{"id":11138,"date":"2026-06-23T07:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=11138"},"modified":"2026-06-23T07:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:31:13","slug":"advertisers-may-finally-see-who-really-touches-their-bid-requests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=11138","title":{"rendered":"Advertisers may finally see who really touches their bid requests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

For years, programmatic buyers could see who got paid in a transaction. They rarely saw every company that handled a bid request before it reached them.<\/p>\n

IAB Tech Lab wants to change that.<\/p>\n

Today, the organization proposed an update to its OpenRTB SupplyChain Object, commonly known as schain, exposing both the commercial and technical journey of a bid request. If adopted, the change could reshape supply-path optimization by showing buyers not just who earned revenue from a transaction, but who touched it along the way.<\/p>\n

The proposed standard, SupplyChain v1.1, is available for public comment through Aug. 21, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking beyond the money trail<\/h2>\n

Today\u2019s schain standard gives buyers visibility into the financial path of a transaction by identifying companies participating in the payment flow. It does not necessarily reveal every company that processes, routes, enriches, or transmits a bid request.<\/p>\n

That distinction matters more as programmatic infrastructure grows increasingly complex. A single impression opportunity may pass through ad servers, Prebid implementations, SDKs, server-side ad insertion platforms, wrappers, and other technologies before reaching a buyer.<\/p>\n

Under the proposal, buyers could also see those participants. \u201cThis is one of the most significant transparency enhancements to the digital advertising supply chain in years,\u201d Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab, said in a release.<\/p>\n

The update aims to give buyers a more complete record of inventory available on the open internet.<\/p>\n

Why advertisers care<\/h2>\n

The proposal arrives as advertisers search for ways to reduce waste and optimize supply chains. Much of the industry\u2019s SPO work focuses on finding the shortest path between publisher and buyer. The prevailing assumption is that fewer intermediaries lead to greater efficiency.<\/p>\n

SupplyChain v1.1 challenges that assumption.<\/p>\n

Longer supply chains do not automatically represent worse supply chains if buyers can see and evaluate every participant. That idea may carry broader implications than the technical update itself.<\/p>\n

Instead of simply counting intermediaries, buyers could evaluate what each participant contributes. A supply path with more participants may deliver more value than a shorter one if every participant performs a useful function and the process remains transparent.<\/p>\n

The conversation shifts from \u201cHow short is this path?\u201d to \u201cWho participates in this path and why?\u201d<\/p>\n

Transparency creates winners and losers<\/h2>\n

Not every company in the ecosystem will welcome that shift.<\/p>\n

Advertisers spent years pushing for greater visibility into inventory getting packaged, routed, and sold. More transparency could expose redundant infrastructure, duplicate bid requests, and intermediaries who add little value.<\/p>\n

That scrutiny could create challenges for vendors struggling to explain their role in the transaction chain. At the same time, companies delivering measurable value gain a stronger opportunity to distinguish themselves from competitors.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

The proposal turns technical participation into something buyers can evaluate rather than something hidden behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

How the update works<\/h2>\n

The working group behind the proposal evaluated several implementation approaches before selecting one incorporating technical custody information directly into the existing schain framework. Companies that take technical custody of a request but do not participate in the payment flow would receive an hp=0 designation.<\/p>\n

According to IAB Tech Lab, that approach preserves compatibility with the existing standard while expanding visibility into requests as they move through the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The organization also expects longer schains as transparency increases. To support adoption, IAB Tech Lab plans to publish rollout guidance encouraging SSPs and DSPs to conduct staged testing, validate parsing behavior, monitor bid health, and gradually scale traffic using the new specification.<\/p>\n

The post Advertisers may finally see who really touches their bid requests<\/a> appeared first on MarTech<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, programmatic buyers could see who got paid in a transaction. They rarely saw every company that handled a bid request before it reached them. IAB Tech Lab wants to change that. Today, the organization proposed an update to its OpenRTB SupplyChain Object, commonly known as schain, exposing both the commercial and technical journey … <\/p>\n

Read more “Advertisers may finally see who really touches their bid requests”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"medium":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"inspiro-featured-image":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_cinema":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_square":["https:\/\/martech.org\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2025\/11\/semrush-one.webp",0,0,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}