An Ads Server, and a Mobile Ads Server is a mobile focused version of the concept, is a self-serving software solution hosted on a web server for advertisers to manage their mobile ads. With an ads server, advertisers can upload advertising creatives to be displayed on multiple ads platforms from mobile publishers inside their mobile apps and mobile websites, optimize ads campaigns, get reports on their performance in real time, track such key parameters as conversion, attribution and costs.

Among pros, that ads servers bring up for mobile app advertisers, are easy-to-use, control over bids and budgets, campaign scheduling, sophisticated targeting, as well as transparency in ad campaigns analysis and valuable insights to make data-driven decisions.

In 2020 digital advertising spending worldwide reached $333 billion, $50 billion up from 2019. The top 5 of countries, that spent the bulk of their advertising budget digitally, were China, with digital ads constituted 69% of the total media ads spending, UK – 66%, Norway – 65%, Ireland – 63% and Denmark – 61%.

In this guide we review the ad server space in detail, covering the major types of different ads serving and ads mediation platforms ranging from general players to specialist mobile and video ads platforms.

It consists of several key players and technical solutions, namely – advertisers, publishers, SSP (stands for Supply Side Platform), DSP (Demand Side Platform), ads networks and advertising agencies. In the intersection of all of them lies the crucial component of ads servers.

Table of Contents

*What is an ad server?
*First Party vs Third Party Ad Servers
*Hosted vs Self-Hosted Ad Servers
*Open Source Ad Servers
*Mobile Ad Servers
*Video Ad Servers
*Average eCPM rates
*Most popular SDKs
*Ads Serving Systems


*Ads Server Definition                

What is an ad server?

An ads server is an advertising software hosted on a server to manage online ads campaigns and used by publishers, advertisers, ads client's, and ads networks. Ads server software defines what ad to display at what specific time frame and on what website or mobile app. There are multiple kinds of ads servers – open source ads server, self-hosted ads server, video ads server and more ads hoc ads server solutions.

In addition, it also collects data on ads performance (number of impressions, clicks, #CTR ratio and more) for all parties to use, as well as defines targeting, performs ad budget control, and frequency capping. A publisher ads server helps web and mobile publishers to earn money with their inventory. Selling ads on their website or inside mobile apps allow publishers to generate revenue from the content they produce, while keeping that content free for their audiences.

Let’s look under the hood of an ads server and answer the question – what does it do? The sequence of events of a digital ads serving process looks like this:

a user arrives at a website or opens a mobile app

suitable to specific criteria ads are requested from the Ads Server. Such criteria may include, the date and time of day, the dimensions of the ads slot, the geo location, user device OS and more

the Ads Server selects which ads should be displayed based on the criteria

the selected ads are returned to the website or mobile app for the user to see.

the Ads Server tracks each time the ads gets clicked and stores this data to provide analytics to the Ads Server user.

Now, let’s review several types of ad server companies, as well as several ways to split them into two major categories.

*First Party vs Third Party Ads Servers


First-Party ad server is the one that is hosted on a publisher’s server to serve advertisers ads that it needs to display on its website(s) or inside mobile app(s). It helps to simplify and streamline the process of selling ad slots to advertisers. In times when no direct ad campaigns (sold directly to the publisher) are being run, the server defines what ads from a partner ad network or another ad server to display inside a publisher’s inventory.

Third Party ad server is used by advertisers and ad agencies to store and manage advertising code, as well as to deliver, track and analyze ad campaigns run on multiple publishers websites. It helps advertisers to verify the validity of data provided by publishers for impressions and clicks they delivered. Yet another use of a 3rd party ad server is to allow advertisers to run A/B testing to optimize their ads campaigns.

*Hosted vs Self-Hosted Ad Servers

Hosted ad server is the one that is hosted for a client by an ad server company. Such servers don’t requite any technical knowledge for how to run it on a client’s side and wholly rely on an ad server professional expertise. They don’t requite installation, provide technical support, can be updated automatically.

Self-hosted ad server is the one that is hosted on a client’s own online server. It provides higher level of control over user’s data, as well as higher level of software customization. Obviously in a contrast with a Hosted ad server, this one does require technical knowledge for how to install it, as well as how to maintain it properly.

*Open Source Ad Servers

Open Source server is a free ad server system that enables publishers, ad networks and advertisers to perform a number of operations with ads. Specifically – serve ads on websites and in apps, as well as collect data for impressions, clicks and conversions. It’s capable to manage and run ad campaigns for multiple advertisers, as well as from an ad network or ad exchange and perform other functions typical for a Third Party ad server. Essentially, the only difference between such server and a Third Party one is that the former provides its services for free.

The next significant division for ad servers comes from a type of devices ads are being displayed on – a computer or mobile device (a smartphone or tablet).