ aggressive auction tactics.

The programmatic supply chain has become convoluted over the years, with several intermediaries bidding for the same slot.

Cutting the volume of adtech partners that participate in a transcation reduces the "adtech tax" that currently accounts for 60% of each advertising dollar, according to Emarketer. It also reduces the risk of "lost" spend, after a ISBA/PWC study in the UK in May found that 15% of programmatic spend cannot be accounted for.

In order to conduct a supply path optimisation project in APAC, GroupM gathered a significant amount of data over a six-month period into a single visualisation tool. The process included onboarding the log level data from more than 400 demand-side platform seats and consolidating it into a centralised warehouse.

Bringing all of its global buyer accounts onto the supply path optimisation dashboard enabled GroupM's agencies to identify good and bad actors in the buying process, and which partners to move forward with through careful due diligence.

The number of SSPs included has been limited to those who agree to a code of conduct, only have direct integrations with publishers and never send inventory as unknown or obfuscated domains. SSPs also have to provide the log-level data for campaigns so that it can be matched against DSP data.

The vetting process is applicable to SSP, ad networks, exchanges and publishers.

Eliminating resellers in the supply chain ensures the publisher only sends the ad request from approved SSP partners.

Xaxis has increased media investments with approved partners by 75% month-over-month, boosted measurability by 10% and improved performance across video and display by 15% since the inception of SPO, according to Prathab Kunasakaran, head of supply strategy APAC.

"The supply path tool enables Xaxis to make decisions based on accurate, available data sets and matching metrics between the buyers and sellers," Kunasakaran said.

Mindshare APAC supply lead Tara Young said that the supply path optimisation tool will not only create efficiency in the network, but also allow agencies to address issues like brand safety and ad fraud.

Beyond supply path optimisation, GroupM also aims to become 100% ads/apps.txt compliant and support Open Measurement SDK as well as VAST 4.1 and higher. The group is working with SSP partners PubMatic, SpotX, and Xandr, as well as local publishers in the region, to integrate header bidding into their programmatic setup.