Now & Next is a feature written by the ExchangeWire Research team. Every three weeks, we review the latest research, provide impartial insight and analysis of current trends and provide predictions for the future of advertising and marketing technology. This feature focuses on Software Development Kits (SDKs).

When researching this piece, I asked many people from the online ad tech industry what their understanding of SDK use was and, like me before I wrote this piece, the overwhelming majority knew of SDKs as a mobile app development tool, nothing more, nothing less.

A brief introduction to SDKs

A Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of software development tools that allows developers to create applications for a certain software package (Android or iOS, for example), hardware platform (LG or Samsung, for example) or other similar development platform. To create an Android app (not an iOS app) developers need a specific SDK, one with java programming rather than swift language, and to develop an MS Windows app a developer needs .net language.

SDKs can also be installed within applications to provide analytics and data about activity. Google and Facebook do this, as well as smaller independent companies, such as AppAnnie.

SDKs can have attached licenses that limit the use of the resulting application outside the SDK owners desired platforms or software. Many SDKs can be downloaded free of charge, this encourages use of the system and language.

SDKs are also the vehicle through which mobile in-app ads from ad networks can be served and measured. Because mobile apps are built in an SDK, any ads served within that app need to fit into the SDK framework.

More than a development kit

SDKs are much more than a tool to develop applications for mobile devices. SDKs offer advertisers and pulishers more flexible functionality to understand how the consumer is engaging with content.

I spoke to Owen Hanks, general manager Europe at YuMe about how SDKs have transformed how they measure audiences and target ad delivery.

According to Hanks, one of the reasons SDKs are only used in the mobile app world is because the term became common currency in that world. Hanks said: “If you are an app developer for android or iOS, they give you an SDK that you then build your application within, therefore, they became more common.”

“The thing that is missed is that SDKs have been around for a long time, the video player in a website is also an application, therefore SDKs can be used [in video players] and also connected TVs.”

Hanks told me: “SDKs allow you to consume more pertinent pieces of information because you are within the tool that the content is delivered on. You get more control over what is happening, e.g. simple behavioural things, like how long is the video played for. It could be observed data, e.g. on a website, was the page where the player was open? Was the player on the screen, or was it on the fold? Was it on the active tab, rather than a tag which is about the delivery of an ad? You have more information about what is happening in the environment the video is played in."

For marketers, this means that marketers benefit from greater transparency into traffic quality and viewability on both mobile devices and other devices, such as connected TVs.

Hanks says that this understanding means better decision making when deciding which ads to serve to consumers: "Because we understand more about the consumer, when we deliver an ad in the future we know that this person usually watches 50% of an ad and they are interested in sport, for example. We can then decide whether to serve a 15-second sports video. We can also understand what the content was in the video player and on the site."

This should makes advertising more targeted, and less creepy. Video advertising is not made for individuals because it's not scalable to do that. If I enjoy cycling at the weekend and I have a dog, and enjoy sites about cycling and dogs, that can be understood through the SDK and ads served can be made more relevant.

Third-party cookies have been used online for years and years. But cookie samples go out of date and are often not completely clean and you have to layer assumption on assumption on assumption. And down the line you might be wrong. Also assumptions from online are being transferred from desktop to different screens when consumers behaviour is different on each screen. SDKs can minimise the number of assumptions being made and increase the accuracy of cross-screen targeting.

SDKs also work on over-the-top players, like playstation, Roku, apple TV, google TV, anything that streams video uses a player, which is an application. Any of those devices can use SDKs, that means that marketers can get better understanding of their audience on those devices.

Hanks informed me that the use of SDKs in media, other than mobile, is very low. He said that this is because of one limitation, not of the SDK itself but the need to make sure SDKs are always compatible and up to date. "This requires engineering time", Hanks said. But, there is light at the end of the tunnel: "SDKs can now be managed from the server side so can be updated without having to change it every time the app store updates the requirements", said Hanks.

Because SDKs are not 100% reliant on device ID, if Apple decide to change device IDs (which they have done in the past), SDKs can provide continual tracking using it’s own tracking ID. If you can get data easily, it is a simpler technology to keep up to date.

Smart TVs and other connected devices 

Smart TV manufacturers have their own operating systems, much like Apple and android. This means that developers have to update the SDKs in the application itself, creating a time and resource limitation again. However, through the Smart TV alliance, it is hoped that there will be standardisation of how applications are upgraded. http://www.smarttv-alliance.org/

As smart technology migrates to more and more devices, the use of apps will become more prevalent and there will be mounting pressure on manufacturers to standardise.

Companies like YuMe, are creating the ability to deliver advertising across screens in the way audiences are connecting with them. So one morning you turn on the TV instead of your phone, as a consumer advertisers still want to target me but need to reach me on a different device. SDKs can facilitate this flexible, real-time targeting, rather than today's approach that means media planners have to make assumptions about dividing budget by screens and hope they reach the right audiences.