Think of a stock exchange and that gives you an idea of what an ad exchange does. The world of online digital ads has publisher sites on the one hand with inventory on offer and, on the other, there are ad agencies and advertisers looking for the best sites on which to place their ads. Ad Exchange is the platform where all they all come together and the exchange conducts real-time bidding based on parameters as set by the publishers and as set by advertisers/ad agencies. Types of ad exchanges An ad exchange can be open type, a preferred deal type or a private ad exchange. Open exchange: Open exchanges exhibit the largest volumes of trades and transactions with an estimated 70 billion impressions being facilitated. Any publisher or advertiser can join the open exchange. One has to be extra careful while transacting business on open exchanges. Private ad exchange: Private exchanges are closed platforms where only private auctions are conducted. Publishers have full ...