Ad exchange

An ad exchange is like a big market where people buy and sell ads. Think of it like a swap meet for commercials.

Every time you use the internet, you see ads. Sometimes they pop up before a video, sometimes they appear on the side of a webpage. These ads help companies get their message out to lots of people at once.

But companies don't just put their ads on any old website. They want to make sure they're getting in front of the right people. That's where an ad exchange comes in.

Imagine a company that sells pet food. They want to make sure people who have pets see their ads. They don't want to waste money showing ads to people who don't own pets.

So the pet food company might use an ad exchange to find websites that have a lot of pet-related content. The website owner puts up space for sale on the ad exchange. The pet food company sees that space and decides to buy it.

Next time someone visits that pet-related website, they'll see the pet food company's ad. And because the ad exchange made sure the ad was shown only to people who might be interested in buying pet food, the company has a better chance of making a sale.