What are DSP and SSP, and How Do They Work?

Sadly, many people, until today, can’t figure out how DSP and SSP can impact the success of their businesses. However, this does not mean there is no room for you to understand what DSP vs SSP entails. Every market aims to transform their respective brands by attracting customers from different localities.

Before achieving this goal, marketers have to go the extra mile to do the undoable just to get the work done. The supply-side platform, also known as SSP, can help you increase the return on investment and engage your audience in a brand-safe way, enhancing the success of your business. What about DSP?

This article covers all the critical information to help you understand the difference between SSP and DSP. Let’s get started!

What is SSP?

SSP, also known as a supply-side or single-side platform, is a unique platform meant explicitly for publishers. The platform is mainly used to help manage and sell digital ad inventory through real-time bidding and programmatic deals. The supply-side platform primarily uses publishers to optimize their income and data analysis.

Besides, SSP links the publisher, ad exchanger and the DSP. After linking three independent aspects, the platform helps markers, advertisers, agencies and media buyers purchase advertising impressions from publishers. The platform connects different individuals to attain a stipulated goal.

How SSP Operates

The platform is designed in a manner that it can automatically enter into a transaction on behalf of a publisher. Once the buyer and the platform begin the transaction process, the process of buying and selling takes place via RTB. What is RTB? These are auctioneers who facilitate the process of buying and selling.

The publishers must provide their required inventory through SSP and invite advertisers to deliver their bids depending on the user data received. Once the publisher’s webpage is loaded, an ad request is automatically sent to the ad exchange platform or sent directly to the SSP.

When the RTB media is used during the buying process, most people tend to bid based on impressions provided by the publisher during the auction process. The advertiser that bids a higher amount is likely to win the bid. After winning the bid, the advertiser will pay the second highest price for the winning impression that will serve the ads.

Why Publishers Need to Use SSP

The most critical aspect that makes publishers use SSP is that the platform gives publishers access to the inventory demand information. Besides, the platform uncovers data that further explains the cost of sold impressions. It also elaborates on some of the advertisers who have placed bids and the convertible placements.

You can connect the platform to different sources of monetization and receive bets from different DSPs simultaneously. As a result, they enter into a transaction immediately! They work together to make generating maximum profits for the business easier. The rise of the SSP has exposed publishers to a huge media advertising market.

The platform has greatly developed, allowing local and international players to access the inventory and evaluate the market prices without getting into negotiations. Since SSP allows advertising exchange activities, publishers can now benefit from the platform by dramatically increasing their profits.

The supply-side platform can also analyze the profitability data and generate a detailed report about the market report. As a result, advertisers can use this report to enhance accurate targeting and maximize their profits.

What is DSP?

DSP, also known as a demand-side platform, is an advanced software that helps advertisers and agencies to buy impressions. This mostly occurs on different advertising exchanges in varying sources. These activities take place on websites, podcasts, mobile applications and many more.

The software helps advertisers manage advertising on different platforms, monitor stats, and analyze data to optimize targeting and advertising purchase on the same platform. The DSP technology is mainly meant to simplify the entire transaction process. The software has shortened the entire process since the customer does not need to waste time analyzing the website.

Also, they don’t need to participate in long negotiations or sign contracts to close a deal. Advertisers have a good opportunity to optimize their campaigns and either narrow or expand on their target audience. All these activities happen automatically without any human intervention. Also, you can decide to buy impressions from the website of your choice without the fear of human factors that can affect the results.

DSP allows you to contact buying and selling activities without cases of human intervention. It saves much time and money since you don’t incur numerous costs.

Who Needs to Use DSP?

DSP is a basic necessity for any company media apartment, marketing team or agency. Depending on who uses the software, the software can serve different purposes to help you achieve your objective. Internal teams can also use DSP to run their programmatic campaigns to advertise their respective products and services.

In addition, the demand-side platform aids in tracking the customer base and divides it into behavioral and different LTV remarketing groups. All these activities help to generate advanced user interaction statistics. On the flip side, advertising agencies use DSP to buy impressions for their clients.

It also helps tailor an advertising strategy by selecting influential audiences, solving the campaign performance issues, and identifying the most influential audiences that suit their efforts. DSP issues functionality that aids in evaluating costs and the performance of the campaigns.

Buying Advertising Models Through DSP

DSP gives advertisers different models of purchasing direct advertising to serve their needs. These models include:

Open Auction

This is an approach whereby purchases are made in the form of auctions. Advertisers tend to bargain with one another to bid for the right to display advertisements that serve specific audiences. The winner of the auction is usually the one with the highest bid.

The entire purchase process is conducted in a manner similar to an auction. Besides, there are two different types of auctions. There is an open and private auction. When competing with other advertisers, you bid in an open auction. A private auction is mainly conducted when several advertisers are invited to participate.

If there is no auction available, the buyer and the site can agree independently, and the transaction is made. This model of the transaction is referred to as programmatic direct. The inventory is sold through programmatic tools, although the buyer communicates to the site directly.

SSP vs DSP: The Difference in How They Work

Online publishers purely use SSP to automate the entire process of selling ad space. It can be considered as some sort of DSP, although it only supports the supply side instead of the demand.

On the flip side, DAP is used by users who want to purchase an ad slot at the lowest possible rate. SSP is dedicated to maximizing the prices using the best approach possible. Note that the two platforms are located in the same engine dedicated to achieving a uniform goal.

The two work together to serve the best interests of the buyer and the seller at the same time. This means both the buyer and the seller benefit once the transaction is completed.

Conclusion

In layman’s language, SSP and DSP are the opposite parties of programmatic media buying. The two help facilitate buying and selling ad spaces in the best interest of the buyer and seller. They are also key players in the process of buying automation that simplifies the process of advertising and eliminates all the complex negotiation processes that existed in the past.

Comparing the two aspects based on their actions can help you understand how they operate and what makes them different. SSP allows publishers to monetize their traffic and obtain the best prices through the real-time bidding strategy. The platform saves advertiser time and helps them find the best suitable customers for their products.