Ad Servers - Advertiser Ad Server

We went over a high-level overview of the Publisher Ad Server last time so we will turn our attention to the Advertiser Ad Server.  With the advent of the Publisher Ad Server, there were a few challenges that remained for the Advertiser including having to contact all Publisher for new ads or any changes.   To address this, the Advertiser Ad Server was developed.

Advertiser Ad Server

With the Advertiser Ad Server, the ads are no longer delivered by the Publisher Ad Server but rather the Advertiser Ad Server.

1. User in the browser goes to a Publisher's web site such as www.yahoo.com
2. The Publisher web server returns HTML to the browser to load the page and the ad tags
3. The web browser loads the ad tag which sends the browser to the Publisher ad server
4. The Publisher ad server sends a redirect to send the browser to the Advertiser ad server
5. The Advertiser ad server delivers the ad to the browser

The Advertiser Ad Server is commonly called a 3rd Party Ad Server.  So who is the 3rd party and 1st party in this flow?  The first party is the Publisher since the ads are being served on the Publisher's web site but the browser needs to go to another ad server which is the Advertiser which is a 3rd party in this flow.

What functionality does the Advertiser Ad Server offer?

• Manages which ad should get served by following rules set up by advertiser such as how many times to display an ad to a user (frequency capping), targeting specific users, and more
• Allows advertisers to manage all the creatives
• Delivers reports for the advertiser such as how many times an ad was served, the number of times an ad was clicked, and tracking conversions

Similar to the Publisher Ad Server, the landscape has changed rapidly so for a recent listing of Ad Servers, do a web search.  One popular one is DoubleClick Campaign Manager which was formerly known as DoubleClick for Advertisers.

Ad Server Summary

As you can see now, the ad server made management of online ads much easier for both the Publisher and Advertiser.  It helps the Publisher manage their inventory with multiple advertisers.  The ad server helps the Advertiser manage their ad buying across multiple publishers.  The above has gotten more complicated over time but the general principles still apply.

In the next few posts, we will go through the rapid proliferation of ad tech companies and give an overview of the evolution and some of the players.