The notion of ad servers became hot about a decade ago, yet many marketers still forgo a range of obvious benefits, opened to companies that apply various ad serving software.
In fact, the actual meaning of the term "ad server" can explain why a reasonable marketer should consider using it. Namely, it usually describes a framework or better to say software, applied for the easier and faster set-up and management of online ad campaigns via versatile channels.
Logically, if a marketer is interested in running effective digital ads, the use of an ad server can simplify this process to a considerable extent.
Challenging Digital Ad Realities
One of the best examples to illustrate the advantages of using an ad server can be an e-commerce company that wishes to improve its audience reach, attract more customers, and increase its sales rates accordingly. In this respect, no matter how well an e-retailer handles its PR activities, eventually its marketing team faces the necessity to run ad campaigns on the Web, aiming to draw more attention to its products from a larger number of potential clients. This is, actually, where the use of an ad server can become a potential remedy.
The thing is, even if an e-retail company launches multiple ad campaigns on desktop web simultaneously, the aspect of ad management, analytics, and optimization may be a substantial challenge for marketers who prefer setting up each campaign manually. No matter how well one handles multi-tasking, it is virtually impossible to track each banner's performance, and keep all data under control in one place, where one can access and analyze it whenever is necessary.
In addition, one of the crucial hurdles lies in tracking and counting conversion rates as precisely as possible to aid further optimization of each campaign for maximum results.
If we add mobile ads, in-app banners, and video ad units to this equation, there is just no way a marketer can handle the pressure of keeping everything under control.
Well, the use of an ad server resolves all the aforementioned issues.
How it works?
Let us take the already mentioned example of a certain e-retail company that wishes to run profitable online ad campaigns. Namely, if marketers use an ad server, they can set up, manage, analyze and optimize any ad unit or campaign within one cloud interface easily.
The majority of ad serving platforms on the current market feature an intuitive interface, which allows customizing a wide range of ad settings, e.g. targeting, ad display limits, capping options and, surely, determine ad pricing in the way one wishes.
Today's ad serving software also allows marketers to track ad performance in real time using custom reports and analytics and switch on the most suitable optimization capabilities to maximize ad efficiency.
If an e-retailer runs its ads on numerous display and mobile websites, it will still be easy to update ad units and change campaign settings within an ad serving platform. In such a way, marketers spare their time and effort on mundane daily routine, whereas their ads show better overall results.
In addition, the use of an ad server has another essential benefit for marketers in virtually any industry segment. That is, it allows handling e-mail marketing activities more efficiently. Not only is it possible to set up versatile targeting options and send highly-tailored messages to clients, but also check which e-mails bring better results and which of them require the upgrade.
In fact, it is much more convenient to split test various e-mail samples and figure out the best-performing ones using an ad server - real-time reports and analytics display audience's feedback and level of engagement precisely enough.
Ad Serving Myths
Since the ad serving aspect is gradually becoming indispensable for marketers with time, the number of myths around ad servers is increasing, too. In particular, the most well-known ones include:
- Ad servers can substitute marketers
Ad servers can definitely simplify marketers' routine work, but won't ever be able to substitute them. There is a certain creative concept behind each banner and every ad campaign, and it is up to marketers to decide, what this concept is and which audience via which media channel it should engage.
- Ad servers are either expensive, or totally useless
There is a common false belief in an online marketing industry that an ad server is only multi-functional and reliable if it costs a fortune. In reality, an array of utterly different ad serving solutions is so incredible these days, that it is possible to find the most suitable one for each business, no matter how limited their marketing budget might be.