Campaigns spend years raising money to reach the voters that decide elections. Every dollar raised and spent must be reported.
What many campaigns do not realize is that multiple hidden layers take a cut of their streaming and digital ad budgets.
With billions of political advertising dollars in play, a large ecosystem of intermediaries sits between campaigns and voters.
Understanding that supply chain is critical to protecting campaign budgets.
How Does an Ad Reach a Voter?
The advertiser places an ad into a Demand-Side Platform (DSP).
The DSP bids on inventory available through ad exchanges.
The exchange connects to a Supply-Side Platform (SSP).
The SSP serves the ad on the publisher where the voter is watching video.
Every step in this process takes a fee and creates potential inefficiencies.
For campaigns focused on reaching voters efficiently, understanding this process matters.
Where are there inefficiencies in this chain?
The supply chain may look straightforward — DSP → Exchange → SSP → Publisher.
In reality, it is far more fragmented.
Hundreds of companies operate at each layer of the programmatic ecosystem, and the entire process is automated.
That fragmentation creates inefficiencies.
Different DSPs have different identity graphs and targeting methodologies.
Some DSPs expand audiences aggressively within their identity graphs, resulting in large numbers of impressions being served outside the intended voter audience.
Fees also vary widely and many are hidden. Many DSPs effectively take 20% or more of campaign spend.
SSP Layer
SSPs play an important role. They aggregate inventory from thousands of publishers and make the inventory available for advertisers to bid on. There are more than 100 SSPs in the streaming/digital ecosystem.
Most campaigns end up targeting inventory across 40 or more SSPs at once.
This creates several problems:
Campaigns bid on the same inventory through multiple paths
Brand safety and fraud controls become harder to manage
Many SSPs take undisclosed fees
The result is a fragmented and inefficient supply chain.
But it Gets Worse: Resellers
Many SSPs do not sell inventory directly from publishers.
Instead, they resell inventory sourced from other SSPs. All to make a buck off of our ads. That means a single ad opportunity can pass through multiple intermediaries before it ever reaches the voter.
Each intermediary adds additional fees and complexity.
For advertisers, that often means paying multiple layers of markup for the same impression.
According to Jounce Media, 40% of display auctions and 26% of video auctions come from resellers.
How do we solve for this?
Reduce the number of suppliers. A small number of high-quality SSPs can provide access to the vast majority of streaming inventory.
Develop real relationships with suppliers. Good partners help navigate supply paths, approve creative quickly, and connect campaigns directly with publishers. If you cannot call a real person when something breaks, that supplier should not be in your supply chain.
Evaluate new buying paths. Some SSPs are launching their own buying platforms, allowing advertisers to purchase inventory closer to the source.
At Cross Screen Media, we operate with:
3 supply side partners
0 open exchanges
2 SSP-build buying platforms
This approach has reduced CPMs by roughly 15% while increasing incremental reach.
What suppliers should you use?
What does this mean for Political Advertisers?
Remove middlemen - Consolidate the number of SSPs you work with. Buying across dozens creates duplication, hidden fees, and less control. Fewer, higher-quality partners drive efficiency.
Require transparency - DSPs, SSPs, and resellers all take a cut. Campaigns are often paying multiple layers of fees on the same impression.
Prioritize direct paths to inventory - The goal is not just fewer partners, it’s better ones. Prioritize direct or near-direct paths to publishers to improve pricing, quality, and reach.