How did Codest push Yieldbird to Deloitte List? (interview) :)
Once upon a time, there was a market without any AdX Optimization. Then a Yieldbird appeared and changed the reality of many publishers. How did it happen? We talked with Grzegorz Kubrakiewicz, Head of Technology at Yieldbird, who explains, how the cooperation with Codest has made it possible to be listed 16th in Deloitte ‘Technology Fast 50 Central Europe‘.
How was this whole idea born?
– Grzegorz Kubrakiewicz: It all began with Adtaily, which allowed small advertisers like hairdressers or hotels to place their ads on larger portals on regional Gazeta.pl sites. The Adtaily ad network was working with them. In the meantime, Marcin Ekiert and Piotrek Niedziela, inspired by Fredrik, started playing from the publisher’s side with AdX settings and noticed that in this way they were able to make more money with them. It was also related to the fact that all the money on the market in programmatic come from advertisers.
The whole programmatic focused then on the source of money from the buyers’ side, the market was tight, the competition was large. Based on gained knowledge, we created Yield Optimization and for several years we were becoming more and more experienced on many markets.
The next step was an attempt to write a software which will automate and improve all these concepts in two ways: either by automation and increasing the scale, or by using more complex algorithms that will be better than a human.
How did the implementation process work?
– It took a bit of time to find a way on how to automate it, get to know the process, the way it works, invent some ways for it and how to tell developers from Codest about it, so that they could produce a tool that creates added value. And then it went like a snowball effect, it spread, we had more and more ideas what to optimize.
Later on we made a whole class of products, i.e. a wrapper which really automated processes such as creating setups for publishers. Setups are constructions that help these publishers increase profits by increasing demand, it required the publisher to install javascript codes, integrate with the site. It was quite complicated, mainly due to the Javascript code which has to be integrated with a website, and not every publisher has their own development resources. A swell as both the language and cultural barrier with the publishers could be quite an obstacle. Therefore, it was clear that we needed Codest to create an easy and user friendly product.
How did the market welcome Yieldbird?
– The publishers’ market, the supplier of advertising space, was quite empty, there were no products dedicated to these publishers. So the idea of optimizing the advertising space worked. The next stage was the idea for a service that will help publishers earn more from the advertising space and exert more pressure on advertisers.
Some welcomed us really warmly, as they really wanted to make more money, but some were very suspicious, or we could not explain them what it all was about. The barrier of understanding is quite large, because it is not an easy or cheap product. Each publisher is in a different situation and a different setup, that’s why our products are cut to measure and grow together with our publishers.
WHY A GREAT COMMUNICATION HELPS US TO GROW? :)
Based on many years of experience in implementing IT projects in Codest, we have developed an effective working system that helps us to create products that meet our clients’ the expectations with the highest efficiency. One of our system’s key elements is a proper communication. Thanks to it, we know how to recognize the needs of our partners and implement projects with high quality.
“First of choice developer”
One of the examples illustrating the way we organize communication with a client is our cooperation with the Yieldbird company. It is a global ad optimization company with a strong background in programmatic ecosystem. Codest’s software engineers have developed an extensive analysis of analytic and growth hacking Yieldbird teams’ needs.
– We have been cooperating with Codest for many years on many projects. We treat Codest as ‘first of choice developer’, as they perfectly understand that such cooperation should be treated comprehensively and very seriously. In IT projects, misunderstandings can lead to huge losses, because the work is relatively expensive and the effect is often not immediately visible. The Codest team pays great attention to ensuring that it understands the issue which will be implemented. Believe me, this attitude pays off in the future – says Grzegorz Kubrakiewicz, the Head of Technology at Yieldbird.
Speed of action
Codest developers had to write a software which would automate and improve concept of AdX optimization in two ways: either by automation and increasing the scale, or by using more complex algorithms that would be better than a human. We managed to get the first software functionalities in a very short time. We have created a working product, which we gradually developed afterwards.
This approach has been met with great customer satisfaction. When he started cooperation, they did not expect that in such a short time they would receive ready-made first functionalities. However, this would not be possible without the proper communication. Before our developers started their work, they had learned the specifics of our client’s industry and its needs in advance. During the project, the client was fully informed of the working progress. Having any doubts or comments, he could pass them on to the project leader.
– I appreciate that Codest pays great importance to the agile methodology. The point is not in their using scrum artifacts or holding meetings. What I mean is that they are trying to organize work on a project in such a way that they actually deliver a product that is working as quickly as possible and then improve it in every subsequent iteration. It was utterly important in case of our project. We must constantly test prototypes, which is why frequent and good communication between us is crucial – adds Grzegorz Kubrakiewicz from Yieldbird.
Lever of success
Many years of experience in the IT industry have allowed us to understand the importance of proper communication in the effective projects implementation. Thanks to this we have managed to optimize the time of work performed by our developers, as well as improve the quality of cooperation with the clients. One of our main assumptions is a quality of work that affects customer’s satisfaction. We are convinced that this approach is desirable to our partners and also leads to the fact that more and more companies want to establish cooperation with us.
