How to Choose the Right Adtech Partner in 2024: A Comprehensive Checklist for Publishers

The right partner can help optimize revenue streams and provide resilient, adaptive strategies that navigate both market downturns and the evolving digital advertising landscape.

As budgets tighten, ensuring that your adtech partner can deliver efficient, cost-effective solutions will be key to maintaining profitability and competitiveness in the challenging months ahead. 

As advanced technologies like AI-powered Prebid Servers, hybrid wrappers, AI traffic shaping, and dynamic flooring continue to transform programmatic advertising, it's crucial to partner with companies that not only provide innovative solutions but also uphold values of transparency and reliability.

To ensure your partner is fully aligned with your needs, it's important to select one whose core business is exclusively focused on the publisher ecosystem. This focus prevents the partner from pivoting to areas like selling demand or operating as a supply-side platform (SSP), which can create biases and conflicts of interest.

“In a challenging economic climate, aligning with a partner that can optimize revenue and provide resilient strategies will be essential for maintaining financial stability and competitiveness.

This partnership could be a key factor in navigating the uncertain economic landscape ahead.”

Nils Lind, Founder & CEO - Assertive Yield.

This checklist will guide you through the key factors to consider when evaluating potential adtech partners, helping you make informed choices that will strengthen your programmatic strategy. Here's what to keep in mind:

Comprehensive Checklist to Choosing the Right AdTech 

1. All-in-One Adtech Partner

✅ Does the Adtech Partner Offer Demand Unbiased Optimization?

According to the IAB report, about 55 percent of programmatic revenue was captured by Ad Tech services, while only 45 percent of the total programmatic revenue went to publishers.

Therefore, it's crucial to ensure that the adtech partner you choose does not bundle their solutions with demand sources that may have conflicting interests. 

Adtech providers who sell demand or act as SSPs are incentivized to prioritize their own demand, leading to biased auction outcomes. 

A partner focused solely on providing adtech to the publisher ecosystem will ensure transparency, and that your inventory is being valued fairly and that the demand you are accessing is truly unbiased.

✅ How Does the Partner Manage Demand Conflicts?

Understanding how the adtech partner manages potential conflicts of interest is key to assessing their commitment to transparency. 

A reliable partner will have clear mechanisms in place to prevent and manage conflicts, ensuring that your revenue is maximized without compromising the fairness and integrity of the auction process. 

Gain a comprehensive view of your ad operations by analyzing total revenue across all demand sources alongside key user engagement metrics. It's not just about maximizing revenue from a single source; it's about balancing all important KPIs to optimize overall performance. 

By fully understanding test outcomes and demand partner performance, you can ensure the best results that align with your strategic goals.

2.  AI and Machine Learning Capabilities

✅ What AI-driven optimizations are available?

According to Invoca’s report on marketing data, about 31% of companies can’t optimize their ad performance efficiently because they have too much data to analyze. 

Inquire about the specific AI and Machine Learning technologies the partner offers, such as AI prebid server, AI traffic shaping, and dynamic flooring. Assess how these tools can enhance your current setup by optimizing ad requests and pricing strategies.

✅ Is the Provider’s AI System Sophisticated and Proven Over Time?

The sophistication and reliability of AI-driven optimizations depend heavily on access to deep historical and granular data. For AI and machine learning technologies to deliver consistent and precise results, they must be built on a well-established and continuously evolving AI system.

Choosing an adtech partner with a long-standing and advanced AI solution ensures more accurate predictions, minimal risk, and sustained revenue uplift. With a proven track record, such AI systems can identify patterns, optimize demand performance, and drive reliable results, providing a stable, high-performing solution for publishers.

3. Integration and Technical Support

✅ How complex is the integration process?

Consider whether the technology requires significant resources or if it can be implemented with minimal disruption. Choosing a partner that offers seamless integration will save time and reduce the operational burden on your team.

Additionally, assess if the technology can run simultaneously with your existing Prebid client-side server, giving your team the flexibility to dynamically choose between client-side or server-side Prebid for each SSP, country, or specific criteria.

The most advanced solutions allow for quick integration—often as simple as copying and pasting a script on the page—enabling you to start seeing improved results within the same week.

✅ What level of ongoing support is provided?

Reliable customer support is essential, particularly when implementing advanced technologies. Ensure that the partner offers robust support to address any issues that arise during and after integration. Search for customers’ testimonials and understand the SLA options that adtech providers offer to support your team.

4. Cost-Effectiveness and ROI

✅ What is the ideal pricing model?

Understanding the pricing model of your adtech partner is crucial to ensuring transparency and alignment with your revenue goals.

Some providers offer a revenue-share or share-uplift model, but these can introduce biases, as they may incentivize the provider to focus only on specific sources of uplift, rather than looking at the full picture of your ad ecosystem. This approach can obscure the true performance of your inventory and lead to suboptimal outcomes.

In contrast, a CPM-based pricing model, as seen in Prebid Server setups, keeps pricing stable regardless of revenue or uplift, ensuring that optimizations are focused on overall performance rather than being skewed by compensation structures.

An ideal adtech partner should offer flexibility, adjusting their pricing model to fit your needs while maintaining transparency.

Another important factor is the payment flow. With some revenue-share models, the partner holds the funds before passing them to the publisher, creating a "power dynamic" that can affect trust and control.

Publishers should look for partners where payment flows directly from demand sources to them, ensuring they retain full control over their revenue and the process stays unbiased.

✅ Does the partner provide measurable ROI?

Ask for case studies or testimonials demonstrating the partner’s ability to deliver measurable revenue increases. A partner that can show a clear return on investment is more likely to help you achieve your goals.

5. Reputation and Industry Standing

✅ How long has the partner been in the industry?

Longevity and experience in the adtech space are indicators of reliability. A partner with a long track record is likely to have the expertise needed to navigate the complexities of programmatic advertising.

✅ What do other publishers say?

Seek out reviews, testimonials, and case studies from other publishers who have worked with the partner. This feedback can provide valuable insights into the partner’s performance and reliability.

Choosing the right adtech partner is crucial for optimizing your programmatic advertising strategy. By selecting an adtech partner dedicated exclusively to the publisher ecosystem, you can trust that your interests are their primary focus and that you have access to transparent and unbiased demand, free from conflicts of interest. 

We hope that with this checklist, you can ensure that you select a partner who not only offers the latest AI-driven technologies but also aligns with your values of transparency and reliability.

The next article in this series will delve into why now is the perfect time to invest in AI-powered Prebid Server technologies, helping you future-proof your ad operations and maximize revenue.