Making sense of the advertising ecosystem

The digital advertising ecosystem can be tough to grasp. After all, there are tons of interchangeable parts and a lot that goes into each individual impression. Here’s a cheat sheet we’ve created to help you make sense of the complex process of buying and selling online ads.

Let’s start with the basics

There are two sides to the ecosystem. There’s the demand side (advertisers) and the supply side (publishers). The goal of the process is for one side to reach the other. However, there are many different paths that can be taken in order to get there.

Direct Campaigns

The origin of the ecosystem is the ADVERTISER, which is the brand paying for the marketing. Advertisers and PUBLISHERS can reach out directly to each other to buy and sell ad space on websites. Once the advertiser connects with the publisher, the process is complete and the ad space is taken by the advertiser’s message.

Sometimes advertisers outsource the job of buying ad space. To do this, they go to AD AGENCIES. Their job is to decide how to allocate the advertiser’s budget (online, outbound, direct, etc). Ad agencies are often the ones handling programmatic campaigns, too.

Programmatic Campaigns

As an alternative to connecting directly, advertisers and publishers can buy and sell ad space programmatically. Programmatic advertising is simply the process of outsourcing and automating the buying and selling of online ad inventory through the use of technology. Typically, there are several steps to go through before the advertiser reaches the publisher and can show their ad to a user.

So, who are the other players in the ecosystem?

An AD EXCHANGE is a technology platform where buyers bid to serve their ad. Think of it like an online auction. This is done on an impression by impression basis, so advertisers can bid on the ad space once it becomes available. This happens in real time when a user loads a web page. An ad exchange works kind of like the stock market, and it works to match the best supply with the best demand.AD NETWORKS simply buy ad space from publishers and sell it to advertisers. They match the supply with demand. Depending on which ad network you’re working with, you will get different results because the range of their abilities is so broad.

DEMAND SIDE PLATFORM (DSP) is an interface which enables buyers to manage multiple ad exchanges through one system. With this platform, advertisers can make automatic decisions about their media buying across several ad exchanges, and it’s all in real time.

AD NETWORKS simply buy ad space from publishers and sell it to advertisers. They match the supply with demand. Depending on which ad network you’re working with, you will get different results because the range of their abilities is so broad.

SUPPLY SIDE PLATFORMS (SSP) take inventory and connect to as many ad networks and exchanges as possible. It enables publishers to manage and optimize their media advertising space all from one platform.

AD NETWORKS simply buy ad space from publishers and sell it to advertisers. They match the supply with demand. Depending on which ad network you’re working with, you will get different results because the range of their abilities is so broad.

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS (DMP) make sense of and organize the data of user demographics. The data is helpful for bidding. For example, an advertiser can take the information from the DMP and choose to offer a higher bid to show an ad to someone in America on an iPhone 7 than they would offer for a user of an older phone in India.

With so many players in the industry, there are many ways to get from A to B. Or should we say from A to P?! Advertisers and publishers could interact and connect via a few elements in the industry:

Or the process of buying ad space could involve multiple parties. You could see any and all of the players mentioned above added into the mix. Each advertiser completes the system with their own mix, and sometimes they have a ton of steps. A longer route from advertiser to publisher might look like this:

Where does FirstImpression.io fit in?

Things don’t always fit neatly inside a box! Hey, we told you earlier that the advertising ecosystem was a complicated one! FirstImpression.io does not fall into any one of the categories above. We provide a multi-faceted service to publishers. So we’re part ad network because we buy inventory on multiple publisher websites, part SSP because our solution connecting to multiple ad sources, and we’re also part publisher tool because our technology is used to create extra inventory for the publishers we work with. Feel free to contact us and we’d be happy to explain more.