TripleLift header bidding wrapper gives more control to publishers
TripleLift has launched server-side header bidding wrapper Apex, aimed at giving publishers more control over the native ads showing up in their feeds. TripleLeft said its first-price auction will promote in-feed competition between a publisher's native ad partners. Co-founder Ari Lewine said: "Because the native ad ecosystem has less legacy holdup, I’m optimistic it will happen easier than in the banner ad space." Despite being able to incorporate demand from content recommendation engines, outstream video, Nativo and Sharethrough, as well as social media sites Facebook and Twitter, as yet none of them have signed up for Apex.
On Tuesday, it rolled out its wrapper, Apex, which lets publishers bring in demand for their in-feed native ad placements.

TripleLift will run a first-price auction among all participating partners, a shift from the OpenRTB spec of a second-price auction that could result in higher payouts for publishers.

TripleLift co-founder Ari Lewine said this auction setup will allow a publisher’s native ad partners to better compete for in-feed placements. Since many publishers require in-feed ads to compete against their own branded content campaigns running in their ad servers, bidding at a higher CPM will increase the chance of the ad winning the slot.

While Apex could incorporate demand from Facebook, Twitter, Nativo, Sharethrough, content recommendation engines and outstream video, none of those partners have signed on yet – which could mean Apex never gets off the ground (as happened with OpenX Meta).

Lewine said publishers who want to use the product, like Intermarkets and The Guardian, are spearheading conversations with their own native ad partners to encourage them to join.

And Lewine predicts the native ad ecosystem will work together better than the banner ad-focused SSPs.

“Our goal is to build a market, versus defend our market share,” he said. “Because the native ad ecosystem has less legacy holdup, I’m optimistic it will happen easier than in the banner ad space.”