What are Ad Networks

Ad networks are platforms that act as intermediaries between advertisers (merchants) who wants bo buy ads and publishers (webmasters) that own websites and are ready to place ads there. They pool ad inventory from multiple publishers and connect it with advertisers searching for quality traffic for their offers (products or services). This makes the advertising landscape easier for advertisers to reach a bigger audience, and publishers can make money online promoting offers to their audience in a variety of ways that are convenient for them.

Ad Networks History

The first ad network for affiliates and advertisers was created in 1995 by FocaLink Media Services. Its aim was to manage online ads and banner ads. Then publishers gained access to a wider range of advertisers, which helped them monetize traffic, and advertisers gained the opportunity to reach a large audience on multiple sites.

But by the early 2010s, advertising networks were under siege due to the development of programmatic, concerns arose about the transparency of advertising networks, quality problems, and the emergence of direct deals and advertising exchanges with their more transparent offer promotion model.

Nevertheless, the advertising networks have survived and are showing excellent results today!

How Do Ad Networks Work in Affiliate Marketing?

Let's have a look at how affiliate ad networks work.

1. Connect Advertisers and Publishers

Best ad networks for affiliate marketers and advertisers work with proven partners who provide quality traffic. Then advertisers join the same platforms and place the offers.

2. Offer Selection

Each offer provided by advertisers has details like commission rates, payout structures and promo materials. Ad networks can choose which offers fit their audience and niche understanding they can bring quality traffic.

What concerns publishers, they can limit which verticals and offers they don’t want to show.

3. Tracking and Reporting

Ad networks give advertisers unique tracking affiliate links for each campaign. This allows the network to track clicks, conversions and other metrics. Partners can log in to their dashboards in the ad networks to see real-time data on their performance and optimize their marketing strategy.

4. Payment Processing

Ad networks handle the payment between advertisers and publishers who earn commissions based on the traffic or sales they generate. Advertisers bye ads at the affiliate network. The affiliate ad network pay publishers on a set schedule: daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

5. Compliance and Quality Control

To maintain quality and compliance the best ad networks for affiliate marketers and merchants have guidelines all partners must follow. This includes acceptable advertising practices and content restrictions. Networks will review promotional methods used by publishers to make sure they meet the standards.

6. Support and Resources

Ad platforms usually provide resources, training materials, promotional tools and dedicated support teams. This can be a big help for new advertisers and publishers who are new to affiliate marketing.

Ad Networks for Advertisers and Publishers

An advertiser and a publisher are two different people within an affiliate advertising network. They have different objectives: merchants purchase traffic from publishers through ad networks and profit from conversions. Meanwhile, publishers sell traffic via and earn from ad impressions.

Let's look at the main differences:

Who are Advertisers?

In order to understand who the advertisers are, let’s provide an example. So, you need to attract users to your new app, motivating them to download it. And the task is to find this audience turning to advertising.

An advertiser is a person who buys users’ engagement  whether it clicks, views, or installs. Advertisers buy traffic when they use advertising networks. They usually are individuals or companies who are looking to promote their products or services known as offers in affiliate marketing. These people invest money to have their ads shown to potential customers.

How Do Advertisers Work?

  1. Craft an Offer: This means deciding what the advertiser is promoting, what kind of conversions he is looking for, and how much he is willing to spend;
  2. Build a Landing Page: The specialist will need a dedicated webpage that highlights the benefits of the offer;
  3. Create Ad Content: This can include various formats like banners, push notifications, or video ads. Some ad networks have their own designers departments that help advertisers to craft ads;
  4. Target Audience: The merchant identifies the users to reach, upload ad materials, set budgets, and determine how long the campaign will run;
  5. Set Budgets and Limits: It’s important to outline how much the advertisers is ready to spend.

Now that we know what advertisers do, let’s talk about how they make money. When users see these ads, they might buy something, that’s how advertisers make money. The real profit comes from purchases, subscriptions or downloads of paid apps.

On the other side, affiliate marketers and agencies get paid commissions based on the sales they generate. They don’t sell products themselves, but they get paid for running successful ad campaigns that result in sales.

Advertisers look at ROI (return on investment) to see if their ads work, to keep their ad spend below their sales.

Who are Publishers?

To really get what publishers do, it helps to understand their role in the ad ecosystem. Advertisers are looking for ways to reach audiences — whether through views, clicks or other interactions — and they need space to promote their products. That’s where publishers come in.

In short, publishers are the owners of websites who have space for ads for their visitors.

Publishers choose the best spots on their website to display ads. They sign up to ad networks and select the ad formats that will work for them, such as native banners, in-page push notifications, VAST video ads, popunders, and direct links. Many have used these formats to increase their revenue.

How Publishers Make Money

Unlike retailers who sell products directly, publishers make money based on their audience — basically the traffic they generate. They get paid for how often their visitors interact with ads. For example, they might sell a certain number of banner impressions which leads to the concept of CPM (cost per mille). This means the cost of a thousand ad impressions.ƒ

Also known as webmasters, publishers can be individuals or companies that send traffic to advertisers’ offers. They either own their websites or have permission to place and manage ads on them.

While many publishers used to focus on website traffic, a growing number are now tapping into social media traffic, driving ad views from Facebook, TikTok and others.

Types of Ad Formats in Ad Networks

As we've already mentioned, advertisers run offers using diverse ad formats. And according to this, all advertising networks vary from each other not only in the base of publishers, but also in the advertising formats they work with.

Let's highlight the main ones:

  • Display ad networks: Display ads are online advertisements that use a mix of text, images, and compelling calls to action to direct viewers to a landing page. Banners are ads displayed at the top, side, or bottom of a website. This visual format is a type of display advertising;
  • Mobile ad networks: These are platforms that use all ad formats available for promotion on mobile devices and tablets including push ads, pops, etc.;
  • Native ad networks: Native ad is a form of “natural” advertising that blends promotional content into the user experience in a natural way like in-feed ads, recommendation widgets, and sponsored content;
  • Push ad networks: A push notification is a short message that pops up in real-time on a user’s mobile device or desktop, keeping them informed and engaged;
  • In-page push ad networks: In-page push look a lot like regular push ads, with an icon or a small image and a few lines of text;
  • Banner ad networks: Banner ads are a specific category of display advertisements that stand out due to their rectangular shape and the use of either moving or static elements. In online advertising, you’ll often find these ads positioned in various spots on websites, such as the top, bottom, or sides of the page;
  • Pop ad networks: Pop ads are a type of online ad that opens a new window or tab when you visit a website or click on a link. These ads stay on top of your current page or under it until you either interact with them or close them;
  • Telegram ad networks: This format includes all the types of Telegram ads, such as mini apps, sponsored official ads, and Telegram channel advertising posts;
  • Domain redirect ad networks: Domain redirect traffic is also known as Direct Click, Zero-click, or Parked Domain Traffic. This format uses parked domains to display ads and redirects users directly, allowing brands to engage audiences without requiring a click;
  • Interstitial ad networks: Interstitial ads show up in apps and sometimes in browsers, looking like full-screen pop-up banners that appear after you've been interacting with the app for a few seconds;
  • Video ad networks: This ad format includes all types of videos used in advertising, including in-stream, out-stream, full-screen, rewarded video, and so on.

This list may also be supplemented with other formats that are less popular. You can learn more about some of them on the Affroom platform.

How to Choose the Best Ad Networks for Advertisers?

When choosing an the best affiliate marketing network for advertising, consider the following points:

  • Ad Types: Look for networks that offer several formats like push ads, popunders, Telegram ads, native ads, and others. You will be able to test all ad types and choose the high converting one for yourself;
  • Traffic: Evaluate traffic levels and target specific countries to fine tune your targeting;
  • Traffic Verification: Choose platforms with traffic verification tools to combat ad fraud and user engagement;
  • Rules and Limits: Understand the network’s content policies especially for Adult or iGaming content;
  • Targeting: Look for platforms that offer age, demographic, GEO, behavioral, and income targeting;
  • Optimization: Look for ad networks with optimization tools for automated campaigns and better performance;
  • Additional: Do you need individual management or special customer service managers? Request this information from the platform before registering and evaluate how the ad network works with partners.

You can add your personal preferences to this list, such as the number of publishers, verticals, available features, and more. In this list of the best ad networks, you can find detailed reviews of the advertising platforms presented with a description of all their opportunities.

Pros and Cons of Ad Networks

Now, let's explore the key advantages and disadvantages of using ad networks, helping you make an informed decision about whether they are the right fit for your advertising goals.

Pros

  • High Volume Traffic: Ad networks have a lot of traffic in one place, perfect for advertisers. You don’t need to create a website or blog to get customers anymore. The traffic from these networks can be huge, some generate 5-10 billion ad impressions daily;
  • Multiple Ad Formats: These networks have multiple ad formats, such as banners, native ads, pop-ups, push notifications, and so on. Whether you want to target mobile or desktop traffic, you’ll find plenty to test and see what works for your audience;
  • User Friendly Platforms: Most ad networks have easy to use platforms to launch your campaigns. Many also have dedicated account managers and 24/7 support;
  • Ready Made Advertising Materials: A big plus is that some networks provide advertisers with creative assets. This makes starting affiliate marketing much easier;
  • Fewer Rules: Compared to Google and Facebook Ads, alternative networks have fewer rules to run your ad campaigns.

Cons

  • Too Much Traffic: While a lot of traffic is good, it can be overwhelming. You might need to spend a lot of time testing and optimizing your ads. Some networks can provide managers who can recommend the best sources for your offers;
  • Bot Traffic: Although many networks try to filter out bot traffic, it can still be a problem. When choosing a network, make sure to check how they protect against bots so you get quality traffic.