Overview

With Equativ’s Video Ad Exchange (VEX) offer, a publisher can integrate third party SSPs with whom the publisher has a direct contract - the terms and conditions are negotiated directly between the publisher and the third party SSP. The integration is done simply by adding a VAST ad tag (a URL which calls a VAST ad). The Video Ad Exchange offer is relevant when:

• you are using a third party system as your ad decisioning system (ad server) and want to plug demand from Equativ’s Video Ad Exchange - in particular when your main ad server does not support integrations using a simple VAST URL.
• you are using Equativ as your ad decisioning system (main ad server) and want to add Equativ’s Video Ad Exchange as an additional monetization channel, along with direct campaign and RTB monetization.

Benefits

The Video Ad Exchange offers these benefits:

• A new integration type (ad request type) with improved ad decisioning: Equativ parses the ad responses server side and is able to detect and discard any videos containing errors. This capability is global: it is applied not only to video ads from the Video Ad Exchange but to all video ads from all other monetization channels, i. e. RTB and direct campaign monetization.
• An additional monetization channel integrated seamlessly with the RTB and direct campaign channels: the responses are ordered by price and the most profitable ads are selected to fill the given video ad break.
• The CPM is read from the <Pricing> node of the third party SSP and can be used to prioritize SSPs against each other. If the pricing information is not available, an estimated CPM can be specified for each SPP and will be used as a fallback.
• Ad response flattening: the VAST ads from any monetization channel are “flattened” before they are sent to the video player, speeding up the processing. Equativ removes the VAST wrapper redirections and sends only a lightweight VAST ad to the player, containing the <InLine> node as well as tracking/counting pixels calling all parties involved in the transaction.

Beta version

The Video Ad Exchange offer is currently available in public beta version. Reach out to your contact at Equativ if you are interested in using it.

Contract and activation

The Video Ad Exchange (VEX) requires a contract addendum to be signed between the publisher and Equativ - reach out to your sales contact to start the process.

Video Ad Exchange in unified auction 

The concept of unified auction ensures that for any multi-impression ad break, the most profitable ads are selected, no matter the monetization channel (direct campaign, RTB, Video Ad Exchange): all eligible ads from all monetization channels are ordered by price and the most profitable eligible ads are selected to fill the positions within the ad break, while ads containing errors are discarded. 

Example

The flowchart above shows a multi-impression video ad break with 3 positions to be monetized. There are 5 eligible VAST ads. To determine and select the most profitable ad:

• The VAST ads are order by price (from $$$$ to $).
• The VAST ads are checked for errors => the “Equativ RTB” ad containing a VAST error is discarded.
• From the 4 remaining VAST ads, the ad having the lowest price (“$ Video Ad Exchange”) is discarded since only 3 ads fit into the multi-impression ad break.
• The remaining 3 VAST ads (Direct campaign, Video Ad Exchange and Equativ RTB) are selected and delivered to the multi-impression ad break.

Limitations

The Video Ad Exchange offer comes with the following limitations:

• The number of wrapper redirections is limited to 5; after 5 redirections, if the 6th VAST ad is not an <InLine> VAST ad, the given SSP is discarded from the ongoing transaction.
• If the VAST response from the third party SSPs includes multiple ads, only the first ad is taken into account. This limitation applies to Video Ad Exchange insertions (not RTB insertions).
• The advertiser exclusivity in video ad breaks feature is not compatible with the Video Ad Exchange offer. For more information, see Set advertiser exclusivity in video ad breaks 
• Video Ad Exchange can only be used with approved Equativ SSP partners. For more information, see Set up Video Ad Exchange: authorized partners