Ad exchange
Technology platform for buying and selling of advertising
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 technology-driven method replaces the custom of negotiating prices on media inventory, a field beyond ad networks as defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB),[3] and by advertising trade publications. Ad tech companies operate ad exchanges as online marketplaces that digitally connect demand-side (DSP) ad buyers to supply-side (SSP) publishers.[4]
History
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.[5] Right Media's ad exchange built algorithms for predicting, budgeting, and pacing, which enabled real-time bidding (RTB). Yahoo acquired Right Media in 2007,[6] for $680 million, then shuttered the programmatic advertising DSP in 2014.[7]
Around the same time, Jason Knapp and Fabrizio Blanco were also working on the concept of RTB at Strategic Data Corp.[8] Knapp filed a patent on their RTB technology in 2006.[9] In 2007, Google acquired DoubleClick and its ad exchange, AdX (now Google Ad Manager).[10]
Demand-side platforms were designed to help advertisers bid for digital ad space in real-time across multiple exchanges. Supply-side platforms allow publishers to manage inventory before adding it to exchanges.[11] During the mid 2020s, DSPs increasingly shifted from programmatic advertising to agentic commerce.[12]
Ad exchanges
Major ad exchanges include:
- Amazon DSP
- AppLovin
- Comcast FreeWheel
- Google Ad Manager, formerly AdX
- InMobi
- Magnite Inc
- Microsoft Advertising, (formerly Bing Ads; also acquired Xandr, formerly AppNexus)
- OpenX (company)
- PubMatic
- RTB House
- Verve Brand+ Marketplace (formerly Smaato)
- The Trade Desk
- Yahoo