How Hemnet curated demand lifted fill rate by 15pp while maintaining eCPM: an interview with Samuel Ghebresellase

In our latest article, we explored how curated demand helps publishers bring more competition into their header bidding setup without turning every new connection into another operational project.

But how does this work in practice, inside a real publisher environment? We spoke to Samuel Ghebresellase, Sales Growth Manager at Hemnet, Sweden’s largest online property portal, to find out how curated demand helps his team test partners faster, protect price quality, and keep advertising aligned with the property journey.

Welcome Samuel. Can you tell us a little about how Hemnet uses curated demand with Livewrapped?

SG: Before Livewrapped, we had Prebid in place, but it was a smaller setup with only a few SSPs. In 2024, we replaced the old Prebid code with Livewrapped’s header bidding wrapper, Curated demand is a continuation of that partnership, and means that today, we can add more SSPs without developers having to integrate every partner separately.

That change has created more auction pressure and has given bidders a better route into our inventory. It’s also given me a clearer overview of how our programmatic inventory is performing, which is invaluable because I’m close to the numbers day to day.

So curated demand builds on that foundation by making it easier to test extra demand without creating a long runway for every new partner. I can now evaluate partners faster and keep reviewing performance as we go.

Why add curated demand when Hemnet already works with major SSPs?

SG: As you say, we already work with the biggest SSP partners because we’re very specific about wanting Swedish advertisers on our site. So partners such as Index Exchange, Adform, Magnite, PuMatic and Xandr cover the majority of the SSPs with Swedish demand we’re looking for, but there’s still other demand that can be useful. For instance, smaller partners can still add useful auction pressure, especially when they bring demand that suits a specific format, audience, or market.

The problem is that once those main partners are in place, the threshold for adding another direct SSP relationship becomes much higher. For Hemnet, the value isn’t about finding one standout partner. It’s about adding the right extra competition in a controlled way, without turning every test into a full direct SSP integration.

Curated demand gives us a more efficient route to test those partners, and Livewrapped helps by flagging which ones could be relevant. We talk through the kind of advertisers they bring, the formats they’re interested in, and whether the fit makes sense for us. Sometimes, when a demand partner approaches us directly, I ask them to go through Livewrapped instead, because that’s a more efficient way for us to try them.

What makes the curation so important for Hemnet’s business specifically?

SG: We have a strict policy on which advertisers we allow, and also, we’re not like a newspaper that has lots of impact formats. Our core business is property listings, so we don’t want any advertising on the page to detract from that user experience. That’s why more demand only works for us when the fit is right.

At the same time, Hemnet has strong traffic, and there are advertisers that fit naturally around the property journey. That’s where the curation is valuable, because we can talk through brand safety, format fit, and whether a partner suits the way people use Hemnet. Over time, those conversations have helped align our perspective on what should be added and what shouldn’t.

What has the commercial impact been?

SG: The biggest impact is on speed. If we were adding another partner directly, I’d normally need legal input, a risk analysis, an agreement, and a placement setup with that partner. With curated demand, Livewrapped handles much of that partner-side process, while I still approve what gets added and update ads.txt when new bidders are introduced. So rather than weeks, that whole process now only takes an hour.

When it comes to performance numbers, it’s hard to isolate one metric because a lot of our inventory is direct-sold and fill varies by season. But even with that caveat, curated demand has helped increase our fill rate by 15pp while still holding eCPMs high.

The aim isn’t to fill every impression at any price. We want to sell the remaining inventory at prices comparable with our direct sales, rather than clearing it cheaply and weakening the value of the inventory.

What’s in the pipeline for Hemnet?

SG: Native programmatic is still early for us, but curated demand helps us show native placements to bidders, learn from real demand signals, and decide what to adjust before spending months building something which the market might not want. And so with Livewrapped’s help and guidance, that’s also an area in which we’re excited to grow.

If you’re looking to test more demand partners without adding operational drag, let’s talk. Connect with us today at livewrapped.com/contact to see how curated demand can help you build a faster and more controlled route to incremental revenue.