Documentation - Tutorials and Best Practices

Ad Tags3 min read

Macros for Ad Serving — AdGlare comes with some built-in macros that you can use in Third-Party tags or Landing URLs. These types of macros are commonly used for cache-busting. They can also be used to pass on valuable information to the Landing Page of an ad. For example, the page the ad has been shown on, or ad server-specific identifiers like the zone ID, campaign ID, creative ID, etc. Find below a list of all macros AdGlare supports. Commonly Used MacrosVariableDescriptionExample{ts}The Unix timestamp.

Ad Tags3 min read

AMP HTML Ads — AdGlare can generate AMP Ad Tags that can be loaded on Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) pages to speed up ad serving. Are you a publisher using AMP pages? Read below how AdGlare Ad Server can help you monetize your content. What are AMP HTML Ads? AMP was developed by Google back in 2015 to speed up mobile web page loading. AMP pages are cached on Google servers the closest to the visitor's geographical location, making them load faster on the mobile web. AMP HTML Ads can be considered an extension of this framework, allowing you to serve ads that are performant and secure. What are the advantages of AMP HTML Ads? They load faster, as static libraries are cached Lazy-loading enabled by default, improving CTR Self-aware performance: dis

Best Practices4 min read

Evaluating 3P Ad Tags for Speed — AdGlare is one of the fastest ad servers in the market. If you're running third-party tags, you may not have that performance boost you were looking for. As a publisher, slow ad tags will likely result in a Google SERP penalty and motivates people to use an ad blocker. AdGlare has several ways to evaluate the performance of third-party ad tags: Quality Score Loading Speed Quality Assurance Scanner Quality Score to the rescue The quality score gives you an idea of how fast the ad tag loads. To calculate the quality score, copy/paste the third-party ad tag in the creative box. Then click somewhere outside the box and it will be calculated within seconds. We're evaluating the following: SSL-Compliancy Load size (in KB)

Campaign Setup2 min read

Campaign Tiers — Campaigns in higher tiers will be served first, before campaigns in lower tiers are served. Tiers are like levels, starting at the highest level first while waterfalling down. It will give you control over guaranteed deliveries. For example, you run an important campaign that has to deliver 30 million impressions before the end of the month. Since other items are competing for exposure as well, you want to set the tier as high as possible. When an ad request comes in, the ad serving engines will first check and see if a campaign in the highest tier is available. If so, that campaign will be served and "override" campaigns in lower tiers. So, lower-tier campaigns will never serve? Not really. There are many reasons why a higher-tier campaign is not eligible for display. Think about targeting, frequency capping, dayparting or pacing.

Campaign Setup2 min read

Flight Dates, Quantity & Pacing — The flight dates of a campaign can be set on the Settings tab. This is also the place where you can set the booked number of impressions, and configure how fast the campaign should be delivered. Start and end date If the start date is in the future, the campaign will not start serving until time is due. With an end date, the campaign will be automatically set to "Completed" after that date, and it will no longer serve. If you wish to run a campaign forever, simply leave the end date blank. For more granular control, you can also indicate a time in the format HH:MM. Timezone Your ad server's time zone is used to determine when a campaign should be served. To set the time zone, see the page Settings arrow_forward Global Settings. Booked Quantity You can set the maximum number of impressio

Getting Started1 min read

Getting Started with AdGlare — 1 Create a new Campaign and add a Creative. 2 Create a new Zone. Verify on the Zone Fill tab that your campaign is listed. 3 Add the Ad Tag to your (publisher's) website. Use the Live Preview button to preview the ad.

Getting Started4 min read

AdGlare Glossary — AdGlare uses industry terms as much as possible. In case you're unfamiliar with certain terms, here's an overview of the basics. TermExplanation 3P CookieShorthand for "Third-Party cookie". 3P cookies are created by domains other than the domain visible in the browser bar.3PASShorthand for "Third-Party Ad Server". Examples are Google Ad Manager, Sizmek, Appnexus and AdGlare.Ad RequestThe request to fill an ad slot once a page loads. Each time the ad tag is executed, an ad request is counted. That doesn't necessarily mean that an ad is served: think about targeting, capping and pacing. Ad requests are counted

Good To Know8 min read

Revive vs AdGlare — Are you a publisher? Are you looking for ad server software to manage all of your campaigns? You'll then usually have two options. Either you can choose for a free open source ad server and install the software on your own server, or you can choose for hosted ad server software on a global CDN. In this article we'll discuss the pros and cons between the two, so you can determine which ad server solution is best for you. Option 1: Revive Open Source Ad Server As of today, there are not many open source ad servers that provide the full stack of ad serving technology that you may need. The most popular is Revive AdServer (previously known as OpenX), which is available free of charge under the GNU General Public License. Revive can be used for personal as well as commercial

Good To Know6 min read

The Importance of Async Ad Tags — It's been 5 years now that Google made page speed a ranking factor to determine its position in the SERP. The faster a page loads compared to its competitors, the higher it will end up in Google's search result list. If you have ads on your page, asynchronous loading will play a significant role to achieve that goal. Every time you load a JavaScript file on your page, it's important to understand how that will impact load speed. This article will show you with a real-life example why this is so important. Synchronous vs Asynchronous: What's the difference? Synchronous loading means in this context: one after another, or serial loading. Synchronously loaded JavaScript forces the browser to sit and wait for the file to be completely loaded and executed. The browser literally does nothing but downloading that file, while it could have done th

Good To Know5 min read

Video Ad Server with VAST Support — Are you looking for a video ad server with VAST support? AdGlare supports all IAB specified tracking URLs, as well as VAST wrapper redirects and Ad Pods. It can combine media types like Linear Video Ads, Non-Linear Banner Ads along with Companion Ads. In this article we'll discuss how AdGlare serves video ads, either in-stream or out-stream. But first, let me briefly explain was VAST does. VAST doesn't contain video itself - it's just a playbook The VAST specification has been developed by the IAB and is widely recognized in the digital advertising industry. Like the IAB says, VAST doesn't "do" anything. It's simply a mechanism (or protocol) for transferring data from one system to another. The VAST specification allows advertisers to create a well ordered

Good To Know9 min read

Ad Server Pricing — Whether you're looking for a cheap, expensive or free campaign management software, the list of ad servers below may help you out. We're comparing the costs of ad serving between 2M and 25M ad requests per month. Price rates were collected in January 2020 directly via the vendor's website. var pricing_entriesperpage = 100; var pricing_page = 1; var pricing_sort = 5; var pricing_ascdesc = 'asc'; var pricing_search = ''; var pricing_searchfor = ''; function getoverview() { var params = ''; params += '&pricing_entriesperpage='+pricing_entriesperpage; params += '&pricing_page='+pricing_page; params += '&pricing_sort='+pricing_sort; params += '&pricing_ascdesc='+pricing_ascdesc; params += '&pricing_search='+pricing_search; params += '&pricing_searchfor='+pricing_sear

Good To Know5 min read

Adblock Detection Script — Are you a publisher? Do you know what percentage of your visitors are using an ad blocker? If you don't, you may be loosing out on opportunities more than you think here in 2023. To find out, you need an Adblock Detection Script, which you can download here below. You may have seen these "Adblock Detected" warning messages, asking users to disable their ad blocker in order to continue. Some publishers even completely deny access with an ad blocker enabled. And that makes sense. Blog posts and articles are free of charge because we're monetizing this content by showing ads. From an economical perspective, a user with an ad blocker is like a scavenger: they eat away bandwidth and resources without any respect for those who've spend time and money writing the content.

License & Billing2 min read

Cancel License — We'd hate to see you leaving, but nothing lasts forever. To cancel your license, please send an email to your account manager to have your ad server terminated. You can do so via the user icon at the top right (see video). A few things you may want to know: You'll receive a cancellation confirmation by email Your license will remain active until the end of your monthly due date No further charges on your card will be made If for any reason you'd need an ad server in the future, it would be great to welcome you again. We'll keep a copy of your instance for 4 weeks, during which you can restore your ad server without data loss if you were to change your mind. We write code every day to make AdGlare awesome. Our software isn't perfect, but we are maniacally focused on making it better! Please

License & Billing1 min read

Download Invoice PDFs — To download your invoices in PDF format, go to Settings arrow_forward License & Plan. If you don't have access to your AdGlare portal, you may want to reach out to the person within your company who manages your AdGlare account. He/she can easily get you an account via the page Settings arrow_forward Team Members. VAT Numbers If you're a customer from Europe, your VAT number is printed on the invoices. This is a requirement by law. To change your VAT number or company details, please contact your AdGlare account manager to have them reviewed.

License & Billing1 min read

Replace Credit Card — To change your card on file, go to Settings arrow_forward License & Plan. Click the "Change Card" button and fill out the new card details. There's no need to remove your old card - it will be automatically replaced with the new one. Note that the last 4 digits of your card are printed on the invoice PDF, which allows you to easily identify which card was used for each charge. Expired cards Is your current card expired and you're waiting for a new card? Please reach out to your account manager to postpone the charge of your invoice.

License & Billing2 min read

Upgrade Plan — As soon as you've reached 85% ad request usage, you'll see an "Upgrade Plan" button in your portal. After clicking the confirmation button: You'll be upgraded instantly Ad serving will continue without interruption A one-time invoice covering the difference between your old and new plan will be added to your account If you wish to upgrade from Essential to Professional, please contact your AdGlare account manager. One-time invoice Let's say your on a 10M Professional plan at $349/month, and you upgrade to a 25M Enterprise plan at $799/month. The difference between the two plans is $450, which will be charged in a one-time invoice. You don't have to pay this amount manually. Your card on file will be automatically charged 48 hours after upgrading. Downgrading to a lower plan

License & Billing3 min read

CDN Bandwidth & Fees — As an appreciated customer, you can use AdGlare's CDN free of charge. There are no extra costs, not even for large assets like MP4 video files. $0 Bandwidth Fees A few things you may want to know: Creatives have file size limits. You can find them on the Pricing page. The ad tag will create signed URLs pointing to the CDN, containing a one-time token that is user-specific. Hotlinking to URLs on the CDN is not recommended (read: forbidden). Around the world, as fast as we can! With a global network of nodes in the CDN, creative assets are loaded from a

Native Ads7 min read

Native Ads API — Native Ads allow you to seamlessly integrate ads into your website using the same style and layout. To do so, you first need a native ad server like AdGlare. The "ad tag" in this case is a URL that returns a JSON response containing a list of ads. You can then parse this response and generate the ad unit using your own set of CSS styles. As a publisher, you may be interested in native ads if you: need to show ads in a mobile application require ads to seamlessly integrate into your website's layout want to get around ad blockers Fetching JSON Ads: client-side or server-side? You can consider to fetch the ads directly from the visitor's browser by making a (jQuery) GET request. After parsing the JSON response, you can generate the ad's HTML co

Reports4 min read

Conversion Tracking — Conversion tracking allows you or your advertisers to track the effectiveness of a campaign, by logging the actions visitors have made after clicking an ad. Examples include signing up for an account, purchasing a product or downloading a file. This article explains how you can track conversions via your ad server. Conversion tracking can be enabled via the Conversions tab on the Campaigns page. See here below. Server-to-server Conversion Tracking Server-to-server tracking works by implementing a postback script at your (advertiser's) back-end. This script would ping AdGlare's endpoint with a unique identifier when a conver

Reports2 min read

Metrics & Dimensions — Generating reports should be straight-forward, as a lot of time has been devoted to making the UI as simple as possible. The following metrics are recorded: Ad Requests Impressions Clicks CTR Conversions Conversion Value Unfilled Requests Fill Rate Viewability Rate Costs / Revenue Breakdowns per period The highest temporal resolution is the hour. Unlike other ad server solutions, this hourly data is not pooled into days and will remain available even after years. You can therefore generate reports by: Hour Day Month Year Breakdowns per dimension

Reports1 min read

Exporting Data — Report data can be exported by clicking the 3-dot icon at the top right. Then choose "Export Data". The following export formats are supported: Microsoft Excel CSV File HTML Page JSON Code PDF Document Decimal separators When exporting data, one of the major inconveniences is that decimal separators may mess up numbers. By default, a dot is used to indicate decimals as per English conventions. Outside the USA, you may use commas to separate decimals (for example: 0,032%). When exporting the data, you can select the separator to use. Exporting data via the API If you're on the Enterprise plan, you can export your data via the Reports API. For more information, see the

Reports2 min read

Custom Formulas — The most widely used metrics are already displayed in your reports, like impressions, clicks and CTR. You can however create new metrics based on standard metrics that have already been logged. Let's go for an example. You want to add the conversion rate to your report tables. AdGlare already logs the number of clicks and conversions. Based on that data, we can calculate the conversion rate: conversions / clicks * 100 How to create formulas Standard operational calculus is supported: multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. Nested operations are supported as well, going 4 levels deep. For example, to calculate the fill rate you can use: filled / (filled + unfilled) * 100 The following metrics are available. MetricsEx

Targeting6 min read

Frequency Capping (GDPR) — Frequency Capping is a method in online advertising to limit the number of times a banner ad is shown to a single user. Some ad servers may also refer to this as impression capping. One of the best arguments to set such a cap is to minimize banner blindness and to increase the CTR and ROI of your campaigns. Frequency capping allows you to reduce campaign costs while increasing your campaign's unique reach. If you're on the buy side, this is once more an excellent example why you need an ad server for advertisers. To get the maximum out of your advertising budget, you need to be in control. Frequency Caps: Best Practices Setting a frequency cap for online advertising campaigns is almost always recommended in most situations, unless you're running remarketing o

Targeting4 min read

Keyword Targeting — Keyword Targeting allows you to show certain campaigns only if they match the keywords passed in the ad code. This type of targeting can be used in a wide range of cases. It will help you to deliver the message to an audience who may likely be interest in the ad. This will drive conversions and increase CTR. For example, you can fine-tune delivery: in articles about cars (contextual) to upgraded members only based on the visitor's search query Below we'll discuss how to set up keyword targeting in your AdGlare Ad Server. Passing on keywords to the Ad Tag Append your keywords to the ad tag via the key/value pair &keywords=... Separate multiple keywords by commas. Here's an example:

Targeting4 min read

Key/Value Targeting — Key/Value Targeting is a powerful method to fine-tune delivery of your campaigns. An ad will only be shown if a key matches the value as defined by the campaign's targeting rules. AdGlare's ad serving engines will automatically check if the key is present in a cookie or in the global JavaScript scope. Contrary to Keyword Targeting you can use numeric, string and boolean operators to set up your expressions. Here's an example of such a configuration in AdGlare. String Operators Operator

Targeting4 min read

Geotargeting Locations — Geotargeting of digital media is a method to target ads to visitors from different geographical locations. It's a widely used targeting method used by Adwords and Facebook to restrict ads to be seen only by users located in specific countries or regions. Most third-party ad servers let you geotarget your audience by: Continent Country Region City Why are we using it? If the ad copy is written in Georgian, it doesn't make sense to show it to people who don't speak that language. You probably don't want to show ads for expensive Rolex watches in countries that have average wages of around $100/month. And why would someone promote a service worldwide that's only available in a handful of countries?

Targeting3 min read

Browser/OS/Device Targeting — Also known as technology targeting, this targeting method allows you to target ads to users visiting from a specific browser, operating system or device. Identification is performed using the browser's User-Agent string, which is sent along with each HTTP request. The string is parsed and matched against certain identifiers that can tell browsers, OSes and devices apart. HTTP headers containing the User-Agent string, sent along with each request. Supported Technology AdGlare lets you target commonly used browsers, OSes and devices.

Tutorials3 min read

White Labeled Ad Serving — By default, AdGlare serves content using the following URLs: yourbusinessname.engine.adglare.net yourbusinessname.cdn.adglare.net You can however white-label these subdomains by adding CNAME DNS records to your own domain. Essentially, you'll be serving the ads from your own subdomain, instead of AdGlare's. This article explains how to set up your white label. CNAME DNS Records Add the following CNAME records to your domain's DNS settings. If you don't have access to your domain's DNS records, ask the person responsible for your domain within your organization for help. Host / Name / AliasTTLRecord TypeValue / Points To / Destination

Tutorials11 min read

Bot Filtering for Ads — GoogleBot crawls over the internet 24/7. While doing so, it also loads all ads it finds on your pages. You don't want to count impressions or clicks made those bots, crawlers and spiders. Ad servers like AdGlare use bot filtering to remove invalid traffic from your reports. Bot traffic accounts for more than 50% of all global internet traffic. An incredible number that can't be neglected. Unless you're running in-house campaigns, it's imperative that your ad server filters bot traffic to avoid report discrepancies and to keep the quality of your sold inventory high. Half of all internet traffic comes from Bots Although bot activity fluctuates over the years, we can't deny the huge impact that bots and spiders have on our analytical data. Back in 2016, Incapsula released a great infographic to give us an update on where we're heading. Bots are accounting for 51

Tutorials5 min read

Lazy-Loading Ads — AdGlare's Lazy-Loading function loads the ads only when the zone becomes visible in the browser's viewport. In other words, the ad is only loaded when it has a chance to be seen by the user. Enabling this function for Display Ads is highly recommended, regardless if you're an advertiser or a publisher. Two Big Advantages Lazy Loading has two major advantages when it comes to ad serving: Increases CTR significantly Increases your Viewability Rate How it increases CTR Imagine a scenario where half of the ads are loaded below the fold, and nobody is scrolling down the page. Even though the ads were not seen, impressions are counted because the creatives were loaded. Since CTR equals impressions / clicks, your CTR is also cut in half. Clearly, only ads that have be

Tutorials4 min read

Keeping Ads On The Screen — AdGlare's Always On Screen function makes sure that the ad sticks to a corner of the screen when it's scrolled out of view. By doing so, the ad remains visible and has a higher chance to be clicked. This will greatly improve your CTR. Live Example Here's a live example of an ad that sticks around when you scroll it out of view. The video will first play inline, and then automatically snap to the bottom of the screen when scrolled out of sight. Make sure to disable your ad blocker to see the ad. In this examp

Tutorials1 min read

Adding a 3rd Party Tag — 1 Add a new Creative to a Display Ad campaign. 2 Choose the 3rd Party Tag tab. 3 Paste the ad tag in the box.

User-Interface1 min read

Move to different Folder — 1 Simply drag the campaign to the new folder.

Knowledge Base

Learn EVERYTHING about ad validation