Continuing our long-standing commitment to bring value back to both media owners and buyers and enable a more efficient supply path, Index is pleased to announce the general availability of Volume Incentives for buyers.
Volume Incentives builds off the success of Exchange Fee Reduction (XFR), the first incentive-based program we developed two years ago in response to buyers seeking ways to bring their own economies of scale to the Index Exchange marketplace. The XFR program lets large media buyers drive down the fee Index receives from a media owner’s transactions, passing those savings back to the media owner. We introduced new levels of transparency into fees across the supply chain with XFR, which has been key to its success.
Since the inception of XFR, we’ve worked closely with our customers to determine how to optimise the incentive program to bring even more value. For marketers, that means more efficient media buying across the programmatic supply path. For media owners, it’s about increasing transaction volume through Index.
Based on that feedback and Index’s core belief that increased investment should lead to more efficiency, we developed Volume Incentives. Grounded in the concept of economies of scale, the program passes savings back to buyers on every transaction, letting them buy more media with the same budget.
It’s a powerful way for buyers to optimise their supply path while bringing more spending volume to media owners.
How do Volume Incentives work?
It’s simple: the more a buyer spends, the more they save. We reduce the Index fee and return the savings to the buyer.
The truly innovative part is that we reduce the cost of media to a buyer without impacting the bid in any way. This keeps bidding competitive—CPM savings don’t lead to decreased win rates. Ultimately, this means that more of a marketer’s budget goes toward media, which directly improves campaign KPIs: more reach, lower cost per action (CPA), improved ROI, and more.
The Volume Incentives program is also backed by the same transparent reporting that customers have come to expect from Index. Savings passed in the bid stream are shared in Index Reporting and Client Audit Logs for 100% transparency.
Media owners benefit from the program, too. It incentivises buyers to spend more with them through Index. While buyers pay a lower CPM than their actual bid, media owners receive the same revenue as before. In fact, they see the same CPM with or without the Volume Incentive savings, and most importantly, benefit from more spending to their properties.
The impact of Volume Incentives
Since the beta launch of the program just a few months ago in October 2021, there are 36 customers participating in the Volume Incentives program globally, resulting in a 64% increase from the initial XFR program.
GroupM, who formed a preferred partnership with Index in 2020 as part of its SPO efforts, has been a leading advocate of programs like XFR and Volume Incentives and worked closely with our team to advance the program.
“We aim to provide our clients with the most efficient, effective, and transparent path to supply, and Index Exchange’s Volume Incentives program brings new levels of efficiency to programmatic. Our partnership has unlocked significant savings that are invested directly back into campaigns, boosting working media for marketers.”
Esra Bacher, managing partner, programmatic investment lead at GroupM
Volume-based incentive programs are a critical part of agency SPO efforts. Buyers have achieved upwards of $5 million in savings through these programs in two years, and in just a few months, we’ve seen that the new Volume Incentives program has already produced 25% of the savings amount as previous programs that have been running for several years.
To learn more about how to improve efficiency with programmatic media buying with Volume Incentives savings, please contact your Index representative.
