Prebid Wrapper: A Comprehensive Guide for Publishers

Running your own header bidding auction isn't easy. You're here, so we assume you're already familiar with the intricacies of header bidding – that whole process of auctions happening before a user even sees your page.

Header bidding can be implemented in more than one way. You can team up with a managed service that provides a wrapper – think of it as a handy tool that takes care of the messy details and lets you run header bidding smoothly. They'll often have their own network of partners to ensure your ad inventory gets the attention it deserves.

But if you are a DIY publisher who thrives on open-source solutions. You can try Prebid! This community-powered wrapper is your ticket to running your own header bidding auction, with all the control and flexibility.

Decoding Header Bidding Wrapper: Your Central Hub for Bidding Chaos

You've got a handful of eager header bidding partners competing for your ad inventory. Each wants to integrate their code directly onto your site, creating a tangled mess of scripts and complexity. 

A header bidding wrapper acts as a centralized command center, simplifying this chaos. 

Instead of managing each partner's code individually, the wrapper serves as a single point of contact. It seamlessly connects with all your chosen partners, streamlining the entire process. 

But the wrapper isn't just about convenience. It's a powerful tool for optimization. Want to test different partners or adjust bidding strategies? The wrapper lets you do it all from one centralized location. 

It's like having a dedicated crew for your header bidding operations, ensuring everything runs efficiently. Eventually, by managing the complex auction process, the wrapper helps you maximize your ad revenue and improve your website's performance.

So, What Exactly Is Prebid.js Then?

Prebid Wrapper or Prebid.js is a type of header bidding wrapper. 

Other header bidding wrappers do promise to simplify your ad auctions and increase revenue. But here's the thing, not all wrappers are created equal. Some have limited options, confusing interfaces, and less room for customization. Whereas, Prebid.js is free to use, lets you connect with a ton of different ad networks (which means: more competition, higher bids!), and gives you total control over how those auctions run.

Ready to discover the full potential of header bidding? Let's show you how Prebid.js works!

Here’s How It Works?

So, we all know the standard drill – the user loads a page, an ad tag fires a request to the ad server. But this traditional approach often leaves significant ad revenue on the table. Header bidding with Prebid.js can help you capture this untapped potential by creating a competitive marketplace for your ad inventory. 

Prebid.js acts like a silent auctioneer before the ad server even gets a hint of what's happening. It intercepts the ad request and blasts it out to a whole bunch of different ad networks – think of them as eager bidders in a high-stakes competition.

The Prebid wrapper doesn’t interfere with the ad server. It treats all ad networks equally, sending requests to each one randomly. To ensure a fast page load time, there's a time limit for the networks to respond with their bids. Only those who submit bids within this time frame are eligible to compete.

Once the bidding is complete, Prebid.js collects all the bids and sends them to the ad server. The ad server then matches the bids against your line items and selects the highest bidder.

If a Prebid.js bidder emerges victorious, the ad server sends a signal back to the wrapper, letting it know to display the winning ad creative. Otherwise, the ad server takes the reins and renders the winner itself.

Note that, Prebid.js isn't some middleman. It's a performance and data-driven maestro, orchestrating a real-time bidding war to maximize your ad revenue.

How To Set Up A Prebid Wrapper On Your Website?

You probably might have guessed by now that we require engineering and AdOps teams to set up header bidding with Prebid.

Though other proprietary wrappers are different, the overall logic remains the same. In Prebid, you are required to do everything. When it comes to managed header bidding providers and proprietary wrappers, they’ve developed a wrapper and likely put automation in place to take care of the setup for you.

Benefits of Prebid Wrapper for Publishers

One of the great things about Prebid.js is that it allows publishers to control the bidding process. You can control the rules, prices, bid limits, etc. But the Prebid wrapper goes a step further. The benefits of using a prebid wrapper for publishers include the following:

• Smoother header bidding experience: Implementing the Prebid wrapper results in a more streamlined header bidding, resulting in improved response times of demand partners, reduced latency, and an enhanced user experience of a website.

• Extensive collection of header bidding adapters: Publishers can utilize the vast array of functional header bidding adapters along the Prebid wrapper to leverage multiple demand sources and analytics, enhancing auction performance and maximizing revenue opportunities.

• Greater control of ad inventory: Prebid facilitates more control of ad inventory, allowing publishers to manage their ad inventory better and make informed decisions on which ads to show to their audience on the website.

• Free and open source: It is a free and open-source solution that enables anyone to contribute or review code, ensuring that the available solutions remain up-to-date, relevant, and transparent.

So, How Will You Set Up Prebid to Run Header Bidding?

You need to use developers for setting up the wrapper and adding prebid code on your pages, and then take help from adops engineers to set up and configure the ad server to work with the prebid wrapper.

While we can’t list all the tasks/steps involved in detail, we’ll give you an overview of the steps that should be taken in the prescribed order to run header bidding via Prebid efficiently.

Let’s start with the prebid wrapper. Shall we?

Step 1: Prebid library file

Prebid.js, a library file, should be loaded initially to run header bidding. You can head to prebid.org and download the library file. Before downloading, you must select the version and the adapters (demand partners/header bidding partners) you want to work with. There’s a caveat – you must ensure the Prebid adapter and the Prebid version support each other to avoid errors. 

The library file has the core logic (wrapper code) to run header auctions. 

Step 2: Ad server library file

The very next step is to load the ad server’s library file. You can call the GPT (Google Publisher Tag) library file using Google Ad Manager. Prebid.js supports Google Ad Manager, FreeWheel, Xandr, etc. 

Step 3: Header auction

To run header auctions, Prebid will pause the initial ad server call. Then, it will send bid requests to multiple demand partners to fetch bids for the available impressions. These should be done by writing the code with appropriate functions (from the library files).

You can make the request asynchronous (it doesn’t block the rest of the page content), set a timeout (to ensure the wrapper isn’t waiting forever to get the bids from the partners), and make use of modules (GDPR consent management module). 

On top of these, you can configure the prebid.js to send all the bids from the demand partners to the server instead of only sending the highest bids (the decision logic of choosing the highest bid is customizable). 

Sidenote: A publisher needs technical assistance to go through this process. It is advised to either have a dedicated in-house team to use the prebid wrapper or use a managed header bidding provider. 

Ad server setup varies based on the server you use. For Google Ad Manager, you must create line items and key values for the demand partners you want to capture bids from. The configuration requires due diligence since the first-price auction and Google’s unified pricing rules are applied for indirect demand. We’ll cover it in detail in a separate post. We hope you know about header bidding wrappers, especially prebid wrappers.

Prebid Vs. Managed Header Bidding Wrapper: Which One Should You Choose

Building a wrapper and maintaining it isn’t an easy job. Besides, you are required to onboard SSPs and other demand sources yourself.

On the one hand, proprietary wrappers raise concerns among publishers for the lack of transparency and black-box technology. On the other hand, developers struggle to make use of open-source frameworks. The plethora of errors and back-and-forth communication between you and the demand partners makes it even harder*.

*Most global SSPs, like OpenX, Xandr, Magnite, etc., tend to onboard premium publishers with hundreds of millions of monthly ad impressions.

That’s why many managed header bidding providers came up with wrappers – built on top of prebid. This way, publishers can trust the wrapper, save many resources and hours, and focus on what they do best – creating stellar content, attracting the audience, and delivering the best user experience. Ultimately, it depends on your team and resource availability.

You can go with a Prebid wrapper if you have an in-house team for setup and optimization. It has all the features you require to get started with header bidding. The next best option is to try a managed header bidding solution provider. The best part is you’ll outsource almost all the setup and optimization work to the provider. 

Have any questions regarding prebid/header bidding? Ask us right away.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is a Prebid Wrapper (or Prebid.js)?

Prebid wrapper, also known as prebid.js, is one of the open-source frameworks available to let web publishers and app developers set up and run header bidding themselves. It has 150+ demand partners, 15+ analytics adapters, and built-in modules to help you with currency conversion, GDPR, and common ID systems.

How Does Prebid Wrapper Work?

If there’s no header bidding or prebid wrapper tag, the ‘ad tag’ on the page will send ad requests to your ad server whenever a user loads a page. But with the prebid wrapper tag, the ad server code is paused, allowing the prebid.js (prebid wrapper) to fetch bids and creatives from various demand partners. 

Does Prebid.js or Prebid Wrapper Cache Bids?

Yes, It can. Prebid.js version 1.x would cache the bids under limited circumstances. But, in the prebid.js 2.0 & later versions, publishers can enable the cache functionality by enabling the “useBidCache” option. 

What Are the Common Issues with Prebid.js?

There is a price granularity mismatch, non-prebid line items are a higher priority, and bids are returning, but ads don’t appear.