Why the Modern Ad Server Is a Marketer’s Secret Superpower

Superman has X-ray vision. Batman has the Batcomputer. And Wonder Woman has the Lasso of Truth.

Do marketers have a superpower?

The answer is yes, they do now. Your secret superpower is your ad server.

Some advertisers still believe a buy-side ad server is nothing but dumb pipes, a simple tool to tag an ad and deliver it from here to there.

The modern buy-side ad server is so much more. It’s a data-driven juggernaut. It’s a sophisticated technology that is the last touch between the advertiser and the consumer. Because it sits in the catbird seat of the advertising ecosystem, the buy-side ad server provides unprecedented insight before consumers see an ad, when they see it and engage with it, and after they’ve interacted with it.

And if your ad server is connected to personalized creative and measurement capabilities, there is no limit to what you, as a marketer, can do with the insight delivered by the ad server. This kind of data-driven intelligence helps you deliver impactful, positive consumer experiences that drive engagement. It makes every dollar in your budget work harder, while enabling you to prove the value of your ad investments and optimize your campaigns on the fly.

Doesn’t that sound like a superpower to you? If so, let's talk.

But, you may be thinking, don’t publishers, SSPs, and DSPs provide this kind of insight and data, too? Sort of. These platforms only see a fraction of the ad ecosystem. A publisher, for example, only has visibility within its walls. A DSP has visibility into programmatic campaigns, but it can’t see the outcomes of direct buys.

The Innovid platform is powered by a buy-side ad server that delivers 1.3 billion impressions a day. Our view enables solutions that give brands the unprecedented capability to manage frequency, optimize the supply path, and gauge performance. This view makes you like Superman with his X-ray vision. And because every one of our impressions is MRC-accredited, we are a source of truth — no Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth necessary.  

Ultimately, this combination of technology and intelligence — which is the marketer’s equivalent of the Batcomputer — gives you superpowers to help solve some of the biggest challenges facing the advertising industry:

Frequency Management Across Media

Put yourself on the TV viewer’s couch for a moment. We can all relate to binge-watching our favorite shows on Apple TV+, Disney+, and Netflix and then being exposed to the same insurance ad over and over.

This all-too-common situation has long been a pain point for both consumers and advertisers. Seeing the same ad repeatedly annoys the consumer. For the advertiser, showing a spot repeatedly to the same consumer not only wastes ad budget, it can also damage your brand.

Innovid’s Harmony Frequency product, which is currently in beta, uses our ad server to understand if a household has seen an ad and how many times — across media platforms and before a bid is made. With this intelligence, the ad server can alert the DSP or publisher to bypass a household and bid on the next one. The ad server can also discern if the household has not been reached enough.

This kind of intelligent technology ensures a positive viewing experience for the consumer. For advertisers, it provides greater efficiency and fewer wasted dollars, which is especially valuable when you’re trying to do more with less.  

Instant Creative Optimization

Our ad server is the foundation for measuring and optimizing your campaigns. The ad server’s impressions fuel the intelligence for our InnovidXP platform to measure the performance of linear and CTV advertising.

And with Innovid’s Harmony Instant Optimization, the signals from the ad server ensure that your top-converting ads are championed in real time and find the right audiences. A machine-learning solution, Instant Optimization takes outcomes insights from InnovidXP and links them directly to your ad-serving strategies, ensuring that the ads driving the most website and app activity get the largest share of voice. Instant Optimization also enables you to continuously improve ad performance by highlighting top-performing messaging.

Supply Path Optimization

The online and CTV advertising ecosystem is complicated, especially when it comes to programmatic buys, which can include extra hops from tech intermediaries, which can lead to additional fees.

Innovid’s ad server enables our recently launched Harmony Direct product to deliver programmatic, non-biddable CTV directly to publishers — which eliminates inefficiencies and creates a greener, more sustainable supply path. In doing so, Harmony Direct also helps provide up to an 8% increase in working media for advertisers.

Providing Brands With Superpowers

The modern ad server helps brands develop superpowers that are a marvel (see what I did there?). It’s a gateway to marketing superpowers like improved measurement and optimization, SPO, and (soon) frequency management.

Activate your superpowers now. Contact us today.