The programmatic advertising industry has never been short of metrics. We measure CPMs, fill rates, bid density, viewability, latency, win rates and countless other performance indicators. Every campaign, every auction and every impression generates data that helps us optimize performance.
Yet one question is rarely asked:
It’s an interesting thought because programmatic advertising wasn’t built simply to maximize complexity. It was built to create efficient marketplaces where buyers and sellers could transact at scale. Over time, however, the ecosystem evolved. New technologies emerged, additional intermediaries entered the market, and specialized services began solving increasingly sophisticated challenges.
Many of these innovations created genuine value. Others simply became another stop along the journey.
Perhaps it’s time to introduce another way of thinking. Not necessarily another KPI to add to dashboards, but a framework that helps us evaluate the quality of a supply path, not just its outcome.
Let’s call it Revenue Per Hop.
Imagine two supply paths that generate exactly the same revenue for a publisher. From a purely financial perspective, both look equally successful.
But what if one path consists of just a DSP, an SSP and the publisher, while the other involves verification layers, yield optimizers, multiple exchanges, resellers and additional intermediaries before the impression finally reaches its destination?
The publisher receives the same revenue.
The advertiser reaches the same audience.
But can we honestly say both supply paths are equally efficient? Probably not.
The longer path required more infrastructure, more integrations, more operational complexity and, quite possibly, more fees. It also introduced additional latency, more reconciliation work and more opportunities for transparency to diminish as information passes from one participant to the next.
The outcome may look identical. The journey certainly isn’t. That is exactly why Revenue Per Hop becomes an interesting lens through which to evaluate programmatic supply chains.
The purpose of this idea is not to argue that every additional participant is unnecessary. Quite the opposite. Brand safety providers, fraud prevention solutions, identity frameworks and specialized technology partners all play an important role within today’s ecosystem. Many create tremendous value for buyers and publishers alike.
The real question isn’t whether complexity exists. It’s whether complexity is justified. Every participant in a supply path should be able to answer a simple question:
If a technology partner introduces unique demand, improves auction dynamics, increases transparency or solves a meaningful technical challenge, it has clearly earned its place. If removing that participant changes nothing for either buyers or publishers, perhaps its role deserves to be questioned.
Supply Path Optimization should never become an exercise in reducing logos on an integration slide. It should become an exercise in ensuring that every participant contributes something meaningful.
Publishers naturally focus on revenue performance. That will always remain the most important outcome. But perhaps the conversation should evolve beyond simply asking:
“How much revenue did this SSP generate?”
A more interesting question might be:
“How efficiently was that revenue generated?”
Did it introduce genuinely incremental demand, or simply re-route spend that was already competing for the same impression?
Did it improve auction dynamics?
Did it create additional transparency?
Did it simplify the supply chain or make it harder to understand?
Revenue generated through direct relationships and transparent economics is fundamentally different from revenue that travels through multiple layers before eventually reaching the publisher. The final number may look identical on a dashboard. The quality of that revenue may not.
This conversation isn’t only relevant for publishers.
Advertisers increasingly want to understand where their budgets are actually going. Agencies are under growing pressure to explain supply chain decisions. DSPs continue investing in Supply Path Optimization because they recognize that cleaner paths often create better commercial outcomes. Transparency has become a competitive advantage. The easier it is to understand how an impression travelled from buyer to publisher, the easier it becomes to build trust throughout the ecosystem.
That’s why the industry’s future probably isn’t about eliminating intermediaries altogether. Nor is it about keeping every existing partner. It’s about creating supply paths where every participant has a clear reason to exist.
One misconception appears regularly in conversations around Supply Path Optimization. Publishers proudly announce they’re reducing the number of SSPs in their stack. Sometimes that’s exactly the right decision. Sometimes it isn’t. The number of integrations should never become the objective. The objective is maximizing publisher value.
If a new SSP introduces buyers that weren’t previously competing for your inventory, it has the potential to create incremental revenue. Removing that partner simply because the stack appears “too large” may actually reduce competition rather than improve efficiency. Likewise, retaining an SSP purely because it has always been integrated doesn’t make much sense either. Every partner should continuously earn its place. Not through promises. Through measurable value.
Perhaps Revenue Per Hop never becomes a formal KPI. Perhaps it never appears in reporting dashboards or quarterly business reviews. That’s perfectly fine. Its real value lies elsewhere. It encourages us to ask better questions about how programmatic advertising actually works.
Not simply:
“How much revenue did this path generate?”
But:
“How efficiently did that revenue reach the publisher?”
Those two questions are not always answered the same way. As our industry continues optimizing supply paths, perhaps that’s the conversation worth having. Because revenue will always matter. But how efficiently that revenue reaches the publisher may become one of the defining competitive advantages of the next generation of programmatic advertising.
ConnectAd is a European boutique SSP connecting premium publishers with quality demand through curated, efficient, and transparent programmatic partnerships. With a strong focus on PMP activation, low take-rates, clean supply paths, and hands-on support, ConnectAd helps publishers, advertisers, and DSPs build better programmatic connections.