Criteo’s Header Bidding Innovation Maximizes Revenue for All; Publishers Now Retain the Full Value of their Inventory and Advertisers Will Benefit from Higher Performance
NEW YORK – May 23, 2017 – Criteo (NASDAQ: CRTO), the performance marketing technology company, today announced Criteo Direct Bidder, header bidding technology that directly connects publishers’ inventory to the demand from Criteo’s extensive base of more than 15,000 clients globally. This solution ensures publishers retain the full value of the impressions that Criteo buys, while Criteo continues to drive profitable sales for advertisers. Criteo has already migrated over 250 of its largest premium publishers to Criteo Direct Bidder as part of the early adopter program.
Header bidding solutions, initially conceived to streamline bidding for publisher inventory, still do not present a win-win scenario for advertisers and publishers. Criteo Direct Bidder directly connects publisher inventory to Criteo’s demand in an ecosystem that operates as a virtuous cycle of opportunity for all parties. Publishers drive higher revenues and benefit from greater transparency, elimination of third-party fees and flexible integration. The virtuous cycle extends to Criteo’s advertising clients, as expanded access to inventory and media buying efficiencies enable them to realize higher campaign performance and ROI.
“Criteo was an early pioneer in header bidding and is now releasing a product that further increases value for both publishers and advertisers alike,” said Marc Grabowski, Executive Vice President, Global Supply & Business Development, Criteo. “As we shift our buying to this new solution, we expect our clients to achieve higher campaign performance from the solution’s media buying efficiencies. We’re already averaging 20-40% higher publisher revenue for Criteo’s ad buys, translating into higher value for advertisers, as well. Criteo Direct Bidder is a win-win-win for our publishers, our clients, and us.”
“We commend Criteo, one of the first companies to utilize header technology, for continuing to evolve to meet the industry’s best practices in terms of header bidding,” said Stephanie Layser, Director, Advertising Technology, NewsCorp. “This development enables publishers to regain control over their tech stack, increasing competition among demand sources and optimizing yield effectively.”
“Our objective is to create a unified auction across all demand, and header bidding helps us deliver this vision,” said Paul de la Nougerede, Commercial Product Director, The Telegraph. “We feel this delivers better solutions for our partners and are delighted that Criteo shares this vision.”
With Criteo Direct Bidder, publishers have a seamless, streamlined solution to maximize the monetization of all their display and native inventory across formats (desktop, mobile) without increasing Criteo’s average CPMs or Traffic Acquisition Costs. As a result, Criteo’s advertisers have access to the highest quality inventory across all platforms and formats to deliver the best possible performance. Criteo is focused on driving leadership in performance marketing with an ecosystem that connects demand and supply for the benefit of all parties.
“Header bidding is now at critical mass in the U.S. and Western Europe and this year the growth for this segment is expected to be 100%,” said Karsten Weide, Program Vice President, Media & Entertainment, IDC. “As publishers look to balance page performance with header bidding, they need to be highly selective in determining which bidders are included in their header. Publishers will choose the partners who are proven to offer transparency, distinct demand, technical efficiency, and better CPMs.”
Criteo Direct Bidder offers publishers the following benefits:
- Increased Revenue for Display and Native. Allows publishers to eliminate third-party fees and retain the full value of standard display ads and native units that Criteo buys directly.
- Speed at Scale. Connects to Criteo’s proven programmatic platform, delivering lightning quick responses to more than 120 billion requests per day.
- Monetization of Ad Blocked Users. Efficiently monetizes a publisher’s ad-blocked impressions. According to eMarketer, 27.5% of U.S. internet users will use ad blockers in 2017.
- Flexible Configuration for Maximum Yield. Simplifies the publisher’s ad server setup to drive more yield from Criteo’s high-quality network of more than 15,000 advertisers globally.
- Real-time User Matching. Directly matches users’ cookies, including those from Safari browsers, resulting in an average of 20% greater spend from Criteo.
- Seamless, Flexible Integration. Offers the option of accessing Criteo’s unique demand through a standalone integration method or an existing Index or Prebid header bidding wrapper.
To learn more about Criteo Direct Bidder, please visit http://www.criteo.com/products/criteo-direct-bidder/.
About Criteo
Criteo (NASDAQ: CRTO) delivers personalized performance marketing at an extensive scale. Measuring return on post-click sales, Criteo makes ROI transparent and easy to measure. Criteo has over 2,500 employees in more than 30 offices across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, serving over 15,000 advertisers worldwide and with direct relationships with thousands of publishers. For more information, please visit www.criteo.com.
