It's 2016 - do I need a buy-side ad server?

tl;dr: yes!

To dig into this question, let's look back in time and examine the 2005 value proposition for advertiser ad servers; also known as buy-side ad servers. Long before programmatic media-buying existed, and in the early days of Rich Media, advertiser ad servers were a necessity for all but the most simplistic of display campaigns. Advertiser-focused ad servers offer a suite of benefits to the digital advertiser, such as consolidated reports, attribution modelling, de-duplicated performance metrics, independent audits, data collection, and a long list of other features. These days monolithic platforms such as Google and Facebook, media aggregators like AppNexus, and DSPs such as The Trade Desk represent themselves as a one-stop shop for all media. However, this is simply not the reality - they encourage advertisers to channel their entire campaign budget though a single platform, and then rely on their platform’s internal reporting. As the champion of your brand’s online presence, you should be asking: are these good choices? The assumption that an entire campaign budget should flow through one programmatic platform deserves deeper inspection. The assumption that a single platform accesses all media is certainly flawed. The assumption that reporting metrics from a supply side system can stand independently without scrutiny or audit is a risky proposition.

Let's examine the arguments in support of advertiser ad servers from 2005, and discuss how well each of the tenets stands up to scrutiny in today's complex and frequently irrational ad tech world. Ultimately a buy-side ad server provides the best possible information on their campaign - a source of truth - since the ad server undertakes the actual insertion of the ad into the publisher site, and therefore has the best perspective on the final state of the ad on the page.

Reporting, reporting, reporting: Advertiser ad servers provide consolidated and unparalleled reporting for digital campaigns. The ad server provides measurement of all metrics, across all media, and provides insights on attribution modelling and revenue per channel.

This is an easy one - in 2005 and in 2016 it’s the same - advertiser ad servers are the ONLY way to gain comprehensive measurement and reporting on your digital campaign. Even in 2005, media planners would rarely make a buy on a single publisher. The task of consolidating data from multiple publishers, and de-duplicating for metrics like attribution and reach frequency was an impossible job without using an ad server. In 2016, we find the same is true.

A strategic advertiser should be using various sources of supply, and independently monitoring the performance; making adjustments throughout the campaign lifetime. Advertiser ad servers provide the data and insights to do just that - a worthy ad server will offer real time campaign data presented in a responsive interface, with highly customizable build-your-own reports, tailored to the brand and media buyers. The suite of reports available through an industry leading ad server will greatly exceed those available through a supply-side system, and of course will consolidate and de-duplicate the campaign measurement across all supply.

Campaign Management

In 2005, media buying agencies often did not have the in-house expertise to undertake campaign trafficking and management. All but the most simplistic campaigns ran across a group of publishers, and frequently had complex media plans with different creatives and rules for different publishers. There was a distinct lack of both operational and technical expertise in the industry. At the time ad networks were rare, and exchanges non-existent, but regardless - media buying agencies frequently required assistance and expertise for:

trafficking the campaign - translating a static media plan and setting it up in the ad server

standardized creative - where the advertiser works with multiple sources of supply, they may be required to build out multiple versions of creative to conform to each publisher’s specifications; by using an ad server, one creative build is all that is required

testing the creatives - which often required technical tweaking, creative optimization and/or complete builds

ensuring ad tags were delivered to publishers in a timely manner

tagging customer sites for conversion tracking and attribution modelling, (and in 2016 first party audience segmentation and re-targeting)

ensuring the campaign started on time, and paced according to plan

fielding calls from advertisers, agency clients and publishers on the plan - required to provide immediate services for discrepancy resolution, technical issues, and reporting questions

In 2016, the situation is a bit different: certainly media buying agencies have more in-house expertise, but because of the growth and increased complexity of the overall industry there remains a lack of ad tech operational and technical talent. An advertiser ad server, used in a self-serve or full serve model, offers advertisers and media buyers a necessary advantage. Ultimately advertiser ad servers are advocates and experts working on behalf of the advertiser - for complex technical and operational issues, including rich media production, fraud investigations, discrepancy resolution, targeting validations, creative sequencing, dynamic creative - there’s a long list of benefits to working with an advertiser ad server for efficient and successful campaign execution.

Independent Audit

In 2005, advertiser ad servers provided independent and unbiased measurement data to agencies and advertisers. This data-set provided an essential point of reference from which to compare publisher cited numbers. Without the involvement of the independent ad server, the advertiser is forced to trust publisher reports - even for the most basic and important of metrics like impressions and clicks. Trafficking and campaign management mistakes frequently occur, and when the advertiser doesn't have an independent source of measurement data, they're in the dark about the actual execution of their campaign.

In 2016 - the issue of independent measurement and validation of publisher, exchange, or DSP numbers is as relevant as ever for advertisers. There are more supply sources, and the complexity of the buying process has increased exponentially. An independent third party provides advertisers in 2016 a necessary audit on their spend.

Publishers Certification

In 2005, publishers were - rightfully so - very careful with the ad tags and related scripts that they ran on their sites. Publishers were aware of the risks posed by 3rd party JavaScript - specifically malware, uncontrolled data collection, end user privacy concerns and attacks, 4th party calls, and site latency that inefficient systems could add to their overall load times. In 2005 extensive certification processes were required for an advertiser ad server to gain the privilege to deliver display ads on sites and networks - and this certification process protected end users, publishers and the industry at large.

In 2016, we see extensive proliferation of Supply Side Systems, header bidding, programmatic buying, and a huge step backwards for the industry in terms of certification of ad tech participants. Ad impressions are bought and delivered via a broad and unregulated supply chain. While the traditional premium media outlets like Yahoo and AOL maintain rigorous certification processes, many networks and publishers have thrown caution to the wind and reduced or completely forgone any sort of quality control and certification processes for display ads and the related JavaScript that end up in their pages. This move away from standardization, certification, and caution has done our industry a great disservice, and I believe it has heavily contributed to many of the problems our industry faces now such as fraud, malware, fat-files, and ad blockers.

Other superpowers - beyond the basic capabilities

For advertisers satisfied with a simple creative execution running on one source of supply, then the other superpowers possessed by leading advertiser ad servers will not be relevant. But in both 2005 and in 2016, brands who are committed to digital advertising are not satisfied with a trivial approach, and realize that ad servers can bring them a wealth of capabilities and data which translate to success. Here’s a list of some of the superpower features offered by leading advertiser ad servers:

Flexibility in service types and access - advertiser ad servers should offer:

a fully managed service



self-serve via a console



ad server features exposed via an API



A hybrid combination of these 3 models

Measurability and Viewability

the ad server includes measurability and viewability metrics in reports by default, and alternatively supports the inclusion of 3rd party vendor tags

Mobile - ad server offers complete support for mobile campaigns

Standard and rich media (mraid) mobile executions



Conversion tracking

Creative formats - Ad server provides complete support for all creative formats:

standard



rich media



html



video formats: VAST and VPAID



non-standard page take-overs, catfish, pushdowns, billboards, Rising Stars, etc.



dynamic, logic based, API data driven concepts



tracking tags - allow for the tracking of impressions, clicks and conversions without serving the creative

Creative sequencing - the ability to deliver a conditional / logic-based sequence of creatives per device, which may be triggered by ad views, ad interactions, or site activity

Creative weighting and optimization - the ability to alter the frequency of appearance between multiple creatives, and apply logic to the frequency based on optimizations

Flights - built in support for campaign flights

Advertiser data collection - enables campaign data collection - building audience segments for future campaigns, campaign optimization, and campaign reports

Audience Reports - audience segment data layered into campaign reports by default; for example default reports showing the extent to which network audience segments have been exposed to the campaign through impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.

Ad Choices icons - the ability to include Ad Choices icons on ad creative where they have been targeted based on audience segment data (Interest Based Advertising)

Fraud measurement and reporting - a built-in fraud assessment illustrating the extent to which the campaign has been exposed to fraudulent publishers and non-human traffic

Audits - built in support for detailed campaign audits, including domains, operating systems, devices, and screen shots of ads in the wild

Multi-channel attribution - tracking pixels running though Google search, Facebook, other paid and / or social media allowing for complete de-duplicated reporting

DMP Integration and Exchangeable Data - the ability to collect first party publisher data on advertiser sites and or through campaign ad unit clicks and interactions; to build audience segments and re-targeting segments, and the ability to port these owned segments into other ad tech systems like DFP

Conclusion

So - it turns out that in 2016 advertiser ad servers are more valuable than ever, and especially to the people who are doing the advertising - the brands and their agencies.

Clearly they’re a no-brainer for a serious advertiser, and the consideration simply is which one to use. There are only a handful of bona fide 3rd party advertiser ad servers in the world, so consider the following:

Be aware of the extent to which ad server can remain unbiased; i.e. what other aspects of the campaign are they executing? For example, are they also the publisher side ad server?

How does the feature set stack up to what is listed above. Often working with multiple vendors to obtain features like audit data, viewability statistics or different creative formats will add cost and inefficiency to the campaign.

Does the ad server have a reputation for technical execution, service and support.



Advertiser ad servers offer independent - 3rd party - consolidated reports, campaign management expertise, premium publisher certifications, and a long list of super-power features. In the ideal situation, where the brand owns the ad server relationship, the brand gains a source of truth, insight and control - becoming an accountability machine for their digital media spend.