Adobe Advertising Cloud and AppNexus Partner To Provide Full Supply-Chain Transparency

Although the advent of digital advertising has brought marketers meaningful gains in effectiveness and in efficiency, the industry remains beleaguered by a seemingly intractable problem: a complicated supply chain that lacks full transparency. As a result, marketers still struggle to answer basic questions, including where their ad dollars are going, and what portion of their ad dollars actually end up with publishers.

To help drive accountability, Adobe Advertising Cloud and AppNexus have announced that they will provide full transparency to advertisers on both sides of the transaction for the first time. Advertisers buying inventory through AppNexus via Adobe Advertising Cloud will enjoy full visibility into fees at a site level, including a regular accounting of the portion of their budget that reaches specific end publishers.

“Brands have spoken with a clear voice.  They want full transparency and accountability across the entire supply chain,” said Sahil Gupta, Director, Global Partnerships for Adobe Advertising Cloud. “We’re proud to continue breaking new ground there and applaud AppNexus for advancing that vision. We believe transparency benefits everyone, and expect others to follow suit.”

“Marketers demand and deserve full visibility into the supply chain,” said Brian O’Kelley, CEO of AppNexus. “AppNexus is fully committed to ensuring that each advertiser sees exactly what portion of its budget reached the end publisher. No other programmatic marketplace is making that commitment. We hope today’s announcement establishes a new industry standard.”

Since its inception, Adobe Advertising Cloud has always charged transparent fees to advertisers. Last year, the platform was the first to reach agreements with the industry’s leading inventory supply side platforms (SSPs) to fully disclose or eliminate supplier buy-side fees, a move that helped spark greater transparency in the industry.

With today’s announcement, buyers transacting through AppNexus via Adobe Advertising Cloud will enjoy full visibility at a site-level into the portion of their budget that reaches end publishers. The partnership currently applies to participating publishers using AppNexus to monetize ad inventory. Adobe Advertising Cloud plans to roll out the reporting in the UI and add more supply-side partners in the coming months. AppNexus, in turn, plans to reach similar transparency agreements with other demand-side technology partners and to announce further product road map commitments that will enhance visibility into the full supply chain.

This initiative builds on Adobe Advertising Cloud’s rich history of using its independence to drive increased control and transparency for marketers. In 2010, the company became one of the first media buying platforms to reveal site-level performance and economics directly within its software. Subsequently, the company rolled out its BrandSafe brand safety suite, spear-headed the creation of OpenVV and open-sourced what is now the industry’s video viewability standard, released details on three botnets, and integrated with major third-parties for viewability, verification, and more. Most recently the company launched its Non-Human Traffic Credit Program, which automatically refunds advertisers for any for advertising identified as fraudulent by a trusted third party.