This type of network connects niche advertisers with relevant publishers. Instead of casting a wide net on a horizontal platform, unconventional advertisers can use vertical ones to reach their unique audiences more reliably. For advertisers, this type of ad network provides transparency as to where their ads will run.

Benefits of ad networks

If you’re reading AppsFlyer’s Engineering blog , there’s a good chance you’re an app developer — in which case, an ad network could be a huge monetization opportunity as a publisher.

Or, if you’re hoping to advertise, a network can help you get your promotion in front of the right people. Either way, ad networks are invaluable mediators that help publishers make money and help advertisers create promotions that pay off.

Plus, with projected market volume of $641 billion by 2026 — monetizing your apps is an easy choice.

Integrating ad networks into your digital marketing strategy offers many benefits. Paramount to all of them, though, is it aids in monetizing your app and giving you a piece of the enormous global marketing pie.

For both publishers and advertisers, the benefits are not only worth it — they also include the added benefit of generating income from your app.

Generates income fast. Once your site is ready and you have enrolled in one or more ad networks, you can start making money — immediately . Ad networks are an easy answer for publishers that need a quick income to cover operational costs.

But, even if your operational costs are minimal or don’t need covering — ad networks help publishers make bank on the fly and stress-free.

Widens your audience. The best way to get a piece of the growing app market is to monetize a wider audience segment, and that’s exactly what ad networks do. Advertisers place restrictions on the types of audience and traffic they want to receive.

For example, if an advertiser wants to target American visitors, a site geared toward a domestic audience is ideal. However, it does nothing for your bottom line if you are targeting the global marketplace.

Ad networks supplement instantly sold premium ads so that they can be served to a broader group of visitors, widening the monetization potential of the app instead of limiting it.

Opens you up to more advertisers. Ad networks serve quality and well-targeted ads because they want them to perform well on your site.

The larger the array of ad creatives you serve your visitors, the more “ views and clicks ” you can potentially generate. This results in an even better chance of money in your pocket.

Widens your audience and publisher pool. Because advertisers place restrictions on the audience types and traffic that they want to receive, it can limit the range of impressions they get.
When advertisers work through an ad network, they increase their pool of publisher supply, thereby increasing their audience reach and all within a predetermined budget.

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How extensive is the network? Whether your site is niche or global in reach, consider this question. The more advertisers that can bid for your inventory, the greater the potential to sell those valuable impressions at higher prices.

Think about it. An extensive publisher inventory indicates an ad network with more opportunities to match ads to websites appropriately . This is known as CTR or contextual targeting which is the process that matches ads to relevant sites in the Display Network based on linguistic elements like topics and keywords.

In addition to offering better contextual targeting, a larger pool of advertisers also means that a greater number of geographical locations are represented. Ultimately, this reduces the chances that you’ll be left with unsold inventory — and that goes for both publishers and advertisers.

Does it offer a variety of formats? Even if you are unsure which formats you may need — look for an ad network that offers a variety of ways to display ads. Then you can test and adapt over time.

When it comes to ad performance — one size does not fit all. An ad network that offers multiple ad formats (rich media, video rolls, interstitials , etc.) optimizes the monetizing potential of both the publisher and the creative.

Before committing to an ad network, it’s important to consider how extensive it is, the variety of formats it offers, and if it can compete with RTB.