Ad tech is a pretty dynamic environment !
In recent times, there has been a wide range of debate around the concept of Transaction ID (TIDs) among the publishers, DSPs, SSPs and the key stakeholders!
DSPs want less duplication and cleaner auctions. SSPs talk about protecting transparency and standards. Publishers are concerned about the potential revenue loss occurrence.
But hold on ! What are we even talking about? Let’s understand this – Read to deep dive!
What are Transaction IDs (TIDs)?
Whenever a user lands on page, there will be a quick split-second auction between advertisers for ad space on that website. Each auction will be attached by a Transaction ID (TIDs).
TIDs will help identify the same ad opportunities via multiple channels. In addition, they are known for reducing clutter and optimize spend for advertisers by streamlining the bidding process. All participants who see the same impression opportunity across SSPs, exchanges, and pathways should have the same source.tid auction-level identification in OpenRTB. In order to identify duplicates and prevent bidding against themselves, buyers utilize that common key.
Advantages of having TIDs:
- TIDs helps media buyers identify duplicate bid requests
- This avoids paying twice the same impression
- Cleans up the advertising supply chain
- Advertisers use TIDs which helps them to avoid bidding multiple times (duplication)
- Advertisers want fewer auctions as that saves their money.
Key Stakeholders and their Benefits:
- SSPs: It protects data, limits arbitrage, and strengthens their role in auctions.
- Protects proprietary data: Shared TIDs exposed competitive signals about SSPs’ auction mechanics, pricing, and deal structures. Restricting them protects that information. This is part of the new update that happened.
- Prevents DSPs from bypassing curated routes: Buyers previously used TID stitching to funnel spend toward the cheapest supply path, sometimes at the expense of quality or curated SSP relationships. Unique TIDs make that arbitrage harder.
- Strengthens SSP value in the auction: SSPs now control more of the auction dynamics, preserving their role as the key intermediaries rather than passive pipes.
- Publishers: It opens a window to reclaim leverage, test new strategies, and push for fairer competition.
- Publishers need more auctions to drive up prices and protect their revenue.
- Data leverage: Publishers can work more closely with SSPs to understand how TID fragmentation impacts bidding patterns, and use that data to negotiate stronger terms.
- Monetization resilience: With DSPs facing less visibility, publishers may retain more pricing power, particularly in private marketplace (PMP) or curated deal setups.
- Use case: For example, publishers can test how multiple SSP integrations affect competition when deduplication is harder, or use bid density insights to fine-tune floor strategies.
- Industry: It marks a shift toward supply-side alignment, with long-term implications for auction fairness and governance.
Some concerns over TIDs:
- TIDs in practice, could suppress competition which in turn reduces lower ad prices and eventually resulting less money for publishers.
- In a way to reduce duplication, several advertisers’ bids are bundled together and only one makes an offer
- And only the highest offer is sent to the publisher.
- TIDs got a infamously known for keeping the data at risk as they travel through the programmatic systems
- Prebid had previously underscored this concern in a comment on LinkedIn, saying TIDs could pose a risk to user privacy.
- Some publishers are concerned that TIDs can be stitched across supply-side platforms (SSPs) like a device graph, allowing buyers to shift spend to the cheapest route.
Industry Collaboration: Why This Matters
The Prebid update is a rare example of “supply-side alignment”.
SSPs and publishers have long faced asymmetries of power against DSPs and buyers with greater data access. By limiting shared identifiers, the supply side is signaling:
- A shift in auction dynamics, away from buyer-first optimization.
- A push toward collective action that protects yield and data sovereignty.
- Momentum for more supply-led innovation in standards and governance.
As the dust settles, publishers who lean into this moment – by collaborating with SSPs and closely monitoring bid dynamics – may find themselves not just shielded from risk, but positioned for opportunity.
A possible solution:
- As TIDs helps cleaning up the system of duplication, complete shedding of this TIDs aren’t a good solution
- A solution needs to be found that can reduce bad duplication but do not reduce bid density.
- If DSPs can access a piece of information, the same should get access to the publishers.
- Encrypted TIDs or eTIDs can be a viable option which can do good for both buyers and sellers.
- With these eTIDs, we can prevent the misuse of data which is a concern now for data protection
- Conditioning advertisers with mandatory multi-bidding, it helps restoring the bid density which drives higher prices
- To enable transparency, buyers using eTIDs must share their bid data, so that it gives publishers visibility
How can Databeat help ?
At DataBeat, we assist partners in auditing their existing configuration to see where TIDs are affecting bid paths, implement the proper controls in place with encrypted IDs and improved governance, and leverage these changes to improve pricing power in PMP and open market transactions. Our emphasis is on ensuring supply paths remain clean, duplication is reduced, and publishers lose no revenue in the process. In addition to setup, we deliver continuous monitoring, reporting, and actionable insight so our partners can remain ahead of how DSPs react and keep making more intelligent, more resilient choices in an evolving environment.
