Ad server

Ad servers are used to deliver and measure the success of Internet advertising . Both the physical server itself, on which an ad server software runs, and this software can be referred to as an ad server.

introduction

In contrast to advertising in other mass media, Internet advertising is particularly characterized by the fact that the reaction of the consumers addressed can be measured immediately and evaluated in real-time. So-called ad servers are used for this, which control the delivery of advertising and measure and evaluate contacts; they are database-based management systems for the maintenance and administration of advertising space on the Internet . They ensure that the right advertising is displayed to the right target group at the right time, thereby optimizing advertising success. Particularly important in this case reporting, ie the recording and evaluation of advertising success based on ad impressions (number of times a banner was displayed?) AdViews (how often was a banner seen?) And ad clicks (how many clicked on a banner?).

Goals of ad server technology

Targeted delivery of advertising on the Internet minimizes wastage, such as those that occur with print advertising , since the advertiser may communicate his advertising message to consumers who do not fall into the intended target group. Ad servers allow target group-specific delivery of advertising through so-called targeting options (see below). In addition, they enable centralized planning and control of advertising campaigns and thus allow the use of advertising space to be optimized ( yield management ).

The advertising customer also wants to have an overview of the response to his advertising measure, which can also be the basis for billing for Internet advertising (e.g. number of ad impressions or ad clicks).

Working principle

Instead of the direct integration of an advertising banner and the direct link to the advertiser's website, a JavaScript code from the ad server - also known as a TAG - is integrated at the relevant point on the website . As a result, when a page is opened, a request (address request) is sent to the ad server to display an advertising banner from the pool, possibly with corresponding targeting (see below). The ad server then sends the corresponding parameters to the user's browser , which displays an advertising banner, and logs this display. If the user clicks on the banner, he is first forwarded to the ad server, which logs the click and then forwards the browser to the advertiser's page. As a rule, the user does not notice this process.

Ad server types: In-house and outsourcing

Ad servers place high demands on the hardware used , as they usually have to answer and log a large number of queries in a short time. The software used must also be mature and cleverly programmed in order to achieve the best possible results using the available resources as little as possible.

Larger companies that have sufficient capital for the necessary high investments in software and hardware rely on an in-house solution, i.e. the use of their own servers and their own or licensed ad server software.

Small and medium-sized companies often opt for outsourcing , i.e. rent ad server resources from another provider. Hardware and software from the provider are used against rental fees, which means that you do not have to purchase your own or require maintenance.

Performance characteristics

In addition to the aforementioned logging of AdImpressions and AdClicks, an ad server must also have the following features:

Ticketing

Advertising banners must be able to be booked into the system individually or combined in campaigns. This should be as user-friendly as possible, so that the administrative effort for the operator is minimized as much as possible. When booking, it must be possible to specify how long (time) or how often (AdImpressions) a banner is displayed or how many clicks must be made on it before it is no longer delivered.

Targeting

Targeting is understood to mean the delivery of advertising to specific target groups, which can be made possible in different ways. The ad server uses filters for this, which in some desired and defined cases display advertising, but in others can prevent a specific campaign. Log-in data can also be used for this, but mostly targeting is already used for other (more broadly applicable) filters.

Target groups

The basic requirement are target groups that must be definable by the operator. Each advertising medium must then be able to be assigned to one or more target groups. Different Internet pages with different page contents can then be assigned to the target groups, and only suitable banners are then displayed on these pages (e.g. beer advertising is displayed on sports and motorcycle pages, for the target group “men 30 to 60”).

Restrictions

The definition of times (from / to) should be possible. For example, banner ads with erotic material can be limited to nighttime viewing. Similarly, a restriction to certain days of the week is sometimes desirable (lottery advertising only on the day of the drawing and the day before).

It is also important to be able to restrict the display of certain banners to countries or regions (e.g. Bavaria, Berlin, etc.). The provider of a site visitor can often be determined from their IP address. It is also possible to deliver regionally specific advertising without wastage. Since national providers such as Telekom Deutschland or Vodafone assign the IP addresses dynamically, this is not always possible. In smaller countries such as Austria, such an assignment is usually not feasible at all.

Some ad servers also check the bandwidth of the connection. So z. For example, users who dial in via modem are spared data-intensive advertising (“rich media”, film spots, ...). This assignment is also not always clear and therefore fuzzy.

Frequency capping

An FC can be used to control the frequency with which a specific advertisement is shown to an individual surfer. This is useful for B. with large-format advertising, which is significantly more expensive and, with high frequency, also decreases in its acceptance. Since the use of FC automatically reduces the sales range, only a few advertising media make use of it.

Control of display frequency

The ad server must offer the possibility of influencing the advertising of individual banners in order to give preference to certain banners or campaigns and thus deliver them more quickly.

Ad optimization

Just as banners differ in their quality, their click rate (the ratio between the number of displays and the number of clicks) at certain times of the day, days of the week and, in particular, interest groups is just as different. Powerful ad servers have an automatic optimization of the booked banners. Banners with a high click rate (= more successful) are automatically weighted higher in their segment and thus displayed more often than other banners with a lower click rate (= less successful). In this way, there is an optimization that leads to more clicks with the same amount of overlays. If an ad server has automatic ad optimization, it should also be possible to give preference to certain banners and thus to deliver them more often and faster.

Different types of integration

Ad servers should allow different types of integration of advertising in the pages of the advertising medium so that the users of the pages are made aware of the advertising contrary to the habitual effect (see also Internet advertising in detail ).

Reporting

In order to evaluate the success of the banner advertising, evaluations must be made by the ad server, which are displayed to the user of the ad server in the most clear and varied form possible. In addition to table data, there should also be diagrams and graphs that visualize displays, clicks and click rates.

Demanding ad servers offer extensive evaluations, which are also broken down very finely according to times of day, days of the week, days, months, interest groups, etc.

In addition, the Working Group Online Research (AGOF) uses special methods to record the reach of advertising media on the Internet and provides information on the media plans on which the advertising placements are based on how many users of the desired target group can be reached by the media in question. The information community for determining the distribution of advertising media (IVW) is also active in this area by measuring the page impressions (page views) of websites. You can find the abbreviation “ivwbox” in the source code of many websites. This is a so-called counting pixel of 1 × 1 pixel size over which the IVW measurement runs. A Page Impression should not be confused with an Ad Impression . The former relates to the individual page, the latter to the advertising material that is delivered with this page. As a rule, several advertising media are displayed on one page, so that several ad impressions can come from one page impression.

Customer access

In order to check the response to the advertising and generally to check the displays and clicks, advertisers must have access to the reporting (see above).

criticism

In the past, advertisers were accused of spying on users' surfing habits. For this purpose z. For example, the ad server provider DoubleClick stored a long-term cookie on the user's computer through which the user was clearly identifiable. A lawsuit was filed against this procedure in the USA, whereupon DoubleClick had to reduce the lifespan of the cookies mentioned. Other advertising providers are also criticized by data protectionists , as there is hardly any control over the flow of information or the evaluations used - especially if the advertising providers are not in Germany. Other ad server providers offer the option of contradicting this "identification".