Looking for more information about online ad networks and how they could help you increase your online ads revenues? In this MasterNewMedia guide, you will find the best resources, tips, strategy and advice to make better sense and understand how to use of online ad networks.

Photo credit: orson

An ad network is essentially a third-party service that acts like an intermediary between your web site and advertisers. Via the ad network you as a web publisher can connect with a large pool of advertisers who want to promote online their products or services.

When advertisers serve you ads, impressions and click on the ads can both generate revenues that are shared between you and the ad network, which in turn compensates the advertiser.

Using an ad network does not force you to run only ads served by the ad network. Large publishers, especially, use more ad networks chained together at the same time or go for a combination of direct campaigns and ad networks to fully monetize their web sites.

Services like Yieldbuild, PubMatic or Rubicon Project are built for this specific goal of optimizing your ad network(s). On the basis of statistical data, these ad optimization services identify the best performing ad network providers as well as the best performing ad position, layout, color and font style on your web pages to optimize your online advertising revenues.

But web publishers often prefer to work with multiple ad networks in order to avoid common problems like defaulting, which is the situation that takes place when no ads are displayed inside one of your reserved ad spots.

On the other hand more ad networks mean more ads to be served, which increases the opportunity of having relevant, and contextual ad content on your web pages.

If you are curious to learn what are the types of ad networks you can use to help you boost your online advertising profits, these are the three major different types of online advertising networks:

1. Representative (Rep) networks: These networks are used by brand marketers and typically promote high-quality traffic at market prices. Rep networks allow advertisers to have full control over the destination and placement of their ads. Profits are generally made using a revenue-sharing business model.
2. Blind networks: These companies offer low pricing in exchange for exclusive control over the destination of ads. Advertisers serve their ads, but they do not know exactly where. Blind networks are typically used by publishers to handle remnant inventory combined with campaign optimization and ad targeting technology. The financial model is arbitrage.
3. Targeted Networks: These focus on specific targeting technologies such as behavioral or contextual. Targeted networks specialize in using consumer click stream data to enhance the value of the inventory they purchase.

There are also two bigger groups which advertising networks belong to:

1. First-tier advertising networks: These have a large number of own advertisers and publishers that help them serve high-quality traffic. Revenues and traffic which first-tier networks make is also used to serve second-tier networks.

2. Second-tier advertising networks: These generally syndicate ads from first-tier networks as their main source of revenue.

In this MasterNewMedia guide you can find out just about anything you need to know to understand and make greater sense of what ad networks are and of how you can leverage them to improve revenue deriving from your online advertising.

Here all the details:

Publishers Guide To Making Sense of Ad Networks

Publishers Guide to Ad networks

http://www.xenyo.com/blog/guide-to-ad-networks-for-publishers/

Do you want to make more money on your website or blog? Only have Adsense on your site? It's time you start looking into ways to add to your AdSense income and in this article, you can find reviewed the ad networks that can help publishers accomplish this goal.

by Xenio Editors - Xenio Blog

Advertising Exchange: Ad Exchanges Open Up Your Ad Inventory To Real-Time Bidding - Best Ad Exchanges Reviewed

http://www.masternewmedia.org/advertising-exchange-ad-exchanges-open-up-your-ad-inventory-to-real-time-bidding/

When ad networks alone are not enough to sell all of your ad inventory, ad exchanges step in to help you maximize the money you make. Put simply, ad exchanges work on the same idea as stock markets. They allow buyers to bid on your inventory, and the demand for your inventory determines the price at which you can sell it.

by Andre Deutmeyer - MasterNewMedia

How To Create an Ad Network: A Publisher's Guide

http://emediavitals.com/blog/38/how-create-ad-network-publishers-guide

How can a publisher take advantage of the increase of behavioral ad targeting in ad spending? One way to attack the issue is to start your own ad network and charge the rates that are appropriate.

by Prescott Shibles - eMedia Vitals

Create Your Own Online Advertising Network - A Mini-Guide

http://www.masternewmedia.org/online-advertising/online-ad-networks/online-advertising-networks-guide-20070219.htm

The ability to create your own advertising network is now indeed a reality. By bringing a series of content-connected blogs together into a single, vertical, "thematic" network, you have the opportunity of strengthening your authority and value by aggregating related high quality sources while maximizing potential revenue for you as well as for those you have invited to join the new network party.

by Michael Pick - MasterNewMedia

Ad Networks Are Transforming Online Advertising

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_09/b4121048726676.htm

Earlier this year major web publishers, from Yahoo! to New York Times Co., have reported that revenues from their mainstay pictorial display ads are down. The poor economy isn't their only problem either. It's simply speeding up a shift in online advertising that's challenging the Net's leading destinations like never before.

by Robert D. Hof - BusinessWeek

What The Rise Of Demand-Side Ad Networks Means For Publishers

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-what-the-rise-of-demand-side-advertising-networks-means-for-publishers/

If demand-side networks can squeeze out the supply-side networks, that would leave more margin for publishers and agencies to share. And agencies would actually pay less for non-premium display inventory while publishers could charge more.

by Michael Zimbalist - paidContent

Ad Exchanges Are The Future

http://www.clickz.com/3626556

Click to enlarge image

For the vast majority of ad inventory, auction based sales and exchanges that act as clearinghouses for inventory, will be the norm. This future is coming. For some companies, it's already here.

by Eric Picard - ClickZ

AdSense Alternatives: Contextual Advertising Programs To Make Money Online

http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_marketing/content-monetization/Google-AdSense/AdSense-alternatives-contextual-advertising-solutions-20070307.htm

Looking for AdSense Alternatives? Here is a reference guide to the most interesting alternative solutions to monetizing your online content with contextual ads.

by Robin Good and Michael Pick - MasterNewMedia

10 Things to Consider When Choosing an Ad Network

http://foodblogalliance.com/2009/03/10-things-to-consider-when-choosing-an-ad-network.php

Your success with the ad network you choose depends in part on you, your willingness to work with your ad network, try out promotions, give feedback on the advertisers you would like to see on your site, make adjustments to your site layout.

by Elise Bauer - Food Blog Alliance

The Ad Networks, Exchanges and Analytics of Web 2.0

http://www.slideshare.net/smellow/tester2-presentation

A review and discussion of ad networks, ad exchanges and quantification services. From AdBrite to Quantcast this presentation is a practical guide to understanding and using ad networks and exchanges.

by Siddiq Bello - Digital Bootcamp

Originally prepared by Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on October 19th, 2009 as "Understanding Online Ad Networks: A Web Publishers Guide".

Photo credits:
Publishers Guide to Ad networks - Paul Maguire
Advertising Exchange: Ad Exchanges Open Up Your Ad Inventory To Real-Time Bidding - Best Ad Exchanges Reviewed - Travel Aficionado edited by Andre Deutmeyer
How To Create an Ad Network: A Publisher's Guide - Ryan Pike
Create Your Own Online Advertising Network - A Mini-Guide - xlucas
Ad Networks Are Transforming Online Advertising - franckito
What The Rise Of Demand-Side Ad Networks Means For Publishers - norebbo
Ad Exchanges Are The Future - Eric Picard
AdSense Alternatives: Contextual Advertising Programs To Make Money Online - Kirsty Pargeter
10 Things To Consider When Choosing an Ad Network - Elise Bauer