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Ad Server Question- Media Buys

natedl98

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affiliate
Hi! Can anyone with media buying experience tell me if most CPA/traffic networks allow the advertiser to use their own ad servers to display ads?

I want to do media buying as an affiliate, and I want to use my own ad server rather than have to go in through whatever control panels they may have, or use their ad servers. Is this even an issue? Thanks!
 
And sorry if I used the wrong language- I'm a total newb. What I mean is that if I go to Sitescout or buysellads, or any other site like that, how common do these exchanges let you display ads through use of an ad server.

I was taught back in the day that you had to do insertion orders, which were a huge pain in the ass and you couldn't make changes on the fly to your ad campaigns, but I heard somewhere that nowadays you can control your ads with an ad server to have better control over them.
 
i don't quite get what you're driving at but you can use a third party adserver like epom, zedo and the likes when you're basically doing direct buys but when you're on the sitescout exchange platform you just use their adserver that's provided for you. Let me know what you're trying to achieve so i can get a better perspective.
 
Thanks for replying- I'm not sure how to describe what I'm trying to do, since I'm new to all this and I don't know all the lingo yet, but I'll try:

Basically I want to experiment with algorithmically tracking/uploading/managing my ads, and I was wondering if most places where you could buy media (Sitescout/BSA/larger places) allow you to use your own adservers, or if they required you to log in and manually upload and switch out ads. When I saw my friends do this a couple years ago, they had to log into the platform and manually click to upload their creative, and then they manually copy-pasted the stats into a spreadsheet. I figured I could save a bit of time if I had a computer do this instead of me having to log on each time. That way I could also implement custom logic like "run ad X instead, if ad Y gets 1000 clicks without any sales", and it could immediately make that switch without me having to sit there and monitor my ads constantly. My buddies were losing out sometimes because they weren't at their computer 24/7 to switch out an ad that wasn't performing very well.
 
I'm guessing you're a tech geek but to algorithmically track/upload and manage a campaign hasn't being created yet, not that i know of...you have to do this manually. For buysellads, you should definitely use your own adserver. For sitescout, use theirs, you didn't pay $500 for nothing!

P.S - I like the way you think though!
 
Haha your guess is correct! Maybe I just misunderstand what ad servers are.

marketingland com/media-buying-101-why-you-need-your-own-ad-server-48484
^wont let me post links yet since I am new

This article has led me to believe that they programmatically display your ads through an iframe. Basically, sitescout or whoever pings your ad server and requests an ad. Then your ad server returns an image and a landing page url, among other things, and gives it to sitescout. Then sitescout displays that ad to the user via iframe on whatever website is calling it.

Is that assumption totally incorrect?
 
Yes your ads are displayed or serve through a javascript or Iframe ad tag - the way it works is you set up the banner ads on your adserver and just give the ad tag to the publisher(where you're buying media) to add on his site. Simple - you can do stuffs like track impressions, clicks and rotate ads from your own adserver's interface without having to contact the publisher to do so for you like if you use Google's DFP(adserver).

If you have any other questions relating to media buy, you can fire away!
 
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Awesome, thanks for being so helpful!

So my thinking is that if I am using my own ad server, I can program some rules into it that allow it to automatically switch out an ad if it is underperforming, or do other stuff like that.

I first learned some of this stuff a few years ago from a big name advertiser, but he talked about having to do insertion orders and not have a lot of control over the ads once they are launched. I am guessing that method of doing things has been phased out a bit, with the propagation of ad servers?

I found this on sitescout's terms regarding ad tags (btw, thanks for using that term- I googled it and found a whole lot of good info):
sitescout com/legal/sitescout-rtb-ad-tag-usage-policy/

So it looks like Sitescout will let you place your own ad tags as long as they approve you specifically. So I think what I want to do is give them a javascript ad tag that queries my own database and asks it for the ad to display. That way I can implement all programming logic on the database end and then just pass the relevant ads through the javascript code. Do I understand correctly?
 
Yeah i do Nate, so you intend on building your own custom adserver right? If i'm correct one that's going to algorithmically switch up under-performing ads for you...i like that thinking...i PM'ed you.
 
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