Struggling to boost your publisher revenue?
You’re managing countless ad networks and demand sources, but your CPMs are flatlining and your ad stack feels more chaotic than optimized.
This chaos leads to missed revenue opportunities and stifles your overall growth, leaving you constantly justifying your tech stack’s performance.
The pressure is mounting as digital advertising becomes more competitive. Publishers who can’t efficiently manage their ad inventory risk being left behind by those with smarter technology.
If you’re also exploring other specialized software solutions, my guide on best radiology software provides valuable insights.
But what if you could find a server that streamlines operations and unlocks higher ad revenue without the technical headaches?
In this guide, I’ll cut through the noise. We’ll explore the best publisher ad server software designed to help you elevate your CPMs and scale effectively in 2025.
You’ll discover solutions that maximize auction pressure, simplify integrations, and provide the transparent reporting you need to prove your ROI.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevel → | AI-driven retail media | |
| 2 | OpenX → | Open web publishers | |
| 3 | Broadstreet → | Direct sales teams | |
| 4 | Revive Adserver → | Small/mid publishers | |
| 5 | AdButler → | Small to mid publishers |
1. Kevel
Struggling with ad tech complexity and optimizing ad revenue?
Kevel offers a flexible ad serving platform and AI-powered audience segmentation tools, directly addressing publishers’ pain points.
This means you can build your own ad server, manage all your owned inventory, and unlock first-party data for smarter personalization. You’ll drive higher advertiser retention.
Here’s how Kevel truly stands out.
Kevel’s Retail Media Cloud, powered by the Ad Server, Audience, and Console, helps you launch targeted, attributable, and customizable ad formats. You can stand out to advertisers with your owned, differentiated, AI-powered retail media network.
The platform provides a suite of ad serving APIs that power ad decisioning, campaign management, reporting, and catalog ingestion with advanced ML and AI. This allows you to manage all your owned inventory on-site, in-app, or in-store in one centralized place. Additionally, the AI-driven Console offers an intuitive interface that optimizes workflows, helping you manage inventory, data assets, and campaign performance while delivering best-in-class ROAS for your advertisers, enhancing operational efficiency significantly.
Achieve higher CPMs and sustainable growth.
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Key features:
- Flexible Ad Serving APIs: Build and customize your ad server with APIs for ad decisioning, campaign management, reporting, and catalog ingestion, handling all owned inventory.
- AI Audience Segmentation: Harness first-party data into a single customer view for AI-powered segmentation, audience activation, and ad personalization across your network.
- AI Campaign Management UI: Utilize an out-of-the-box omnichannel campaign management interface with AI automation and self-service capabilities to scale your retail media network.
Learn more about Kevel features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Kevel’s robust, AI-driven solutions for ad serving and audience segmentation make it a top contender for best publisher ad server software. With features like yield forecasting and custom relevancy models, it ensures publishers maximize revenue and operational efficiency, proven by iFood’s 1900% growth.
2. OpenX
Are you struggling with ad tech complexity?
OpenX offers omnichannel targeting capabilities across all channels, including CTV, fully interoperable with any data set and identity type. This means you can confidently reach your audiences at scale now and in the future.
The platform ensures your campaigns are audience-focused, delivering better results for your clients, regardless of the channel. Additionally, OpenX prioritizes a fair and transparent value exchange between sellers and buyers, cultivating success for your open web initiatives.
You deserve a better ad selling experience.
OpenX aims to solve the intricate challenges publishers face in maximizing revenue. They provide an independent supply-side platform designed to enhance addressability, transparency, and sustainability for your ad operations.
Their OpenAudience™ solution provides publishers with access to a unique data asset of anonymous user information across the open web. This expands your ability to apply a sophisticated, audience-focused approach to campaigns. The result is an efficient and effortless implementation within your existing technology stack, yielding very rewarding outcomes for your team. Plus, as a Net-Zero verified adtech company, OpenX helps you reduce environmental impact while achieving tangible business results.
This ensures you get the quality and scale you deserve.
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Key features:
- Omnichannel Targeting Capabilities: Extend audience reach across all channels, including CTV, with full interoperability for diverse data sets and identity types, ensuring future-proof addressability.
- Transparent Value Exchange: Cultivate a fair and clear ecosystem between ad sellers and buyers, fostering long-term success for your clients and the broader open web.
- Sustainable Ad Operations: As a Net-Zero verified adtech company, OpenX helps reduce your environmental footprint while driving impactful business results and supporting social initiatives.
Learn more about OpenX features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: OpenX stands out as a best publisher ad server software solution by emphasizing addressability, transparency, and sustainability. Its omnichannel targeting and transparent exchange empower publishers to achieve significant CPM lifts and scale efficiently, directly addressing core pain points in today’s complex ad tech environment.
3. Broadstreet
Struggling to impress your direct advertisers?
Broadstreet is specifically built for publishers working directly with their advertisers, going beyond generic solutions like Google Ad Manager.
This means you can say goodbye to those frustrating moments spent explaining ad placements or hunting for analytics, providing a much-needed solution for delivering exceptional display advertising and sponsored content campaigns.
It’s time to elevate your ad operations.
Broadstreet helps local and B2B publishers impress clients and drive renewals, offering an [ad manager designed to push your business forward]. Here’s how it works: you’ll gain the power to easily retrieve ad views and click numbers for your clients.
Additionally, you can effortlessly insert ads into your newsletters or websites, eliminating manual tasks. This platform is built for direct sales teams, helping you prove your ads are actually working.
Plus, you’ll overcome common challenges like clients not seeing ads due to ad blockers, or feeling unprepared for sales meetings. The result is saving time, standing out, and impressing your clients.
Before diving deeper, you might find my analysis of [best creative management platforms] helpful for centralizing your assets.
Key features:
- Direct Advertiser Focus: Built specifically for publishers working directly with advertisers to deliver exceptional display advertising and sponsored content campaigns.
- Enhanced Reporting: Simplifies retrieving ad views and click numbers, providing transparent performance data to your clients without manual searches.
- Streamlined Ad Management: Facilitates easy insertion of ads into newsletters and websites, eliminating manual effort and improving workflow efficiency.
Learn more about Broadstreet features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Broadstreet stands out as the best publisher ad server software for direct sales teams. Its specialized features help you avoid common pain points like manual reporting and ad placement issues, ensuring you impress clients and drive renewals with effective ad and sponsored content campaigns.
4. Revive Adserver
Are you maximizing your ad revenue effectively?
Revive Adserver offers the tools you need to serve ads across websites, apps, and video players. This means you can centralize ad operations for diverse digital content.
This system helps you collect detailed statistics on impressions, clicks, and conversions, which is crucial for understanding campaign performance. Plus, you can manage all your campaigns efficiently.
Here’s how Revive Adserver helps.
It enables you to manage campaigns for multiple advertisers and integrate seamlessly with ad networks through its user-friendly interface. You can define specific delivery rules, including frequency capping, URL targeting, and geotargeting, ensuring your ads reach the right audience. This granular control optimizes ad delivery and prevents wasted impressions. Additionally, the platform tracks campaign performance metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and eCPM, providing detailed insights into revenue and conversion specifics like basket value. All statistics are summarized and updated hourly, giving you current performance data to inform decisions.
Take control of your ad inventory.
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Key features:
- Manage your inventory: Define and manage advertisers, campaigns, banners, websites, and zones, then easily link campaigns to specific display zones.
- Review your statistics: Track every request, impression, click, and conversion, with all data summarized and updated hourly for comprehensive insights.
- Open source and free: The full source code is available on Github, free to download and use, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR.
Verdict: Revive Adserver is an excellent choice for publishers seeking a free, open-source solution to manage ad inventory and track performance. Its robust statistical reporting and privacy compliance make it suitable as a best publisher ad server software for optimizing ad delivery and elevating your CPMs.
5. AdButler
Are rising ad tech complexities hindering your monetization goals?
AdButler offers a display ad server designed to maximize your advertising potential across diverse digital properties. This means you can save time and increase your ad revenue.
It’s flexible, scalable, and reliable, helping you overcome the challenges of information overload and budget limitations. This platform allows you to regain control over your ad operations.
Unleash your ad revenue potential.
AdButler simplifies ad serving with comprehensive solutions for various ad formats, including display, native, video, and email ads. You can also implement mobile ad serving with powerful SDKs for both iOS and Android.
Additionally, AdButler provides a Self-Serve Marketplace to streamline direct sales and offers an API Ad Server for building a fully customized ad server in weeks, not years. This versatility ensures you can manage diverse ad campaigns effectively.
Plus, you can unlock new revenue streams through retail and e-commerce sponsored products, leverage supply-side programmatic for all your programmatic needs, and utilize a Contextual Management Platform to scale revenue in the age of internet privacy. This comprehensive suite addresses your specific challenges.
Maximize your ad revenue and growth.
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Key features:
- Flexible Display Ad Server: Save time and increase revenue with a powerful ad server suitable for online retailers, blogs, newspapers, and community sites.
- Self-Serve Marketplace & API Ad Server: Streamline direct sales with a fully-automated ordering system and build customized ad servers rapidly using powerful APIs.
- Multi-Format Ad Serving: Elevate your CPMs through seamless integration of native, video, email, and mobile ads, ensuring comprehensive monetization across all your digital properties.
Learn more about AdButler features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: AdButler provides a robust, flexible, and reliable ad serving platform, making it an excellent choice for publishers seeking the best publisher ad server software. Its comprehensive features, from display and native ad serving to a self-serve marketplace and powerful APIs, are designed to maximize your ad revenue and streamline operations.
6. Airtory
Struggling with ad tech complexity and optimizing your revenue?
Airtory offers a self-service ad builder and landing page creation studio, providing bespoke solutions for your media platform. This means you can create rich media ad experiences quickly.
Here’s how this software addresses your challenges: you can reduce overall production and operational costs using pre-built, proven templates for high-impact formats. The result is increased revenue.
You need to streamline your ad operations.
Airtory helps you achieve this by providing intuitive tools on one cohesive cloud-based platform. This allows you to build dynamic creatives in bulk for cross-channel publishing and access market data for performance analysis. Additionally, you get real-time tracking of advertising impressions, CTRs, dwell time, and more advanced metrics, ensuring 100% transparency in performance metrics. Plus, Airtory offers universally compatible ad tags that work across Ad Servers, DSPs, Ad Exchanges, and independent publishers, ensuring your brand message reaches all corners of the world. This means you can maximize reach and ROI while creating high-performing campaigns.
This platform truly elevates your ad monetization.
Key features:
- Self-service Ad Builder: Enables publishers to create, test, and deploy rich media ad formats using 360+ high-impact templates, reducing production costs.
- Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): Allows for real-time tracking of impressions, CTRs, and dwell time, providing granular data for performance analysis and optimization.
- Universally Compatible Ad Tags: Ensures ads seamlessly fit different screens and browsers, maximizing reach across Ad Servers, DSPs, and Ad Exchanges.
Learn more about Airtory features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Airtory provides publishers with an intuitive, cloud-based platform for creating high-impact rich media ads, reducing costs and offering universal compatibility. Its focus on dynamic creative optimization and transparent metrics makes it a strong contender for the best publisher ad server software.
7. Adform
Is your current ad server truly maximizing your CPMs?
You’re likely looking for a solution that truly [elevates your growth], and Adform’s AI-driven, omnichannel Campaign Planner could be the answer.
This innovative tool helps you eliminate the guesswork from your campaigns, ensuring every impression works harder to improve your monetization outcomes and reduce decision paralysis.
Here’s how to change the game.
Adform FLOW is designed to help you [make the most of your valuable data], ensuring you retain ownership and control, protecting your competitive advantage. Plus, with Adform’s ID Fusion solution, you won’t risk leaving your future to chance in a cookie-less landscape, as it’s built to link to all emerging IDs. Additionally, the platform is described as the most powerful and safe media buying platform, supporting your long-term goals for sustained CPM lifts and scalable infrastructure. You’ll gain access to real people with proven experience ready to make an impact or solve any problem.
Get ready to discover new combinations to compete.
Key features:
- AI-driven Campaign Planner: Designed to eliminate guesswork, helping you maximize your data for increased efficiency and improved decision-making for higher CPMs.
- Data Ownership & Control: Ensures your data is protected and that you retain full ownership, giving you a competitive edge and transparent revenue attribution.
- ID Fusion Solution: Links to all emerging IDs, preparing you for a cookie-less future and providing a robust, scalable infrastructure for sustained growth.
Learn more about Adform features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Adform stands out as a strong contender for the best publisher ad server software due to its AI-driven Campaign Planner and ID Fusion solution, addressing key pain points like data control and future-proofing against cookie depreciation. Its focus on enabling publishers to leverage their data for competitive advantage directly supports desired outcomes of maximizing auction pressure and achieving sustained CPM lifts.
Conclusion
Still struggling to boost your CPMs?
Choosing the right software is complex. The wrong decision can tank your revenue, disrupt partnerships, and waste valuable time.
Research shows optimized ad servers enhance campaign effectiveness through methods like contextual and geo-fencing targeting. This improved targeting capability is what separates growing publishers from those struggling with stagnant ad revenue.
Here’s what I’d recommend instead.
From my review, Kevel’s flexible API-first platform best tackles ad tech complexity. It empowers you to build the exact ad server you need for real growth.
Speaking of growth, my guide on best personalization software explores how to boost customer engagement.
Their suite of APIs allows for deep customization, which is why I consider it the best publisher ad server software. This level of control, as seen with iFood’s growth, is a game-changer.
I recommend you talk to an expert at Kevel to explore how their platform can transform your unique ad operations and revenue streams.
You’ll unlock higher CPMs and sustainable growth.
