For over 10 years, Operative has helped publishers of all sizes assess, select, implement and manage ad servers. We’ve also designed training, delivered technical support, and created custom reports for our clients. Along the way we’ve learned the ins and outs of the leading platforms, including DFP for Small Business, DFP Premium, ADTECH, Open AdStream (OAS), and OpenX Enterprise.
So which ad server do we recommend for your enterprise? The answer, it turns out, entirely depends of your level of experience in ad serving, your “learning curve” appetite, selling strategies and a host of other factors. To learn more, our blog editor Amy Inlow, spoke with Barnaby Edwards, one of our product managers and ad server experts, on how publishers should go about selecting an ad server that’s right for their enterprise.
Amy: Let’s start at the very beginning. What should a publisher think about when selecting an ad server?
Barnaby: The first thing you need to consider is your level of experience. Are you a start-up? Or are you an established publisher who has out-grown your current ad server? Start-ups may do fine with free ad server, such as DFP for Small Business, which offers basic targeting, standard reporting and other features to get the publisher up and running quickly and easily. But it’s just a stepping-stone to a more robust system.
Another consideration: Your future plans. Don’t select an ad server that only supports display ads if your goal is to offer video or mobile ad placement a few years down the road. Migrating all of those tags to the new server will be a complex process, especially with active and planned campaigns to accommodate.
Publishers should also take their selling strategies into account. Do they plan to sell remnant inventory via third-party exchanges? Do they want to sell premium ad bundles? Advanced targeting? Capabilities for all of these things vary from server to server.
And ease-of-use is critical. How much of a learning curve can you handle? Are you okay with a complex implementation? Or do you prefer something that’s more out-of-the-box? The more flexible the system, the better the control you have over your environment. But you’ll need a higher level skill set for running your ad server and making changes.
Amy: Let’s say I’m a publisher who’s just starting out. Which ad servers would you recommend, and why?
Barnaby: DFP for Small Business would be a good choice, especially if you’re a very small publisher who’s just beginning to sell ad space and have just a few premium deals. It’s free, simple, and basic. You can do geotargeting, time of day and placement targeting, run standard reports, and do some campaign optimization. And if you don’t have a direct sales team, its integration with AdSense will be essential to monetize your inventory. Support is a bit of a challenge however, since it’s mostly self-service.
OpenX Enterprise is also a good choice for publishers who are just starting out and want a server that will grow with them for a while. The interface is simple and its workflows are intuitive and Web 2.0 friendly. You can do geo-targeting (by longitude and latitude), retargeting, behavioral targeting, and create and sell audience segments. And it’s integrated with OpenX Market, which is an ad exchange where you can sell remnant inventory.
One of the things I really like about OpenX Enterprise is its Server-Side tagging feature, which essentially lets the publisher create and manage tag with its interface. There’s no need to muck around on the publishers website – or engage development resources – to update tags.
Forecasting is a bit of a drawback with OpenX Enterprise in that you need to build a campaign in order to see the amount of inventory you’ll have available, which is a lot of extra work.
Amy: And let’s go to the opposite extreme – which ad server is best for large publishers?
Barnaby: DFP Premium is the industry standard – and the reason why Google acquired DoubleClick. The ad server is very flexible, offers granular targeting and robust campaign optimization and forecasting capabilities. In fact, it’s designed to handle any requirement a publisher may have.
The forecasting and campaign optimization uses predictive modeling and algorithms that are unique to the publisher, and are really quite advanced. It’s the best bet for publishers who need to deliver great campaign results for their advertisers.
DFP Premium integrates with DoubleClick Ad Exchange, making it easy for publishers to sell their remnant inventory. And it supports Dynamic Optimization, which means prior to delivering an ad, ad server will look at the publisher’s guaranteed campaigns, and test what the impression will garner on the open market and sell it to the buyer with the highest CPM.
DFP Premium’s architecture is open to interpretation, which gives publishers almost unlimited flexibility as to how they categorize their inventory. Publishers go through a process of defining their sites, zones and key-values in order to sell inventory. But, this also means that the learning curve is steep, and that traffickers need a higher level of skill than they would if they were using other ad servers. So publishers really need to think about the level of resources they want to commit to their DFP ad server.
Another issue is what type of machines their ad ops team will use to access the UI. DFP supports Internet Explorer only.
Amy: What if I’m a large publisher and want something that’s more out-of-the-box?
Barnaby: There are some very good options available to you. ADTECH is a premium ad server that on the whole equals DFP Premium in terms of targeting, reporting and trafficking. ADTECH however, offers a simpler, more intuitive user interface and workflow. Its workflows are horizontal, letting you drill down on any particular asset or targeting feature of a campaign.
One of the things I personally like about ADTECH is the way campaigns are trafficked. ADTECH lets you customize the view, so if your campaign doesn’t use any key values, for instance, you can eliminate that step as your build your campaign. This saves a lot of time.
It’s forecasting is simple, but inconvenient. Like OpenX Enterprise, you first need to build a campaign and insert a line item in order to see how much inventory you have available, which is less than idea for forecasting in response to RFPs.
Amy: What if support is really important to me?
Barnaby: Most of the ad servers have a self-service model along with a general contact center for asking questions. You won’t get immediate answers to your questions. Only OpenX offers dedicated support for all its OpenX Enterprise clients.
Publishers do have other options. Of course there are other ad servers on the market outside of the one’s described previously. Publishers can also partner with Operative, and we can traffic, serve and manage campaigns for you.
To hear more of Barnaby’s suggestions for selecting the right ad server for your business, register for our upcoming webinar, which will take place on January 26 at noon ET. Visit www.operative.com/adserver to register.
About Barnaby Edwards, Product Manager, Operative
Barnaby Edwards is among our top ad serving experts here at Operative. Serving as Product Manager, he is responsible for all Operative.One integrations with ad servers, working to ensure that our software enables customers to seamlessly manage their orders in one place. He knows the ins and outs of all major ad servers, having previously worked on integrations for Donavan Data Systems. Barnaby is also a lifelong Doctor Who fan who runs a fan group in New York City, writes about the show for various fanzines and books, and volunteers at conventions nationwide.
