Ad serving
Encyclopedia
Ad serving describes the technology and service that places advertisements on web sites. Ad serving technology companies provide software to web sites and advertisers to serve ads, count them, choose the ads that will make the website or advertiser most money, and monitor progress of different advertising campaign
s.
, specifically a web server
, that stores advertisements used in online marketing and delivers them to website
visitors.
The content of the webserver is constantly updated so that the website
or webpage on which the ads are displayed contains new advertisements -- e.g., banners (static images/animations) or text -- when the site or page is visited or refreshed by a user.
In addition, the ad server also performs various other tasks like counting the number of impressions/clicks for an ad campaign and report generation, which helps in determining the ROI for an advertiser on a particular website.
Ad servers come in two flavors: local ad servers and third-party or remote
ad servers. Local ad servers are typically run by a single publisher and serve ads to that publisher's domains, allowing fine-grained creative, formatting, and content control by that publisher. Remote ad servers can serve ads across domains owned by multiple publishers. They deliver the ads from one central source so that advertisers and publishers can track the distribution of their online advertisements, and have one location for controlling the rotation and distribution of their advertisements across the web
.
published an academic research paper documenting the launch of the first ad server. The original motherboard for the first ad server, assembled in June 1995, is also preserved. Focalink relaunched the ad server under the name SmartBanner in February 1996. The company was founded by Dave Zinman and Jason Strober, and based in Palo Alto, California. In 1998, the company changed its name to AdKnowledge, and was purchased by CMGI in 1999. The AdKnowledge name was subsequently purchased by a company in Kansas City in 2004, which now operates under the brand name AdKnowledge.
The first local ad server was released by NetGravity in January 1996 for delivering online advertising
at major publishing sites such as Yahoo and Pathfinder
. The company was founded by Tom Shields and John Danner, and based in San Mateo, California
. In 1998, the company went public on NASDAQ
(NETG), and was purchased by DoubleClick
in 1999. NetGravity AdServer was then renamed to DART Enterprise. In March 2008 Google acquired DoubleClick. Google has continued to improve and invest in DART Enterprise. The latest version of the product was renamed and shipped as DoubleClick Enterprise 8.0 on September 28, 2011.
Another central or remote ad server was introduced by David Stein at Burst! Media in January 1996 for controlling online advertising
or banner ads. The company was founded by Jarvis Coffin, David Stein and Bob Hanna, and based in Katonah, New York
. In 2006, the company went public on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market
(BRST).
Advanced functionality may include:
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
s.
Overview
An ad server is a computer serverServer (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
, specifically a web server
Web server
Web server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
, that stores advertisements used in online marketing and delivers them to website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
visitors.
The content of the webserver is constantly updated so that the website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
or webpage on which the ads are displayed contains new advertisements -- e.g., banners (static images/animations) or text -- when the site or page is visited or refreshed by a user.
In addition, the ad server also performs various other tasks like counting the number of impressions/clicks for an ad campaign and report generation, which helps in determining the ROI for an advertiser on a particular website.
Ad servers come in two flavors: local ad servers and third-party or remote
Remote access
In telecommunication, the term remote access has the following meanings:#Pertaining to communication with a data processing facility from a remote location or facility through a data link...
ad servers. Local ad servers are typically run by a single publisher and serve ads to that publisher's domains, allowing fine-grained creative, formatting, and content control by that publisher. Remote ad servers can serve ads across domains owned by multiple publishers. They deliver the ads from one central source so that advertisers and publishers can track the distribution of their online advertisements, and have one location for controlling the rotation and distribution of their advertisements across the web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
.
The history of ad serving
The first central ad server was released by FocaLink Media Services and introduced on July 17, 1995, for controlling the delivery of online advertising or banner ads. Although most contemporary accounts are no longer available online, the Weizmann Institute of ScienceWeizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science , known as Machon Weizmann, is a university and research institute in Rehovot, Israel. It differs from other Israeli universities in that it offers only graduate and post-graduate studies in the sciences....
published an academic research paper documenting the launch of the first ad server. The original motherboard for the first ad server, assembled in June 1995, is also preserved. Focalink relaunched the ad server under the name SmartBanner in February 1996. The company was founded by Dave Zinman and Jason Strober, and based in Palo Alto, California. In 1998, the company changed its name to AdKnowledge, and was purchased by CMGI in 1999. The AdKnowledge name was subsequently purchased by a company in Kansas City in 2004, which now operates under the brand name AdKnowledge.
The first local ad server was released by NetGravity in January 1996 for delivering online advertising
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
at major publishing sites such as Yahoo and Pathfinder
Pathfinder.com
Pathfinder was one of the first Internet portals, initially created as Time Warner's entry onto the Internet. It was supposed to be an all-encompassing site that brought the best content from all of Time-Warner under one banner.The site opened in 1994...
. The company was founded by Tom Shields and John Danner, and based in San Mateo, California
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
. In 1998, the company went public on NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
(NETG), and was purchased by DoubleClick
DoubleClick
DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google that develops and provides Internet ad serving services. Its clients include agencies, marketers and publishers who serve customers like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa USA, Nike, Carlsberg among others...
in 1999. NetGravity AdServer was then renamed to DART Enterprise. In March 2008 Google acquired DoubleClick. Google has continued to improve and invest in DART Enterprise. The latest version of the product was renamed and shipped as DoubleClick Enterprise 8.0 on September 28, 2011.
Another central or remote ad server was introduced by David Stein at Burst! Media in January 1996 for controlling online advertising
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
or banner ads. The company was founded by Jarvis Coffin, David Stein and Bob Hanna, and based in Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York is one of three unincorporated hamlets within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, United States.-History:Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an American Indian from whom the land of Bedford was purchased by a group of English colonists...
. In 2006, the company went public on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market
Alternative Investment Market
AIM is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, allowing smaller companies to float shares with a more flexible regulatory system than is applicable to the main market....
(BRST).
Ad server functionality
The typical common functionality of ad servers includes:- Uploading advertisements and rich media.
- Trafficking ads according to differing business rules.
- Targeting ads to different users, or content.
- Tuning and optimization based on results.
- Reporting impressions, clicks, post-click & post-impression activities, and interaction metrics.
Advanced functionality may include:
- Frequency cappingFrequency cappingFrequency capping is a term in advertising that means restricting the number of times a specific visitor to a website is shown a particular advertisement...
so users only see messages a limited amount of time. (Advertisers can also limit ads by setting a frequency cap on money-spending) - Sequencing ads so users see messages in a specific order (sometimes known as surround sessionsSurround sessionsAdvertising sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one advertiser throughout an entire site visit.InformationRecently introduced by the online unit of the New York Times, the "surround session" is creating a major buzz in the online advertising community...
). - Excluding competition so users do not see competitors' ads directly next to one another. (Usually done by bidding on keywords)
- Displaying ads so an advertiser can own 100% of the inventory on a page (sometimes known as Roadblocks).
- Targeting ads to users based on their previous behavior (behavioral marketing or behavioral targetingBehavioral targetingBehavioral targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select...
). - Targeting specific IP-addresses i.e. targeting specific individuals or companies
Ad targeting and optimization
One aspect of ad serving technology is automated and semi-automated means of optimizing bid prices, placement, targeting, or other characteristics. Significant methods include:- Behavioral TargetingBehavioral targetingBehavioral targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select...
- Using a profile of prior behavior on the part of the viewer to determine which ad to show during a given visit. For example, targeting car ads on a portal to a viewer that was known to have visited the automotive section of a general media site. - Contextual TargetingContextual advertisingContextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers...
- (also known as Semantic targeting) Inferring the optimum ad placement from information contained on the page where the ad is being served. For example, placing Mountain Bike ads automatically on a page with a mountain biking article. - Creative Optimization - Using experimental or predictive methods to explore the optimum creative for a given ad placement and exploiting that determination in further impressions.
List of Ad Serving Systems
This is a list of notable Ad serving Systems that are used to organize and facilitate ad serving.| Name | Type | Licence | Free | Free Trial | Ad Marketplace | 3rd Party Integration | Direct Ad Sales Marketplace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adblade Adblade -Further reading:*... |
? | NA | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open AdStream | SaaS | NA | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Adform Adform Adform is a Danish based digital advertising software company . Adform is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and as of 2011 has offices in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain and the UK... |
SaaS | NA | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| adk2 | SaaS | NA | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| ADTECH ADTECH ADTECH is a digital marketing company, providing publishers, agencies and ad networks with products to manage, serve and evaluate online advertising campaigns, including display, video and mobile formats. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, ADTECH is the ad serving platform of... |
SaaS | NA | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| AppNexus | SaaS | NA | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| EmediateAd Emediate Emediate ApS is a Danish based software company providing their Ad Serving Solution, EmediateAd, to publishers and websites.Emediate is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and has an office in Stockholm, Sweden... |
SaaS | NA | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| DoubleClick DoubleClick DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google that develops and provides Internet ad serving services. Its clients include agencies, marketers and publishers who serve customers like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa USA, Nike, Carlsberg among others... for Publisher |
SaaS | NA | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| DoubleClick DoubleClick DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google that develops and provides Internet ad serving services. Its clients include agencies, marketers and publishers who serve customers like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa USA, Nike, Carlsberg among others... Enterprise |
Software | NA | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| OpenX OpenX OpenX refers to:* OpenX - a company based in Pasadena, California* OpenX - an open-source software package... |
Software / SaaS | GNU | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Smart AdServer | SaaS | NA | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Zedo ZEDO Zedo is a privately-held company founded in 1999 by Roy de Souza, which provides several online advertising products and services to websites, ad networks and direct publishers. The company works with publishers who sell space on their web pages to online advertisers. Zedo builds software... |
SaaS | NA | No | No | Yes | Unknown | No |
See also
- Affiliate marketingAffiliate marketingAffiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
- Compensation methodsCompensation methodsCompensation methods , Pricing models and business models used for the different types of internet marketing, including affiliate marketing, contextual advertising, search engine marketing and display advertising.-Predominant compensation methods in affiliate marketing:The following models...
- Contextual advertisingContextual advertisingContextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers...
- Internet marketingInternet marketingInternet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing of products or services over the Internet...
- Landing pageLanding pageIn online marketing a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an advertisement...
- List of advertising networks
- Pay per clickPay per clickPay per click is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market...
- Pay per playPay per playPay per play , also known as Cash per play , is an online advertising method that plays an audio advertisement on websites. The term "pay per play" comes from advertisers paying for each audio ad played. Also, the web page playing the audio ad is normally paid for each ad they serve. Ads are...
- Website monetizingWebsite monetizingWebsite monetization is the process of converting existing traffic being sent to a particular website into revenue. Pay per click is one of the most popular ways of monetizing a website...