解决供应商品化问题

As in-app advertising continues to scale, advertisers expect DSPs to provide reach, precision, and efficiency. Yet a persistent structural challenge limits this potential: most in-app inventory is not exclusive to any one partner. The same impression opportunity is purchased through multiple supply paths, leading to inefficiency, inflated auction costs, and confusing media economics.

This creates channel conflict for advertisers, which manifests into wasted spend and inconsistent performance. This raises the question “why work with multiple partners who may be buying from the same supply source?”

For DSPs, it represents both a challenge and an opportunity. By tackling supply duplication head-on through Supply Path Optimization (SPO), Best-in-Class Machine Learning, and Data-Driven Budget Optimization, DSPs can reclaim efficiency and deliver measurable value back to their partners.

At Aarki, we treat this as a supply design problem, not just a bidding problem. Our DSP focuses on cleaning up how we access in-app inventory. That reduces redundant paths, clarifies economics, and strengthens performance from the same media investment.

The Core Problem: Fragmented and Redundant In-App Supply

In today’s mobile ecosystem, most publishers distribute their ad inventory through mediation platforms such as AppLovin MAX, Google AdMob or Unity LevelPlay to multiple SSPs, exchanges, and networks; which is, in turn, sold to DSPs or advertisers directly. This multi-path approach allows publishers to maximize fill and ARPDAU but, for the buy side, results in a fragmented auction landscape that can lead to bid duplication, where identical impressions are offered through multiple intermediaries through various pricing models.

What “Supply Commodification” Means in In-App Advertising

Commodification happens when the same inventory (ad placements within apps) becomes accessible through multiple channels — for example, the same MAX publisher’s supply being sold:

• Directly via Mediator owned Exchanges — AppLovin Exchange, Google ADX or Unity Exchange
• Through MAX Certified SDKs and/or Waterfall Bidders (e.g., Liftoff, DigitalTurbine (Formerly Fyber), InMobi, or others that plug into MAX)
• Via Resellers offering indirect access
  

In short, DSPs can reach the same impressions through multiple SSPs, with limited differentiation in what they’re actually buying.

For advertisers, this manifests as:

• Unwanted Channel Conflict — working with multiple DSPs or networks that are buying from the same SSPs or networks
• Redundant bidding — multiple bids placed on the same impression through different SSPs.
• Opaque pricing — unclear take rates and inconsistent auction dynamics (ie: Waterfall vs SDK Bidding).
• Wasted media dollars — increased fees, latency, and inefficiency across the supply chain.

Left unchecked, these inefficiencies erode campaign performance and distort cost efficiency metrics like eCPM, CPI, and ROAS.

The DSP Opportunity: Turning Supply Complexity into Advertiser Value

Supply complexity is not going away. Instead of passing that complexity to advertisers, Aarki leans into it. Our DSP owns the buying logic, auction intelligence, and reporting infrastructure to turn overlapping supply paths into cleaner, more efficient routes to the same users. That translates into less budget wasted on duplicate impressions and a clearer link between spend, incremental reach, and return.

To combat this Aarki  already uses the following solutions to improve the efficiency of every media dollar spent:

A. Supply Path Optimization (SPO)

Aarki treats SPO as a core differentiation strategy. We:

• Consolidate publisher access a few trusted, high-quality connections
• Use data-driven audits to map overlap and eliminate redundant paths
• Negotiate favorable exchange deals to reduce intermediary take-rates
• Score routes to optimize toward:
  • Win-rate efficiency
  • Price consistency
  • Latency and transparency
• Minimize percentage of resold impressions

B. Unlock Creative Rendering as a Differentiator

Each SSP supports different creative rendering features for the same publisher: formats, file size, playable support, and endcards. By harnessing these features Aarki maps those differences and uses them to de-commoditize supply.

Instead of treating rendering quirks as a problem, Aarki uses them as a feature. We work with SSPs to curate and optimize creative features so they better match our advertiser KPIs. We route impressions through paths that unlock the right formats and rendering for each app and user, so the ad experience matches the environment and the goal. Key levers include: 

• Activating richer formats (video, playables, interactive end cards) where Publishers and SSPs support them
• Ensuring consistent high fidelity in rendering across different SDKs and devices
• Aligning creative capabilities with campaign objectives across the journey (brand, installs, retargeting)

For advertisers, this turns “homogenized” impressions into differentiated inventory, helping their creatives stand out and perform better.

C. Harness Data with Best in Class Machine Learning 

Next-generation DSPs are training models not only on user behavior but also on supply path efficiency signals. Aarki’s machine learning models do not just score user behavior. It melds performance prediction with efficiency metrics such as fill rate, latency, auction density, and eCPM. That lets Aarki dynamically route bids to the highest-value paths that balances performance, scale, and price.

Key features:

• ML Optimized buying directs traffic to the sources that balance performance with price and rendering efficiency 
• Strategic Traffic Sourcing to ensure that Aarki DSP has the signals needed to make the correct decisions on behalf of our advertisers

Using these key features, Aark positions itself as a smart supply curator, not just a buyer:

“We don’t buy every impression. We buy the 正确的 impressions via the cleanest path, minimizing redundancy and maximizing advertiser value.”

D. Cannibalization Risk is Real, But Small 

Advertisers frequently worry that working with the same supply vendors through multiple DSPs is redundant and inefficient. While that concern is understandable, 研究 show that the actual risk of cannibalizing the same ad opportunities for the same advertiser is relatively small. 

The reasons for this are simple:

• Different DSPs and networks prioritize different signals to evaluate traffic compared to their peers
• Historical performance data is NOT a commodity, and can help differentiate the predictions for Partner A vs Partner B, even for the same ad opportunity!

Conclusion: Supply Intelligence as the New Competitive Advantage

In an ecosystem where access to in-app inventory is largely uniform, access alone no longer differentiates a DSP. What matters is how intelligently that access is managed.

The commodification of in-app supply  redefines DSP differentiation. It’s no longer about who has access, but about who manages access better.

Winning DSPs will:

• Understand the complexity of in-app supply.
• Bring transparency and efficiency to advertisers.
• Use data and machine learning to make every impression count.
  

By solving the fragmentation challenge, DSPs not only improve campaign performance, they redefine their role as trusted, efficiency-driven partners in the mobile advertising value chain. At Aarki, that starts with treating supply intelligence as a core product, not an afterthought.

作者简介

Areeb Ahmad leads Strategic Partnerships at Aarki, overseeing everything from Supply and MMPs to Data and key ecosystem partners. With deep industry experience from previous roles at Moloco and AdColony (now DigitalTurbine), Areeb brings sharp insight into building scalable, high-impact partnerships. At Aarki, he’s filling a critical gap by aligning Business Development with Product to unlock new value for our clients and the company alike.