Top 7 Ad Server Features Publishers Should Actually Care About

An ad server for publishers is much more than just a tool for delivering ads — it’s an essential part of the revenue growth strategy. And growth is among the top 3 priorities for publishers: 79% say they strive to increase advertising revenues. More and more publishers are using ad servers to address this need:

The ad server market reached $33.41 billion in 2024 and $36.34 billion in 2025. Moreover, it’s expected to grow to $77,32 billion in 2034. 

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But how do you choose the right ad server among many options, especially considering the dozens of features they offer today? From my experience, not all features are equally valuable; however, some really matter.

In this article, I’ll show you the backstage of choosing the best ad server for publishers.

Why an Ad Server?

A publisher can survive without an ad server, especially in the early stages — for example, joining a third-party monetization platform may be a viable option. However, if you want to maximize revenue, grow your business, and strengthen your brand, an ad server is a much better choice. Why?

• It delivers advertisers’ ads to visitors according to the pre-set rules, such as targeting, frequency, and priority.
• It allows publishers to manage their ad inventory and gives them complete control over campaigns. 
• It tracks performance indicators, like impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.
• It usually allows running both direct and programmatic ad campaigns.
• It presents numerous optimization opportunities, which ultimately lead to revenue optimization.

Delivering ads without an ad server is like running a restaurant without a kitchen manager. Sure, you can still serve food, but you can’t guarantee quality, consistency, or efficiency. The bigger the business, the messier the operations you can expect.

Which Ad Server Features Matter Most — and Why

I often see that, when choosing the best ad server, publishers pay attention to features like:

• Variety of ad formats: Display, video, native, rich media, etc.
• Targeting options: Geographic location, device type, browser, etc.
• Convenient dashboards: For managing ad inventory.
• Tracking: Reporting tools and KPIs like impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.

However, it’s not a universal formula. For example, you may not need multiple ad formats, especially if your ad inventory is focused mainly on display or video ads. At the same time, some not-so-obvious features can enormously impact ad performance, user experience, and long-term revenue. How to identify them? 

Here are some factors that proved worthy to our clients:

• Accuracy of ad delivery. It doesn’t matter if ads are high quality if an ad server delivers them to the wrong audience or at the wrong time. In this case, performance metrics will likely disappoint you, just as your revenue.
• Automation level. If an ad server doesn’t offer a broad range of automation capabilities, you may end up spending lots of time and effort on manual campaign and inventory management. What’s worse, the lower the automation level, the more complex the scaling of your operations.
• Brand safety: Low-quality ads or showing too high a frequency can hurt your brand. After all, visitors don’t want to return to websites or apps with annoying ads.
• Quality of reporting. Nobody’s really interested in data — we’re after the insights that data hides. The best ad servers provide insightful reports that you can use to optimize your revenue.
• Application programming interface (API) access. An ad server with outdated or incomplete documentation can cause you real pain. On the contrary, the best ad servers provide solid support and easy integration with internal and external systems.

Now, let’s put this knowledge into practical use and discuss the top 7 features the best ad servers for publishers offer. These features save you time, protect your brand, and help you grow your business.

Intuitive Campaign Setup

Not every publisher has deep tech expertise, but the right ad server doesn’t even require it. Intuitive campaign setup ensures fewer mistakes and faster learning, resulting in more efficient launching and managing. 

The good news is that many ad servers allow you to test the platform during a trial period. It’s a perfect opportunity to create a campaign and see how long it takes and how complicated the user interface is. The right ad server offers you:

• Clear and logical menu, so you immediately know where to click to start the campaign.
• Warnings if some information is missing or the creatives’ format isn’t supported.
• Smart default feature for the most common fields.
• Previews before launch.

One final tip: if something in the user interface seems too confusing to you from the beginning, and this feeling doesn’t go away after getting acquainted with the platform, it’s a warning sign. 

Bulk Operations

An ad server can become a bottleneck if you manually edit every campaign. How do you grow the business if you can’t scale ad operations? To prevent it from happening, you can check if an ad server has the bulk operations feature. Here’s the functionality you’re looking for:

• Bulk upload and edit for creatives and campaigns.
• Bulk delete and pause for creatives and campaigns.
• Templates for campaign creation with pre-set targeting options.
• Changing targeting and delivery rules for multiple ad placements.
• Bulk budgeting and scheduling.
• CSV import capabilities for creatives.

All these functions minimize manual work, so you can launch and edit campaigns much faster and increase consistency. Eventually, the bulk operations feature helps you focus on what really matters — optimizing your revenue.

API Accessibility

Application programming interface (API) allows you to automate tasks, create custom tools, and integrate your ad server with internal and external software, such as analytical systems, CRMs, etc. However, to help you realize the full potential of your ad server, it should provide:

• Clear and detailed documentation.
• Access to campaign setup, reporting, and creative management functions.
• Rate limit policies (how many API requests can the platform make to a server per second/minute/hour). If you plan to launch multiple campaigns, access to these policies can help ensure your system won’t get blocked.
• Access to change logs (a list of changes in the new version) and API versions. 
• Webhook support, which means an ad server will automatically notify you in case of changes to the campaign status, hitting performance thresholds, delivery issues, and other significant events.

To sum up, an ad server that offers read-only access isn’t the right option for publishers seeking control and growth. 

IP Whitelisting

This feature is rarely considered necessary, but it’s crucial for obtaining complete control over your ad server account. Imagine the situation: your team is growing and mostly working remotely. How can you ensure safety and eliminate the risks of fraudsters accessing your operations? The answer is the IP whitelisting feature:

• Whitelisting specific IP addresses, such as your office.
• Creating role-based permissions (for instance, view-only, creative manager, campaign admin, admin with billing access).
• Keeping activity logs lets you see what actions users performed and when. 
• Support for two-factor authentication (2FA).
• Creating custom roles — you may need it as your ad operations advance.

IP whitelisting may seem like a “too technical” feature, but it’s so useful that diving a little deeper can’t hurt. 

Programmatic Integration

Some publishers start their revenue optimization journey from direct deals and private marketplaces. Still, fill rates rarely approach 100%. Programmatic advertising is an excellent addition to a well-known strategy and ensures you get the most out of your ad inventory. The best ad servers for publishers:

• Support OpenRTB protocols for programmatic open auctions. 
• Offer the header bidding integration, which allows to connect to multiple demand partners simultaneously and offer them your ad inventory.
• Provide API support for setting floor prices, priority rules, etc.
• Tracks auction dynamics and creates reports in real-time, including bids and win rates.

Even if, at the beginning, the share of programmatically served ads in your operations is low, it’s the right step to increase revenue in the long term.

Granular Reporting

The only valuable data is the data that helps you act; simply seeing impressions and clicks on the dashboard rarely moves you forward. That’s why the best ad servers provide granular reporting, which answers “why?” rather than “what?”. This feature usually includes:

• Filters by device type, geolocation, ad placement, browser, OS, time, demand source, campaign, creatives, advertisers, etc. So, you can analyze the best-performing ads in detail.
• Frequency capping reports: how often users see the ad (impressions per user) and how many users reach the frequency limit. It helps you understand if your frequency cap settings are too low or too high and change them, if necessary.
• Alerts for various issues, such as under-delivery.
• Ad latency tracking, which means the platform measures the delay between opening the page and seeing the ad.
• Viewability tracking (metrics like viewable Impressions, viewability rate, etc.).

And one more tip: this data aims to help you identify the best-performing and worst-performing placements. With this information, you can take your optimization game to the next level.

Brand Safety Features

A strong brand reputation often leads to sustainable revenue optimization. That’s why brand safety controls are on this list. The best ad servers for publishers serve high-quality ads and ensure the best user experience thanks to:

• Checking for malware, inappropriate content, etc.
• Blocklisting specific content types, ads, or advertisers.
• Excluding specific keywords to prevent inappropriate placements.
• Allowing integration with external brand safety tools.

These features help you gain the audience’s trust, which results in higher engagement. Also, they protect you from being blacklisted by browsers or platforms like Meta or Google.

Final Thoughts

Before choosing an ad server, ask yourself these four questions: 

• Does this ad server offer a trial period or a demo?
• Could you provide a brief overview of the API and reporting?
• What are the main technical constraints, such as the maximum number of campaigns and creatives?
• Are there any real user cases you can explore?

What makes a great ad server for you? Sure, support for various ad formats is important, just as multiple targeting options are. Still, I believe the winning option is the one that brings you long-term success. That’s why in this article, I’ve focused on features that:

• Reduce manual work and provide broad optimization opportunities.
• Protect your audience and your brand reputation.
• Provide you with actionable insights.
• Help you regain control over the ad delivery process, transparency, and flexibility.

Ultimately, the listed seven features make your business highly scalable. 

The right ad server for publishers is a secret weapon that can elevate ad operations and boost revenue. So, take your options to the test drive and pay attention to the features that really matter!