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What is QPS?

QPS (Queries Per Second) is a metric that measures how many bid requests an SSP processes from your domain each second. Each SSP tracks your QPS individually and may implement caps on how many requests they'll accept from you based on how valuable they find your inventory. 

The higher your bid rate (the percentage of requests that receive bids) with an SSP, the more likely they are to maintain higher QPS limits for your domain. This matters because QPS caps can limit your revenue potential by restricting how many of your ad impressions make it to potential buyers.

Key Points

  • QPS (Queries Per Second) is a metric measured by SSPs to track the volume of bid requests they receive from individual publisher domains
  • SSPs may implement QPS caps when publishers send too many low-value requests, making bid rate a critical factor in QPS limits
  • QPS throttling occurs at multiple levels in the ad tech supply chain, including both Supply Side Platform (SSP) and Demand Side Platform (DSP) layers
  • Understanding and optimizing your QPS requires focusing on bid quality, not just request volume

QPS Basics

Let's cut through the ad tech complexity and break down what QPS really means in the programmatic ecosystem. QPS (Queries Per Second) is a metric that Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) use to measure how many bid requests they process from your specific domain each second. While it might seem like you'd want to send as many requests as possible, SSPs are actually quite selective about the queries they're willing to process.

Think of it like a nightclub with a strict door policy - if too many people who aren't likely to spend money try to get in, the club starts limiting entry. Similarly, SSPs may implement QPS caps on your domain if they notice you're sending too many low-value requests that their demand partners rarely bid on.

What makes this particularly interesting is that QPS isn't just about volume - it's intimately connected to bid rate. If an SSP sees that their demand partners frequently bid on your inventory (high bid rate), they're more likely to accept a higher QPS from your domain. After all, why turn away good business?

There are other factors, in addition to bid rate, that can determine QPS limits as well, including infrastructure costs, DSP feedback, and historical performance metrics. Some SSPs still may impose QPS limits regardless of bid rates or any other factors, just to keep their infrastructure costs in check.

The Multi-Layered Nature of QPS

Understanding QPS means recognizing that it exists at multiple levels in the programmatic supply chain. Each layer has its own implications for publishers seeking to maximize their revenue potential.

Here's how QPS works at different levels:

  • Supply Side Platform Level: Monitors and potentially caps requests based on your SSP seat (e.g. if you have your own relationship with an SSP, you would have a single seat, but if you are part of a network like Playwire’s, there’d be a single SSP seat for the entire group of publishers represented)
  • Demand Side Platform Level: Sets QPS limits for each integrated SSP
  • Publisher Level: Needs to optimize request quality to maintain favorable QPS limits to SSPs
  • Network Level: Aggregate QPS impacts overall infrastructure costs and performance

The complexity doesn't end there - DSPs can throttle traffic from SSPs who exceed their QPS limits, creating a cascade effect that can ultimately impact publisher revenue. DSPs typically set QPS limits per SSP. This means if an SSP overloads a DSP with too many requests, the DSP may ignore excess traffic from that SSP. Upstream, this can cause the SSPs to limit QPS for specific publishers or seats to protect their relationships with the DSPs.

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The Multi-Layered Nature of QPS

Understanding QPS means recognizing that it exists at multiple levels in the programmatic supply chain. Each layer has its own implications for publishers seeking to maximize their revenue potential.

Here's how QPS works at different levels:

  • Supply Side Platform Level: Monitors and potentially caps requests based on your SSP seat (e.g. if you have your own relationship with an SSP, you would have a single seat, but if you are part of a network like Playwire’s, there’d be a single SSP seat for the entire group of publishers represented)
  • Demand Side Platform Level: Sets QPS limits for each integrated SSP
  • Publisher Level: Needs to optimize request quality to maintain favorable QPS limits to SSPs
  • Network Level: Aggregate QPS impacts overall infrastructure costs and performance

The complexity doesn't end there - DSPs can throttle traffic from SSPs who exceed their QPS limits, creating a cascade effect that can ultimately impact publisher revenue. DSPs typically set QPS limits per SSP. This means if an SSP overloads a DSP with too many requests, the DSP may ignore excess traffic from that SSP. Upstream, this can cause the SSPs to limit QPS for specific publishers or seats to protect their relationships with the DSPs.

Why QPS Matters for Publishers

If you're wondering why you should care about QPS, the answer lies in your revenue potential. QPS limitations can significantly impact your programmatic earnings, often in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

Here's what makes QPS crucial:

  • SSPs may reduce your QPS limit if they receive too many low-value requests
  • Lower QPS limits mean fewer opportunities for your inventory to be seen by potential buyers
  • Poor QPS standing with major SSPs can dramatically reduce your access to demand
  • Optimizing for quality over quantity can help maintain higher QPS limits
  • Understanding QPS helps you make better decisions about SSP partnerships

The key takeaway? It's not just about sending more requests - it's about sending better ones.

QPS Optimization Strategies

Before diving into specific tactics, it's important to understand that QPS optimization isn't about gaming the system to send more requests - it's about improving the quality of the requests you do send. Even more importantly, what constitutes a "quality" request varies significantly between SSPs. 

Each SSP has its own set of buyers with unique preferences, bidding patterns, and target audiences. However, there also are standard approaches to maximizing your quality to reduce low-value requests that every SSP dislikes. Once you’ve done the basics, you can move on to the advanced practices.

Here are key strategies for QPS optimization:

  • Monitor bid rates by SSP to understand which types of inventory each partner values most
  • Implement SSP-specific floor prices based on their individual bidding patterns
  • Customize your request strategy for each SSP (e.g., one SSP might perform best with on safari browsers, while another prefers a specific geography or content category)
  • Before cutting requests, we encourage testing and analysis on actual bid data, so you are making smart choices on which requests to send (because, remember that pulling back requests that an SSP would have actually bid on might cause you to lose out on revenue)
  • Use adaptive timeout settings tailored to each SSP's typical response times
  • Consider implementing different geographic strategies by SSP based on where their demand partners show the most interest
  • Track which content categories perform best with each SSP and prioritize requests accordingly

Remember, applying a one-size-fits-all approach across all SSPs is like using the same fishing lure in every body of water - you might catch something, but you're not maximizing your potential. Each SSP needs its own carefully crafted strategy based on its unique characteristics and preferences.

The goal is to maintain high-quality request patterns that encourage each SSP to keep your QPS limits healthy, while recognizing that "high-quality" means something different to each partner.

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Common QPS Challenges

Publishers often face several technical hurdles when it comes to managing their QPS effectively across multiple SSP partnerships. Understanding these challenges is the first step to addressing them systematically.

These challenges typically include:

  • Balancing request distribution across multiple SSPs
  • Managing different QPS limits from various partners
  • Dealing with traffic spikes that exceed QPS caps
  • Understanding the impact of timeouts on QPS
  • Identifying when DSP throttling is affecting performance
  • Maintaining revenue while respecting QPS constraints

One of the most overlooked challenges in QPS management is the critical importance of maintaining strong relationships with SSPs. When publishers hit QPS limits or experience throttling, having an open line of communication with your SSP partners can mean the difference between finding a solution and watching your revenue suffer. 

However, building these relationships isn't easy - SSPs typically reserve their highest level of support and partnership for publishers or partners who can demonstrate significant scale and sophisticated optimization capabilities.

This is where working with a partner like Playwire becomes particularly valuable. We maintain strong relationships with all major SSPs, backed by the collective scale of our publisher network and years of demonstrated expertise. 

When QPS issues arise, we can have productive conversations with SSPs about increasing limits, adjusting throttling parameters, or developing custom optimization strategies. These are the kinds of conversations that would be difficult or impossible for individual publishers to initiate on their own.

Remember, these challenges aren't just technical problems - they directly impact your bottom line.

Best Practices for Managing QPS

Success with QPS management requires a strategic approach that considers both technical capabilities and business relationships. Let's explore the proven practices that help publishers maintain healthy QPS limits.

Key practices to implement:

  • Regularly analyze bid rates by SSP to identify high-performing partners
  • Implement proper error handling for throttled requests
  • Maintain open communication with SSP partners about performance
  • Use dynamic allocation to shift requests to better-performing SSPs
  • Consider time-of-day patterns when setting QPS strategies

The most successful publishers treat QPS as a valuable resource to be optimized rather than a limitation to be overcome.

Measuring QPS Success

Effective QPS management requires monitoring the right performance metrics to ensure your optimization efforts are paying off. This data-driven approach helps you make informed decisions about your programmatic strategy.

Critical metrics to track include:

  • Bid rate by SSP
  • Revenue per thousand queries (RPQM)
  • Throttling rate by partner
  • Average response time by SSP
  • Fill rate correlation with QPS
  • Overall revenue impact of QPS optimization efforts

Success means finding the right balance between request volume and quality that maximizes revenue while maintaining good relationships with SSP partners.

How Playwire Handles QPS Optimization

Managing QPS effectively requires sophisticated technology and deep relationships with SSP partners. It's like trying to conduct an orchestra where each musician is in a different time zone - technically possible, but incredibly complex.

Playwire's RAMP platform takes the complexity out of QPS management by:

  • Automatically optimizing request distribution across SSPs
  • Maintaining strong relationships with partners to secure favorable QPS limits
  • Using machine learning to predict and adapt to traffic patterns
  • Implementing sophisticated timeout management
  • Continuously monitoring and adjusting based on performance data

Plus, our scale and relationships with major SSPs mean better QPS limits for our publishers right out of the gate.

Ready to stop worrying about QPS and start focusing on creating great content? Let's talk about how Playwire can help optimize your programmatic revenue while handling all the technical complexities of QPS management.

 

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