Advertising network

A firm that aggregates the media space from many digital services and centralises their selling. These sales representation firms can be divided into different market segments and different types of products, selling anything from a single website to thousands of sites. Some networks encompass other digital channels such as interactive TV platforms or mobile networks. Typically they all provide centralised planning, execution, control, tracking and reporting for online media campaigns. Ad networks leverage technology to create solutions that help advertisers and publishers benefit from their economies of scale. Networks of sites can be grouped by vertical-sector or premium-branded content such as sport or newspapers, while others will sell across a broad portfolio of sites. Sometimes the space is sold against specific environments, other times it can be sold ‘blind’. Many also manage their own technology solutions that support the scheduling. Networks usually group their sites into vertical market sectors but also offer blind buys across the whole network. There are 3 main types of online advertising sale networks: 1.	Vertical networks: These represent the publications in their portfolio, with full transparency for the advertiser about where their ads will run. They typically promote high quality traffic and are heavily used by brand marketers as a way to place advertising against certain categories of content. For the media owners taking part, the approach is normally a revenue share. 2.	Blind networks: These organisations can schedule campaigns across large numbers of websites but offer little targeting, meaning that anybody could see the message. Media owners typically use these networks to fill in gaps in their inventory, and while the payment rates may be very low, they offer an sensible alternative to letting advertising space perish. Marketers using these tools are typically direct marketers looking for some form of response like a click, signup or subscription to a service. As a result the advertising is often sold on a cost-per-click or cost-per-action model. Blind networks achieve low pricing through large bulk buys of remnant inventory combined with conversion optimization and ad targeting technology. 3.	Targeted networks: These organisations seek to combine networked advertising with the benefits of behavioural or contextual advertising targeting.

See also: Behavioral targeting, Onsite behavioural targeting