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Kevel reveals top header bidding ad vendor dominating the internet

Data from Kevel reveals Amazon’s continued growth each quarter which cements its place as top header bidding vendor, continuing to prove its dominance on the ad tech industry

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DURHAM, N.C. November 2021 - Kevel, a leading privacy-first ad serving API provider, shares its quarterly report, tracking the top 10,000 US sites on their header bidding habits. The data unveils Amazon’s continuous lead as the top header bidding vendor, further surpassing Xandr with a 6% lead this quarter.

Kevel’s header bidding industry index (HBIX) provides a useful overview of header bidding, an advertising technology that enables higher ad revenue for publishers while ensuring a fair auction system for advertisers, within US websites and publishers. Companies including Amazon, Xandr, and Index Exchange are large vendors that act as third parties, bidding on publishers’ sites to secure ad space. Kevel’s HBIX reveals that only 17% of the top US sites use header bidding. Of the sites that do show ads (publishers), 69% use header bidding, a 1% growth from last quarter. 

Kevel’s data also reveals that of the US publishers, 79% use Amazon as a header bidding vendor (making them the most-used bidder), compared to 73% that use Xandr. This increase further cements Amazon’s position as a newfound leader in digital advertising. Kevel’s tracker backs up the report of Amazon’s fast-growing ad revenue that is estimated to have eclipsed $7B in Q2 of 2021, and is projected to continue increasing. 

The report also reveals that within US header bidding publishers, 73% of client-side wrappers use Prebid, a number that has stayed steady for years, highlighting how this open-source tool is here to stay.

Despite header bidding playing a significant role in ad monetization and being the chosen ad-serving technology, Google, another internet monopoly, utilizes its own ad-serving formula. Google’s recent unredacted lawsuit reveals its ad-buying tools win more than 80% of the auctions whereas header bidding allows for equal opportunity amongst the vendors and advertisers.“Amazon continues to outperform any header bidding vendor, and it’s unlikely they lose their #1 ranking any time soon,” says James Avery, CEO and Founder of Kevel. “Even though Google is currently the one having their ad practices scrutinized, it’s not unreasonable that one day it’ll be Amazon as well.”

Read the full data report here: https://www.kevel.co/hbix/

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About Kevel

Kevel offers the infrastructure APIs needed to quickly build custom ad platforms for sponsored listings, internal promotions, native ads, and more -- allowing brands to drive new revenue in a user-first way. Kevel is committed to the vision that every online retailer and publisher should be able to add privacy-focused ad revenue streams and take back the Internet from Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other digital monopolies. Customers like Ticketmaster, Yelp, Strava, Klarna, and many more have already launched successful ad platforms on Kevel. The company has received many accolades, most recently winning the 2021 Digiday Technology Award for Best Monetization Platform for Publishers and recognized by Insider as one of the hottest adtech companies of 2021. Learn more at www.kevel.com.

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