Within the notoriously complicated digital promoting provide chain, some manufacturers and their businesses, together with a handful of the world’s largest promoting holding corporations, have funneled cash and knowledge to rival Publicis Groupe with out understanding it.
Media patrons worry that by unknowingly buying resold writer stock—routed by means of Publicis’ Epsilon-owned supply-side platform (SSP) to different SSPs in open-web auctions—they’ve each funded a competitor and revealed their viewers concentrating on methods. Epsilon SSP is the one main SSP in the marketplace owned by an company or holdco.
Over the previous 18 months, the media-buying arms of WPP, IPG, Dentsu, and Havas—together with no less than 4 unbiased businesses and one brand-side programmatic workforce—bought advert stock not directly by means of Publicis’ Epsilon SSP, based on bid response knowledge reviewed by ADWEEK. For instance, final yr, WPP dealt with buys for present model Moonpig, Dentsu for United, Havas for Sanofi, and IPG for Truvia and Bristol Myers Squibb, all in circumstances the place Epsilon SSP resold the stock by means of one other SSP.
Some patrons at the moment are blocking Epsilon SSP over issues that, by transacting on the platform, they’ve not solely funneled {dollars} to Publicis but additionally uncovered worthwhile knowledge to a direct competitor. This knowledge contains the quantity they’re prepared to spend on particular stock, inventive property, and the audiences they’re concentrating on—indicators these media patrons say might be used to realize a aggressive benefit.
These findings come from an ADWEEK evaluation of publicly accessible provide path knowledge from advertisements.txt and sellers.json information and a overview of historic bid response knowledge, together with conversations with 5 model and company media patrons who had been granted anonymity to talk freely about proprietary practices.
“Bid requests and responses, carrying data essential to ship an advert, will not be a aggressive benefit,” a spokesperson for Publicis advised ADWEEK, including: “It’s regarding that skilled patrons are both unaware of, or just not utilizing, the reporting instruments out there to them by means of their DSP to completely view each ‘hop’ in a programmatic path.”
“If different holding corporations select to not use our platforms, that’s their resolution, and one that’s immaterial to our operations,“ the spokesperson stated.
WPP, IPG, and Havas declined to remark. Dentsu didn’t reply to a request for remark. Moonpig, United, Sanofi, Truvia, and Bristol Myers Squibb didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Resold stock provides complexity and prices
In lots of circumstances, patrons didn’t know they had been transacting on Epsilon SSP due to a typical however opaque adtech follow referred to as “multi-hop reselling,” the place an advert impression passes by means of a number of SSPs or exchanges earlier than reaching the advertiser’s shopping for platform. This may usually put media patrons at midnight about all the gamers of their provide chains.
To keep away from opacity in programmatic provide chains, some patrons go for direct relationships with publishers or non-public market offers wherein publishers make their stock out there to a choose, invite-only group of patrons.
Reselling, alternatively, complicates the availability chain, making it troublesome for advertisers to know which arms the availability handed by means of. It additionally provides further charges for the advertiser since every middleman takes a reduce.
Epsilon SSP usually acts as a reseller, the time period for any middleman approved by the writer to resell their stock, even when that middleman doesn’t take possession of it, based on the Interactive Promoting Bureau. Epsilon SSP is allowed to accumulate digital advert stock from different SSPs or exchanges—and likewise to resell it to SSPs together with Magnite, PubMatic, Nexxen, and OpenX, based on publicly-available sellers.json and advertisements.txt information.
Provide path knowledge seen by ADWEEK exhibits that Epsilon SSP is commonly the second, third, or fourth “hop” away from the unique writer. This implies an advertiser shopping for from PubMatic, as an illustration, could be buying an impression that was resold by means of Epsilon, which can itself have sourced the stock from one other upstream middleman.
For instance, within the following visible, a set of pattern provide paths for information writer 9News.com is proven, the place Epsilon could also be each a purchaser of stock resold from different SSPs and a reseller to downstream SSPs. 9News declined a request for remark.
Patrons will not be at all times conscious of those hops. Commonplace reporting from SSPs usually solely exhibits the unique platform the place the purchase was made, not the intermediaries or the ultimate vendor, which means patrons may by no means see Epsilon’s title of their reviews.
“Many holding corporations and types which are shopping for on the open alternate in a non-structured vogue are sending their cash and their knowledge to Publicis with out realizing it,” stated one agency-side media purchaser who blocked Epsilon SSP after mistakenly transacting on the platform by means of resold paths.
A PubMatic spokesperson stated the corporate is “dedicated to delivering most transparency and controls to empower patrons to make knowledgeable selections.”
OpenX’s svp of worldwide writer improvement Tyler Romasco stated the corporate solely permits two hops—referring to the variety of middlemen an advert request goes by means of earlier than a shopper sees the advert—and plans to scale back it to at least one hop within the close to future. He stated OpenX “maintains a rigorous and clear method to reselling” and that OpenX purchasers can block particular resellers.
Magnite and Nexxen declined to remark.
Patrons are anxious about sharing knowledge with Publicis
Patrons might not know they’re buying resold stock from Epsilon or transacting on its platform, however it’s finally the client’s accountability to know their very own provide paths, three patrons stated.
“It’s not likely an issue in the event that they’re reselling,” stated a kind of patrons, who blocked Epsilon SSP after shopping for resold stock for non-Publicis purchasers. “The issue is that entrepreneurs in all places are unknowingly seemingly giving their knowledge to their rivals.”
Like all SSP within the digital advert provide chain, Epsilon SSP not solely takes a reduce with every transaction, but additionally beneficial properties entry to bid response knowledge shared by the demand-side platform.This contains indicators just like the advertiser’s identification, URL of the stock, inventive attributes, measurement of the advert, and price of the advert house, based on the Interactive Promoting Bureau’s trade requirements.
SSPs additionally see bid request knowledge from the writer facet—which incorporates parameters like consumer ID, system sort, geolocation, and blocked classes. Any SSP, alternate, or reseller within the chain sees each request and response knowledge for the transactions they facilitate, besides in uncommon circumstances the place some knowledge is purposefully obfuscated.
All this knowledge provides SSPs the power to make inferences a couple of given advertiser’s technique—notably the audiences they’re concentrating on—primarily based on the bidstream knowledge it receives, based on conversations with 9 completely different programmatic consultants.
A type of consultants, who oversees a well-liked SSP, stated that any SSP “may arguably reverse engineer the whole marketer’s technique should you wished to.”
As an example, this exec stated, an SSP may confirm seemingly viewers segments {that a} given advertiser is concentrating on if it noticed the advertiser often bidding on placements for 18- to 24-year-olds available in the market for a brand new automotive. The identical might be completed for contextual placements by associating bids with URLs.
The U.S. Division of Justice made an identical argument in its landmark antitrust case towards Google’s adtech enterprise, which resulted in a federal ruling that decided Google operated an unlawful monopoly over advert exchanges and advert servers. The federal government claimed in its grievance that “public sale knowledge, together with knowledge regarding bidding, out there impressions and received impressions, allow advert tech merchandise to enhance their algorithms.” It additionally alleged that “an advert tech supplier that may see at scale who bids on stock and at what costs can create bidding methods to extra reliably win future auctions for comparable stock.”
Whereas this logic might apply to any SSP or advert alternate working open alternate auctions, Epsilon SSP stands out: It’s the one main SSP owned by an promoting holding firm. That makes Publicis the one company community with direct entry to advertisers’ marketing campaign knowledge within the programmatic ecosystem whereas concurrently competing for these advertisers’ enterprise. Some patrons see this twin function on each the purchase and promote sides as a possible battle of curiosity.
“No different holding firm has a majority or full possession over part of the ecosystem that everyone transacts and performs in,” an company media purchaser stated.
The corporate stated it retains its buy-side and sell-side operations separate.
“The buy-side can by no means see bid data obtained on the sell-side both in actual time or after the actual fact, due to technical and operational firewalls (together with completely different groups and engineering programs) which are usually audited by a 3rd social gathering,” a Publicis spokesperson stated. They added that “any shopper utilizing each its buy-side and sell-side providers does so in full transparency, with a number of and repeated handbook opt-ins.”
When requested, the corporate declined to supply extra details about what sorts of firewalls are in place.
“This knowledge is just not logged or saved by Epsilon’s SSP. Even when it had been, it’s not potential to make use of it to realize perception right into a marketing campaign’s technique or targets,” the Publicis spokesperson stated.
The chief of a special main SSP, talking on situation of anonymity, disputed that an SSP wouldn’t log or retailer bid knowledge, saying it’s “customary” follow for SSPs to retailer each bid request and bid response knowledge, because it’s “necessary for observability, telemetry, troubleshooting.” Additionally they stated that storing bid response knowledge is important for implementing advertiser blocklists and offering correct reporting for advertisers.
‘Indignant and annoyed,’ patrons block Epsilon SSP
5 media patrons advised ADWEEK they found they had been shopping for by means of Epsilon SSP through reseller paths with out realizing it. All 5 have since blocked the platform—one as a part of a broader crackdown on reseller site visitors, one as a result of media high quality issues, and three particularly to keep away from sending cash and knowledge to Publicis.
One Fortune 500 model unintentionally purchased 10 million impressions resold by Epsilon SSP between July 2023 and April 2024 through SSPs like PubMatic and Magnite, based on an in-house media purchaser talking on situation of anonymity. PubMatic identified that advertisers choose their very own media shopping for methods and partnerships, and underscored the prime quality of the media it represents. Magnite declined to remark.
The customer argued that Epsilon SSP is “taking margin…and decreasing working media for manufacturers which will or is probably not Publicis purchasers,” including that “the potential for it to be an issue, and a battle of curiosity, is very large.”
The corporate has since eradicated most reseller paths. The customer additionally famous that Epsilon SSP wouldn’t be thought-about as a possible provide associate for the model in any respect as a result of “an SSP owned by a holdco could be working with incentives that don’t align properly with advertiser goals.”
A unique agency-side purchaser stated they felt “offended and annoyed” after unwittingly shopping for Epsilon SSP’s stock by means of different SSPs for a number of purchasers final yr. The customer blocked Epsilon SSP from all of its provide paths, citing issues about self-preferencing.
They added: “I’m not within the enterprise of funding a competitor.”
