Display advertising

How does it work?

Simple display ad flow

Web page with ad

Publisher’s ad server

Banner

Advertiser’s ad server

Redirect Advertiser’s CDN

Redirect

BUY MORE STUFF!

Publisher-driven ad sales

● Publishers sell direct○ CPM (Cost Per Thousand) Impressions○ Run of site○ Cost per Click○ Cost per Action

● Excess inventory sent to ad exchanges

Ad buyer’s ad server

Ad buyer’s ad server

Ad exchange display ad flow

Web page with ad

Publisher’s ad server

Banner

Ad exchange’s ad server

Redirect

Ad buyer’s DSP

Winning bidder’s ad

server

Advertiser’s CDN

Redirect Redirect

BUY MORE STUFF!

Ad exchanges: Why?

● Undifferentiated impressions are a commodity sold in CPMs● Ad exchange allows buyer to pay more for targeted impressions● Ad exchange allows publishers to get more for targeted impressions

Ad exchanges: the players

● Demand Side Platforms (DSP): ad buyers● Supply Side Platforms (SSP): publishers● Ad exchanges: brokers in the middle who run the auction● Data brokers: set cookies when someone identifies themselves with

demographics, purchase intent etc

cookie12345: [segment1, segment2]

Data Management Platform (DMP)

● Track behaviour● Track identities● Pass in attributes● Upload offline data● Combine in rules to create Segments● Push Segments to adtech ecosystem● Emerging trend: selling third-party

segments, sharing between DMP users

www.mybrand.com

DMP

BehaviourEmail: john@smith.com

MyBrand Identity Data

Adtech

The waterfall

Direct sales

Premium ad network or Private exchange

Remnant exchange

Google Adsense

House ads

Revenue Impressions

65% 25%

20% 20%

10%

5%

35%

15%

5%0%

But that’s also changing...

Programmatic Premium

Unreserved Fixed Price

Open Auction

Private Auction

How price is set

Auction

Fixed

Reserved Unreserved

Type of inventory

Header bidding

Web page with ad

Publisher’s ad server

Banner

Ad exchange’s ad server

Winning bidder’s ad

server

Advertiser’s CDN

Redirect

BUY MORE STUFF!

Ad exchange’s ad server

Ad exchange’s ad server

$0.30 $0.85 $1.25 $23.54

And of course that’s getting optimised

Images: Ben Kneen @adopsinsider

Learn more

● Lightbeam: shows the connections between ad tech while you visit siteshttps://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lightbeam/

● Ad Ops Insider: Ben Kneen, knows everything about ad techhttp://www.adopsinsider.com/@adopsinsider

● Ad Exchanger: news and views about the ad tech ecosystemhttps://adexchanger.com/

● State of digital ad fraud: Dr Fou lays out the scale of ad fraudhttps://www.slideshare.net/augustinefou/state-of-ad-fraud-rampup17