Guides
How-tos, explainers, and deep dives.
Zero-Party, First-Party, Second-Party, and Third-Party Data: What's the Difference?
In recent years, internet users have gained meaningful legal protection over their personal data. Regulations like the EU's GDPR and California's CCPA have raised the compliance bar significantly, and the era of…
What the Addition of DOOH to the OpenRTB Protocol Means for AdTech
Since its inception in November 2010, real-time bidding (RTB) has become one of the most significant advancements in programmatic advertising, allowing advertisers to bid on and purchase individual impressions across…
The Benefits of In-Game Advertising: Formats, Data, and Why It Works
The video game industry is booming, and it's expected to be worth $321 billion globally by 2026. Gaming is among the fastest-growing sectors of the economy, with over 3 billion gamers active worldwide — an audience too…
Client-Side vs. Server-Side Ad Insertion: How CSAI and SSAI Work and When to Use Each
The video-streaming business continues its rapid expansion — the six leading streaming service providers now collectively count 777.6 million subscribers — yet growth is no longer a given. Many popular platforms are…
The Demise of Third-Party Cookies in AdTech: Why They're Being Phased Out
The past several years in programmatic advertising have been shaped by privacy changes introduced by governments and major tech companies — Google, Apple, and Mozilla chief among them. At the centre of that shift are…
6 Alternatives to Third-Party Cookies and Mobile IDs in AdTech
Ever since Google Chrome announced in January 2020 that it would be shutting off support for third-party cookies within a few years, companies operating in the programmatic advertising industry have been searching for…
How to Build a Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) Tool
The internet is flooded with advertisements, which is why advertisers employ a range of strategies, tactics, and tools to tailor communication to individual customers. Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) technology can…
The IAB Tech Lab's Seller Defined Audiences (SDA) Explained
Ever since Google Chrome announced it would shut off support for third-party cookies, the industry has been searching for workable alternatives. One of those alternatives comes from the IAB Tech Lab in the form of its…
What Is a Meta-DSP and How Does One Get Built?
The programmatic advertising ecosystem today consists of over a dozen different types of advertising technology (AdTech) platforms and intermediaries, all playing a crucial role in the creation, execution, and…
What Is Demand-Path Optimization (DPO)?
Programmatic advertising has never been short of structural challenges. Ad fraud, opaque intermediary fees, and poor visibility into the media-supply chain have frustrated both publishers and advertisers for years.…
What Is a Single Customer View (SCV)?
Personalization, customer analytics, retention, and upselling all depend on one underlying capability: knowing who your customers actually are. Recent privacy changes have made that harder, but businesses can still…
A Timeline of Firefox's Privacy Changes and Their Impact on AdTech & MarTech
Mozilla's Firefox web browser has long been associated with speed, security, and customizability — but over the past several years it has also become one of the most privacy-forward browsers available to mainstream…
What Is a Data Clean Room and How Does It Work?
Third-party cookies were the primary mechanism for identifying individuals across different websites — enabling personalized ads, frequency capping, campaign measurement, and attribution. But third-party cookies are not…
What Is Supply-Path Optimization (SPO)?
Supply-path optimization (SPO) is often compared to a courier service. Just as a courier has to find the best route to a destination — saving time and money for all parties — SPO aims to help advertisers find the most…
What Is Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) Advertising and How Does It Work?
Programmatic advertising has already transformed web and in-app mobile channels. Now it is making its way into connected TV (CTV) — and much of that infrastructure runs on hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV). This…
What Is an Order Management System (OMS) and How Does It Work?
Customer requests, campaign creation, billing reconciliation — when it comes to selling ad space, all of these elements matter. Advertisers expect quick responses with accurate offers, and sales representatives need to…
8 Use Cases of a Customer Data Platform (CDP) for Advertising and Marketing
Marketers rely on a range of systems to collect information about their customers — email platforms, CRM software, analytics tools, and more. In most organizations, these systems operate in isolation: data sits in…
What Is In-Game Advertising and How Does It Work?
In-game advertising has moved well beyond novelty status. Brands from virtually every vertical are embedding themselves into gaming environments — not as interruptions, but as elements woven into the experience itself.…
How to Build a CDP, DMP, and Data Lake for AdTech and MarTech
Data platforms have been a foundational part of the programmatic advertising and digital marketing industries for well over a decade. Platforms like customer data platforms (CDPs) and data management platforms (DMPs)…
Google Chrome's FLoC Explained: Frequently Asked Questions
The programmatic advertising industry has been closely watching Google Chrome's Privacy Sandbox since it was first announced as a replacement for third-party cookies in January 2020. The Privacy Sandbox encompasses many…
IAB Tech Lab Standards and Initiatives: A Practical Guide
Programmatic advertising is built on a dense web of interconnected processes — media buying, identity resolution, targeting, measurement, and attribution among them. The IAB and its technical arm, the IAB Tech Lab, sit…
The Role of Third-Party Cookies in Programmatic Advertising and AdTech
This guide explains what third-party cookies are, how they function inside programmatic advertising infrastructure, why cookie syncing is central to real-time bidding, and what the industry stands to lose — and gain —…
What Is app-ads.txt and How Does It Work?
Ad fraud remains one of the most persistent and costly threats to programmatic advertising. Industry research by cybersecurity company CHEQ estimated that fraudulent activity against digital advertising cost the…
Apple's Privacy Changes and Their Impact on AdTech and MarTech
Apple has spent the better part of a decade repositioning itself as a champion of user privacy — and the downstream effects on AdTech and MarTech have been substantial. This article maps the key privacy features Apple…