A waterfall solution requires the publisher to offer their inventory to one ad network at a time – starting from the highest performing to the lowest – until the impression is finally sold. This setup gives priority to the networks at the top of the waterfall, allowing them to see the minimum floor that has been set, and cherry-pick which impressions they’d like to purchase, even if another demand partner was willing to pay a higher price. If they pass, the option goes to the next partner in line. This is called a “passback.” Passbacks can cause latency, as each network requires a separate ad call. Latency lowers fill rate and decreases your overall revenue.

In a unified auction, the ad exchange submits one request to all demand participants at the same time. The highest bidder wins the impression. Now there is competition, as all demand sources have one shot to bid against each other. All partners participate and offer their highest bid for each request. This is the bleeding edge of yield optimization. As a publisher, you know that you’re receiving the best price on every auction. Unified auctions only require one ad call, lowering latency, increasing your fill rates, and making you more money.

On Nimbus, all the hard work is done for you with our server-to-server connection. Nimbus integrates every demand partner through a single SDK that handles both requesting and rendering. Making the switch is as seamless as integrating a single ad network. Once integrated, your demand partners are automatically synced to Nimbus to communicate to your inventory.

You can still work with your current demand partners, without the tedious task of optimizing your waterfall for priority. Nimbus unified auctions adhere to industry-standard oRTB (open real-time bidding) specifications. No more creating multiple placements and line items for each individual demand source. Nimbus calls all respective information dynamically in one request that all networks understand.