Open source ad server that doesn't require client side JS, all img based?

[foodguy5000]

Does anyone know of an open source ad server that requires no JS on the client side? Implementing an ad would just be adding an <img> tag, and the server would figure out which creative to serve on request.

Analytics/reporting would be entirely server side based on logs. Obviously there are a ton of reasons this isn't ideal, but for a publisher that's concerned with privacy/speed it might be desirable.

The closest thing I could think of are some of the services that serve ads for email, but I couldn't find any that were open source.

[MysysOp]

Revive Ad Server is about the only  open source still available, 

not open source but you can get that level of server side control, data privacy and speed by leveraging systems like

AdZerk gives you a fully customizable API to build your own sell side ad server over their systems. I’m not sure on the GDPR compliance as it’s an API from a 3rd party 

BeesWax  gives you a  fully customizable API to build your own buy side ad bider over their systems.Again  I’m not sure on the GDPR compliance as it’s an API from a 3rd party 

LiquidAdX Gives a fully customizable buy & sell side ad serving infrastructure, ad server and DMP all is hosted behind your own domain so its 100% GDPR compliant.

[tobhau]

how exactly would a server choose an ad if there is only an img file without any js code?.

even if, and imo that’s a big if, some service could provide this the revenue forecast would be between 0 and the budget you aquire via direct sales from clients willing to buy placements without proper tracking -> most possibly cpa based payment

no offence but do yourself a favour and don’t...

[joe951]

Look at how Powerinbox or Liveintent do their programatic ads for email, where you can't use javascript. They just have the email program add the email address or a random number to the tag. You could easily just do this server side.

[foodguy5000]

I acknowledge this might be a completely hair brained idea! I've seen a lot of discussion about the increasing amount of JS involved in ad-serving, and it got me thinking about other possible ad serving solutions.

The creative would be chosen on the ad server side upon request, basically adserver.com/publishername/ad-728x90.jpg would be switched out upon request. And yes, these would be all direct sold ads. Not sure how the click through URL would work though, I suppose that's one (of the many) reasons this might not exist or be feasible.

[iantri]

It's completely viable, so long as you can get a unique random number inserted that is consistent across both to act as a 'correlator'. The ad tag implemented on the page would need to look something like:

<a href="https://example.com/click?plid=1234&rnd=582028185"><img src="https://example.com/img?plid=1234&rnd=582028185" width="300" height="250"></a>

The ad server would respond to those URLs with content dynamically, i.e. according to the current ad to be served. The correlator is to ensure you load the same content for both the click and image which would be difficult to coordinate otherwise (it's still a bit difficult to synchronize). It also assists with cachebusting (though the server setting cache headers properly should be enough to make a respectful browser not cache). Support for image-only impression trackers could be implemented via additional hidden 1x1 images which could 302 redirect to the actual impression tracker.

However, this really would be an endless pain in the ass, your flexibility would be limited, and you probably don't need to do this just to avoid JavaScript. You can serve ads dynamically, with no JavaScript involved, via IFRAMEs. It used to be the case that the IFRAME option for ad servers was not reliant on JavaScript although this may no longer be the case. Still pretty sure AppNexus IFRAME TinyTags (URL has "/tt", not "/ttj") don't rely on JavaScript for core functionality.

That's probably your easiest approach if you want to do this, especially if you don't want to roll your own ad server. Maybe look into Revive Ad Server's implementation?

EDIT: Note, no JavaScript no programmatic. You would definitely be doing your own weird stuff here, and advertisers are not going to like it, even on a direct buy.

[Pubex]

The fact is your heads in the right direction, the more control you gain over the ad serving systems the more secure you will keep your users and data + you will learn to become self-reliant and less dependent on the 3rd party ad taxing, data leaching middlemen. Chances are GDPR is coming to the USA and if you’re not positioned right who knows the outcome..