Ad exchange
An ad exchange, in online advertising, is a technology platform that facilitates the buying and selling of media advertising inventory from multiple ad networks.[2] Prices for the inventory are determined through real-time bidding (RTB). The approach is technology-driven as opposed to the historical approach of negotiating price on media inventory. This represents a field beyond ad networks as defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB),[3] and by advertising trade publications.
History
[edit]Before exchanges, publishers sold leftover ad space through advertising networks. These networks aggregated inventory from many sites, but didn't offer real-time bidding. In the early 2000s, Brian O'Kelley created the first ad exchange at Right Media, known as the Right Media Exchange, which officially launched in 2005.[4] Right Media's ad exchange built algorithms for predicting, budgeting, and pacing, which enabled real-time bidding (RTB). Yahoo continued to build upon this technology after acquiring the company in 2007.
Around the same time, Jason Knapp and Fabrizio Blanco were also working on the concept of RTB at Strategic Data Corp.[5] Knapp filed a patent on their RTB technology in 2006.[6] In 2007, Google acquired DoubleClick and began building what would become the industry's most influential ad exchange, DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX), which is now part of Google Ad Manager.
As the ad exchange model matured, specialized layers formed. Demand-side platforms were built to help advertisers bid intelligently in real-time across exchanges. Supply-side platforms were built to help publishers manage and optimize their inventory before sending it into exchanges.
Examples
[edit]Notable ad exchanges include:
- AppLovin (which recently acquired MoPub)
- FreeWheel (owned by Comcast)
- Google Ad Manager (also known as Google Authorized Buyers, formerly known as AdX, and now part of Google Ad Manager)
- InMobi
- Magnite Inc (formed by the combination of Rubicon Project, SpotX, and Telaria)
- OpenX (company)
- PubMatic
- Smaato (now part of Verve)
- Xandr (formerly AT&T AdWorks which bought AppNexus, now owned by Microsoft)
- Yahoo (formerly AOL, Brightroll, OATH and other entities rolled into the Yahoo brand)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Diaz Ruiz, Carlos (2025-03-14). "The AdTech Ecosystem and Programmatic Advertising". Market-Oriented Disinformation Research: Digital Advertising, Disinformation and Fake News on Social Media (1 ed.). London: Routledge. p. 134. doi:10.4324/9781003506676. ISBN 978-1-003-50667-6.
- ^ "How an ad is served with real-time bidding". Archived from the original on 2021-12-21 – via YouTube.
- ^ "IAB". IAB - Empowering the Marketing and Media Industries to Thrive in the Digital Economy. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
- ^ "Right Media Exchange: Leading Platform Talks Ad Trading, Liquidity, Global Reach And Brand Safety - ExchangeWire.com". www.exchangewire.com. Retrieved 2025-11-21.
- ^ Cross-Kovoor, Tim (2018-06-07). "Who Invented What in Ad Tech? – Part One". VideoWeek. Retrieved 2025-11-21.
- ^ US20080162329A1, Knapp, Jason J. A. & Blanco, Fabrizio, "Auction For Each Individual Ad Impression", issued 2008-07-03