Supply path tests
What remnant display actually delivered when we bought it: placements, domains, SSPs, ads.txt, and the excludes that work.
Start with
- 12 min readFour months of our own money on the open exchangeWe spent $2,671.30 of our own money on display ads from May 14 to September 23, 2026. Much went to slots that did nothing. Most of that waste was fixable.
- 2 min readOpen exchange waste, mapped by grainThere is no Beeswax object named supply route. Reports show waste by placement, site, domain, and exchange. Only some grains can be excluded today.
- 1 min readSplit the key before you exclude itStored findings look like OPENX|ox/558246019. The exchange wants ox/558246019. The un-split key matches nothing and fails open.
All pieces, newest first
21 pieces
- Four months of our own money on the open exchangeWe spent $2,671.30 of our own money on display ads from May 14 to September 23, 2026. Much went to slots that did nothing. Most of that waste was fixable.12 min read
- Split the key before you exclude itStored findings look like OPENX|ox/558246019. The exchange wants ox/558246019. The un-split key matches nothing and fails open.1 min read
- Why audited spend uses Math.max, not a suminventory_agg and domain_agg are two views over the same auctions. The first production run reported $630.49 against $309.82 of real snapshot spend.1 min read
- ads.txt did not save this buy99.85 percent of observed Supply Bench spend was already ads.txt authorized. Unauthorized was $0.48. ads.txt did not remove the waste we actually found.2 min read
- Authorized inventory can still be junkads.txt authorization answers who may sell a domain. It does not answer whether the traffic is usable. 99.85 percent of this buy was already authorized.2 min read
- Bid down a bad placement instead of killing itPlanBid modifiers can scale a bid, for example multiplier 0.3, on placement, site, or inventory_source. That path is seat-verified and not productized.1 min read
- Deals vs open exchange on a small daily budgetPlanThis child seat has historically had zero deals. We will not invent a private-marketplace result. This page is the test we still owe.2 min read
- Delivery modifiers as budget weightsPlanDelivery modifier terms are targeting, rank, and weight, plus a required fallback_weight. This seat has had zero delivery modifier objects.1 min read
- Domain waste after we filter exchangesExchange excludes do not remove domain waste. Domain findings need seat-level reference lists. That is an honest product limit, not a custom_list myth.2 min read
- Most placements we bought did nothingOn the 2026-09-02 Supply Bench pull, 93.4 percent of placements had zero clicks and still took 64 percent of observed spend.2 min read
- msn.com showed up twicemsn.com ran about 3.7 percent CTR on the July 2026 learning flight and 5.35 percent on Supply Bench. The host repeated. The creative did not have to.2 min read
- Open exchange waste, mapped by grainThere is no Beeswax object named supply route. Reports show waste by placement, site, domain, and exchange. Only some grains can be excluded today.2 min read
- Placement vs site vs domain: which exclude worksPlacement and site are direct keys. Domain and app_bundle need seat-level reference lists. The old custom_list line blocked 59 percent of findable waste.2 min read
- QPS is not targetingFront-end QPS filters decide which auctions enter the bidder and consume contracted QPS. Line-item targeting decides which already-received requests may bid.2 min read
- Reseller paths clicked 2.3x more than directAuthorized-Reseller CTR was 0.423 percent vs Authorized-Direct at 0.184 percent on the same creative. That is an arbitrage signature, not a quality win.2 min read
- Same creative, 28x CTR spread by SSPOPENX ran 0.111 percent CTR on 44 percent of spend. SMARTADSERVER ran 3.074 percent. THIRTY_THREE_ACROSS ran 18.18 percent. Same creative, same format.2 min read
- Scan then exclude, since you cannot pick the list first1,073 zero-click placements cannot be known before a flight. The working order is deliver, read grain, then exclude at a key the seat can compile.2 min read
- Seven domains produced two fifths of the clicksSeven domains produced 41.3 percent of Supply Bench clicks from 4.7 percent of impressions. That is a concentration finding, not a certified IVT verdict.2 min read
- Web-only still bought browser gamesenvironments=['web'] held. app_agg rows were 0. The flight still bought worldofsolitaire.com, wheelofnames.com, and tftcomps.gg.2 min read
- What we mean by a supply pathThere is no Beeswax object named supply route. A path is targeting plus lists plus deals plus modifiers plus reports, read back after delivery.2 min read
- Why an empty allowlist serves nothinginventory_source is an allowlist. An empty one matches no inventory, so the apply path returns 409 rather than ship a campaign that cannot serve.2 min read