Even before header bidding, the signal to noise ratio in programmatic has been difficult to manage. Now, with orders of magnitude more noise in the pipes, it has become critically important to have a way to cut through it all and separate the treasure from the trash.
Queries Per Second (QPS) Throttling, or QPS limits, has been one attempt. These are also a product of the programmatic industry’s efforts to limit processing costs and computational spikes. QPS limits have become a hot topic on the heels of Supply Path Optimization (SPO).
If you sit on the supply side, say as an Ad Exchange or SSP, you are well aware of the consequences this has had to operations. Notably:
Strains on relationships with publishers and demand partners;
Impacts on the perceived quality of available inventory (the supply side has more to offer that cannot be utilized);
Missed revenue opportunities from an inefficient process resulting in money being left on the table.
Though well intentioned, QPS limits have had a direct negative impact on revenue at both sides of the ecosystem.
By design, QPS limits result in only a subset of possible interactions between supply and demand happening. Choosing which subset to process has a major impact on how much revenue is left unclaimed. This has weighed especially heavily on supply side profitability and the demand side’s ability to fill campaigns via existing channels.
To support our partners in being the best possible partner to their partners in the face of changing requirements, we have added a feature to dynamically manage what is sold within QPS limits to improve relationships and revenue. This new feature removes the need for manual and/or inefficient throttling mechanisms.
Introducing the QPS Manager
Rivr’s QPS Manager makes every second count by enabling SSPs to anticipate the bidding behavior of each bidder, and pace the queries according to the most valuable requests. This increases efficiency in terms of revenue per minute (RPM) by adapting to newly added advertising campaigns, constantly monitoring for fluctuations and selecting those bid requests that are most likely to be successful.
At this time, SSPs have different methods for answering QPS limits: some block specific traffic segments from ever being sent to specific bidders, some use real-time counters to allow FIFO (first in first out), and others take a step forward and introduce supply volume predictors but still randomly choose bid-requests to send. No matter how they treat it, otherwise monetizable bid-requests are throttled. This is now changed with Rivr’s smart filtering.
Rivr’s AI product allows monetizable requests to be extracted at the expense of non-monetizable ones from other segments, resulting in the ability to find more than one diamond in the rough.
The results from partners implementation of Rivr’s QPS manager have been impressive. To illustrate the impact, we have examined one client’s outcome
Before Rivr’s QPS Manager
With rudimentary ways of managing QPS limits - i.e. FIFO and randomly cutting requests - the SSP was sacrificing unnecessarily revenue
After Rivr’s QPS Manager
Using AI models, monetizable requests are extracted at the expense of non-monetizable ones from other segments. Updating as new partners are added, the ability to find more than one diamond in the rough continues to improve relationships and revenue over time.
The results from partners implementation of Rivr’s QPS manager have been impressive. To illustrate the impact, we have examined one client’s outcome in the graph below.
Rivr’s intelligent AI model picks each request sent in the allowed QPS limit, resulting in an immediate revenue increase compared to previous throttling methods.
Managing the QPS caps of other demand partners has continued to have a positive effect. Some partners remained in low percentage of increase, and as seen below, others had an almost too-good-to-be-true uplift.
Results with the QPS Manager
An increase in profits is evident, with some demand partners seeing an uplift in revenue of ~30% and others over 100%.
Different factors, such as the existing QPS cap and the value of the supply inventory for the bidder, change the impact on revenue uplift. Overall, revenue with the QPS Manager saw a measurable increase in most cases. Additionally, relationships with partners were improved and fewer resources are needed to manage them.
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Want to know what Rivr’s QPS Manager can do for your revenue? Get in touch to learn how you can see it in action.