The programmatic ecosystem has exhibited exponential growth in the past years and it looks equally promising in 2023. Even amidst the economic headwinds, it is expected to deliver lucrative results. According to Statista, programmatically sold advertising was worth 418 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. This figure is expected to reach 725 billion by 2026. Ad networks play a crucial role in the success of programmatic advertising, serving as intermediaries between publishers and advertisers.

Ad revenue is a prime source of income for many large-scale and small-scale publishers and content creators. Ad networks help them to monetize their content and sell their ad inventories for the optimum prices. 

What is an ad network?

An ad network is a platform that connects advertisers and publishers to deliver automated advertising. Ad networks provide an easy-to-use platform for publishers to manage and sell their ad inventory, eliminating the need for individual negotiations with advertisers and reducing the administrative burden of managing ad sales. 

They streamline the process of buying and selling online advertising, reducing the time and effort required to plan, execute, and measure the performance of campaigns. This increased efficiency results in a faster and more cost-effective process for both advertisers and publishers.

How does an ad network work?

Here’s how ad networks typically work:

• Advertisers create campaigns and define their target audience, budget, and desired outcomes on the ad network.
• The ad network receives advertiser campaigns and matches them with available ad inventory from its network of publishers. 
• Publishers make their ad inventory available to the ad network and display ads on their website or mobile app. They receive payment from the ad network based on the number of impressions or clicks generated by the ads.

The ad network is responsible to serve relevant and effective ads based on its algorithm and data insights. It also provides reporting and analytics to measure the performance of the campaigns and to optimize for better results.

Here are the top 10 Ad Networks for publishers

1. Facebook Audience Network

Facebook Audience Network (FAN) is a mobile advertising network that is an ideal choice for app publishers and content creators. It provides publishers with access to their Facebook user data which allows them to target a large and diverse audience. It supports ad formats including interstitial, native, rewarded video, and banner ads. 

FAN offers two price settings to its publishers based on their goals and monetization preferences such as CPM Targets and Accept Any Price. These models are not mutually exclusive and can be used together. Its bidding strategy is based on a programmatic auction model where advertisers bid for ad impressions.

2. Google AdSense

Google AdSense is one of the most promising ad networks for publishers of all sizes. It provides access to a large and diverse pool of advertisers, which means that publishers have the potential to enter a competitive market and get the best prices for their ad inventories. 

AdSense offers a variety of customizable ad formats such as display ads, text ads, and link units. These formats do not disrupt the ad experience as they are easily integrated with the publisher’s site design and content. The pricing strategy of AdSense depends on factors such as traffic, content, niche, ad setup, and region. It offers a revenue calculator for publishers to estimate their earnings. 

3. AndBeyond.Media

AndBeyond.Media is an ad network that offers competitive ad tech solutions. Publishers of all scales get access to multiple advanced tools and ad operation services. The top features include end-to-end management, ultra-fast, and a multiformat hybrid header bidding solution. Its AI-driven yield maximizer helps publishers harness the true power of Google Ad Manager. 

AndBeyond.Media supports ad formats that offer immersive user engagement, highly viewable & performance-driven ad placements across display, video & native that generates incremental revenue along with increasing time spent and page views.

4. Adsterra

With this Adsterra, publishers with varied digital properties can generate ad revenue. This ad network offers monetization for not only website traffic but also social traffic. It offers app monetization for APK files too. It’s AI algorithms will choose the most competitive CPM rates along with relevant ad content. 

Adsterra offers a wide range of ad formats, including display ads, push notifications, pop-unders, native banners, video ads, and social bars. It provides advanced targeting options, such as geographic, demographic, and behavioral targeting, which allows publishers to serve more relevant ads to their users. It has over 12000 advertisers and has recorded a 100% fill rate so far. It gives regular payouts with a $5 min withdrawal and offers a chance for extra earnings through referral programs. 

5. Media.net

Media.net is known to deliver promising results to its publishers. It serves over 125 billion ads, generates 2 billion ad clicks, and monetizes 1 billion URLs annually. It supports contextual and cookie-less advertising. It has the largest pools of advertiser budgets, unique and exclusive search demand from the Yahoo!-Bing Network, direct advertisers, and other premium DSPs, that offer publishers the most competitive bids in the industry along with enhanced revenue opportunities.

Media.net offer several ad formats, including display ads, native ads, sponsored content, and custom ad solutions. Its pricing strategy is on a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis, and the revenue share varies depending on the publisher’s specific agreement with the ad network.

6. Smarty Ads

Smarty Ads is prominent as one of the top video ad networks for publishers. It claims high-fill rates across multiple niches for content creators. It supports video ad units such as instream video ads, out-stream video ads, in-banner video ads, playable, rewarded, and more. 

Publishers can access the pool of global advertisers and enter competitive real-time bidding to get the highest prices for their ad inventories. It also offers video editing controls for its campaigns including filters, ad sizes, types, resolutions, and a floor price. The pricing strategy is on an impression basis and has a minimum payout limit of $50.

7. Propeller Ads

Propeller Ads is a highly reliable monetization partner for publishers and content creators across niches and sizes. It supports multiple advertising models including CPM (Cost per thousand impressions), CPC (Cost per click), CPL (Cost per lead),  CPI (Cost per install), and CPA (Cost per action). Propeller Ads offers a wide range of ad formats, including display ads, native ads, push notifications, interstitials, and more, which allows publishers to monetize their traffic in different ways and increase their revenue.

It has a pool of global advertisers that enables publishers to target regional or local audiences. For optimum revenue generation through all ad inventories, it has an integrated Adblock solution called Adblock Bypass that replaces standard display ads with non-intrusive ads such as native ads.

8. RevContent

RevContent is primarily a CPC ad network. It also supports CPM mode. This ad network is a content recommendation platform that has gallery implementations, widgets, unlimited API customizations, and infinite scrolls. 

This content-driven only accepts publishers with quality content and a minimum of 50,000 visitors per month. It supports non-disruptive ad formats that enhance user experience. They include native sponsored content, emails, newsletters, Google AMP, and video ads. 

9. Ad Cash

Ad Cash is a global ad network platform serving over 195 countries and over 10 billion ad requests per day. Along with global coverage, this ad network also supports high-performing ad formats such as pop-under ads, push notifications, interstitials, banner ads, and native ads. 

These formats deliver high engagement and conversion rates. It offers real-time statistics, anti-adblock solutions, and multiple payment options with a minimum payout of 25 USD/EUR. It supports advertising models such as CPC, CPM, CPI, CPA, and CPL.

10. BidVertiser

BidVertiser is an ad network known for its transparency about details such as incoming bids, winning bids, revenue, audience demographics, and traffic courses. It supports three advertising models inducing PPC, CPM, and CPA. This ad network supports native ads, slider ads, and pop-under ads. These ad formats can be customized by the publishers at any point using integrated third-party and well as in-house services. 

Ad networks keep evolving with industry standards. They all offer services that are focused on driving high ad revenue for publishers and content creators. However, varied features such as targeting, payment methods, optimization solutions, etc can be the deciding factors when it comes to choosing the best ad networks for publishers. Keeping an eye out for programmatic advertising trends and choosing ad networks that align with them can lead to a lucrative and long-term partnership for publishers and content creators.