AdTech Unraveled: Solving the Complexity Puzzle
The early days of programmatic advertising were pretty straightforward – just a few bidders, minimal complexity, and fairly predictable results. In today’s landscape, it’s an entirely different story. The industry is now flooded with demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), ad exchanges, identity solutions, and constantly shifting privacy regulations. The sheer number of acronyms, technologies, and optimizations can make it feel impossible to keep up.
Publishers are left asking:
- Which bidders are the most effective?
- Do I call them via Prebid client-side or server-side, Amazon TAM, or Google Open Bidding?
- How do I balance user experience while still achieving revenue goals?
- How do I optimize price floors and auction timeouts?
- Which identity solutions actually drive results?
You probably already understand the value of managing all of these elements and tailoring them to your audiences, but even the most sophisticated publishers can’t manage everything across different geographies, device types, and audiences efficiently by hand.
Introducing Freestar Intelligence: The Engine that Powers Real-Time Optimization
Freestar Intelligence is our proprietary decision engine that provides real-time customization at a granularity you could only previously dream of. Combining over a decade of hands-on experience, the horsepower of artificial intelligence and machine learning(AI/ML), and relentless experimentation (over 25 million experiments a week, in fact), we have built an optimization machine that takes the guesswork out of maximizing revenue. Continually enhanced by our expert team of data scientists and engineers, Freestar Intelligence dynamically adjusts auction mechanics (the back-end) and user experience (the front-end), leveraging our ever-growing suite of solutions to remove the headaches of manual yield management.
But what does that actually look like in action? Let’s take a look under the hood and break down the key ways Freestar Intelligence works to effortlessly maximize revenue for publishers every day.
Dynamic Ad Stack: Smarter Auction Mechanics
Freestar’s Dynamic Ad Stack (DAS) ensures all the behind-the-scenes elements of the auction are performing at their full potential by leveraging the power of AI/ML to adapt to market dynamics in real-time. Unlike traditional static configurations, DAS ensures every aspect of auction mechanics is fully optimized in real-time. The following are some of the many great features of DAS:
→ Next-Gen Header Bidding: Faster, Smarter, Lighter
Freestar’s modular header bidding wrapper is designed to be as efficient as possible, loading only the necessary code components. This “micro wrapper” approach cuts memory usage by 40% and reduces latency by 500ms compared to traditional setups. By reducing the number of resource-intensive features by up to 30%, it improves page load times while minimizing the impact on device performance.
The result? Faster load times, reduced JavaScript bloat, and a smoother user experience. With fewer active modules, there’s less strain on a visitor’s device, reducing memory leaks and improving performance across all browsers.
→ Dynamic Bidder Configurations and Timeouts: A Personalized Approach
Not all bidders perform equally in every situation, which is why DAS customizes the auction mechanics for every ad request. By dynamically selecting the ideal mix of server-side and client-side bidders, fine-tuning auction timeouts based on geo, device, and network speed, and leveraging historical auction data for real-time optimizations, our AI/ML-powered configuration system ensures revenue from each impression is maximized.
The result? Unlike fixed configurations that treat all visitors the same, this more granular approach results in faster page loads, higher engagement, improved user experience, and on average, a 5 to 8% revenue uplift for publishers.
→ Staying Ahead by Testing Identity Partners
With the decline of third-party cookies, alternative identity solutions are essential as advertisers will pay more when they know something about your users. If you don’t have identity solutions in place, you’re leaving a lot of revenue on the table. However, not all solutions deliver the same results. Freestar’s Identity Testing Framework removes the guesswork by:
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- Running side-by-side tests on multiple identity providers
- Tracking real revenue impact
- Optimizing for the best mix of partners
The result? Publishers using this framework have already seen a 25 to 50% higher performance on cookieless browsers and even a 3 to 5% increase in Chrome, ensuring they stay ahead in a privacy-first world.
→ Floor Pricing: Ensuring the Price is Right
Setting the right floor price safeguards your high-value ad inventory while avoiding overpricing that can result in low fill rates that hurt overall revenue. Our Freestar Intelligence -powered Dynamic Flooring technology takes the guess work out of striking the right pricing balance and automatically adjusts floor prices for each ad request based on factors like:
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- Device type (mobile vs. desktop)
- Time of day
- Geography
- Historical bid patterns
The result? Publishers using this technology have seen a 21% increase in CPMs compared to manual floors and a 7% lift over Google’s automated floors.
Dynamic Ad Products: Smarter Ad Placement Without Extra Work
The front-end on-page experience is just as important as what happens behind the scenes. However, ad placement can be a challenge – too many ads disrupt the user’s experience, but too few leave revenue on the table. A dynamic versus static setup ensures that each user is served the right type of ad format at the right time.
Unlike many of our competitors, Freestar’s Dynamic Ad Products are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Our agnostic approach allows us to customize each publisher’s ad placements using our AI/ML engine to power smarter ads that take into account user behavior and device type.
Whether it’s showcasing multiple ads within a single ad placement, inserting the ideal video player, displaying high-impact formats, or customizing a desktop vs. mobile experience, our suite of dynamic ad products empowers you to do more with less. All while maintaining a positive user experience and adhering to the Coalition for Better Ads standards.
Our latest development, Intelligent Ad Insertion (IAI), uses Freestar Intelligence to:
- Determine the optimal mix of in-content and high-impact ad placements
- Maximize revenue without compromising user engagement
The result? Publishers using IAI have seen an additional 5% revenue uplift, all without lifting a finger!
AdTech is Complex: You Don’t Have to Manage It Alone
The reality is that today’s Adtech world is far too complex for publishers to navigate on their own. Monetization isn’t about simple plug-and-play solutions. It requires a team, a strategy, and cutting-edge technology. That’s where Freestar comes in. We provide both the engine that powers dynamic solutions at scale and the expert team to drive the technology. While Freestar Intelligence certainly leverages the power of AI/ML, you can rest assured, we don’t let AI run the whole show. At the end of the day, we know AI/ML will always require a real heartbeat to steer it in the right direction. And Freestar’s direction has always been and will remain “Publisher First”, creating solutions that empower publishers to focus on what they do best: create great content.
Want to learn more? Watch our recent webinar to see how Freestar Intelligence is shaping the future of ad monetization.
