7 Advantages of Using Third-Party Ad Servers for Brands & Networks

Advertising has more facets than you could expect. The reign of Facebook and Google is no stop for advertisers to look for a custom solution, but a reason. 3rd-party ad servers are still beloved and revered by the world's leading brands, who go for them because of their latitude, transparency, and the myriad of available optimizations.

A 3rd-party ad server never gets old. It is the base of the ad serving process, which turned into a sophisticated platform with more customizable features than any other ad tech software existing on the market. A variety of possible tune-ups even scare off the unprepared, but for experienced advertising warriors, an ad server is a Holy Grail of their business.

Yet, there are still many questions on how a 3rd-party ad serving works, what it is, and what elements a 3rd-party ad server usually contains. Also, advertisers experience some troubles while choosing the proper white-label ad server tailored to their needs, as the functionality of modern servers is quite complex and diverse.

To answer all popular queries about third-party ad servers, compare these to first-party ones, and help you with the final choice, we made this piece. Let's fire away.

What is a 3rd-Party Ad Server?

A 3rd-party ad server is an ad server used by the demand side of ad serving or advertisers. The “3rd-party” in the name means that the owner of this server doesn't have direct access to the ad serving process, and only provides creatives.

Advertisers use the platform to host data regarding ads and deliver ads directly to websites and mobile apps. Besides hosting and serving ads, third-party ad servers enable you to manage and optimize advertising campaigns and get detailed reports on your ad serving activity.

First-Party vs. Third-Party Ad Server

The first-party ad server and its third-party counterpart are always intertwined. A 1st-party ad server is used by publishers or the supply side of advertising. It's called that because of being the first link in the ad serving process. Here, website and app owners manage their placements and generate ad tags, which they later send to advertisers to match the specific placement with the particular ad creative.

Overall, the 1st-party ad server is used for ad placement creation, ad tag generation, and further inventory management. A 3rd-party ad server is needed for campaign & creative management, targeting, ad optimization, and analytics.

Third-Party Ad Servers vs DSPs

If you’ve ever asked yourself whether you need a third-party ad server or a DSP, here’s the spoiler: many ad tech companies blur the lines, and some platforms actually do both. But let’s draw the distinction.

• What’s a Third-Party Ad Server? (Again)

At its core, a third-party ad server is like your home base. It’s used to host your creatives, track performance, rotate banners, set targeting rules, and manage campaign logic. You mostly use it for serving direct placements – the type of deals when you “manually” manage the cost and placement of the ad.

• What’s a DSP (Demand-Side Platform)?

A DSP is your key to the realm of programmatic advertising. It connects you to supply — ad exchanges and SSPs — and helps you buy impressions in real-time auctions. You set bids, budget, pacing, and audience targeting, and the DSP handles the rest.

Where’s the Line, Then?

It used to be simple: ad server for direct advertising and DSP for programmatic advertising. But now it’s getting fuzzy. Some ad servers now come with built-in DSP modules (Epom, for example). Some DSPs let you host creatives and apply detailed campaign logic. But there’s still a philosophical difference:

• Ad servers prioritize hosting, control, and reporting.
• DSPs prioritize bidding, reach, and scale.

When Do You Need Both?

• You're running campaigns across both direct and programmatic channels, for instance, you’re an ad network.
• You want full control over your advertising.
• You’re white-labeling a DSP and want your own creative infrastructure.

For now, let’s focus on third-party ad servers.

Third-Party Ad Server: Examples

Choosing the right third-party ad server might be overwhelming at first. There are so many options that it’s easy to get lost and simply fall for the first result in a Google search query.

Let’s simplify the process.

Below are five third-party ad servers that are known for reliability, flexibility, and advanced campaign control. And to keep it even more honest, we’ll cover both the pros and cons of each.

1. Epom Ad Server

A powerhouse platform for brands and networks that want total control, rich customization, and real-time insights. Ideal for scaling operations with advanced targeting, white-labeling, and cross-platform support — but it comes with a learning curve.

2. AdButler

A solid, beginner-friendly option for smaller teams or mid-size networks that need reliable ad delivery without overwhelming complexity. It’s great for basic use cases, but lacks advanced automation and deep analytics.

3. AdGlare

A snappy, real-time ad server with a strong white-label offering and focus on performance. Excellent for those who prioritize speed and ease, but not the best choice if you need extensive platform flexibility or RTB functionality.

4. Equativ (formerly Smart AdServer)

An accessible, budget-conscious solution with RTB baked in and features that cater well to smaller, global ad businesses. It’s a smart start, but it might feel limiting as your needs become more complex or heavily customized, plus its main focus audience is publishers.

5. Revive Adserver

Open-source and totally free — perfect for developers or tech-savvy teams wanting full autonomy over their ad infrastructure. While powerful in the right hands, it demands serious backend resources and comes with the burden of DIY maintenance and security.

Now, how does all of this function?

How Does Third-Party Ad Serving Work?

When the user visits the website or app, the ad tag that was placed on the page sends an ad request to the 1st-party ad server, which processes the retrieved data about the user and forwards it to the 3rd-party ad server.

The latter picks the right creative according to placement requirements and targeting options and sends it back to the publisher's ad server. At the latest stage, the ad is shown to the user. The whole process is almost instantaneous and takes milliseconds.

Here is an illustrative example of the classic third-party ad serving flow:

Today, the split between first- and third-party ad serving is almost non-existent, as advanced ad servers can do both. Network managers have access to publisher and advertiser dashboards at the same time and link placements to banners in a single interface. Thus, technically, only one ad server is used to implement ad serving from both sides.

Nevertheless, ad networks can give out personal accounts with limited permissions to their advertisers if they use white-label software. Advertisers will then see only features meant for demand and analytics related to their own campaigns. From this perspective, they'll use a 3rd-party ad server solely.

Major Elements of 3rd-Party Ad Servers

Let's review the essentials of a 3rd-party ad server for advertisers using the Epom ad server interface as an example. You can see the “Advertisers” tab of the Network Manager, where ad networks can add multiple advertisers. If you are a brand, this tab will likely contain only one advertiser — you — and a number of your campaigns.

You can see all rules, settings, and inventory linked to this advertiser on the advertiser level. However, most of those adjustments are made on the level of the campaign and banner. Here is what the campaign level looks like:

On this level, we set up targeting, capping, campaign priority, pricing, actions, and so on. These settings will be applied to all banners within the campaign.

Still, placements and creatives are linked to each other on the lowest, banner level.

Aside from matching placements to banners, you adjust banner-level targeting, pricing, limits, and rules. The banner type can be a simple image, HTML code, template, or even an oRTB endpoint.

An essential feature for brands and ad networks is analytics. It's close to real-time and is updated approximately every hour. General reports display all vital metrics like the number of impressions, CTR, conversions, I2C, CCR, revenue, eCPM, and more. You can also see analytics breakdowns for specific targeting parameters, including geo, device, browser, and more.

There are also advanced analytics that give you in-depth insights into your campaign performance in Epom's third-party ad server. These reports can be extremely detailed and reflect on the data set retrieved from the 1st-party ad server.

To learn more about basic 3rd-party ad server features, watch this video:

4 Benefits of 3rd-Party Ad Server for Advertisers

Aside from just managing ad campaigns & banners, advertisers may embrace advanced features. For example, Epom ad server targeting is not limited to standard parameters like geo, device, and browser. You can use any audience data received from publishers to set up custom targeting. This can be any data you wish, even a super-specific one.

Other features to consider are advanced capping, banner rules, and So let's review the benefits of third-party ad serving tools for advertisers:

#1. All-in-one Ad Serving Platform

For the record: our ad server offers 800+ features to our clients, and most of them use only 10% of all functionality. The 3rd-party ad serving platform of this kind will meet the demands of the most advanced advertisers who want to control every step of their media buying activities. An ad server is designed for running cross-platform, sophisticated ad campaigns using a wide array of ad formats.

#2. Automatic Optimization

Epom ad server provides all clients with automatic CTR, conversion, and eCPM optimization to simplify their ad operations and make the most of each campaign. Successful strategies can be saved and potentially reapplied to campaigns under the same or similar conditions later on. You can also set rules, priorities, and weights on each level to prioritize some campaigns over others and organize your banners in the way you need.

#3. Pre-Defined Templates and Non-Standard Formats

Not all brands have developers to implement all their creative ideas into reality. And if your banner contains even a chunk of rich media, coding is always required.

3rd-party ad servers like Epom solve this by offering customizable rich media and video templates to the advertisers, where you embed your media elements into the existing code. Also, the platform supports any non-standard format that may come across your mind, so if you want to develop anything from scratch — you can quickly deliver it to your audience as well.

#4. Transparent Data Collection and Detailed Analytics

Gather any data from your publishers directly. Generate reports based on gathered information and use smart filters to see the performance of various traffic sources. If you wish, you can even integrate the ad server with a 3rd-party analytics or data management tool.

The third-party ad server enables you to run deduplicated custom reports to understand your campaign performance better and make informed decisions on further optimization. You can thereby set the right frequency cap, test different creatives, and successfully copy the targeting combos that lead to a conversion.

4 Benefits of 3rd-Party Ad Server for Ad Networks

An ad network is a company that acts as a middleman between publishers and advertisers. The third-party ad server helps track revenue delivered by every publisher and efficiently optimize ad campaigns to yield maximum results.

So, on top of the benefits of an ad server for advertisers we've already listed, there are unique advantages of third-party ad serving tools for ad networks:

#1. Platform Ownership

White-labeling means that you buy the technology and then use it as you wish. You become the owner of your platform without spending money on a 3rd-party ad serving solution development. This opens up unlimited opportunities for tailoring all the functionality to your business processes.

#2. Roles & Permissions

Third-party ad servers also provide several roles and permissions with separate access for publishers and advertisers and show the most relevant metrics.

#3. In-Depth Customization

For ad networks that seek total customization and want to expand their range of services, white labeling the ad server can be beneficial.

With Epom white label ad server, you can create your advertising platform with a personalized UI: branded emails, logos, custom code — every aspect of our ad serving solution can be tailored to your brand identity.

#4. Affordable and Customizable Infrastructure

It’s one thing to build your own ad network and the other to maintain and scale it. A white-label solution (like ours) allows you to grow beyond pricing plans while not being charged additional fees for running several ad servers.

Moreover, you get a dedicated support team to manage all the maintenance hassles and full customization of UI, logos and even domain names.

Do You Need a Third-Party Ad Server?

In short, yes, you do. The third-party ad server helps you manage all your video, mobile, desktop & in-app ad campaigns. Forecasting, deep targeting, automatic optimization, and real-time reporting are the main features of choosing an ad server. In the ever-changing digital environment, there's a solution to keep your cross-platform digital advertising in order.

FAQ

• Do third-party ad servers use cookies?
  Yes, traditionally, they do. Cookies help track impressions, clicks, frequency caps, and user behavior. But with the deprecation of third-party cookies on Chrome and Safari, many ad servers are evolving — offering server-side tracking, first-party ID integrations, and contextual targeting as cookieless alternatives.
• Is Google Ads a third-party ad server?
  No, Google Ads is a self-serve ad platform. It’s not a third-party ad server in the classic sense. While it serves ads and collects performance data, it doesn’t offer the same control, transparency, or custom campaign logic you get from platforms like Epom or Revive. In fact, Google mostly acts as a first-party ad server within its own ecosystem.
• Can I host my own ad server?
  Absolutely. You can self-host open-source options like Revive or purchase a white-label third-party ad server that runs on your domain, like Epom’s solution. Hosting your own gives you ultimate control — branding, rules, data, everything. But keep in mind: with great control comes great tech responsibility.
• Are third-party ad servers safe?
  Yes, when using a vetted vendor. Top-tier ad servers support HTTPS, fraud detection, custom roles & permissions, and compliance with GDPR/CCPA. But, like any tech tool, it depends on your setup. Always audit your creatives, track tags, and ensure proper security practices are followed.