What is an ad server?

Ad servers are software that measure advertising performance and are responsible for:

• Serving online advertisements: the ad server delivers an ad from the server to the end user, defining the targets to be reached and the spaces on websites to be used, namely the placements of an ad;
• Tracking metrics: it handles tracking and counting impressions, clicks, and interactions generated after conversions of online advertising on the Advertiser's site.

Furthermore, they are divided into:

• Ad servers for advertisers: also called buy-side. This type refers to those who purchase advertising space directly or through an Agency or Media Center;
• Ad server for publishers: referred to as sell-side. This category concerns those who sell advertising space hosting the advertiser's ads, directly or through an online Sales House or an Ad Network that collects spaces from multiple websites.

An ad server is used by: media centers, publishers, creative agencies that create traditional banners.

The Ad Server conducts some tests and deposits approved ads into a "creative library" which will then be used by the Media agency.

Difference between Ad Server Analytics and Site Side Analytics

As we have already mentioned, ad servers measure the performance of advertisements, and to do this, tracking systems are needed such as Google Analytics.

The difference is that Site Side Analytics can only collect data after a user has entered the site, hence, when it recognizes that the visit is generated by an advertising click from a campaign. 

The ad Server, on the other hand, adds click, Interaction, and Impression data which are collected outside of the destination site of the advertisement, namely in the placements that hosted the advertisements.

The most widespread types of ad servers for Advertisers include: Sizmek, Adform, Atlas, Flashtalking, and Weborama which are used to display advertising effectiveness metrics and manage user data.