Karolina BendrykStarting a programmatic business today comes with more challenges than ever — yet the infrastructure and partnerships needed to launch have never been more accessible, if you know where to look.
A successful programmatic solution needs to adapt to diminishing third-party cookie utility, embrace radical transparency, and master more innovative technologies, such as machine learning and AI agents. The best strategy to solve those issues appears straightforward: build a custom, programmatic stack tailored to your needs.
When is owning your platform an asset, and when is it a liability?
Participation alone is no longer sufficient — companies looking for a competitive advantage are building their own programmatic platforms to have end-to-end control of their operations. This approach is driven by several critical needs:
Full control over auction mechanics, trading logic, and margins. Businesses need control over every transaction touchpoint — from how auctions are run to how they can boost their margins. This level of control is essential for optimizing revenue and enforcing strategic guardrails across the supply chain. Achieving this level of control requires owning your infrastructure.
Freedom to choose partners and support nonstandard formats. Owning the tech stack allows companies to define which partners they work with and under what conditions. This is especially important for supporting unique ad formats like Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) or other channel-specific executions that standard SSPs aren’t built to accommodate.
Leverage external networks on your terms. With a proprietary platform, companies can integrate multiple demand or supply networks on their own terms. This avoids vendor lock-in and ensures that external integrations reinforce operational and revenue goals.
The common thread is clear: the strategic need for control and flexibility is the main driver behind businesses building their own programmatic ecosystems. Market giants like The Trade Desk or Magnite exemplify this principle. They don’t just adapt to market changes — they drive them, which is why their technological independence and uniqueness were, and remain, essential.
Companies working with platforms they control can adapt to market changes quickly. They can gain the necessary control and flexibility, transforming them into a competitive advantage that can turn them into market leaders.
Why businesses choose white-label solutions
When it comes to “owning your tech” and controlling your platform, you can build it with an in-house team, outsource development to a third-party, or find a white-label platform vendor that covers your technology needs. There’s no “one size fits all” way to choose between building in-house, outsourcing development, or finding a white-label vendor. However, for most businesses, starting with white-label solutions makes the most sense.
Here’s why:
Shorter Time-to-market
Building a programmatic solution from scratch will take at least one year. Meanwhile, with WLS options, you can launch your platform and run your first campaigns within the span of a month.
Access to Industry Experts
When you build from scratch, every specialist comes at a cost — from QA to DevOps to C-level product strategy. With a white-label solution, that cost is absorbed by the vendor. You’re leveraging a system already shaped by a team of 100+ professionals without paying their salaries or managing their workflows. There are no overhead costs to “ramping up” development.
Even more critically, you’re avoiding hidden operational overhead: no need to hire project managers, HR staff, or internal support layers just to keep the dev team productive. All of that infrastructure — people, processes, and oversight — is already embedded in the vendor relationship.
You pay for the platform. Everything else — the team, the updates, the operations — is bundled in.
Flexible Pricing Models
The greatest benefit with regard to white-label solutions pricing is that you pay for launching and actually using the platform. The gap between launching a platform and receiving the first returns on your investment is significantly shortened.
Furthermore, you can choose a vendor with a pricing model that fits your business. Whether it’s paying a flat fee for the platform, a usage-based agreement, a revenue share model, or a hybrid model — your range of options is significantly expanded compared to the single “pay upfront” of developing your platform from scratch.
More importantly, you don’t need to hire your team — white-label vendors will handle technical aspects, including technical maintenance, themselves. Some of them offer customization, tailoring their platforms for your specific needs.
What does it mean in practice?
A white-label solution serves as a strategic bridge. It enables you to test your ideas, build partnerships, and generate revenue in a controlled environment with minimal start-up investments. You can refine your strategy with real-world data, evaluate it, and gain a clear understanding of whether you need an in-house solution. From our point of view, this is the safest path to monetization:
Market changes happen quickly, but the need to squeeze the most out of your monetization persists. Even market leaders are now experimenting with technology, testing new, more accessible solutions to сhallenge their existing stacks. In this environment, choosing a flexible tech solution over building from scratch is simply the logical and inevitable choice.
Anastasia Nikita-Bansal, CEO of TeqBlaze
Choosing your white-label vendor is the trickiest part.
White-label AdTech vendors offer a spectrum of service models. These range from fixed, unchangeable platforms to highly customizable solutions, with some vendors even bundling pre-integrated demand sources with their core technology.
Therefore, when choosing a vendor, you’re not only looking for a shortcut into the programmatic market, but also for a business partner. With this in mind, you have to consider which features will be available in a white-label platform “out of the box”, how you plan to expand and grow your programmatic business, how you can communicate your needs to your vendor, and whether they will have the capacity to meet your requirements.
Here are 10 key requirements that any white-label vendor must meet:
It offers a standalone programmatic infrastructure with the ability to connect suppliers you want to work with.
It is fully RTB-compliant and provides users with auto-optimization features for ad campaigns based on the chosen pricing models.
DSP allows targeting ads by broad options with retargeting capabilities and blacklist/whitelist features.
It supports ad rendering in diverse ad environments for at least standard ad formats such as Banner, Native, Video, and Audio.
It has been built following a security-first approach, allowing the platform users to run full privacy-compliance advertising campaigns.
The ad infrastructure may be unlimitedly scaled and enhanced.
The platform creates comprehensive reports for meticulous performance measurement and stores them in a well-organized, protected database.
The white-label platform is maintained and supported by the people you are happy to work with.
It allows running campaigns with alternative targeting options rather than third-party cookies-based.
It is not a problem for you and your team to undergo platform-using training and obtain other related skills for running programmatic business services.
Our detailed guide provides a deeper look at WLS platform selection for those who want to learn more.
Control in programmatic is essential, but so is its cost
In 2025, competitiveness is no longer about owning code. It’s about the ability to adapt quickly, govern partnerships with transparency, and scale without technical debt. For decision-makers, the question is not whether to build or buy, but how to retain control without incurring excessive costs. We specialize in the technology and strategy to help you achieve that balance. If you are ready to explore it further, let’s talk.
