Table of Contents:
General Overview
The Ad Placement API is a programming interface that allows developers to integrate and manage ads within their applications, websites, or platforms. It enables the dynamic placement and delivery of advertisements based on various criteria such as user demographics, content context, and available ad inventory. It provides a standardized way to integrate with the ad platform, allowing developers to extract relevant ad creatives, metadata, and tracking information.
The API supports different ad formats such as display ads, video ads, or native ads. It also provides methods for specifying the size, position, and format requirements of the ad placements.
Overall, the Ad Placement API provides developers with the tools and functionalities to effectively manage, deliver, and monetize ad placements within their applications or platforms. It helps enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their advertising strategies by streamlining the process of integrating ads, optimizing revenue, and delivering targeted and engaging advertising experiences to users.
Why Use APIs?
An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of protocols and tools that enable software applications to communicate with each other - essentially providing a way for different systems to interact with each other.
At its core, the EXADS platform is powered by multiple APIs. These same APIs are available to all EXADS clients and allow them to extend the platform's capabilities and, for example, build their own admin portals, integrate 3rd party services for further statistics analysis, or even create their own renderers for different formats and device types.
This means that EXADS platforms have an extra layer of flexibility to integrate with or enhance other systems that clients may already use, or expand further the functionalities offered by the EXADS platform today.
EXADS Ad Placement API
At EXADS, we continuously enhance our Ad Placement API by incorporating new formats every quarter. Currently, the API supports a diverse range of display, native, and video ad formats, and we are committed to expanding its capabilities regularly.
The newest EXADS ad formats are exclusively available through the Ad Placement API, they are the In-Page Push Notification and Multi-format.
Every request made to our ad placement API is validated in a few different ways:
- Request format validation: The API server checks the structure and format of the incoming request. It verifies that all the required parameters are present and properly formatted. If the request fails this validation, an error response is returned.
- Data validation: If the request includes specific data related to the ad placement, such as targeting parameters, the server may perform additional validation checks. This could involve verifying that the provided targeting criteria are valid.
- Business rules validation: The server may apply additional business-specific rules to validate the request. For example, ensuring that the requested ad placement is available, the requested ad format is available in the API, or any other custom business logic specific to the ad platform.
Another advantage of using the Ad Placement API is that it implements the IAB TCF framework, so you’ll be able to leverage it and have the ad integration approved by a board that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry.
Custom Ad Formats
The Ad Placement API offers publishers a distinct advantage - the ability to create custom ad formats. By directly interacting with the API, the publisher can change the already established ad formats' look & feel, and extend them with additional details to create the ad formats they require, or even introduce special JavaScript renderers with custom functionality. The publisher can fully customize the ad format rendering on their website to further optimize the user advertising experience and drive higher-quality traffic.
This means that by leveraging the power of Ad Placement API, you can add your own custom functionality to the ad server, and efficiently implement the custom ad formats that define the industry, category, and audience of your business.
For retail media, for example, the Ad Placement API gives you the ability to deliver ad formats such as premium and sponsored listings, customized to suit the look and feel of your website. This type of ad format provides a personalized advertising experience, which leads to a better retail experience for your shoppers and higher revenues for your business, brands, and suppliers. Other examples of custom ad formats include but of course are not limited to custom in-app formats, or ad formats for Connected TV (CTV).
Custom ad formats can seamlessly integrate with the overall look and feel of a website or app, providing a more cohesive and engaging user experience that doesn't disrupt the user's interaction. Premium, sponsored, and innovative ad layouts often attract advertisers willing to pay more for prime visibility and improved engagement.
Request Flow
The Ad Placement API is in the open web so publishers can request it from different sources such as devices, browsers, or even in a Server-to-Server (S2S) integration.
Once we receive a request we validate it against the schema of the request to guarantee that every mandatory information is sent and that all information received is in the correct format and has correct data types. In case it’s invalid we return a validation error. In case everything is correct in the request the process continues and now it validates the business logic of the context, like the zone existence and if the requested ad format is supported.
The next step is to run the ad selection algorithm for each one of the placements and fetch the most relevant ads for the user, depending on their context. The ad is then processed and the response is prepared, containing all the pertinent information needed for the ad to be displayed and events like impressions or clicks to be tracked.
Examples of Uses
The EXADS Ad Placement API enables you to request multiple placements at once, passing the relevant information about the user and the zones required. This allows our powerful API to get the most accurate and relevant ads for that context. The information returned in the response for each placement includes what image to show, the impression and click tracking URLs, the layout, and every other data point related to the context and the ad.
The example below shows the response for when the second placement requested is trying to access a zone that was not found on the platform. Having the request validated and returning the error, gives the user the information needed to understand the problem and fix it. This leads to a faster integration, without unexpected errors.
Request:
{
"user": {
"ip": "170.247.192.31",
"ua": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0",
"language": "en-US",
"referer": "https://example.com"
},
"zones": [
{
"id":5013331,
"sub": 1234,
"keywords": "tutorial"
},
{
"id":5013332,
"keywords": "blog"
}
]
}
Response:
{
"zones": [
{
"idzone": 5013331,
"type": "banner",
"data": {
"url": "http://s.example.network/click.php?data=H4sIAAAAAAAAA0WOv27DQAjGXy",
"impression": "http://s.example.network/cimp.php?t=api&data=H4sIAAAAAAAAA0",
"image": "http://static.example.network/library/432437/18673b038e07acb2cd9944e7d.jpg",
"optimum_image": "http://static.example.network/library/432437/f67705817040a9bb.webp",
"width": 300,
"height": 250,
"media": "img_banner",
"cids_viewed": [
5885959
]
}
},
null
],
"user": {
"id": "123",
"cookieconsent": 1
},
"errors": {
"1": [
"Zone 5013333 not found"
]
}
}
Alongside the Ad Placement API, we have the ad provider. This is our ready-to-go solution to render ads for the user which makes full use of Ad Placement API and all of its capabilities, allowing you to focus on other parts of your business while EXADS handles the ad serving and rendering for you. Same as the API, the ad provider is easy to integrate with and is also a battle-tested and robust solution.
To demonstrate how easy it is, you can place the following code on your website and an ad will be rendered in the location where you put the code:
<script async type="application/javascript" src="https://ads.example.network/ad-provider.js"></script>
<ins class="ease738bad9" data-zoneid="5013331"></ins>
<script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({"serve": {"el": "YnJ1bm9waWNrQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ=="}});</script>
Benefits of Ad Placement API
There are several reasons and benefits for which businesses choose to use the Ad Placement API:
- Easy Monetization: If you have a website, application, or platform with a significant user base, integrating the Ad Placement API allows you to monetize your digital property by displaying ads. By leveraging the API, you can easily manage and control ad placements, maximizing your revenue potential.
- Automation and Efficiency: The Ad Placement API automates the requesting, retrieving, and displaying ads, saving you time and effort. It eliminates the need for manual ad management, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your application or platform.
- Targeted Advertising: The Ad Placement API offers robust targeting capabilities, allowing you to serve ads to specific audiences based on factors such as demographics or contextual relevance. This targeted approach increases the chances of displaying relevant ads to your users, improving engagement and click-through rates.
- Customization and Control: The Ad Placement API gives you greater flexibility and control over the placement, appearance, and behavior of ads within your application or platform. You can customize the ad formats, positions, and styles to align with your user experience and branding requirements.
Overall, using an Ad Placement API simplifies the process of integrating ads, enables targeted advertising, and improves efficiency. It offers a comprehensive solution for monetizing your digital property while maintaining control and customization options.
Conclusion
At Exads, we understand the challenges businesses face in today's dynamic marketplace. We offer a comprehensive range of solutions designed to help you thrive in the digital landscape. With our expertise and cutting-edge technologies, we provide tailored strategies that drive results.
By using the Ad Placement API you can leverage our solutions to stay ahead of the competition and achieve your business objectives. EXADS will handle all the hard work of having a curated ad inventory and deliver the best possible ad relevant to your public. Contact us today to find out more!