Home :: Ad serving Developer
Ad serving Developer
An ad server is a computer server, 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.
Due to its potentially interfering nature, ad servers are considered by some disruptive, and programs and extensions (see Ad Block) have arisen so that site visitors need not see the server's adverts.
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.
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 capping so users only see messages a limited amount of time.
* Sequencing ads so users see messages in a specific order (sometimes known as surround sessions).
* Excluding competition so users do not see competitors' ads directly next to one another.
* Displaying ads so an advertiser can own 100% of the inventory on a page (sometimes known as roadBlocks).
