In the quick-hitting programmatic ad ecosystem, milliseconds are everything. Latency (when we say latency, we’re really just describing the time an ad request takes to respond to a server request) can be quite small but has enormous implications for the ad request journey. For a publisher, latency results in lower fill rates and CPMs. For an Advertiser, it means reduced transparency, and wasting advertising budgets. For a user, latency, no matter how small, results in slower page loads, a bad experience, and increased bounce rates. The challenge with latency is that it’s caused by numerous sources; it could be due to client-side configurations, server-side conflicts, or every node in between. For programmatic auctions that recognize bids at fractions of milliseconds, a tardy bid could be the difference between a bid or no bid at all, which threatens competition and yield. In this article, we will explain how latency affects publishers, advertisers, and SSPs, provide industry benchmarks and tools to assess delays, and provide ways to reduce latency to improve the user experience and bump up potential revenue. In conclusion, we will demonstrate how controlling latency is essential to maximizing revenue and improving user experience.
Occurring of these delays has many touch points:
Client side (Page latency, Prebid setup, Browser rendering)
Server Side (Bid request/response pipelines)
Network delays (Geographic, Infrastructure bottle necks)
How timeouts affect fill rate, CPMs, and user experiences
Usually publishers set a certain timeout to receive the bid responses within the set time period. They can set up both ways on page (client side) and server side. Any delay in these responses, it will be considered as a timeout bid.
Timeout rate and Bid Rate are directly proportional, a change in either of these rates can cause a shift in fill rates. As there will be fewer valid bids after the cut off.
Low time out rate = High Bid Rate
High Time out rate = Low Bid rate
In the perspective of Advertisers, they always chose those pages/slots which are highly visible to users and user information is available (Target customers). As mentioned above, excess latency delays page rendering, and results in higher bounce rate. This eventually affects CPMs yielding lower.
Based on Visibility and user information available:
-
-
- High Viewability / User Information = Premium CPMs
- Low Viewability / User Information = Low CPMs.
-
SSP response time benchmarks and variability
Not all SSPs are created equal. Industry benchmarks show that the top performing SSPs can respond in 100-250ms,, while slower ones take 400ms+ The variability is also significant based on the inventory or format wise.
Publishers who don’t monitor SSP response times risk unknowingly favoring slower partners, which erodes yield.
Tools to measure and mitigate latency
Several tools and techniques can help publishers understand and reduce latency including:
- Prebid Analytics:
- Identify slow bidders dragging down auction speed
- Compare partner response times across devices, browser, and geography
- Optimize the auction timeout to maximize revenue without hurting UX
- Test page load speed and ad slot behaviour
- Page Speed Insights: Measures LCP, FCP,CLS and pinpoints blocking scripts
- Chrome Dev Tools; Simulates CPU throttling and network speeds to test ad slot behaviour
- Timeout optimizations
- Too Long = Slows page load, hurt UX
- Too Short = Missed bids, lower competition, reduced CPMs
Recommendations for publishers and SSPs:
For Publishers: Continuously monitor SSP response times and adjust timeouts dynamically, Run A/B tests on timeout thresholds, and Optimize pagesetup (LL and Refresh)
For SSPs: CDNS, and edge servers to reduce response delays, prioritize lightweight bid responses to ensure they arrive before cut offs.
DataBeat’s role in optimizing auction speed and yield
At DataBeat we specialize helping publishers uncover inefficiency in their programmatic stack. By analyzing SSP response times, timeout thresholds and auction outcomes, we ensure that they achieve the optimum revenue through the programmatic setup. A few of the allied services that we provide include Latency Dashboards to monitor partner performance, Bid level insights that highlight missed opportunities due to slow responses and various optimization strategies.
