UPDATED October 2, 2024 - There are many ad servers on the market today that allow any business to use and rebrand the technology in order to launch an Ad Network to monetize online advertising. It can be very confusing to know which one is the best solution. As with all technology solutions, apart from the basic offering there are always slight differences with differing or extra features. As part of an ongoing series we are comparing EXADS with other ad serving platform solutions, this is evaluated by looking at 20 key features: general features, features for Publishers & features for Advertisers. On this occasion we are doing an EXADS vs Epom As Server comparison.
EXADS vs Epom Ad Server comparison: General features
As a part of this Epom Ad Server comparison, we start looking at General platform features:
#1 Monthly ad impressions served: Epom serves 50 billion monthly impressions while EXADS serves over 7 times that at 360 billion. Winner: EXADS
#2 Target customers: Both platforms are aimed at the same target audience: Web Publishers, Ad Networks, Agencies, Advertisers, both offering monetization for mobile apps and CTV audiences. Even score
#3 White labelling & Platform customization: Both platforms can be used as white label solutions and clients can choose their own customizations of each platform. Even score
#4 Self service & Programmatic DSP and SSP: Both platforms offer Self-service and Programmatic so that Ad Networks and Publishers can plug in their DSPs and SSPs. Even score
#5 API: Both offer API integration for automating platform features. Even score
#6 Roles management: Both platforms offer admin features and the configuration of custom roles as well as sub-accounts with different access levels for Publishers, Agencies, Ad Networks and Advertisers. Even score
What ad formats should my Ad Serving platform offer? Other Ad Serving tools and Payment methods that an Ad Server should have
#7 Payments & account funding: Epom offers the following popular option payment methods that an Ad Server should have: Paypal, Wire Transfer and Credit Card. EXADS offers several options and payment features for both Publishers and Advertisers: Paypal, Paxum, Wire Transfer, Credit Card, UnionPay, WebMoney, Nuvei and Shift4, and Cryptocurrency (BitPay, Circle, XBO). Winner: EXADS
#8 Epom Ad Server comparison - What Ad formats should my Ad Serving platform offer? Epom and EXADS both offer Display, HTML5, Native, Video, Rich Media, while EXADS also offers Email Clicks and additional clickable calls to action features for Video formats. Winner: EXADS
#9 Which is the best multi-channel Ad Serving platform? Epom offers Desktop, Mobile, In-app, CTV, while EXADS offers Desktop, Mobile, CTV, In-app, Tablet, Console, Wearable Device, and also Email. So, if you are thinking of monetizing your subscriber list with Email marketing, EXADS would be your choice here. Winner: EXADS
#10 Bidding Pricing: Epom offers CPM (Cost per Mille), CPC (Cost per Click), CPA (Cost per Action). EXADS offers: CPM, CPC , CPA, CPV (Cost per View for video advertising), Smart CPM, Dynamic CPA and Smart Bid. Winner: EXADS
#11 Compliance: Both platforms allow Compliance teams to verify Advertiser campaigns and creatives, and Publisher sites before they go live on a network, as well as Malvertising and anti-fraud software. Even score.
What Publisher features should an Ad Server offer?
To continue with this EXADS vs Epom Ad Server comparison, we will be looking at Publisher features of both platforms to help you get insights on what Publisher features should an Ad Server offer:
#12 Ad zones: Both platforms allow Publishers to add ad zones via self-service and allow blocking of Advertisers and category labels, so Publishers can control the type of offers they want to accept on their site. Even score.
#13 Video ad zones: Both platforms offer VAST tags, with EXADS also offering VPAID and VMAP. Winner: EXADS
#14 Statistics and dashboards: Both platforms offer detailed ad zone performance statistics in real time with filters. EXADS offers additional Publisher Dashboard customisation for bespoke and quick overviews of ad zone performance. Winner: EXADS
More Publisher features that an Ad Server should offer: Asyc tags, Video tools and Ad Block recovery
#15 Asynchronous Codes/Tags: Both platforms offer Asynchronous Codes/Tags which enable a Publishers site content to load at the same time as the ads, increasing site performance. Even score
#16 Fluid Player and Suggested Videos: EXADS offers a lightweight free HTML5 video player for Publishers, which is fully customizable, and packed full with great extra monetization features such as Suggested Videos, and the Mini Player. Winner: EXADS
#17 Ad Block recovery: EXADS offers an efficient and easy setup Ad Block Circumventing tool to help Publishers recover their revenues lost to ad blockers. Winner: EXADS
Must have Ad Serving Advertiser features
Continuing on are some must have Ad Serving Advertiser features from both ad platforms:
#18 Campaign Targeting: Both platforms offer the following must have targeting Advertiser features: Language, Country, Region/Location, Browser, OS, Device, IP Range, Mobile Carrier, Site, Frequency Capping, Day Parting, Retargeting, App name, Domain Url, Custom Targeting and more. With EXADS also offering Keyword targeting, Contextual targeting, Console, Wearable Devices, VR exclusion criteria, among others. Winner: EXADS
#19 Campaign Optimization Automation: Both platforms offer automated bidding tools which use rules set by the Advertisers to automatically block underperforming ad zones. Epom has the Bidding Autopilot and EXADS has The Bidder and Smart Bid. EXADS also offers algorithms to distribute traffic to the best performing ad creatives for all formats, whereas Epom uses CTR Optimization to prioritize banner campaigns that perform well. EXADS also has algorithms that can be selected to send the most traffic to the best performing landing page variations. Winner: EXADS
More must have Ad Serving Advertising features: Campaign Variations, Event Tracking and Statistics
#20 Multiple Campaign Variations: Both platforms offer the ability for Advertisers to upload multiple campaign creatives (variations). Even score.
#21 Campaign Event Tracking: Both platforms allow Server-to-Server tracking, EXADS also has a conversion tracking feature that allows Advertisers to monitor various set goals. Both platforms allow third-party Pixel tracking so that Advertisers can integrate third-party tracking tools such as Voluum, Cake, Thrive Tracker, etc. However Epom doesn’t allow this for video ad placements, whereas EXADS does. Winner: EXADS
#22 Statistics and Dashboards: Both platforms offer detailed campaign statistics in real time with filters. EXADS offers additional Advertiser Dashboard customisation for bespoke and quick overviews of campaign performance. Winner: EXADS
Key Takeaways of EXADS vs Epom Ad Server comparison
EXADS ad server leads for half of our key features in our comparison, winning 10 out of the 20. Let's look at the key takeaways from this Epom Ad Server comparison.
Ad Serving data handling and management
When it comes to efficient Ad Serving data handling and management, EXADS has the edge over Epom with the sheer size of the volume of data that the EXADS platform can handle, at over 7 times more capacity, this is based around robust data management technology maintained by a team of systems and programming professionals.
Must have video advertising tools and formats
Video is the one ad format that continues to grow year on year, the majority consumed on mobile devices, this is due to the explosion in popularity of video apps like Tik Tok, Instagram Reels, etc, Consumers prefer to passively watch a video ad. For Advertisers video ads are a much more creative medium to convert a target consumer because a 15-30 second video ad can really tell a story about a product or offer, it can entertain a target consumer which is great for branding, it can evoke emotion in the target consumer and a sense of need and desire to make a purchase. Bidding for video ad zones is further enhanced with EXADS because of a video specific bidding model: Cost Per View (CPV), this allows Advertisers to only pay for the video ad after a certain number of seconds have been viewed by the target consumer. Data gathered from the CPV metric, can help video advertisers to find the perfect sweet spot of content and where to place CTAs within the video ad for conversions. This is a pretty compelling feature for an ad network to offer its Advertising clients.
On the Publishing side, EXADS offers more various must have video advertising tools and formats, and a deeper industry standard video protocol feature: Video Player Ad Interface Definition (VPAID.) While the Video Ad-Serving Template (VAST) provides a common ad response format for video players that enables video ads to be served across all compliant video players. VAST only supports relatively simple in-stream video ad formats that are not executable. These simple ad formats do not provide an interactive user experience, and do not allow the Advertiser to collect detailed user interaction details.
The ability to layer VPAID onto VAST offers an enhanced solution. VPAID establishes a common communication protocol between video players and ad units that allows a single “executable ad” (one that requires software logic to be executed as part of ad playback) to be displayed in-stream with the Publisher’s video content, in any compliant video player. Furthermore, it enables the executable ad unit to expect and rely upon a common set of functionality from the video player. VPAID enables the video player to expect and rely upon a common set of functionality from the executable ad unit. The significance is that Advertisers using VPAID ads can provide rich ad experiences for viewers and collect ad playback and interaction details that are just as rich as the ad experience. With the adoption of VPAID, Advertisers have more control over the display experience in their video campaigns. Also, as VPAID compliant video players enable a more diverse and interactive set of video advertising, VPAID compliant Publishers should expect to sell more in-stream video inventory.
What ad formats should my Ad Serving platform offer? Email marketing
EXADS offers an ad format called Email Clicks, which is greatly popular ad format. This allows an Ad Network's Publisher clients to make their opted-in email database available for monetization. The Email Clicks format is a template that Advertisers can bid on and then create sub iDs and white lists from testing the email traffic to then launch targeted email campaigns.
Must have ad serving Advertiser features: Targeting and Optimization
For Advertisers, testing large volumes of traffic enables them to gather data to then optimize further with targeting and optimization automation. EXADS offers 2 more targeting features over Epom: Keyword targeting which allows advertisers to target specific web pages that are tagged with relevant meta tagging within web page content and Contextual targeting which utilizes the classification of a websites content. Both of these targeting features can help Advertisers perfectly match their product or offer to the website's content, which should generate a higher CTR for their ads. If ads are better targeted, then those ad zones will be more sought after by relevant Advertisers, pushing up bidding prices and in turn earning Publishers a higher eCPM.
EXADS also offers an additional automation tool
Landing Page Optimization Algorithms, which is an incredibly useful feature for Advertisers. The feature automatically sends the most traffic from an ad creative to the best performing landing page. This saves the Advertiser valuable testing time, and can quickly start generating sales from the high performing landing page. As an Ad Network, by offering these additional optimization and targeting features, Advertisers and Publishers have greater opportunities to increase their earnings and ROI for their offers.
Payment methods that an Ad Server should have and Funding Options
EXADS offers a much larger variety of payment options for your Publishers to receive payments and for your Advertisers to fund their accounts. Having more options available is crucial to helping your Ad Network grow. EXADS Credit Card option allows Advertisers to save their Card information in their Admin Panel for quick funding processing and the Card information is encrypted for safety. One great advantage with Card payments is that EXADS offers a Card Auto Recharge option which will automatically top up an Advertisers account balance by the chosen amount, when the account falls below a set amount of units of currency (Dollars or Euros). This allows Advertisers to keep campaigns running without the need to constantly return to the Admin Panel to deposit funds. Many self employed Advertisers and Publishers prefer to use PayPal, whereas large companies prefer Wire Transfers. Additionally, Cryptocurrency is becoming a hugely popular payment and funding method globally, and it is important to stay ahead of market trends therefore EXADS offers this solution.
Why choose EXADS as your Ad Serving platform
The conclusion of this Epom Ad Server comparison, is that both ad servers offer great solutions. The most important aspect that a business needs to figure out is what it needs and requires from an ad server. Both offer technical assistance and can customize their platforms to meet your ad network needs. But the deeper options to monetize video advertising, email marketing, more targeting and optimization options, a greater range of finance solutions and a larger server structure able to handle more data gives EXADS the edge in our comparison. The Ad Network business is a hugely competitive market, therefore finding a white label ad serving platform with that extra bit of sparkle can really make your offering stand out against the competition.