Advertise online with ad exchanges

There are many options for ad­ver­tis­ers to place their ad­ver­tise­ments online, allowing them to reach potential customers. Thanks to real-time ad­ver­tis­ing (buying and selling ad­ver­tis­ing banners in real time), ad­ver­tis­ers and pub­lish­ers have had lots more options to choose from in the last few years. Every­thing centers on ad exchanges, which can be described as ‘the Wall Street of real-time ad­ver­tis­ing’, where supply and demand meet.

Real-time ad­ver­tis­ing

Real-time ad­ver­tis­ing (RTA) is the trading of virtual ad­ver­tis­ing products (e.g. banners) in real time. These fully-automated mar­ket­places were developed in order to fa­cil­i­tate and speed up com­pli­cat­ed, lengthy ne­go­ti­a­tions.

Real-time bidding

Real-time bidding (RTB) is a specific RTA process. Ad­ver­tis­ers bid for ad im­pres­sions (the amount of an­tic­i­pat­ed ad place­ments) in real time. Bidding runs au­to­mat­i­cal­ly via different tools; the ad with the highest offer wins and is then ad­ver­tised.

Ad im­pres­sions are traded on ad exchange platforms. Pub­lish­ers enter their ad im­pres­sions into the supply-side platform, a tech­nol­o­gy platform that enables them to manage their ad­ver­tis­ing space. On the other hand, there’s the demand-side platform, which focuses on merchants’ requests. Ad exchange: the term ‘ad exchange’ describes a mar­ket­place where ad­ver­tis­ing stock (page im­pres­sions) are traded. Supply-side platform (SSP): supply-side platforms are used by pub­lish­ers to manage sales. Offers are organized and supplied here. Demand-side platform (DSP): merchants and ad­ver­tis­ers use demand-side platforms to relay their requests. DSPs use data from ad­ver­tis­ers to organize and optimize demand. Take the following scenario: a user visits a website whose publisher offers ad im­pres­sions through an ad exchange. The SSP and DSP then begin to com­mu­ni­cate with one another.

• The SSP provides relevant in­for­ma­tion like the content cat­e­gories for the ad­ver­tis­ing space, user ID for each im­pres­sion, or ad­di­tion­al data for targeting and re-targeting.

• The DSP checks this data and decides whether a campaign should be ad­ver­tised and, if so, which one.

• The DSP then names a bid (on the ad­ver­tis­er’s behalf) for the relevant ad­ver­tis­ing space or ad im­pres­sion.

• The SSP receives various bids and cal­cu­lates the highest bidder (via RTB). The winning bid is then ad­ver­tised.

• The user doesn’t notice any of the process, as it only lasts a few mil­lisec­onds.

With ad exchanges, a large amount of valuable data is connected over different platforms and systems. This makes it easier for the ad­ver­tis­er to tailor their services to their target group. Ad exchanges offer ad­ver­tis­ers: ⇒A reduction of scatter loss ⇒An increase in return on in­vest­ments (ROI) ⇒An im­prove­ment on per­for­mance Real-time marketing is currently one of the fastest-de­vel­op­ing online ad­ver­tis­ing solutions. New systems are con­stant­ly being in­te­grat­ed into the re­spec­tive platforms, and processes are con­nect­ing with one another better. The United States is the fron­trun­ner when it comes to ad exchanges. An overview of the biggest ad exchange providers:

• Double Click Ad Exchange (Google)
• Microsoft Ad­ver­tis­ing Exchange
• OpenX
• The Rubicon Project
• AppNexus

In the United States, the ad exchange market is starting to replace tra­di­tion­al display marketing. Pub­lish­ers are presented with new pos­si­bil­i­ties for in­creas­ing their earnings through blog or website mon­e­ti­za­tion. The system is also ben­e­fi­cial to merchants and ad­ver­tis­ers: they can reach their target group more easily through exact targeting and thus use their ad­ver­tis­ing budget on optimized ad place­ments. If you would like to try your hand with the topic of ad exchange, you can make use of these new tech­nolo­gies.