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Yahoo is letting advertisers buy publisher inventory directly from its demand-side platform via a new product called Backstage, the tech company’s answer to the industry movement toward supply-path optimization, Yahoo executives exclusively shared with Adweek.
Advertisers using Backstage, which will be available in the third quarter, will not need a supply-side platform to access publisher inventory, the traditional buying route for the programmatic supply chain.
At launch, Backstage includes over 100 publishers, including A+E Networks, Dotdash Meredith, Raptive, The Arena Group, Vizio and Newsweek, and Yahoo’s owned and operated media properties.
“This is something [clients] have asked for and now we’re delivering it,” said CRO Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, later adding, “The goal of enabling this product is in service of the advertiser.”
Yahoo’s embrace of the sell-side is a pivot after the publisher closed its SSP in February to focus on its demand-side platform earlier this year, laying off more than 50% of its ad-tech staff in the process. At the time, CEO Jim Lanzone told Adweek that Yahoo didn’t want “spread our resources too thinly across every part of the stack.”
As buyers ask for shorter supply paths, passing fewer ad-tech firms along the way, tech vendors are fighting to prove their relevance and prevent disintermediation, often by cozying up with previously untapped sides of the market. Last year, The Trade Desk launched OpenPath, which like Backstage, gives buyers a direct route to inventory without an SSP. In the past few months, both PubMatic and Magnite launched tech that lets advertisers buy premium video inventory without a DSP.
More quality, less tech
Yahoo may be pivoting back toward the sell side, but it’s not recreating its SSP. Most of the SSP tech has been deprecated, save for some features that are useful for Backstage, like the Deal ID creation tool and the Pre-Bid Adaptor. Yahoo will not provide yield optimization for publishers, and critically, only buyers using Yahoo’s DSP will have access to this inventory and not the entirety of the programmatic buying universe.
Also unlike most SSPs, Yahoo Backstage will be offering an intentionally limited selection of inventory.
“This is a rare product launch that on Day one is at the level of the scale,” Yahoo aims to stay at, said Adam Roodman, svp of ads products and strategy at Yahoo Advertising. “There’s not aspiration to make it as big as possible. We want to focus on what inventory our buyers have been asking for.”