Here are some examples of the endless opportunities your business has to advertise online. 

• Banner Ads
• Native Ads
• Pre-Roll Video
• Text Ads
• Shopping Ads
• DOOH 
• In-Game
• Audio
• CTV / OTT

Presentation Link

Display

When you see an ad displaying your very first clue as to how, look for a tiny blue cone located at the top right corner of the ad. If you see one, it means the ad exchange is delivering it; if you don’t, the advertiser placed a media buy directly on that domain. As we have learned, this is common for large companies that already know their audience and are seeking mass media opportunities for impression share. They want to connect with all website visitors, not just those who are already interested in their brand (i.e., those who have visited the website, joined an email list, etc.), but also anyone who has shown signs of being “interested” through their online search activity and other signals, and add them to a targeted audience pool or third-party list. To view the CDN, you simply right-click on the ad with the blue cone, and then it will show the source. 

Over On The Cone To Reveal AdChoices / Click To Show Partner

Native / Pre-Roll Ads 

These can be more tricky, but the most important thing to note is that they will ALWAYS contain text indicating that they are paid, promotional, or sponsored. Below are examples of Native Content. 

The next step to determining the CDN is to select the ad and then right-click and select “inspect,” which will bring up the site HTML and contain the on-click or reference to the publisher distributing the content. In some cases, it is simple to spot this by looking at the “Paid Content” section, which, as shown in the example, prominently displays the “recommended by publisher” tag. In both examples, Outbrain is the publisher responsible for ad delivery. 

For Pre-Roll video, the content will play before the free content, meaning that you won’t be able to determine until pressing play. Once you do, the video content will begin, and at the bottom right corner of the video player, the tag “Ad” will appear. Video can be run in other ways, i.e., through a site pop-up or other unique ways to serve this medium. All things considered, the Ad tag will always accompany the ad. 

But wait, there’s more! In Chapter 5, we uncover the concept of ad distribution fraud on the browser.