10 Best Ad Servers for 2024: The Publisher’s Toolkit

Magnite Key Features

• The Real-Time Customized Reporting feature provides publishers with responsive alerts and an intuitive insights dashboard. It allows for real-time tracking of ad performance, enabling publishers to make quick, data-driven decisions that can enhance their ad campaigns.
• Magnite's Ad Pod Control feature offers tools for effective inventory management. It helps publishers maximize the performance and revenue for every available ad by optimizing the placement and timing of ads.
• With the rise of live streaming, Magnite leverages innovative technologies to create new revenue generation opportunities. Publishers can monetize their live streams effectively, reaching their audience in real-time.
• Audience Management Feature allows publishers to control, curate, connect, and safeguard their audience enablement data. It ensures that the audience's preferences and behaviors are at the heart of the publisher's strategy, leading to more personalized and effective ad campaigns.
• As co-founders of Prebid.org, Magnite offers turnkey wrapper management and yield optimization. This association ensures that publishers have access to a community-driven, future-proof, and transparent platform for their ad operations.
• Magnite is built on the foundation of Prebid, an open-source platform. This ensures transparency and adaptability, allowing publishers to benefit from the collective advancements of the community.
• Magnite provides intuitive user interfaces and real-time analytics for easy configuration and optimization of headers. This simplifies the process of header bidding, making it more accessible to publishers.
• Magnite offers publishers access to its brand-safe marketplace through an open auction, private, and guaranteed deals. This integration provides publishers with a wide range of options for their ad placements.

Equativ Key Features

• Equativ's SSP provides publishers with global reach and direct access to premium demand. This is made possible through partnerships with top Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), agencies, and curation partners.
• Equativ offers a complete range of monetization capabilities that are easy to integrate. Whether you're looking to monetize in-app, desktop, or Connected TV (CTV) platforms, Equativ has got you covered.
• With Equativ, publishers have complete control over their content, audiences, and data. The integrated and flexible ad management platforms offered by Equativ ensure that publishers can optimize their yield and operational efficiency.
• Equativ's award-winning ad server, coupled with its connections and direct access to premium demand partners, helps in increasing your revenue to a better extent.

Google Ad Manager Key Features

• Ad Exchange dynamic allocation helps in running a good analysis with real-time competition between direct-sold ads and those from the Ad Exchange. The system automatically allocates the ad space to the highest bidder, ensuring that you get the maximum possible revenue for each ad impression.
• Google Ad Manager provides a user-friendly interface with intuitive dashboards that make it easy to manage your ad campaigns. The reporting feature is comprehensive, providing insights into ad performance, user engagement, and revenue generation. These reports can be customized to focus on the metrics that matter most to your business.
• Google Ad Manager supports a wide range of ad formats, including text, image, video, and rich media, giving you the flexibility to choose the formats that best suit your content and audience. It also supports various pricing models such as cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM), and cost-per-action (CPA), allowing you to monetize your content in the way that works best for you.
• Backed by Google's infrastructure, Google Ad Manager guarantees high uptime and consistent performance. It can handle large volumes of traffic and deliver ads quickly and efficiently, ensuring a smooth user experience. Moreover, Google's advanced security measures protect against ad fraud and ensure that your data is safe.

Broadstreet Key Features

• Broadstreet is designed with user-friendliness in mind. If you've previously used platforms like Google Ad Manager or OpenX, you'll find Broadstreet's interface familiar and easy to navigate. This ease of use extends to all aspects of the platform, from ad creation and placement to reporting and analytics.
• Broadstreet takes the hassle out of reporting. The platform automatically generates detailed performance reports for your advertisers, saving you the time and effort of manual report creation. These reports provide valuable insights into ad performance, helping advertisers understand the value they're getting from their ads.
• Broadstreet provides in-depth analytics for your sponsored content. This feature allows you to track the performance of your sponsored posts, providing insights into metrics like views, clicks, and conversions. These insights can help you optimize your sponsored content strategy and maximize your revenue.
• With Broadstreet, managing ads in your newsletters becomes a breeze. The platform allows you to manage your newsletter ads directly from your dashboard, eliminating the need for manual ad insertion. This feature can save you significant time and effort, especially if you send out newsletters regularly.
• Broadstreet offers a white labeling option, allowing you to present the platform as your own to your clients. This feature can enhance your brand image and provide a more seamless experience for your clients. With white labeling, your clients will see your branding on the platform, not Broadstreet's.

AdButler Key Features

• AdButler supports a wide range of ad server types, including Display, API, Native, Video, Email, Mobile, and Digital Out-of-Home Ad Servers. This diversity allows publishers to serve ads across multiple platforms and formats, ensuring a broad reach and effective audience engagement.
• AdButler's self-hosted ad servers automate the sales process, making it easy for advertisers to purchase and manage their ads. This feature not only saves time but also enhances the user experience for advertisers.
• AdButler unlocks new revenue opportunities for retail and e-commerce businesses through sponsored products. This feature allows businesses to promote their products directly within their online store, enhancing visibility and driving sales.
• AdButler allows you to create an ad server that reflects your brand. You can customize the look and feel of the platform with your branding and color scheme, and even use a white-labeled domain for a familiar URL.
• AdButler's team of skilled AdTech developers can provide custom solutions tailored to your unique needs.

Epom Key Features

• Epom provides access to premium ad inventory, enabling publishers to reach their target audience across various devices. Whether it's mobile, desktop, video, or in-app, Epom ensures your ads reach the right users, eliminating wasted ad spending and discrepancies.
• Epom Ad Server offers a fully customizable interface that can be tailored to match your brand's look and feel. This feature allows you to maintain brand consistency while leveraging Epom's ad-serving capabilities.
• Epom provides in-depth insights into your campaign performance. From global audience outreach to individual ad conversion rates, Epom's automatic CTR, conversion, and eCPM optimization simplifies your ad operations and facilitates split testing directly within your account.
• Epom's advanced algorithms help you optimize CTR, I2C, and eCPM to meet your desired KPIs. Get a complete real-time overview of your performance with just a few clicks and discover insights that will help your business grow.

OpenX Key Features

• OpenX's enduring relationships with agencies and brands, custom SPO arrangements, and identity-based activation partners contribute to its preferred SSP status. These long-term partnerships drive demand and increase yield for publishers.
• OpenX works closely with buyers to create unique exchange packages tailored to their specific audiences. This strategy not only drives results for the buyers but also generates increased revenue for publishers.
• OpenX's ID resolution feature matches site visitor data to third-party identifiers, creating a unified, resolved view of users. This feature enables publishers to better understand their audience and tailor their content accordingly.
• OpenX empowers publishers to create their own audiences. By working with buyers to create packaged deals focused on specific audiences, OpenX ensures that the results drive revenue for both parties.

Xandr Key Features

• Xandr's ad server supports a wide range of ad formats including video, display, and native. This versatility allows publishers to serve ads across all screen sizes, from mobile devices to desktop computers.
• One of the standout features of Xandr is its open dynamic allocation. This feature allows your programmatic demand to compete against direct deals. In other words, it ensures that every ad impression is sold to the highest bidder, whether they're coming from programmatic channels or direct deals.
• Xandr comes with a built-in Supply Side Platform (SSP). An SSP is software used by publishers to sell display, video, and mobile ads programmatically. This means that publishers can manage their ad impression inventory and make it available to ad exchanges where it can be bought by marketers.
• Xandr provides premium support to its users. This means that if you encounter any issues or have any queries about using the platform, you can expect prompt and helpful assistance from their support team.

Kevel Key Features

• Kevel's server-side ad serving ensures rapid ad delivery, with response times as low as 50ms. This feature also enables the monetization of ad block users, ensuring that no revenue opportunity is missed.
• Kevel's JSON API responses offer the flexibility to transform any organic content into an ad. This feature allows publishers to monetize various types of content, such as search results, articles, or even recipes.
• Kevel provides turnkey access to a first-party data management platform. This feature enables user-level targeting, allowing publishers to deliver more relevant ads to their audience.
• Kevel allows publishers to set custom revenue logic and auction pricing rules. This feature provides full control over monetization, enabling publishers to maximize their ad revenue.
• Kevel allows publishers to control ad delivery with pacing, targeting, and relevancy scoring. This feature ensures that the right ads are delivered to the right audience at the right time.

Revive Adserver Key Features

• Revive Adserver enables the serving of ads on websites, in apps, and in video players. It also collects detailed statistics, including impressions, clicks, and conversions, providing publishers with valuable insights into their ad performance.
• With Revive Adserver, managing campaigns for multiple advertisers and ad networks becomes a breeze. Its user-friendly interface allows for effortless management of all your advertising campaigns in one place.
• Revive Adserver allows publishers to define delivery rules for campaigns and ads. This includes frequency capping, URL targeting, and geo-targeting, giving publishers the control to deliver the right ads to the right audience.
• Revive Adserver tracks campaign performance, including click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, revenue, effective cost per mille (eCPM), and conversion details like basket value and the number of items purchased. This data-driven approach helps publishers optimize their ad strategies for maximum revenue.

First-Party vs Third-Party Servers

While talking about the ad servers, two key players often come to the forefront, the First-Party and Third-Party Servers. But what exactly are they, and how do they differ? Let's break it down.

First-Party Ad Servers: The In-House Specialists

First-party servers are essentially the home team. They are owned and operated by the same entity that owns the website where the ads are displayed. These servers store and manage data collected directly from the users of the website, providing a wealth of information about user behavior, preferences, and interactions. This data is invaluable for creating personalized user experiences and targeted advertising campaigns.

Third-Party Ad Servers: The External Experts

Third-party servers, on the other hand, are owned by an entity separate from the website owner. They collect data across multiple websites, providing a broader view of user behavior across the internet. This data is often used for retargeting campaigns, where ads are displayed to users based on their browsing history on other websites.

First-Party vs Third-Party: The Key Differences

While both first-party and third-party servers play crucial roles in digital advertising considering ad servers, they serve different purposes and offer different advantages. First-party servers provide more accurate and reliable data, as it is collected directly from the source. However, the scope of this data is limited to the owner's website. Third-party servers provide a broader view of user behavior, but the data may be less reliable due to privacy restrictions and the use of ad blockers.

Understanding the differences between first-party and third-party ad servers is key to leveraging their strengths and using them in order to deliver the best outcome possible as per your advertising and marketing strategy.