Prebid is a free open source library and community that helps publishers implement Header Bidding on their websites & apps.

Header Bidding (also known as header auctions and parallel bidding) is a technique that involves running SSP & Ad Exchange code directly on the webpage so publishers can receive bids on their inventory that may be unavailable through their primary ad server and exchange.

If your advertiser has a Prebid-compatible bidder and you would like to sell them traffic, you may use our Prebid-banner.

Please note, if you would like to buy traffic, please read an article on how to use our Prebid-adapter.

Advantages of using Prebid banners on Adserver.Online platform

No-code configuration

Prebid is a Javascript library that's why you might need certain programming skills to set it up and use it properly.

Fortunately, you don't need to have any programming skills to set up our Prebid banner. All you need is to understand JSON data format. We assume it's much easier than writing code in JavaScript.

Correct tracking

Since the Prebid banner is integrated into the platform natively, we know if an auction ended up with or without an ad.

An impression is recorded only in case an ad is displayed. Moreover, the winning bid amount will also be saved to statistics as a spend.

This allows you to analyze banner performance just like your local banner.

Unfortunately, this technology has a downside. It's impossible to track clicks since the Prebid library doesn't support such tracking.

JSON data format

The configuration of bidders and an auction have to be described using JSON data format.

An example of a simple JSON array:

[
   {
      "key1": "value1"
   },
   { 
      "key1": "value2"
   }
]

Not to be confused with Javascript as it uses a slightly different structure than JSON.

The main differences include the use of double quotes with keys (single quotes are not allowed for quoting values) and a restriction to use any kind of comments starting with //… or /* … */

An example of a bad-formed JSON code:

{
    key: 'value' // comment
}

An example of a well-formed JSON code:

{     
   "key": "value" 
}

Setting up Prebid banners

Bids array

To make the banner work you need to set up an array of bids that will participate in an auction executed within the banner.

You can take bidder configuration parameters from Prebid catalog, however correct values (e.g. zone ids) for production can be provided by the demand party only. So please ask your demand partner to provide you with a bidder configuration.

Example of Bids JSON-array

[
    {
        "bidder": "aso",
        "params": {
            "zone": 73815
        }
    },
    {
        "bidder": "appnexus",
        "params": {
            "placementId": "13144370"
        }
    }
]

Custom configuration

If you would like to adjust the settings applicable to the entire auction and/or the Prebid library behaviour, you need to specify that in the corresponding field in JSON format.

Please check out Prebid documentation for setting available.

Example of how to enforce GDPR for an auction to commence:

{
    "consentManagement": {
        "gdpr": {
            "rules": [
                {
                    "purpose": "storage",
                    "enforcePurpose": true,
                    "enforceVendor": true
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

The JSON code above enables Consent Management Module. The auction won't run if a user doesn't provide appropriate consent.

Fallback zone

It is not rare that an auction ends up with no ads to display. Not to miss the opportunity to monetise your inventory in such situations, you may want to specify a fallback zone ID.

Fallback zone ID is an ID of a zone from your Adserver.Online account. The zone has to be an active banner zone. We don't recommend linking it to other prebid banners because it may cause extra ad requests.

Library version

You may choose a version of the Prebid library to use with your Prebid banners. Different versions may support different features and different sets of bidders/demand parties.

If you need, you may use a custom-built library hosted on your own servers. In this case, you need to select "Externally hosted library". Please note, your library must contain all bidders you use in your Prebid banners.