Advertising network

From ArticleWorld

An advertising network is a collection of (normally unrelated) online advertising inventory. The term is often used interchangeably along with online advertising network and ad network.They all refer to the same kind of inventory, which can be found in many places over the Internet. Websites, instant messaging clients, ad-ware programs, e-mails and many other forms of data feeders are common hosts for this kind of advertising. Things like banner ads (static or animated), rich media files, text promotion messages or text links, e-mails or quick popup windows are examples of such inventory.

Remnant inventory

Ad networks are usually the place where major publishers sell their remnant inventory. In general, major publishers have a significant amount of remnant inventory which remains unsold through traditional advertising methods and therefore resort to such online advertising networks.

For the small publishers, on the other hand, it is common practice to sell the entire inventory through an ad network. They often use blind networks so that they do not rely on rigid (and often hard to compile when the number of clients is not big enough) market studies. Blind networks allow the publishers to place ads without actually knowing where they end up, in the limits of common sense: those responsible for placing the ads will not place an ad about a Christian book on a pornographic website.

Major ad networks

The most significant ad networks are Google, Yahoo, Miva, Advertising.com, Burst Media and Tremor Networks. Some of them are search engines, others are media companies or major technology vendors. The common feature of all is that they have a significant web presence and many affiliated website, thus allowing them to support promotion of other websites.