This document's purpose is to introduce and explain what AdEngine is and how to implement it on a publisher's website, as well as some basic concepts regarding website monetization through ads and some of the main technologies available for a modern ad-stack.

Brief summary

AdEngine is a source agnostic, programmatic advertisement solution that unifies different leading ad-technology partners (e.g. Google, Prebid, Amazon, etc.) and standards optimizing ad-revenue for every impression with the least amount of effort needed by publishers to enable them to focus on content creation. It aims to be fast, lightweight and very simple to use and integrate in a publisher's website, delivering between 30% to 50% better results than just relying on one of the available ad-technologies alone.

Monetization through ads

The most common way to monetize a website is through the display of advertisements. The simple concept is to generate sustainable revenue through a website, blog or app, by featuring advertisements, whereas the technical reality is everything else than simple, particularly when combining technologies and providers to maximize revenue.
For many publishers the easiest way to achieve ad-revenue this is to use a walled garden like Google AdSense, where the ads are administered, sorted and maintained by Google. Down the road a publisher might also sign deals with a particular brands for dedicated campaigns for premium inventory, or use header bidding, either natively or through a 3rd party wrapper in order to create a revenue uplift.
Particularly header-bidding introduces the notion of auction, which implies that the highest bidder trying to buy inventory from a publisher should win, given they fulfill all requirements and constraints set by a publisher.
The challenge a publisher now faces is to put all those technologies into competition with each other in one auction and this is where AdEngine comes into play:
AdEngine is an agnostic solution to unify the various monetization channels in one technology replacing the need for dedicated in-house ad-operations.

Main ad technology platforms

There is a good number of ad technology providers. Some are more specialized in providing ads in a particular area of the globe, others work better on mobile sites and apps, others deliver best results for particular user interests niches. However, there are 3 main players that are all-round good performers in the ad industry. Two are Google's AdSense and AdManager, and the third one is from a joint-venture of several ad-providing companies and called Prebid.

Google AdSense

AdSense is one of the most known ad-programs run by Google, through which website publishers obtain text, images, video or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to a site's content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google. They can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis.

Google AdManager

AdManager is an ad exchange platform introduced by Google in the mid 2018. Based on the former services DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) and DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX), it works a little like a pro-version of AdSense, although being a completely separated and independent product. It provides much more and granular control and customization possibilities than AdSense, also allowing to integrate with 3rd party auction systems like Prebid.

Prebid

Prebid is the established standard in header bidding solutions, being developed and maintained by a big number of different ad technology companies, and currently used by most major publishers. It works client-side and optimizes ad-revenues through an open-bidding structure between all ad providing vendors and showing the auction winning ad on the publisher page. It also allows to integrate with external ad servers like Google AdManager.

AdEngine

AdEngine is Snigel's ad solution that combines the powers of the above technologies in order to deliver the best monetization revenues while focusing on having the smallest possible impact on resources to still provide website users with the best experience possible.
AdEngine enables multiple demand sources to bid on the same ad-inventory simultaneously, delivering the highest winning bid on each and every ad impression. This increased competition translates to significantly more revenue for the publisher, typically 30-50% more.

Main features

AdEngine provides several features and integrations to take the most out of ad monetization, always having simplicity in mind. Some of them include:

• Seamless integration with Google AdManager and Prebid

• Revenue optimization using Snigel Smart Refresh (SSR) of ads

• Script loading optimization in order to deliver best performance and minimizing impact on page speed index tools

• Simple declarative configuration that fits most of the usage cases

• Additional programatic configuration that fits special requirements

• Lazy loading of ads

• Full integration with Snigel's consent management solution AdConsent

• Seamless integration with other consent management platforms (CMP)

• Possibility to run alongside, and manage existing placements from AdManager or AdSense

• Possibility to integrate with other ad servers

• Client and Server side bidding

• Automatic labeling of advertisements as such

• Malvertisement prevention

• Fast delivery to the users through a content delivery network (CDN) with a global coverage of points of precense (PoP)

• Efficient caching policies and edge-server services to minimize the client-side CPU time and bandwidth consumption.

Implementation

To implement AdEngine on a website please check the Setup Overview. This document covers how to setup AdEngine for the various initial situations on a website, from the simplest situation, a site with no previous ad monetization, to elaborate cases like running AdEngine along with other ad-stack technologies.

Integration with AdConsent

AdConsent is Snigel's IAB certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) which manages user consent over personal data usage in accordance to privacy laws like the GDPR and CCPA, providing a good set of functionalities and customization for the publisher.
When AdConsent is used it seamlessly works together with AdEngine and there are no code changes required. Publishers only need to add some privacy information to the page by following the Consent Management Page Integration Guide.