Header bidding in yield groups

Use of this new method of header bidding is optional. Ad Manager will continue to support the traditional method of header bidding that uses Price Priority line items, however, it does not support header bidding deal IDs. If desired, publishers can use the new method and the traditional method according to their needs.

Only available in Google Ad Manager 360.

In a general sense, header bidding is a system that collects programmatic bids on the publisher’s webpage before making the ad request to Ad Manager.

In Ad Manager, header bidding in yield groups is a feature that enables publishers to integrate their header bidding demand directly into yield groups. This feature is designed to:

• Simplify setting up header bidding in Ad Manager.
• Improve header bidding reporting with consolidated and more accurate reporting across all demand channels.
• Potentially improve header bidding performance with more granular bidding (using true bid values instead of Price Priority line items).

Requirements

To use header bidding in yield groups, you must:

• Use the Prebid wrapper with a "standard implementation."
• Use Google Publisher Tag (GPT) on your website.
• Target the Banner ad format.
• Target the Web inventory type.

Additional functionality is being considered for future releases.

Tagging

No tagging changes are required. GPT will collect the necessary data from your Prebid wrapper directly.

Publishers should continue to use existing Prebid header bidding wrappers provided by partners with which they have an existing direct relationship. Only web display traffic is supported.

Yield group setup

To enable header bidding in yield groups, publishers must set up at least one yield group with one or more Prebid yield partners that support header bidding. The process of enabling a yield group is similar to the process of enabling Open Bidding.

Enable header bidding for an ad network

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Delivery > Bidders.
3. Click the Header bidding tab.
4. Click New bidder.
5. In “Select a bidder”, search for and select a bidder.
6. In “Enable header bidding”, click Continue.
   This will enable header bidding for the selected bidder. To process bid requests, you must add the bidder to an active yield group as described in the following steps.
7. On the details page for the bidder you enabled for header bidding, on the “Onboard” tab, in the “Get started” section, click Go to yield groups and select an existing yield group or create a new yield group.
   The yield group selected for header bidding must be targeted to the Banner ad format and the Web inventory type.

(Optional) Turn SafeFrame on or off

You can choose how header bidding yield group responses work with a SafeFrame.

1. Click Delivery > Bidders.
2. Click the Header bidding tab.
3. Select a bidder.
4. On the details page for the bidder, on the “Onboard” tab, in the “SafeFrame” section, toggle Enable SafeFrame.
   Turn on to allow header bidding yield group responses to be served within a SafeFrame. Turn off if the header bidder is known to return creatives that are incompatible with SafeFrame.

Create a new yield group for header bidding

Yield groups allow you to specify what inventory you want to sell with header bidding. Yield groups always include Ad Exchange (unless blocked). You can also add third-party exchanges and ad networks. Targeting is similar to line items.

Permission to edit yield groups and edit companies is required to complete these steps.

We recommend users are added to Teams > All entities for Yield groups access. Teams restrict access to Yield groups because they restrict access to companies.

If not granted, it may be challenging to manually configure teams access to all Ad networks and Ad units configured within your networks's Yield groups. Learn more about teams.

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Delivery > Yield groups.
3. Click New yield group.
4. Enter a unique yield group Name that's descriptive for reporting.
5. Select the Banner ad format.
6. Select the Web inventory type.
7. Click Add yield partner.
8. Select the yield partner from the Yield partner dropdown.
9. Select the Header bidding integration type.
10. Click Save.

(Optional) Manage child-directed requests

You can choose whether a bidder is safe to serve on child-directed requests. This setting is turned off by default.

1.  Sign in to Google Ad Manager.

2. Click Delivery Bidders.

3. Click the Header bidding tab.

4. Select a bidder.

5. On the details page for the bidder, on the Onboard tab, in the Child-Directed Requests section, toggle Allow Ads on Child-Directed Requests. Turn on to allow header bidding ads from this bidder to serve on requests that are child-directed. Turn off if you do not want to allow header bidding ads from this bidder to serve on requests that are child-directed.

Yield group reporting

The Yield group report dimensions and metrics help you understand how header bidding is performing.

• Use the Yield partner dimension to see performance by exchange.
• Use the Yield group dimension to see performance by targeting bucket.
• Add the Demand Channel dimension to see whether buyers accessed your inventory via header bidding (the Demand Channel dimension has a value of “Header bidding”).