The landscape
Read it left to right, like money moving: advertisers on the buy side, auctions in the middle, publishers on the sell side, and the trust layer checking all of it.
Buy side
Where advertisers’ money enters.
Agencies & holding companies11
The groups that plan and buy media for brands.
DSPs (buy side)28
Software advertisers and agencies use to buy ads automatically.
Creative & DCO6
Building and personalising ad creative at scale.
Retail & commerce media18
Retailers selling ads with shopper data.
Affiliate & performance9
Paying for sales and leads rather than views.
Workflow & ad ops7
Tools that run the business of buying and selling media.
The middle
Where auctions run and data flows.
Ad exchanges6
Marketplaces where the auctions actually happen.
Header bidding & wrappers7
Tools that let publishers ask every buyer at once.
Data & CDPs19
Collecting and organising audience and customer data.
Identity9
Recognising the same person across sites, apps and devices.
Consent & privacy8
Consent banners and privacy compliance tools.
Sell side
Where publishers turn attention into revenue.
SSPs (sell side)23
Software publishers use to sell their ad space to many buyers at once.
Ad servers11
The systems that decide which ad shows and count every impression.
Native & recommendation7
Content widgets and native ads that look like the page.
Mobile app monetisation14
SDKs, mediation and in-app ad networks.
CTV & video23
Streaming TV and video advertising technology.
Audio & podcasts5
Streaming audio, radio and podcast advertising.
Digital out-of-home8
Screens in streets, stations and stores, bought programmatically.
Trust & measurement
Checking that it all worked, for real people.
IVT & fraud prevention17
Detecting bots, fake clicks and spoofed traffic.
Verification19
Checking that ads were seen, by humans, in safe places.
Brand safety & ad quality10
Keeping ads away from harmful content and bad ads off sites.
Attribution & MMPs8
Measuring which ads drove installs and sales.
Industry bodies12
Standards, accreditation and trade associations.
Walled gardens
All of the above, inside one company.
Walled gardens & platforms19
Giants that own the audience, the data and the ad tools, all in one closed system.