How ad serving works with a standalone first-party ad server
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:05 am
To understand how an ad server works, it's helpful to first look at how a web server works.
third-party ad server
When a user visits a website:
His web browser sends a request to the web server to retrieve the content of the web page.
The web server, which stores the website content, delivers the page to the browser.
The web page that is displayed to a user's web browser is created using HTML code. Between these lines of code are sections called ad tags. An ad tag is a piece of code that controls how the ad space on the website will look and function.
Similar to how a web server responds to requests from a web browser to display web pages, an ad server receives and responds to requests to display ads on a loaded web page.
Standalone first-party ad servers manage ad calls in a very straightforward manner. When a first-party switzerland phone number data ad server receives an ad call:
The advertising server processes information that is known about the user (for example, that he is a 35-year-old man who is interested in cars, football, and barbecues).
Based on this information, the advertising server selects an active advertising campaign and creative (for example, a banner for the latest Hyundai model measuring 480 x 480 pixels).
The ad creative is sent as a JavaScript tag to the user's browser, where the ad is displayed.
Simple, right?
In this type of configuration, the ad creative is stored directly on the first-party ad server.
However, in modern ad serving, it is rare for publishers to store the ad creatives of the advertisers they work with on their own ad servers. Instead, third parties host the ad creatives they want to use on their own servers.
third-party ad server
When a user visits a website:
His web browser sends a request to the web server to retrieve the content of the web page.
The web server, which stores the website content, delivers the page to the browser.
The web page that is displayed to a user's web browser is created using HTML code. Between these lines of code are sections called ad tags. An ad tag is a piece of code that controls how the ad space on the website will look and function.
Similar to how a web server responds to requests from a web browser to display web pages, an ad server receives and responds to requests to display ads on a loaded web page.
Standalone first-party ad servers manage ad calls in a very straightforward manner. When a first-party switzerland phone number data ad server receives an ad call:
The advertising server processes information that is known about the user (for example, that he is a 35-year-old man who is interested in cars, football, and barbecues).
Based on this information, the advertising server selects an active advertising campaign and creative (for example, a banner for the latest Hyundai model measuring 480 x 480 pixels).
The ad creative is sent as a JavaScript tag to the user's browser, where the ad is displayed.
Simple, right?
In this type of configuration, the ad creative is stored directly on the first-party ad server.
However, in modern ad serving, it is rare for publishers to store the ad creatives of the advertisers they work with on their own ad servers. Instead, third parties host the ad creatives they want to use on their own servers.