Having a website can be pretty expensive. And although you can decrease the overall costs by getting free web hosting, a common path most website owners take is monetizing their content. To do this, you’ll need to find a good ad network to start making ad revenue.

However, finding the right ad network for your website can be tedious and complex. Numerous options are available, and it can be challenging to know which one to choose. To help make the decision easier, we’ve compiled a list of some of the top ad networks for publishers.

Why Do You Need an Ad Network for Monetizing Your Publications?

According to Statista, businesses spend around $233 billion on advertising worldwide, which is expected to increase to $495 billion in 2024. So, there is a lot of money to be made from monetizing your publications and displaying ads.

However, to truly benefit from an ad network, you must have a sound infrastructure for your website. So the first step is to get a good web hosting provider, and you can use a web hosting advisor to help you pick the right one.

Once you set up your website and you are ready to monetize it, you can significantly benefit from the right ad network for several reasons:

Maximizing Revenue

The more you increase website traffic, the more money you will earn from your website. And the right ad network can help you monetize your traffic in the most profitable way.

• A good ad network gives publishers a high eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) rate.
• The eCPM is the amount of revenue generated per thousand ad impressions.
• The amount of ad impressions you receive from your website depends on the number of visitors you have, i.e., website traffic.

Quality of Ads

The type of ads you display on your website is crucial. A good and quality ad network will ensure that the advertisements displayed on your website are relevant to your content and will provide high-quality ads.

Displaying relevant ads on your website can positively impact the user experience for visitors and can help to increase engagement and interaction.

Targeting Options

Usually, most top-quality ad networks provide advanced targeting options to publishers. With these options, the right ad network helps publishers reach the appropriate audience for their website, resulting in better click-through rates and more ad revenue.

Payment Terms and Methods

When choosing your ad network, you need to research the payment terms and methods it offers to see whether it suits your needs. The right ad network should offer favorable terms, timely payments, and a wide range of payment options for publishers.

This way, you can choose the payment option that is most favorable for your business on the terms that are in line with your accounting practices and operations.

Support and Customer Service

Not all publishers have the experience or the required knowledge to fix potential issues that might arise. So, the right ad network should provide expert customer support and always available service.

This way, publishers can contact the network’s customer support when they encounter any issues with their ads, payments, or the ad network’s platform. The right ad network should also be available via multiple channels so publishers can quickly and conveniently contact the agents.

Different Types of Ad Networks Available for Publishers

Each website and business caters to a different target market or sector. Therefore, the right ad network should help you reach your audience and penetrate the appropriate industry.

Vertical Networks

These ad networks are topic-specific and are made for publications that fall within a specific category. They focus on delivering ads to a particular target market. Additionally, a vertical ad network gives the advertiser full disclosure about where their ads will be placed.

• Used by brands to promote high-quality traffic.
• Some examples of vertical ad networks are technology ad networks, business ad networks, fashion ad networks, and automotive ad networks.

Premium Networks

Premium ad networks offer inventory from famous publishers. They also create the needed demand to build competition for high-quality ads and often have higher standards for their inventory, which can result in better engagement and conversion metrics.

• Some examples of popular premium ad networks are Google Display Network (GDN), Yahoo Gemini, AdCash, and AdMob.

Inventory-Specific Networks

These ad networks specialize in particular ad formats. They focus on an exact type of inventory. For instance, they could be designed for a specific device, like a mobile or video ad network.

Targeted Networks

These ad networks use ad servers with built-in targeting capabilities. They are used to target specific audiences and display ads for specific products and services.

A targeted ad network works by using customers’ individual traits, interests, and preferences and displaying well-tailored ads based on the customer’s activity.

Top 10 Best Ad Networks for Publishers

Publishers can choose from a plethora of ad networks, but some of the top ad networks that are available are:

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a popular ad network that offers publishers a wide range of ad formats, including display, text, and video ads. It has a large pool of advertisers, resulting in higher revenue potential.

Google AdSense is also quite beginner-friendly and provides clear AdSense guidelines so that all publishers know what they can and cannot do. It’s pretty easy to set up and is highly customizable, however, it could be a bit generic for niche publishers.

Pros

Cons

Media.net

Media.net is a contextual ad network that specializes in display and native ads. Bing and Yahoo developed it. It offers high-quality ads relevant to the website’s content, resulting in better engagement and click-through rates.

Media.net also provides publishers with a high CPM rate and favorable payment terms. Publishers get paid after every 30 days via wire transfers or PayPal. It pays $5 per thousand impressions (RPM); the minimum payment threshold is $100. Unfortunately, it only works with US Dollars.

Pros

Cons

Amazon Advertising

Amazon Advertising is a popular ad network that allows publishers to display product ads on their websites. It also works with Supply Side Platforms. It provides a high eCPM rate and various targeting options, increasing revenue potential. The average click-through rate (CTR) is 0.41%.

Amazon Advertising offers timely payments and a unified, user-friendly platform for Amazon partners and third parties via SSP. The payout to publishers is done every month.

Pros

Cons

Taboola

Taboola is a content discovery and native advertising platform that offers publishers a variety of ad formats, including in-feed, video, and display ads. It helps publishers and advertisers reach new audiences and create meaningful engagements. The average click-through rate (CTR) is 0.09%.

To be eligible for this network, you must have around 500,000 monthly page views. However, the overall approval process is relatively easy. Its payment terms are Net45, meaning that publishers get paid 45 days after the end of the month when they started using Taboola.

Pros

Cons

Outbrain

Outbrain is a native advertising platform that provides many different ad formats with high-quality, relevant ads tailored to the website’s content. It also offers retargeting, audience segmentation, geo-targeting, behavioral targeting, cross-channel retargeting, and advanced reporting and analysis.

Pros

Cons

AdThrive

AdThrive is a premium ad network that delivers high-quality ads to publishers. It offers various ad formats, including display, video, and native ads. In addition, it has three publisher solutions, including Growth, Engagement, and Revenue.

AdThrive is a great ad network for niche advertising, like food, lifestyle, sports, tech, travel, and more. It provides tailor-made ads and SEO solutions, which can improve revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) reporting, keyword strategies, and traffic sources.

Pros

Cons

Ezoic

Ezoic is an award-winning, AI-driven platform that offers publishers a plethora of ad formats, including display, video, and native ads. In addition, it has a free trial option that does not require any credit card information.

It also provides a wide range of features, like building an audience using video and media, SEO tools, and advanced security features. Additionally, all websites of any size are eligible for this ad network.

Pros

Cons

Sovrn

Sovrn is an ad network that provides a wide range of solutions for both publishers and advertisers. Publishers can use its advertising, signal, commerce, managed services, and data monetization.

With Sovrn, advertisers get control, transparency, and brand safety. It also provides services like high viewability, direct path optimization, and the latest ads.text file knowledge.

Pros

Cons

RevContent

RevContent is a great content discovery and native advertising platform. Its customizable technology enables it to increase the publishers’ revenue, engagement, and growth. It uses both the CPC and CPM pricing models and requires a minimum of 50,000 monthly website visitors.

Pros

Cons

Publift

Publift is a platform that connects web developers and digital publishers to premium ad networks that may not have been available before. It is built for AdSense and GAM and helps publishers increase ad revenue by providing a better user experience.

Pros

Cons

Factors to Consider While Selecting an Ad Network for Your Publications

Since you can choose from many different ad networks, it can be pretty difficult to decide which one to partner with. So, before settling on an ad network, you should consider several factors to ensure you choose the right one.

Advanced Technical Capabilities

Setting up an ad on your website by yourself is quite difficult, especially if you do not have the necessary advertising technology. Here’s where the ad network comes in to provide you with a solid technological foundation to build the advertising portion of your business.

So, when choosing an ad network, you need to get one that offers:

• Top-quality hardware infrastructure
• Great UI/UX experience to its users (It will make it easy for you to set everything up and navigate)
• A wide range of features that are easy to use

Work With Several Supply Side Platforms (SSP)

An SSP helps publishers sell their ad space and buy ad impressions in an automated manner. Supply Side Platforms (SSP) are essential, especially if you use programmable solutions.

• It gives you access to local ad providers, which can increase the interest of your audience in the items you advertise.
• It can increase the appeal of your ad inventory and encourage advertisers to bid more eagerly and offer higher prices for your ad space.

The Support It Offers to Publishers

The ad network you choose should provide you with the necessary support and help you maximize your ad revenue. This should include:

• Access to a dedicated account manager, who will always be available to fix any issues.
• Advice on optimizing your ad inventory
• Detailed analytics and reporting
• Easy access to the network’s customer support and a quick response time

Flexible Payment Terms

Getting an ad network with flexible payment terms is crucial and should allow you to select the frequency of your payments to decide whether you want to get paid weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly.

• Find a provider that offers both the CPM (cost per mille) and CPC (cost per click) models
• Most top-quality ad networks offer other models, like the CPV (cost per view), CPA (cost per action, and fixed cost

Relevant Experience

You should look for an ad network with experience working with publishers in your industry. This way, you will ensure that the ad network understands the needs of your audience and can provide relevant ads to them.

Conclusion

The right ad network can help you monetize your content and make your website profitable. It can help you get high-quality ads that are relevant to your website’s content. Also, a good ad network will enable you to choose from different ad formats, and use the one that fits your content best.

To find the right ad network, you need to:

• Look at the network’s advertising technology to see whether it fits your needs
• Your ad network should also provide excellent customer support so that you can fix any issues with ease
• A good ad network should offer flexible payment terms, so that you choose how you receive your ad revenue
• Pick an ad network that has experience with working with publishers in your industry, so that you ensure that you display ads that your audience will be interested in

Next Steps: What now?

• Find The Best Web Hosting
• Get a Good Website Builder
• Find The Perfect Blogging Platform
• Learn How to Localize Your Website

Further Reading – Useful Resources

• Tips To Create Google Ads Better Than Your Competitors – Forbes
• ViceROI: catching click-spam in search ad networks
• Targeting and Privacy in Mobile Advertising