Are you confused between the terms ad Exchange vs. ad Server and need to know the difference? You have arrived at a great place! Here we’ll explain the main differences between ad server and ad exchange to help you guys differentiate between these terms.
Ad tech is a dynamic world, and the emerging count of people interested in earning online through websites has made the technology even broader. Every now and then, new technology is ready to jump out in the market, and the same goes for ad exchange and ad servers.
However, our people have been using these terms interchangeably due to a lack of information, leading to severe misconceptions about the tech. So, in this article, we’ve tried to clear your thoughts about these two pillars of the digital ad publishing world.
Let’s take a deeper look into the issue.
What is an Ad Exchange?
An ad exchange is a digital marketplace that advertisers and publishers use to trade digital ads through Real-Time Bidding technology (RTB). Buying and selling of display, audio, video, mobile apps, etc., happen on a large scale. We can say that ad exchange is an auction meditated mechanism. It doesn’t serve any specific party but works as an autonomous site to facilitate programmatic advertising.
These ads sell and buy through two leading software known as DSP (Demand-Side Platform) and SSP (Supply-Side Platform). The owners of blogs, magazines, and websites use SSP to make their ad space available digitally for buyers. Whereas the independent ad agencies and markets, known as “Advertisers,” use Demand-Side platforms to build a connection to an ad exchange to make a purchase.
What is an Ad Server?
On the other hand, the term ad server is entirely different from an ad Exchange. The ad server is a type of server responsible for publishing ads on various websites, mobile apps, etc. It sorts all the ads, contains all the related information, and provides specific websites. However, this sorting is based on various factors.
Ad servers track the website’s traffic and collect the reports if someone tries to modify the ad to attract the target audience.
Usually, the publishers who want to sell their websites spaces directly to advertisers used to get their server to get the most profit from it. The personal server can profit in various ways. You can better serve the advertiser according to their needs and desires. In short, we can say an ad Server is a tool that will help you as an advertiser or publisher publish their ads by managing the space of their websites.
Ad Exchange Vs. Ad Server
So, this was the basic information, but are you still wondering about ad exchange vs. ad server? Without any more delays, let us help to clear your confusion.
The only difference between these terms lies in the way they work. Both ad exchange and ad servers serve ads to publishers but with different factors and categories. The mechanism works as the visitor visit’s the website and go through multiple ads that load ad tag by calling the ad server. The ad server sends the request to the advertiser by an ad exchange to connect with the site.
After this procedure, the real-time bidding will start, advertisers interested in publishing a particular ad will bid on that ad. The highest bidder will get the ad posted on their website. And the most exciting fact is that the whole process takes less than a few milliseconds to complete in real-time.
The Role of Server And Exchange in the Ad Publishing Act
Once the visitor visits the websites, the ad server collects all the possible and related information of the user like age, sex, buying habits, and geography. It passes down the request to fetch the relatable ads from the ad exchange. The ad exchange performs its task of finding the relatable ad and getting the highest bid on it. Then that specific ad is published to the website’s empty ad space.
However, these are two different terms, but both have significant and individual roles to play to present the perfect display according to users’ interests.
Final Verdict
While wrapping it up, in this fast-growing era, new technologies are coming up to give the digital advertising field an upgrade. Most of the time, people confuse between an ad exchange and an ad server, which can be misleading.
Therefore, we have discussed some differences and tried to give you a clear thought on ad exchange vs. ad server. We hope it will serve your thought and lift your confusion about the terms. We would love to hear your thoughts and queries in the comment sections; feel free to write them down.
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