HTL BID Traffic Shaping is a pre-bid filtering mechanism to dynamically eliminate certain ad requests, before they are sent to SSPs. There are 5 primary reasons that publishers use Traffic Shaping.
Revenue Optimization
DSPs use machine learning algorithms to optimize campaign delivery and “win rate” is an important optimization metric. Publishers can improve their win rate, and boost their overall inventory quality level, by eliminating low-quality requests that are unlikely to fill.
Lower Carbon Emissions
Loading a webpage isn’t free. Heavy, resource-intensive webpages consume more energy than lightweight pages. Reducing the number of ad requests lowers a publisher’s carbon output. It also saves money on the user’s phone bill.
Requested by Vendor
Some vendors only operate in a specific region or only run on specific device types. For example, a vendor might be US-only or Mobile-only. In this case, Traffic Shaping can be used to filter out requests that the vendor would have dropped anyway.
Testing
When adding a new vendor to the stack, it can be helpful to run an initial test before going live across the entire website. Traffic Shaping and A/B testing are two ways to restrict a new vendor during initial testing phases.
Better UX
Reducing the number of ad requests makes the page load faster, which improves UX. In fact, page speed is one of the most important optimizations that a publisher can make to improve user retention. Keeping users on the site leads to higher pages per session and greater total ad revenue.