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AdTech Platform

DSPad serverad networkad exchangeSSPDMPautomationad buyingad sellingad measurement

AdTech Platform

Also known as: advertising-technology platform, technology provider, AdTech vendor

Software used to automate the buying, selling, and measurement of online advertising. AdTech platforms sit at the infrastructure layer of the digital advertising ecosystem, enabling advertisers, publishers, and intermediaries to transact at scale without manual intervention.

The most common types include demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad servers, ad networks, ad exchanges, supply-side platforms (SSPs), and data-management platforms (DMPs).

Header Bidding (HB)
A technique used by publishers to collect multiple bids from demand sources — including DSPs and ad networks accessed via SSPs and ad exchanges — simultaneously, rather than sequentially. Publishers implement header…
OpenRTB
OpenRTB is an open-source communication protocol that establishes a common language for buyers and sellers participating in real-time bidding (RTB) advertising. Developed in conjunction with a consortium of demand-side…
Daisy Chain
Also known as: waterfalling, the publisher's waterfall A daisy chain is a media-buying process in which a publisher's ad server loads ad network, SSP, and ad exchange tags sequentially — one after another — until an ad…
Decisioning
The process by which AdTech platforms — including ad servers, supply-side platforms (SSPs), demand-side platforms (DSPs), and ad exchanges — determine which ad to serve for a given impression. The decision is driven by…