Ad Server
Decides which campaign wins the slot and returns the creative VAST.
"The traffic cop at the intersection — routes the right car (ad) to the right lane (slot)."
Where Ad Server sits
Reshuffle for more — each fact links to its source.
DoubleClick for Publishers (now Google Ad Manager) was acquired by Google for $3.1B in 2008 — the deal that effectively created modern ad serving.
FreeWheel — the dominant CTV ad server — was bought by Comcast in 2014 for $360M and now runs ads for most US broadcasters.
GAM serves trillions of ad calls per month, and a single misconfigured line item can absorb a publisher's entire inventory for hours before anyone notices.
- · Ad request
- · Targeting params
- · Campaign rules
- · VAST XML response with media file URL + trackers
Google Ad Manager, FreeWheel, Spring serve. Performs frequency capping, competitive separation, and decides between direct-sold and programmatic demand. Falls back to an SSP if no direct campaign is eligible.