The Top 10 Supply-Side Vendors in Healthcare Programmatic Media

Supply-side vendors play a pivotal role in the healthcare advertising landscape. As Patrick Hutton, Associate Direct of Ad Operations and Trading at Adfire Health explains, “Supply-side vendors ensure a seamless and efficient flow of relevant and targeted advertising inventory by providing advertisers access to high-quality, contextually appropriate ad placements,” By choosing the right supply-side vendors, healthcare marketers can better target their audience with relevant messaging through advanced precision targeting while adhering to HIPAA guidelines.

As healthcare advertising continues to evolve, supply-side vendors play a pivotal role in driving innovation, efficiency, and precision in delivering targeted messages. Join us in exploring the key players influencing the future of healthcare programmatic media and reshaping how healthcare brands connect with their audiences.

What is a Supply-Side Vendor?

Supply-side vendors, also known as supply-side platforms (SSPs), are programmatic ad technology platforms that publishers use to manage the sale of ad inventories. Publishers who own the websites, apps, or other places where advertisers place ads will offer available ad space to the SSP. SSPs enable publishers to filter ads by variables such as ad format and target audience to determine rates for ad spaces. Typically, a supply vendor will have a network of websites and publishers where they offer inventory and will help publishers connect with a wide range of advertisers at once.

Using algorithms and real-time bedding, SSPs can boost the value of publishers’ inventory by selling it to the highest-bidding advertisers. Supply-side vendors also assess parameters such as user behavior and historical data to amplify ad reach to target users.

What is the Difference Between Supply-Side and Demand-Side Platforms?

While supply-side platforms center on managing and selling publishers’ ad inventory, demand-side platforms operate as the other side of the programmatic advertising coin by enabling advertisers, trade desks, and agencies to purchase ad space. DSPs help advertisers streamline campaigns by targeting specific audiences, overseeing multiple ad exchanges (marketplaces), setting bid prices, and managing budgets.

Newer, modern DSPs are built off of SSPs. With this in mind, trade desks often say they are “industry agnostic,” meaning they specialize in DSP and SSP services. They don’t own any of their inventory or supply where ads are being served, so that they will recommend both services for the best results.

What is the Role of Supply Side Vendors in Healthcare Programmatic Media?

Supply-side vendors help advertisers optimize better campaigns by enabling healthcare marketers to assess ad inventory, analyze HCP user behavior and data in real time, and gather insight on where to reach HCPs effectively. When you have a niche and specific audience like medical professionals, looking at supply and where you’re reaching HCPs gives advertisers more leverage because you can see which ads work best. This data helps advertisers create a more meaningful experience for HCPs, making them more likely to interact and engage with ad placements.

Rather than forging inventory deals with endemic websites like online medical journals, advertisers can be more efficient with campaign budgets by looking at supply and where advertisers are reaching HCPs.

How Adfire Health Optimizes Campaigns With Supply-Side Vendors

In 2023, Adfire Health leveraged engagement and conversion data from its supply partners, strategically partnering and targeting inventory based on healthcare media expertise. With a focus on aligning supply partners with clients’ goals, historical data guide our selection of the top 10 healthcare supply-side vendors. Our team excels in identifying top performers for specific benchmarks, while direct relationships further enhance inventory leverage. The data reveals a notable increase in conversion rates when proper supply-side vendors are selected, emphasizing the power of optimizing programmatic advertising through meticulous attention to data.

The Top 10 Healthcare Supply Side Vendors

Who They Are

OpenX is an SSP focused on audience, data, and identity targeting across channels. OpenX is the only cloud-based exchange that has helped reduce the time to market new products and features by more than 50%,  reduced cost and process traffic by more than 35%, and offers the ability to launch new global regions and markets quickly.³

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health delivered almost 31 million impressions and over 61K conversions on OpenX supply. Advertisers appeared on sites such as Mediavine, Sovrn, Sonobi, Yahoo Exchange, and Xandr through Open X.

Advantages of OpenX

• 30K+ active publisher domains, mobile apps, and CTV apps
• 100K advertisers
• 1M+ ad creatives scanned and classified daily

Who They Are

Nexxen is a merger of SSP and DSP brands between Amobee, Tremor Video, and Unruly. They prioritize an omnichannel approach powered by data, flexible planning tools, and insights to help companies achieve better discovery, hyper-targeted activation, and precise measurement.⁵

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health delivered over 6M impressions and 21K+ clicks on Nexxen supply. Nexxen had the strongest CTR of 0.35%.

Advantages of Nexxen

• Offers access to unique media buying opportunities, exclusive ACR data, identity solutions, and more with a unified DSP and SSP
• Manages all demand sources, maximizes yield, and offers ad break management rolls
• Solves network fragmentation and audience duplication with planning tools that create tailored media plans
• Uses pre-campaign ad analysis and data-driven bespoke creative development and optimization.
• Features self-service SSP tools to price, layer on data, and package and sell PMP/PG deals while accessing demand through Nexxen’s DSP..⁶

Who They Are

GumGum is a global SSP specializing in contextual intelligence, producing engaging ad creatives, and advanced analytics tools to measure and optimize campaigns.  GumGum’s services extend to various display ads, video ads, and connected TV ad solutions. They also offer Intrinsic In-Game Ad advertising through their partnership with Frameplay.⁷  GumGum is the first ad tech provider to receive the Media Rating Council accreditation for contextual analysis, brand safety, and suitability due to Verity’s capabilities.

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health delivered over 5M impressions and 13K+ clicks on GumGum supply. 

Advantages of GumGum

• 19 markets worldwide
• 700 brands purchased annually
• 30K publishers’ partner websites
• Works with 70% of Fortune 100 companies⁸

Who They Are

AdColony is an SSP under Digital Turbine that prioritizes video ads for mobile app monetization.⁵

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health delivered over 4.5M impressions and 13K+ clicks on AdColony supply.

Advantages of AdColony

• Includes Instant-Play HD video and Aurora HD Interactive video technologies
• Supports Android and iOS systems
• Built-in reporting and analytics systems to track parameters such as views, clicks, conversion, CTR, and eCPI⁵

Who They Are

Xandr is an SSP, DSP, and ad exchange that fuels monetization through advanced tools such as Prebid-power heading technology to manage ad space demand for all channels and formats.

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health delivered over 13M impressions, 26K+ clicks, and 27K+ conversions on Xandr supply.

Advantages of Xandr

• Offers differentiated demand and scale advantage in buyer and seller solutions​.
• Permits publishers to set up server-side header bidding to run auctions on the server side to increase page load speeds
• Allows publishers to use both open exchanges and private marketplaces⁹

Who They Are

TripleLift is an SSP dedicated to “making advertising work for everyone” by striving for publishers, advertisers, and consumers to benefit from their ad services.¹⁰ TripleLift serves ads across platforms and formats, including CTV, native, display, and online videos such as in-stream, branded, and high-impact experiences.¹¹

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health delivered over 12M impressions, 19K+ clicks, 23K+ total conversions, and a 3.51% CTR on TripleLift supply.

Advantages of TripleLift

• Supports multiple ad formats for seamless integration and enhanced user experience.
• Allows smart targeting options with privacy-forward solutions that perform well in cookie-strained environments.
• TripleLift’s Dynamic Templating feature adapts advertisers’ creative elements in real time to create a smooth native experience.
• Publishers can build and manage native creative assets and run ads directly on preferred servers using TripleLift’s Ad Server technology.¹²

Who They Are

InMobi Exchange is an omnichannel SSP and DSP centered on helping clients engage their audiences and drive connections.

Adfire Health’s Experience

InMobi Exchange’s performance grossed the highest percentage of impressions (10.97%) with a relatively healthy CTR of 0.15%.

Advantages of InMobi Exchange

• Works with all major exchanges to access in-app and mobile web supply.¹³
• Uses SKAN-based attribution.
• Reach audiences programmatically through in-app inventory.
• Offers solutions to drive performance without device IDs.
• InMobi’s machine learning-based platform dynamically modifies bids based on over 50 different attributes, optimizing for installs and LTV.¹⁴

Who They Are

Sovrn is a leading SSP that boasts comprehensive advertising, affiliate linking, and data tools to help its clients optimize ad monetization.

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health generated over 13M impressions, 17K+ clicks, and 38K+ conversions on Sovrn supply.

Advantages of Sovrn

• 50K+ merchants¹⁷
• Features the world’s most extensive online publisher data collective
• Google Certified Publishing Partner
• IAB UK Gold 1.0 Certified
• Supports integrations through OpenRTB (Real-Time-Bidding), Prebid.js, Google Open Bidding, and Amazon TAM.¹⁸
• Can automate link monetization
• Offers real-time, granular data across all revenue opportunities in one platform

Who They Are

PubMatic offers SSP services for publishers and agencies. The company delivers scalable and flexible solutions for advertisers, buyers, app developers, CTV/OTT developers, and commerce and retail media relationships.¹⁹

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health generated over 32M impressions and 55K+ conversions on PubMatic supply.

Advantages of PubMatic

• 609B daily ad impressions
• 1.4T advertiser bids per day
• 1,178 direct publishers²⁰
• Enhances the user experience across formats such as online video, mobile app, web, and CTV²¹

Who They Are

Sonobi is an independent, consumer-focused SSP and DSP that connects publishers and advertisers directly with their audiences. Through the company’s JetStream technology, publishers and marketers can collaborate to manage audience demand across all channels.²²

Adfire Health’s Experience

Adfire Health delivered over 8M impressions and 22K+ conversions on Sonobi supply.

Advantages of Sonobi

• Create engaging, one-to-one, brand-direct connections with consumers from high-quality, independent publishers via programmatic header bidding and Sonobi’s premium inventory.
• Sonobi’s omnichannel supply chain offers transparency and control while reaching consumers across all devices and formats.²³

Find the Right Supply Side Vendors for Your Brand With Adfire Health

Supply-side vendors swiftly respond to changing market dynamics, consumer behavior patterns, and campaign performance indicators, ensuring that healthcare advertising campaigns remain relevant and impactful. Adfire Health has the volume and scale to know which supply partners to suggest for our clients’ specific campaign goals. Learn more about programmatic advertising and how it can benefit your healthcare marketing goals by speaking with an Adfire Health representative today.

At Adfire Health, we work with healthcare marketers to create optimized, highly effective, data-based digital engagement strategies. With Thumbprint™, our segmented data ecosystem of over 8.2 million healthcare professionals, we can offer nationwide 1:1 engagement and access to healthcare professionals.

We bring our years of hands-on experience to every new campaign and work with you to get the best results possible. Contact us to learn more about what we can do for your business.