How Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) Work in Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising makes the automated process of buying and selling audio ad space possible with the help of supply-side platforms (SSPs), demand-side platforms (DSPs), and ad exchanges. These three components of the ecosystem work together to connect buyers and sellers to facilitate real-time bidding and maximize revenue. Heading into 2026, programmatic audio is projected to account for one-third of digital audio spend, with continued growth and evolution in the coming years. 

Dive into what an SSP is, how it benefits both publishers and advertisers, and how to leverage the power of programmatic to achieve serious results with audio campaigns.

What Is an SSP, and How Does It Work? 

SSPs are adtech software that enable publishers (or sellers) to better manage their ad impression inventory and maximize revenue. As part of the programmatic advertising ecosystem, SSPs manage and optimize a publisher’s available ad space, passing impressions into real-time bidding (RTB) auctions where demand sources compete and the highest suitable bid wins.

Here’s how it works: Publishers add tags to their sites or apps so their inventory can be evaluated and sold through third-party ad tech such as SSPs and exchanges. When an ad slot becomes available, the SSP passes that impression into a real-time bidding (RTB) auction, where connected DSPs evaluate the opportunity and submit bids on behalf of advertisers. When an advertiser wins that bid, its ad is served to the listener. This entire automated process takes place in a matter of milliseconds in real-time auctions. 

What’s the Difference Between an SSP and DSP?

Programmatic advertising involves two main components working in tandem—SSPs and DSPs. Here’s the difference: 

• SSPs are for publishers (aka the supply side). Publishers use this software to manage ad impression inventory and maximize revenue.

• DSPs are for advertisers (aka the demand side). Brands use these platforms to buy ad inventory in real time and target audiences at scale. 

Think of it this way: The SSP works to help publishers create more monetization pathways for their inventory, while the DSP aims to help advertisers reach the right audience at the right time with their brand message. These are two of the key components to the programmatic ecosystem where transactions happen in real time, benefiting both parties. And tying it all together is the ad exchange, a digital marketplace that connects DSPs to SSPs to facilitate the real-time buying and selling of ad inventory. 

What Are the Benefits of an SSP?

SSPs, a critical part of the programmatic ecosystem, helps publishers manage their ad inventory and maximize its value through new monetization channels. While SSPs are built for publishers, the efficiency and transparency they bring to the supply side ultimately benefit advertisers as well. Take a look at the benefits. 

Enhanced Brand Control 

An SSP gives publishers granular control over their inventory. Sellers can set price floors to ensure their ad space isn’t undervalued and block specific advertisers or entire ad categories that don’t align with their content. For example, when you work with the AdsWizz SSP, you can manage programmatic ad quality, approve multi-format creatives, prevent ad conflicts, and more. 

For advertisers: Supply-side curation results in a brand-safe environment, ensuring your message appears only alongside premium, appropriate content.

Actionable Data Insights 

SSPs provide publishers with detailed analytics about their inventory, allowing publishers to identify which inventory segments perform best and adjust pricing, packaging, and demand strategy to maximize revenue. The AdsWizz SSP offers deep insight into programmatic performance, including trends, bid activity, clearing prices, demand sources, and overall yield.

For advertisers: The insights publishers receive from SSPs can be used to package their inventory more strategically to offer performance-driven options that align with campaign goals.

Controlled Data Sharing 

In a world where data privacy is critical, many SSPs help publishers manage how user data is shared and support compliance with privacy standards such as GDPR, CCPA, etc. Publishers can control what information is shared in bid requests, set rules for which buyers can access their inventory, and reduce privacy risks through SSP-level policies and protections. These benefits and more are available via the AdsWizz SSP, where you can tailor your transparency level, decide which data to share with your buyers, and apply different pricing for each sales channel or deal. 

For advertisers: Leveraging an industry-leading SSP to buy audio inventory provides greater control and access to a transparent, trusted programmatic ecosystem.

Efficient Deal Management 

In the early days of digital advertising, ad sales often involved manual negotiation, which was time-consuming and inefficient. Now, SSPs, DSPs, and the ad exchanges that connect them, automate the  entire process—from inventory management to running auctions in real time—which allows publishers to diversify demand at scale with limited human intervention. With the AdsWizz SSP in your arsenal, you can cover all types of transaction types to develop your relationship with demand partners. 

For advertisers: Greater deal efficiency gives you more consistent access to premium, high-quality inventory, while enabling you to reach your audiences at scale.

What SSP Targeting Is Available?

One of the main advantages of programmatic audio is the ability to apply precise targeting. Programmatic audio gives you access to a rich set of targeting capabilities to home in on your ideal audience. When you partner with us, you get access to the largest audio advertising ecosystem in North America.

Streaming Audio 

If you’re looking to leverage programmatic buying to reach music lovers on Streaming Select, here are the available targeting options:

• Demo 

• Gender 

• Geo 

• Genre 

• Language content (English or Spanish) 

Podcasts 

To target podcast listeners, here are the available targeting options: 

• Demo 

• Geo 

• Content category 

• Language content (English or Spanish) 

• Contextual audiences 

• Publisher 

• Brand suitability transcription targeting 

Leveraging Programmatic to Drive Brand and Product Awareness

Ultimately, the value of programmatic audio is in its ability to drive measurable business outcomes. Here’s how a pet food brand advertiser utilized this powerful channel to generate brand and product awareness while also improving brand favorability and product consideration.

Together, we worked on a campaign that leveraged:

• Programmatic cross-platform audio using Pandora, SoundCloud, and Podcast Select

• Audience targeting to reach streaming audio and podcast listeners 18+ who are also dog and cat owners 

• Top-notch brand messaging promoting key qualities of the pet food product and its health benefits

The cross-platform campaign delivered upper- and mid-funnel results:

• +26 pts lift in product consideration 

• +23 pts lift in brand favorability 

• +23 pts lift in product awareness

• +13 pts lift in aided brand awareness 

Get Started with SiriusXM Media 

SSPs are a key part of the infrastructure that powers the modern publisher’s monetization strategy, enabling a dynamic and effective marketplace. By partnering with us, you can take advantage of our programmatic-first approach to audio advertising. We continue to modernize our offerings with future-proofed, audience-first targeting solutions designed to withstand the ever-evolving digital ecosystem.

With superior scale, robust targeting capabilities, and unparalleled first-party data, our programmatic solutions offer everything you need to build an effective and impactful ad campaign. 

Ready to see what programmatic audio can do for your brand? Let’s chat.

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