Publisher ad servers, commonly referred to as ad servers, help website publishers earn money from their websites through online advertising. It allows publishers to generate revenue from their content by selling ads on their site while keeping that content free for their audiences.
Publishers use ad servers to manage ad operations such as creating ad units, setting inventory price minimums, trafficking ads, and tracking conversions and advertisers’ budgets.
Ad servers are complemented by advertiser campaign management software that marketers use to buy the ad inventory made available by publishers. Publisher ad servers make inventory available to sell through ad networks software, which packages ad units from multiple publishers together to sell to advertisers.
Publisher ad servers commonly function as supply side platforms (SSP) as well, and many products in the ad server category are also in the SSP category. Ad servers may also provide functionalities otherwise found in mobile app monetization software.
To qualify for inclusion in the Publisher Ad Server category, a product must:
- Be able to create and manage ad units on websites
- Integrate with third-party ad networks and exchanges, and offer access to its own proprietary ad inventory offerings
- Automate processes for trafficking and managing ads
- Track ad conversion and audience demographic information