Inside the Digital Ad Auction System
Digital advertising hinges on split-second auctions. When a webpage or app opens, technology identifies an available advertising “impression” — an opportunity to display an ad — and invites bids from advertisers.
Publishers rely on ad servers to manage these impressions, while ad exchanges conduct real-time auctions among buyers.
Ziff Davis contends that Google’s publisher ad server, formerly known as DoubleClick for Publishers, commands more than 90% of the publisher ad server market. Meanwhile, Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange allegedly controls between 60% and 70% of the ad exchange market, leaving competitors with only single-digit shares.
The lawsuit further claims Google effectively bars its buyers from participating in rival exchanges, tightening its grip on both sides of the marketplace.
“With control over the largest ad exchange and the largest ad server … Google has carried out a sophisticated, anticompetitive, and deceptive scheme for well over a decade,” the suit alleges.
