From Reseller to Direct: Why Publishers Are Rethinking Reseller-Heavy Supply Paths
For more than a decade, publishers were told that more demand meant more revenue. More SSPs. More sellers. More bid requests. But many publishers are discovering that more supply paths don’t necessarily create more value – they often lead to more duplication, reduced transparency, and unnecessary fees. That model is starting to crack.
With supply-path optimization (SPO) becoming a standard part of programmatic strategy, first-party data emerging as a key competitive advantage, and SSPs increasingly promoting curated marketplaces, publishers are asking a different question: Is it time to move from reseller-heavy setups to more direct supply paths – and is the effort actually worth it?
What “Reseller vs. Direct” Actually Means
At its core, the debate comes down to how your inventory travels from your site to the buyer.
Reseller Paths
Easy scale, low effort, but fractured control. Your inventory is passed through intermediaries, often requiring multiple SSP hops before a transaction occurs. Publisher ↔ Reseller ↔ SSP ↔ DSP
Direct Paths
Higher control and potentially higher yield, but demands more operational work. The path is shortened: Publisher ↔ SSP ↔ DSP (or in some cases, straight from Publisher to DSP).
Shifting from the former to the latter fundamentally changes the mechanics of your monetization. Specifically, it impacts:
- Transparency: You see exactly who is buying what, and for how much.
- Fees: Even if the reseller negotiates a lower take rate for their accounts, an opaque extra commission is added on top.
- Moving to direct payments shortens the payment cycle with some SSPs and improves overall cash flow.
- Data Access: Closer proximity to buyers allows for better first-party data activation without leakage.
- Auction Dynamics: You move from high-volume, low-win-rate auctions to highly targeted, competitive bidding.
Should You Switch?
Moving to a direct-heavy model isn’t a silver bullet for every publisher. It requires a specific foundation to be successful.
Publishers should make the switch if they have enough consistent traffic to actually attract direct demand. High viewability, niche audiences, or high-performing ad units, strong first-party data – rich audience insights that buyers actually want.
Publishers should avoid switching if they still rely heavily on long-tail demand, their fill rate and eCPM are already fragile (poor performance does not attract buyers), or they have very limited scale – the publisher is too small to acquire direct accounts. Typically, SSPs want the publisher to earn a couple of thousand euros a month to sign a direct deal.
Publishers with limited technical or AdOps resources should pick a vendor with the most automated platform and the best support availability.
Weighing the Risks and Rewards
What You Can Realistically Gain
- Higher CPMs: Curated and Private Marketplace (PMP) deals can increase CPMs, but results vary by publisher and deal structure. For example, The Guardian US reported more than 40% year-over-year revenue growth, driven by higher CPMs across both the open auction and PMPs rather than increased traffic. Its VP of Revenue Operations described this as a “rising tide effect,” where curated demand also improved pricing in the open exchange. However, outcomes are not universal. One major advertiser’s programmatic team reported a buy-side curation partnership with CPMs roughly 10% lower than the open exchange. Ultimately, pricing gains depend on inventory quality, audience scale, and deal structure rather than curation alone.
- Radical Transparency: Clear visibility into exactly which buyers value your inventory most.
- Pricing Power: Complete control over pricing floors, packaging, and auction rules.
- Stronger Buyer Relationships: The ability to negotiate PMPs and Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) deals.
Some providers, such as Criteo, require publishers to generate more than €500 in daily revenue before qualifying for a direct account. Others may not deliver enough incremental performance to justify the implementation and maintenance effort. Additionally, new SSPs enter the market regularly, and evaluating them through a reseller account is often the fastest and lowest-risk way to assess their value before committing to a direct integration.
Why the Industry is Moving this Way
Publisher outcomes increasingly reflect the impact of supply-path structure on revenue.
In one implementation, Postimees Grupp transitioned from a reseller-led setup to a more direct model by onboarding multiple SSPs and increasing auction competition. This resulted in +27% yearly programmatic revenue growth, with a significant portion of demand shifting toward direct integrations. Meanwhile, ComputerBase.de also transformed its monetization strategy, with direct relationships becoming its primary revenue source.
“Building direct demand relationships has fundamentally changed our monetization strategy. Today, more than 90% of our programmatic revenue comes from direct demand partnerships.” — Steffen Weber, Owner, ComputerBase.de
A similar pattern is visible in broader market data. Programmatic now accounts for 91.5% of global digital display ad spend, according to eMarketer – up from 88.2% in 2024. Separately, supply-path optimization and curation strategies favoring direct and curated paths over duplicated open-market supply have been gaining traction industry-wide. However, this trend is documented mostly in the ad tech trade press and vendor reporting rather than in a specific IAB benchmark.
In both cases, the common driver is not simply “more demand,” but more efficient access to demand. Reducing duplication and increasing transparency improve auction dynamics, even without increasing total traffic.
The Blueprint: How to Actually Switch (Step-by-Step)
If you are ready to take back control of your supply, here is how to execute the transition without tanking your revenue.
Step 1: Audit Your Existing vs. Direct Supply Paths
Start by identifying duplication. Check your ads.txt, sellers.json, and SSP reporting to see whether multiple resellers are selling the same impressions. Find the redundant paths that aren’t adding unique demand.
Step 2: Consolidate SSPs
Reduce your stack to a smaller, focused set of high-quality partners. Prioritize SSPs that help you build direct supply paths to premium buyers.
Step 3: Build Direct Demand
Start packaging your inventory. Activate PMPs and curated deals, enriching them with your first-party data signals (audience demographics, context, performance metrics) to make them irresistible to buyers.
Step 4: Gradually Reduce Reseller Exposure
Do not cut everything at once. Shift the percentage of your traffic incrementally. Route a small portion to direct paths, ensure it’s performing, and slowly scale up while scaling resellers down.
Step 5: Monitor Key Metrics Relentlessly
Keep a close eye on the numbers that matter:
- CPM (Are buyers paying more for direct access?)
- Fill Rate (Are you leaving money on the table?)
- Win Rate (Is auction efficiency improving?)
- RPM / Revenue per Mille (Is your overall yield actually growing?)
What a Successful Shift to Direct Supply Paths Looks Like
When the transition is complete, success isn’t just about a spike in CPMs. True success means a healthier, more predictable monetization ecosystem.
You will see fewer overall bid requests, but much higher-quality auctions. Your revenue will become more stable, and a significantly larger portion of ad spend will flow through curated and direct channels rather than the unpredictable open exchange.
How Setupad Can Help You Make the Move
Transitioning your supply path requires precision, deep industry connections, and robust technology.
For publishers that lack dedicated programmatic teams, Setupad can simplify the transition by helping consolidate SSP relationships, providing bid-level analytics, and facilitating introductions to direct demand partners.
With direct SSP accounts, publishers’ inventory is more discoverable by the buy side. Bidding partners can skip the reseller verification step and include this inventory in premium campaigns, thereby bypassing the reseller account’s performance.
The Final Takeaway
The programmatic landscape of 2026 is no longer about throwing every possible demand source at the wall to see what sticks. The goal isn’t to eliminate resellers – it’s to take back control of your direct supply paths where it matters most.
