SSPs additionally see bid request knowledge from the writer facet—which incorporates parameters like person ID, machine kind, geolocation, and blocked classes. Any SSP, change, or reseller within the chain sees each request and response knowledge for the transactions they facilitate, besides in uncommon circumstances the place some knowledge is purposefully obfuscated.
All this knowledge offers SSPs the power to make inferences a few given advertiser’s technique—notably the audiences they’re focusing on—primarily based on the bidstream knowledge it receives, in accordance with conversations with 9 totally different programmatic specialists.
A kind of specialists, who oversees a well-liked SSP, stated that any SSP “may arguably reverse engineer the whole marketer’s technique when you wished to.”
As an illustration, this exec stated, an SSP may confirm doubtless viewers segments {that a} given advertiser is focusing on if it noticed the advertiser incessantly bidding on placements for 18- to 24-year-olds out there for a brand new automotive. The identical could possibly be accomplished for contextual placements by associating bids with URLs.
The U.S. Division of Justice made an identical argument in its landmark antitrust case in opposition to Google’s adtech enterprise, which resulted in a federal ruling that decided Google operated an unlawful monopoly over advert exchanges and advert servers. The federal government claimed in its grievance that “public sale knowledge, together with knowledge regarding bidding, accessible impressions and gained impressions, allow advert tech merchandise to enhance their algorithms.” It additionally alleged that “an advert tech supplier that may see at scale who bids on stock and at what costs can create bidding methods to extra reliably win future auctions for comparable stock.”
Whereas this logic could apply to any SSP or advert change working open change auctions, Epsilon SSP stands out: It’s the one main SSP owned by an promoting holding firm. That makes Publicis the one company community with direct entry to advertisers’ marketing campaign knowledge within the programmatic ecosystem whereas concurrently competing for these advertisers’ enterprise. Some consumers see this twin position on each the purchase and promote sides as a possible battle of curiosity.
“No different holding firm has a majority or full possession over part of the ecosystem that everyone transacts and performs in,” an company media purchaser stated.
The corporate stated it retains its buy-side and sell-side operations separate.
“The buy-side can by no means see bid data obtained on the sell-side both in actual time or after the very fact, due to technical and operational firewalls (together with totally different groups and engineering programs) which are usually audited by a 3rd social gathering,” a Publicis spokesperson stated. They added that “any consumer utilizing each its buy-side and sell-side companies does so in full transparency, with a number of and repeated guide opt-ins.”
When requested, the corporate declined to supply extra details about what sorts of firewalls are in place.
“This knowledge will not be logged or saved by Epsilon’s SSP. Even when it have been, it’s not potential to make use of it to achieve perception right into a marketing campaign’s technique or targets,” the Publicis spokesperson stated.
The chief of a special main SSP, talking on situation of anonymity, disputed that an SSP wouldn’t log or retailer bid knowledge, saying it’s “normal” apply for SSPs to retailer each bid request and bid response knowledge, because it’s “vital for observability, telemetry, troubleshooting.” Additionally they stated that storing bid response knowledge is important for imposing advertiser blocklists and offering correct reporting for advertisers.
