Ad Tech (Advertising Technology) Platform

Victoria Hubkina
May 12, 2025
4 min

Ad Tech platform definition

First, let’s define what is an ad tech platform.

An Ad Tech platform (also known as Advertising Technology platform) is an application software for planning, executing, managing, and measuring online ad campaigns. Ad Tech platforms serve as a bridge between advertisers and publishers and provide tools for targeting certain audiences in various channels such as push, pop, display, video, mobile, and native advertising.

Types of Ad Tech platforms

Ad Tech platforms come in different forms, each performing a specific function in the digital advertisement infrastructure.

1. Ad networks

Ad networks such as RichAds play the role of the middleman connecting advertisers seeking ad placement and publishers desiring to generate income through hosting such advertisements. The networks operate by aggregating available advertising space, also called inventory, and exposing it to advertisers.

In this setup, both publishers (site owners) and advertisers benefit. The ad network provides the technology to enable the buying and selling of ad space so that advertisements appear in suitable and relevant places on the web.

2. DSP (Demand-Side Platform)

A DSP is where an advertiser buys ad space programmatically across many websites and apps. It helps in allocating budgets, picking targeting (location, age, interests), and real-time bidding for impressions. Think of it as the advertiser’s control panel.

3. SSP (Supply-Side Platform)

An SSP is the reverse of a DSP. It’s used by publishers (app developers, website owners) to sell their ad space inventory. The SSP connects to multiple ad exchanges and makes the inventory available to be bid by advertisers.

4. Ad exchange

This is where buying (DSP) and selling (SSP) of ad space takes place. It facilitates real-time bidding, deciding which ad is displayed on a page and at what price — all within milliseconds.

5. DMP (Data Management Platform)

A DMP collects, stores, and analyzes user data. This data tells advertisers what to target with their ads. DMPs work alongside DSPs and SSPs to improve targeting accuracy.

Launch ad campaigns at RichAds right now!

What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

How does an Ad Tech platform work?

Knowing ad tech platform meaning, it’s crucial to understand how they work. Such platforms operate on real-time automated selling and purchasing of ad space via programmatic advertising.

Basic Ad Tech technology flow:

Targeting setup.
Advertisers define the target audience, budget, and campaign goals within a DSP.
Bid request.
When someone clicks on a website, a bid request is sent to ad exchanges or SSPs.
Real-Time Bidding (RTB).
DSPs would bid on that impression in milliseconds, based on audience relevance and budget.
Ad delivery.
The winning ad owner with the biggest bid is delivered to the user right away.
Performance tracking.
The ad tech platform measures results (clicks, conversions, views) so future performance can be maximized.

All of this happens in splits of a second, thousands of times per second on the web.

Benefits of Ad Tech platforms

Ad Tech platforms offer a range of advantages to marketers and advertisers. Let’s see the main ones that apply to any type of Ad Tech platform.

Advertising technologies platforms pros:

Ad placement automation.
Such platforms reduce manual effort in ad placement, optimization and management. For instance, at RichAds affiliates can automate optimization via Target CPA and Performance Mode with zero manual efforts.
Precise targeting.
Enables segmentation of the audience by behavior, demographics, device, and others, depending on platform type and capability.
Real-time analytics.
Direct access to performance metrics to optimize instantly.
Scalability opportunities.
Campaigns are launched across various channels and GEOs from a single dashboard.
Affordability.
Dynamic bidding translates to competitive price and improved return on ad spend.
A/b testing opportunity.
They enable A/B testing of ad creatives, formats, and landing pages to find top-performing combinations.

Ad Tech platform examples

There are many Ad Tech platforms on the market, each with its own strengths. Here are a few notable examples that refer to different types of Ad Tech platforms.

RichAds.
RichAds is an example of an adtech network that offers various ad types, including push, in-page push, pop, direct click, display, native ads, and even Telegram ads. Having originally started out as RichPush, it now exists as a complete CPC and CPM platform for publishers and advertisers alike.

With over 5B daily impressions and 200+ countries’ traffic, RichAds brings businesses to the global audience. Adscore verifies its traffic quality, excluding bots and fraud, and they’re automatically blocked.
The Trade Desk.
This is a powerful DSP used by large brands and agencies to run omnichannel campaigns with advanced targeting capabilities.
Google Display & Video 360 (DV360).
Google’s enterprise-level programmatic ad platform, part of the Google Marketing Platform.

AppLovin / Unity Ads.
In-app and gaming ad experts with access to vast mobile user bases.
PubMatic.
Full-stack SSP helping publishers manage and monetize their ad inventory more effectively.

Launch ad campaigns at RichAds right now!

What is the difference between Ad Tech and Mar Tech platforms?

Ad Tech (Ad Technology) and MarTech (Marketing Technology) are both crucial elements to the world of digital marketing—but they do different jobs in different stages of the customer lifecycle.

1. Ad Tech platforms

Ad Tech platforms are used to deliver paid advertisements to people who are not yet aware of your brand/offer. The goal is to reach the audience at the right time with the right messages, typically through automated systems like DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms), ad platform, and real-time bidding.

Ad Tech helps you buy ads, acquire new users, and measure ad performance. Examples of such platforms include RichAds, The Trade Desk, Google DV360.

2. Mar Tech platforms

Mar Tech tools are all about establishing connections with people who already know your brand — leads, subscribers, or customers. They simplify the process of sending emails, content personalization, managing customer data, and automating marketing processes.

Mar Tech allows you to reach out to your audience, track behavior, and build lasting engagement. Examples include HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp.

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Victoria Hubkina

Starting off as an account manager at RichAds, Victoria Hubkina has been immersed in affiliate marketing as a content writer for over three years. Her expertise spans all the possible verticals from Gambling to Nutra and various types of traffic. By now, Victoria has written over 100 articles on marketing topics and crafted scripts for RichAds YouTube channel. Beyond work, she indulges in esotericism, film photography, and vintage fashion.