Affiliate & Media Buying
Do Ad Blockers Block Native Ads? How Widgets Slip Through
Ad blockers catch a real share of native ad traffic, but not all of it. Here's why widget domains get filtered while publisher-rendered native content often doesn't.
ad tech
Affiliate & Media Buying
How Recommendation Widgets Choose the Ads You See
The ad you see in a "you may also like" widget wasn't chosen by the highest bidder alone. It won a real-time auction that weighs bid against how likely you specifically are to click it.
Affiliate & Media Buying
Real-Time Bidding Explained: How RTB and Header Bidding Work
The per-impression auction behind programmatic, end to end: SSPs, DSPs, exchanges, first-price clearing, header bidding, OpenRTB — and why native networks play by different rules.
Native Ad Networks
What Is Taboola Realize? The Rebranded Ads Platform Explained
Realize is Taboola's 2025 rebrand of its advertiser platform — a strategic repositioning from 'content discovery' to performance advertising. Here is what genuinely changed, what didn't, and how to evaluate it.
Ad Transparency & Supply Chain
What Is an Ad Transparency Tool? Open Ad Libraries Explained
Ad transparency tools let anyone see who is running which ads and where, and here is how the category works, why native ads were the blind spot, and what separates an open ad library from a $300-a-month spy tool.
Native Ad Spy Tools
How Ad Spy Tools Capture Native Ads (Supply Chain Explained)
The best native ad spy tools don't screenshot pages; they read the same JSON feed the widget calls, store the full-quality creative, and trace the click to the landing page without ever spending an advertiser's budget. Here's exactly how.
Ad-Tech Glossary
What Is Native Advertising? Definition, Formats & Examples
A media buyer's guide to native advertising: what it is, the formats and supply chain behind it, real captured examples, FTC disclosure rules, and how to spy on the native ads actually winning right now.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Ad Supply Chain
The ad supply chain is the chain of intermediaries an ad passes through between the advertiser who pays and the publisher page where it appears.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Ad Server
An ad server is technology that stores, selects, delivers, and measures ads, deciding which creative to show each impression and tracking the outcome.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Data Management Platform (DMP)
A data management platform (DMP) collects and organizes audience data into segments, then activates them for ad targeting across platforms.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Private Marketplace (PMP)
A private marketplace (PMP) is an invite-only programmatic auction where publishers offer premium inventory to selected buyers via deal IDs.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Direct Buy vs Programmatic
Direct buy vs programmatic contrasts manually negotiated, fixed-price ad deals with automated, auction-driven inventory buying.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Programmatic Direct
Programmatic direct buys reserved ad inventory at a fixed, pre-negotiated price through automated workflows rather than an open auction.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Programmatic Native Advertising
Programmatic native advertising is the automated, auction-based buying of native ad placements that match the look and feel of their host content.
Ad-Tech Glossary
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad inventory through software, usually settled in real-time auctions.