Efficient ad serving is essential for delivering targeted ads, optimizing campaign performance, and maximizing revenue for businesses in digital advertising. Ad servers are crucial in managing and distributing advertisements across various platforms and channels. This blog will provide a list of top ad servers, highlighting their key features, benefits, and how they empower advertisers to streamline their digital advertising campaigns.
Ad Server, what is it?
When it comes to programmatic advertising, there are several key players and technical solutions involved. These include advertisers, publishers, supply-side platforms (SSPs), demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad networks, and advertising agencies.
At the heart of this ecosystem, we find ad servers. Ad servers are software programs that are hosted on a server to manage online ad campaigns effectively. They display relevant ads on the best-suited website or mobile app for both the publisher and demand partner within a specific timeframe.
Ad servers play a crucial role in optimizing and distributing ad content across digital platforms, including mobile apps. They are commonly referred to as campaign management servers and ad tracking platforms. This system is used by DSPs, SSPs, ad exchanges, and ad networks and comes in different formats, such as open-source ad servers, self-hosted ad servers, video ad servers, and more ad hoc solutions.
Features of an Ad Server
When choosing an ad server, it’s important to consider the features it offers. Most ad servers provide a mix of ad delivery and ad management options for advertisers, publishers, and ad networks. Some may have limited features, so be sure to select one that meets your needs.
- Supports ad creative upload: The ad server must support all standard creative sizes and interactive advertising bureau (IAB) formats, including text, image, video, audio, rich media, games, animation, interactive, native, in-app, mobile, and others.
- Campaign scheduling: The server should enable you to determine the dates on which the ad campaign has to run.
- Auto-optimization: It should select the best-performing ads and serve more of them.
- Technical targeting: The video ad server must deliver ads to the web, tablet, mobile, or television screens. It should also support targeting across multiple operating systems.
- Speed of delivery: The ad server you choose must determine the frequency at which the ad impressions are delivered. It should also support location-based targeting by country, state, metro area, city, and language.
- Time targeting: Ads must be scheduled to appear at a specific time of day when users are most active. Targeting is based on social and demographic factors such as age, gender, language, nationality, income, employment status, and more.
- Behavioral targeting: Target users based on their online behavior, search history, interests, and more.
- Retargeting: The server you shortlist must analyze previous user engagement with the brand. It should display relevant online ads to drive more attention and trigger more engagement, like clicking, subscribing, and purchasing.
- Creative sequencing: Your ad server should enable you to specify the order in which ads appear, typically under the same creative concept.
- SEO: Your shortlisted ad server should have the capability of keyword bidding and ensure ads appear on the results pages of search engines.
- Frequency capping: Ensure that your selected server lets you set limits on the number of impressions per hour, day or define a specified period for online ad serving.
- Ad tracking: It should monitor whether the creative content generates the desired outcomes and ensures proper ad traffic. The ad server must also ensure that the advertising content is displayed to the intended demographics at the appropriate time.
- Reporting: Check if the ad server you choose has features like real-time, dashboard, custom reports, notification alerts, and granular reports on clicks, costs, impressions, ROI, and eCPI.
How do you Choose an Ad Server?
When selecting an ad server, it’s important to assess the specific tasks that require its use for your business. Although first and third-party servers are essentially the same technology, publishers and advertisers utilize them differently due to varying needs and challenges on the demand and supply sides. Once you determine your essential tasks, you can choose an ad-serving platform that aligns with your overall business needs and performs the necessary functions.
Check out our list of the top most preferred ad servers for advertisers (third party ad servers) and publishers (first party ad servers).
AdButler
AdButler is a BC, Canada based ad serving company that since 2004 has been helping publishers of all sizes to monetize their inventory and advertisers to find the right audience for their products and services. With AdButler users get to use the industry fastest performing ad code, provided with all ad formats to choose from, real-time reporting and white-label interface. Among the company’s clients are HP, Microsoft, IBM, AllState, DELTA, Shell, LinkedIn.
- Key Features: runs ads on desktop, mobile and CTV devices, real-time reporting, native ads, keyword & departing, geo and iAB content categories based targeting, fast ad delivery, email optimized ad tags.
- Tagline: Advertising innovation is now painless.
- Platforms: iOS, Android and Mobile Web.
AdForm
AdForm is a full-stack ad tech platform that offers an ad server along with other advertising solutions. Adform’s ad server provides features such as ad campaign management, targeting capabilities, and dynamic creative optimization. It allows advertisers and publishers to deliver personalized, data-driven advertising experiences across multiple channels.
Learn more about AdformAdGear for Publishers
AdGear is an ad tech solutions company that provides publishers with a range of services such as ad serving, RTB, analytics, DSP, and more.
A few years back, Samsung acquired the Canadian-based company in support of Samsung’s Smart TV services. It now focuses on connecting Samsung OTT/CTV audiences to advertisers.
Learn more about AdGearAmazon Ad Server
Amazon Ad Server, formerly Sizmek Ad Suite (SAS), is a global, multichannel ad server used to build, distribute, and measure campaigns across demand-side platforms (DSPs) and publishers worldwide. Amazon Ad Server offers brands and agencies the tools for creating engaging ads and centralizing applicable insights.
Learn more about Amazon Ad ServerAmazon Publisher Services (APS)
Amazon Publisher Services, part of the Amazon Advertising suite, offers ad serving capabilities through its Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM). APS enables publishers to manage and monetize their inventory efficiently while providing advertisers with advanced targeting options to reach relevant audiences on Amazon and other third-party sites.
Learn more about Amazon Publisher ServicesAppNexus (Xandr)
AppNexus, now part of Xandr, is an advertising technology company offering an ad server that enables publishers and advertisers to optimize their ad inventory and campaigns. It provides programmatic buying and selling capabilities, advanced targeting options, and real-time reporting to drive better campaign performance.
Learn more about XandrDigital Turbine
Digital Turbine works at the convergence of media and mobile communications, delivering end-to-end products and solutions for mobile operators, device OEMs and other third parties to enable them to effectively monetize mobile content. The company’s products include DT Ignite, a mobile device management solution with targeted app distribution capabilities, DT IQ, a customized user experience and app discovery tool, DT Marketplace, an application and content store, and DT Pay, a content management and mobile payment solution. Headquartered in Austin, Texas with global offices in Berlin, Singapore, Sydney and Tel Aviv, Digital Turbine’s solutions are used by more than 31 million customers each month across more than 20 global operators.
Learn more about Digital TurbineEPOM Ad Server
It is a scalable ad serving platform with 800+ customizable features, where users can manage, track, and optimize all their advertising activities using one platform.
Platform’s strong suits for publishers are 50+ pre-set rich media templates, advanced analytics with multidimensional custom reporting, white-labeling, flexible role management system, and custom feature development. Moreover, publishers can sell traffic through RTB and use their software in a bundle with Epom white-label DSP.
In a nutshell, the Epom ad server offers robust and precise targeting, data-backed auto-optimization, and is integrated with powerful anti-fraud and security software.
Learn more about EPOMEvaDav
EvaDav is the native advertising network based on push-notification. It is a new product focused on monetizing websites and providing push-notification service. Push notifications appear as small pop-ups on the screen of user’s device (PC, mobile, tablet etc.).
Learn more about EvaDavFacebook Audience Network
Facebook Audience Network is the extension of the Facebook Ads platform on mobile apps and web, launched in 2014, to reach audiences outside of the Facebook app and its website. The Facebook ad server allows advertisers to reach people that are registered on Facebook off the platform without compromising on targeting precision and achieve one or more of the following objectives – brand awareness, traffic, conversion, app install, product catalog sales, video views, and reach.
- Powered by Facebook with high targeting precision, 40% of the top 500 mobile apps are integrated with the system
- Supported ad formats include banner, interstitial and native
- The following platforms are supported: iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Unity, tvOS.
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager, formerly known as DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), is a comprehensive ad server that offers robust features for managing and delivering ads across websites, mobile apps, and video platforms. It provides tools for inventory management, ad trafficking, targeting, and reporting, making it a popular choice for publishers and advertisers of all sizes.
Learn more about GAMHitapps
Hitapps focuses on your success as a whole. Perhaps you can manage a small-scale campaign but, if you want to develop an impactful ads campaign, it’s better to let us take over.
- Performance based marketing
- RTB solution
- Apps development and publishing
Kevel (Formerly Adzerk)
Kevel offers members of the ad industry a unique and custom solution unlike any other. With the Kevel API, users can build custom online ad serving platforms to cater to their own specific needs.
The Kevel API allows them to build a server fast, all while costing much less than creating an entirely new platform. They also provide all the necessary features such as giving full campaign control, increasing revenues, reporting capabilities, and more. With Kevel’s white label product offerings, you can have a working publisher ad server up and running in a matter of weeks.
Learn more about KevelOpenX
OpenX is an independent ad exchange and ad server that facilitates programmatic advertising. It provides publishers with features like yield optimization, inventory management, and advanced targeting options. OpenX’s robust technology stack empowers advertisers to deliver highly targeted ads across various platforms, including web, mobile, and video.
Learn more about OpenXMagnite
Magnite gives over 60000 publishers access to 900000 advertisers. Via the self-serve ad server, publishers can connect with premium ad buyers, showcase their ad inventory and reach their target audience more easily.
The interface is intuitive, self-serve and helps publishers to manage their ad inventory effectively while setting up close-knit relationships with advertisers wanting to reach specific audiences. Additionally, publishers can gain access to Real-Time Insights, and Automated Ad Pods which enables publishers to increase ad revenue with technology, data protection, programmatic guaranteed, flexible priority levels, and more!
Learn more about MagniteMyLead
MyLead is a worldwide Best Ad Servers for more advanced and beneficial affiliate marketing. It is one of the best and most famous affiliate marketing networks for advertisers and publishers. You can get a handsome commission on each sale you make possible the amount of commission depends upon the value of the product sold because of your contribution.
The main focus of MyLead is to develop a large circle of more customers, advertisers, publishers, and purchasers so that everyone within the circle can get the maximum possible benefit from it.
Lear more about MyLeadMintegral
Mintegral is an AI-driven, programmatic and interactive ad platform. It provides mobile user acquisition and monetisation solutions to worldwide brands and mobile developers so they can reach their marketing goals. With a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region, Mintegral offers full stack products and one-stop mobile marketing and analytics services, from supply-side to demand-side, including Advertiser Self-serve, DSP, SSP, DMP and Creative Lab.
Learn more about MintegralMediaSmart
MediaSmart (An Affle company) is an omnichannel programmatic advertising platform trusted by leading advertisers, agencies and trading desks globally. mediasmart empowers marketers to integrate the consumer journey across connected devices like Mobile, CTV and DOOH to deliver unified and impactful communication, leveraging both online and offline behavioural signals to better target and personalise their message.
Unique strengths such as omni-channel audience management & incrementality measurement together with measurable and high impact CTV advertising (through its proprietary Household Sync technology), makes mediasmart the platform of choice for marketers looking for an intuitive and powerful programmatic solution, whether they choose to use mediasmart’s console or build their own solutions on top of its open APIs.
Learn more about MediaSmartPubMatic
PubMatic delivers superior revenue to publishers by being an SSP of choice for agencies and advertisers. With our leading programmatic mobile advertising platform, publishers and app developers can leverage the open exchange as well as advanced deal models to maximize their monetization and gain access to brand budgets.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS
- Campaign types: CPA, CPC, CPI, CPL, CPM
- Ad formats supported: Banners, In-App, Interstitial, Native, Rewarded Video, Rich Media, Video
- Targeting: Publisher, Geo, Audience Segment, Ad Format, Platform, Domain / App, Viewability
- Key markets: Global
PUBLICA
Publica styles itself as theCTV ad server, and its services largely live up to that positioning. For CTV publishers looking to do video ads, this one is a great choice.
Powerful video ad serving features are improved by OTT header bidding, in-depth campaign management, a smooth user experience, and deep analytics. Publica is already trusted by some of the biggest names when it comes to OTT platforms, including AMC and Fox, and appears to be dedicated to scaling as the OTT industry explodes.
Lear more about PublicaSmaato
Smaato’s digital ad tech platform is a completely omnichannel, self-serve monetization solution and free ad server all in one. Smaato gives publishers unparalleled controls to make monetization simple. Publishers can bring their first-party data and manage all inventory in one place. Marketers get access to the highest-quality inventory so they can reach audiences around the world and on any device. Headquartered in San Francisco, Smaato is part of Verve Group, a Media and Games Invest (MGI) company, with additional offices in Hamburg, New York, Beijing, and Singapore.
- Mobile platforms: Android, IOS, Mobile, Windows Phone
- Campaign types: CPC
- Ad formats supported: Banners
- Targeting: country, publisher, app, ad format, device, connection type, GPS data, device ID
- Key Markets: Germany, global
SMART (EQUATIV)
Smart’s ad server, now owned by Equativ, allows you to run both programmatic and direct campaigns across any and all channels. This ad server lives on the cutting edge to give publishers access to tech that allows them to truly optimize their yield.
Learn more about Smart (EQUATIV)SpringServe
If you’re looking for a video ad server that’s made specifically for video ads, you’ll find it with SpringServe. Recently acquired by powerhouse Magnite, this server is perfect for video-only web, over-the-top (OTT), and connected TV (CTV) publishers.
SpringServe’s strength is in its open nature and purpose-built video capabilities, but it also comes with video header bidding capabilities, in-depth reporting, and various other robust features.
Learn more about SpringServeUnity Ads
Unity Ads gives you the tools and analytics to help you achieve your app’s goals. Whether you want to start creating in-app ads, IAPs (in-app purchases), or market your app to a potential audience, Unity Ads has the tools and expertise you need to succeed.
Learn more about UnityAdsYahoo Advertising
Top-notch tech. Massive scale. And one-to-one customer relationships. Yahoo DSP brings you all the benefits of a walled garden – without the wall.
Meet your happy medium. With huge scale, proprietary inventory and unique data, Yahoo DSP gives you all the benefits of a walled garden with the transparency of an independent.
Learn more about Yahoo AdvertisingWhen selecting an ad server, it’s crucial to remember that the decision depends on individual requirements. Simply because an ad server worked well for one business, doesn’t guarantee it’ll be effective for yours. It’s essential to assess your advertising objectives and conduct extensive research before settling on an ad server.
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