Bidswitch

The questions fall under three different categories:

• Pricing

• Placement

• Data

Pricing

What is your business model and how do you make money?
BidSwitch charges a percentage of media traded either to media suppliers (“SSPs”) or media buyers (“DSPs”), trading pairs dependent. BidSwitch also supports either the DSP or SSP covering the trading fee, which is known as ‘Flexible Fee Assignment’.

Can you outline the full details of the agreement on a booking form / contract?
BidSwitch supports two trading modes:

Connect Mode - Trading is done using the DSP’s own seat with the SSP. In this scenario a contractual agreement is required between the DSP and SSP. The SSP bills the DSP directly and BidSwitch does not handle media cost payments between such parties.

Media Mode - When using Media Mode, trading is done using BidSwitch’s own seat with an SSP. Therefore, no contractual agreement is needed between the DSP and SSP.

These various options differ only in commercial terms between BidSwitch, DSPs, SSPs and billing methods. From an integration perspective there is no difference in implementation.

Each SSP can decide which trading modes they want to support and can support both modes with different DSPs at the same time. Some SSPs support both modes, while others just pick one.

DSPs can use both modes, but only one mode per SSP, so it is not possible for a DSP to be in Connect Mode and Media Mode with a particular SSP at the same time.

Will you share who your trading partners are?
BidSwitch is connected to over 220 global DSPs and 180 SSPs across all media types in over 250 countries.

Placement

Do you own the inventory you sell?
BidSwitch provides the underlying infrastructure that normalises the connections between different programmatic technology platforms (most commonly this means DSPs and SSPs) and does not own the inventory itself. Today, BidSwitch facilitates more than 4,000 of these different connections globally, providing an integral infrastructure to support programmatic players at all tiers and levels of the industry.

If you don’t own your own inventory then how do you access inventory and which platforms do you use?
Operating uniquely as a centralised layer across the entire ecosystem, BidSwitch is currently connected to over 180 SSPs across all media formats – listening to this entire global programmatic bidstream. BidSwitch is continuously processing, filtering for fraud and classifying inventory opportunities, layering on data and other services, then intelligently distributing it to relevant DSPs across more than 180 SSPs – all in real-time.

Do you specify your media placements and positions?
BidSwitch facilitates the connections between DSPs and SSPs. The SSP decides what inventory is passed through to DSPs.

What insights do you provide back to advertisers?
As BidSwitch does not have contact with advertisers directly, it does not provide insights to brands at this time. DSPs and SSPs are able to provide partner-specific performance as well as forecasting tools for media buyers. All partners are provided with Trading, Deal and Inventory reporting insights.

Does the inventory you own or access include UGC content?
BidSwitch receives inventory from over 180 SSP partners which includes some UGC content.

What brand safety measures do you use?
BidSwitch provides free fraud detection on all web and in-app traffic using its proprietary fraud filtering systems. In addition, it also provides centralised blacklists to block IP addresses, fake sites, creatives and resellers, ads.txt blocking and suppression tools for demand and GDPR implementation controls for DSPs.

Which industry standards have you been certified against?
BidSwitch is TAG certified against fraud and has been certified for Brand Safety by JICWEBS DTSG.

Do you have a policy in place for ad-misplacement?
This is entirely SSP/DSP dependent.

Are you happy to share your optimisation tactics?
BidSwitch can provide bidstream optimisation services that significantly reduce volumes of ‘unwanted’ bidsteam traffic resulting in major datacenter and hosting cost savings for both SSPs and DSPs. In addition, it can also provide bid shading tools to optimise bidding for first-price auctions that can generate savings of ~20% on media spend for BidSwitch DSPs through its True Price product.

Data

Under GDPR what legal basis are you providing your services under?
BidSwitch is considered a Data Processor under GDPR and does not process any personal data for its own purposes.

If consent is the mechanism then can you prove how you obtained it?
As a processor, BidSwitch does not itself obtain consent from data subjects.

Are you using the IAB Framework?
BidSwitch supports the IAB Framework being passed in bid requests.

What other 3rd party data partners require consent for your business to deliver its service?
All parties connected to the BidSwitch Platform are able to improve the targeting of advertising that is displayed to data subjects by obtaining informed consent to this from data subjects to data subjects. Third-party data partners that may be used by such SSPs and DSPs would require informed consent to process personal data by such SSPs and DSPs.

What do you do with data you obtain from advertiser’s campaigns or data tags?
BidSwitch will pass bid requests (containing data) received from SSPs to DSPs that are connected to the BidSwitch Platform and pass bids (containing data) received from such DSPs back to SSPs in response to each originating bid request. SSPs will select the bid that best fits their criteria, following which piece of digital advertising material will be displayed in the media space sold that relates to the originating bid request (a “Transaction”). BidSwitch will generate a temporary log relating to each Transaction for reporting and billing purposes of such SSPs and DSPs. Data from advertisers’ campaigns and/or related data tags will not be stored or retained by BidSwitch.

Are advertisers permitted to appoint their own 3rd party partners for verification and measurement?
Yes. As BidSwitch is a middle infrastructure layer, advertisers are able to use their own third-party verification and measurement vendors independently of the BidSwitch technology layer.

Will you provide a link to your privacy and data policies?
Yes, here.

Will you share how you build audience, contextual and targeting segments?
This is not currently a service offered by BidSwitch.

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Please note the answers given are self-declared and are not verified by IAB UK or independently audited, unlike under industry-owned programmes such as JICWEBS. To view the latest JICWEBS Certifications, visit https://jicwebs.org/certification-process/signatories/