The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Platforms & Tech
Supply-Side Platform (SSP)
Technology that publishers use to manage, package and sell their ad inventory programmatically. An SSP (Supply-Side Platform) connects a publisher's ad space to multiple DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms), ad exchanges and demand sources simultaneously, running auctions to achieve the highest possible price for each impression.
HOW IT WORKS
Publishers integrate with an SSP (Supply-Side Platform) via JavaScript tag, SDK (Software Development Kit) or server-to-server connection. The SSP receives ad requests from the publisher's pages, packages them as bid requests and sends them to connected demand partners. It manages floor prices, deal types, ad quality filtering and reporting, acting as the publisher's commercial and technical interface with the programmatic market.
EXAMPLE
A media company publishes ten websites. Instead of managing 20 separate relationships with DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms) and networks, they use one SSP (Supply-Side Platform). The SSP connects them to all major buyers, optimises yield across their whole portfolio, manages floor prices by segment and provides unified reporting, all through a single dashboard.
RELATED TERMS
DSP (Demand-Side Platform) | Ad Exchange | Header Bidding | Deal ID | Yield Optimisation
★ LIMELIGHT INSIGHT: Limelight's core product is a fully featured SSP (Supply-Side Platform) with white-label capabilities, unlimited QPS (Queries Per Second), ARC automation and integrations with all major DSPs, built for publishers and ad networks who need enterprise-grade infrastructure.
