Leaning into the programmatic supply chain can save costs
There are various actions that can be taken to delve into the programmatic supply chain, especially for those investing significantly in it. One such step is to pay special attention to the supply chain. Or as we never get tired of saying again and again: If you haven’t done it yet, go and set up your Supplychain Object immediately! Why though? Because this allows you to optimize your supply paths. It’s your way to make sure that you’re bidding on the most direct route to the inventory. And that is very important, because after all, the fewer intermediaries there are in the chain, the less value (and further on advertising money) is lost.
But: Wtf is a Supplychain Object?
The introduction of the Supplychain Object, also referred to as SCO or SCHAIN, was announced alongside sellers.json back in 2019. Its primary function is to enhance transparency in the supply chain. Similar to sellers.json, the Supplychain Object aims to demystify the process of impression sales to buyers. However, whereas sellers.json only discloses information about the ultimate seller of an impression, the Supplychain Object offers insights into all intermediaries involved in the transaction and therefore documents the chain of who is receiving money for an impression. And as we already talked about in an older blogpost and won’t get tired to say again and again THIS ISN’T ONLY NICE TO HAVE BUT A REAL MUST HAVE nowadays!
And: How does this magical tool work?
To be honest, at first glance it seems very complex and therefore quite complicated. But basically it boils down to the following general explanation: Together with ads.txt and sellers.json the Supplychain Object is a part of an OpenRTB bid request and consists of "nodes." Each node in the schain object represents a specific entity participating in the bid request, which includes all entities involved in the direct flow of payment for inventory.
Or to put it into other words:
Ads.txt, sellers.json and the Supplychain Object serve as mechanisms for pinpointing every intermediary involved in the flow of funds from the purchasing platform to the publisher. They specifically exclude intermediaries not engaged in fund transfers and systems receiving fees for services without redistributing payments upstream.
In complex supply chains, this promotes heightened transparency and facilitates the identification and prevention of fraudulent or undesirable sources of supply, aligning with the advertising consumer's business policies.
You aren’t familiar with this? Hurry up! It's already 2024!
To sum it up: Armed with all the information you get from setting up the Supplychain object correctly, you can finally start to protect your spending from shady sellers peddling fraudulent traffic as well as from those vendors who are simply reselling impressions to duplicate the number of auctions for the same impression to drive up the cost of it.
Sounds good? It is! So what are you waiting for. SCHAIN has been introduced in 2019 – so it’s been around for years now. Time to set it up! We would even go so far as to say that advertisers who forego supply chain optimization will never be able to be truly successful in 2024. But what is perhaps even more important: Not only advertisers, but all actors have to ensure transparency. Otherwise they won’t be able to participate in today’s programmatic ecosystem any longer. That’s why we at ConnectAd are especially proud that we can ensure that all our partners have ads.txt, sellers.json and SCHAIN in place and mechanisms that work exactly as they are supposed to do. Because shedding light on the complexities of digital advertising systems and providing valuable context is our mission.
