The location of your ad server can affect the performance of your next advertising campaign.
If an ad server is not geographically close to your targets, advertisements can have slow load times. The result is a lower performing campaign.
That is why knowing the location of the ad servers you are using is crucial.
Here, we will take a look at how location affects ad servers and the location of popular ad servers.
IP Address and Geolocation
In understanding the location of your ad server, we first need to understand how to determine location.
We determine location in two ways. IP address and geolocation, where IP address determines your geolocation.
The first location identifier is your IP address. IP address is a unique Internet connection identifier. The most typical IP address is an IPv4 address, which is based on a specific set of network prefixes.
Today, Internet service providers will change your IP address roughly every 24 hours, but your geolocation will stay the same.
Geolocation is the next item that determines ad server location. Geolocation is your global region location. This can be as generic as Country and as specific as longitude and latitude coordinates.
Your IP address and geolocation are important as this allows better ad targeting. Based on this location, a specific ad server is selected to serve an advertisement. The advertisement can then be targeted to that specific region for things such as language.
Once an ad server knows the IP address and geolocation, how does it determine the correct ad server?
How does an Ad Server Determine Your Location?
IP address determines ad server selection.
To determine of ad server location the Internet uses domain name service (DNS).
What DNS does is communicates with the IP address of the user and the IP address of the requested website, then determines what server location is best to serve the website from. Ad server selection operates with this same function.
Using DNS to determine where to best serve an advertisement will make an impact on load speed and performance.
Before choosing an ad server, knowing the locations served can improve performance.
Why Ad Server Location is Important
Ad server location determines where in the world an advertisement is served. In AdTech, this is crucial for two reasons.
- Delivery speed
- Targeting
The delivery of an advertisement from a server close to the user will load faster. Network latency is an inherent issue with the Internet, and decreasing geographic distances can minimize the effects. This affects both the AdTech RTB process and serving the advertisement to the user.
The next is targeting. By understanding the location of a user, you can better target the user to increase conversion rates based on relevance. Relevance is king.
In choosing an AdTech ad server, you will want to know the global coverage, so your advertisements are delivered effectively to your targets.
Below, we have created an overview of AdTech ad server locations globally, with the data courtesy of Web Technology Surveys.
AdTech Ad Server by Country
Let’s take a look at the location of ad servers globally. Using the data below, we can see where most ad servers are located to get an idea of where your advertisements will be served from.
First, we will look at locations of ad servers used by AdTech companies.
Next, we have a detailed analysis of ad server location and use by country.
Using the location information, we can see where most ad servers are located and the websites using them.
AOL AdTech Ad Servers
AdTech by AOL is one of the largest AdTech companies globally. As ad server location is important, we will take a look at where AOL is operating.
As we can see, AOL operates in most of the highest sought after markets. This is important because performance is going to be competitive in these markets.
The location of your AdTech ad server plays a part in making decisions about what ad server will be correct for you. From IP addresses, geolocation, DNS and global ad server coverage, ad server location will play a factor in advertising performance.
To learn more about AdTech, download the AdTech optimization Whitepaper.
