Demand Side Platforms are platforms where advertisers and agencies buy inventory in an automated, efficient, and optimized way. The name literally means demand side platform. In other words, the platform used by those who demand advertising space, the advertisers, to find the inventory that most interests them.
At the same time, there are SSPs or Sell Side Platforms that represent publishers, i.e. sellers of advertising space, and are complementary to DSPs. Depending on which side of the transaction you are on (buying or selling), you will use one platform or the other.
Explore the top DSPs shaping the future of programmatic buying in this comprehensive guide from SmartyAds: https://smartyads.com/blog/10-best-dsps-that-define-programmatic-buying
What is a DSP used for?
In the days before the birth of DSP programmatic advertising, the buying and selling of advertising inventory existed in the same way. But back then, the whole process was slower and more cumbersome.
As an advertiser, you had to personally contact publishers, negotiate prices, and track responses from the audience that was exposed to the ad. Of course, it was harder back then to get the amount of data about the audience that interacts with the ad that you can get now.
DSPs have not only streamlined and automated the entire buying and selling process but have also made it possible to optimize results. On these platforms, you can use segmentation to reach the right audience, who is most likely to be interested in your products or services and want to buy.
Moreover, with SmartyAds, you get real-time results, allowing you to tweak your campaigns accordingly: stopping or investing less in channels that are less successful and maximizing those that are performing better. This way, you receive instant feedback, enabling you to adjust your approach and consequently maximize ROI.
How does a DSP work?
Demand Side Platforms are connected to various Ad Exchanges. These are the online marketplaces where advertising inventory transactions take place. This is how advertisers are connected to publishers. Through a DSP, you can buy space for advertising campaigns virtually anywhere.
A DSP’s intelligent algorithm scans a nearly endless list to find and bid on the cheapest inventory in the media and spaces that deliver the best conversion results for advertisers. And all this in a matter of milliseconds.
Furthermore, the algorithm does not sit idly by between campaigns but rather learns with each interaction and constantly extracts information about the public’s reactions, allowing it to accumulate useful data to be increasingly precise in each campaign.
All advertising campaign settings are made in DSPs because they unify all the technology of programmatic buying for efficient use. In the case of buying through RTB, you can configure the amount of money you want to invest, where you want to bid, and then through a Demand Side Platform.
Managing a DSP is no easy task. As it is a complex system that receives information from many sources, there are many factors at play in its operation. Therefore, working with these platforms requires experience and good training. Typically, Trading Desks are the specialists in charge of DSPs, often hired by advertising agencies or working in companies specializing in DSP marketing advertising.
DSP vs. SSP in Digital Advertising: What’s the Difference?
Advertising space and opportunities are constantly growing, and so is the competition. Effectiveness no longer solely provides the guarantee of a successful campaign; efficiency is needed, too. Brands and advertisers have to serve the right ad to the right people to outrun competitors. And here comes into play programmatic advertising! Along with that eternal confusion of DSP vs SSP, we are here to untangle.
What’s the Difference: DSP vs SSP?
Demand Side Platform, or DSP for short, is the programmatic tool used by advertisers to automatically administer the process of media buying. It simplifies and optimizes ad space buying across different digital platforms without going over your budget. Its objective is to show your ad at just the right moment, to the right people, at the best cost. The types of ads you can buy through a DSP include native, display, video, and in-game ads.
SSP stands for Supply Side Platform, a programmed tool used in affiliate marketing, blogging, and app development, or by anyone who wishes to make an active income by displaying ads on his or her website. It links the publishers to a variety of demand-side platforms, ad exchanges, and ad networks at the same time to reach more prospective buyers.
DSP vs. SSP Advertising Benefits
Even though a DSP is in service for advertisers to buy ad spaces effectively and an SSP is in service for publishers to sell their available ad space, they facilitate the media buying process for both.
How does a DSP benefit an advertiser?
- Buying inventory cheap.
- Automating and making the negotiation process more effective.
- A wide range of publishers to choose from.
- Variety of options to target users.
- Detailed campaign analytics and reporting.
How Does an SSP Help Publishers?
- Automated selling of the ad space.
- The connection to various DSPs, ad networks, and ad exchanges.
- An opportunity to gain more because of the huge variety of advertisers, but also real-time bidding.
- Managing the content – the possibility to block ads that they do not want to advertise on their website, select certain channels/buyers, etc.
- Ability to set up the minimum price per ad space.
- Frequency capping, or limits on the frequency of display for the same ad viewer, reduces the possibilities of ad blocking by visitors; that also means minimizing the rate of website abandonment.
Wrapping Up
DSP and SSP are the backbone of programmatic advertising; therefore, their implementation falls under an integral requirement from the side of every advertiser, marketing agency, brand owner, website owner, and app developer to optimize and accelerate media buying.
The advertisers would find the ad spaces available at variable prices with ease, and on the other hand, the publishers would sell the available website space much quicker and at a decent price with the help of a DSP. While DSP vs. SSP may serve completely different purposes, in a nutshell, both of them work in tandem to provide a perfect digital marketing marketplace where the advertisers and the publishers can make the most of the money and amplify their reach.
