There is plenty of material online explaining how all of this works, but you will have a lot of trouble finding primary sources from the companies themselves be

There is plenty of material online explaining how all of this works, but you will have a lot of trouble finding primary sources from the companies themselves because they hide it behind "contact us for more information" gateways. That said, here are a few terms to search as a starting point: * Ad exchange * Real time bidding * Search retargeting * Data management platform * Demand side platform Here are some product names: * Doubleclick Bid Manager * Google tag manager * Google AdX * Adobe Media Optimizer And some companies to look up: * AppNexus * Bluekai * Excelate * Celtra Finally, I'd set up your own AdWords and Facebook advertiser accounts to play around.