An online advertising network, or ad network, is a business which links advertisers to sites that wish to host ads. The function of an advertising network is an aggregation of ad source from many publishers and matching it together with the advertiser’s need. With this kind of system, there will be no need for an individual publisher. A single ad will be displayed by all publishers participating in the network.
This system is also known as header bidding or web beacons. It was first tested on behalf of the search engine and then rolled out to publishers who wanted to expand their publishing model beyond just blogging. Through time, other types of media such as social networking have tried using advertising networks but to no avail. Most of these failed because of the lack of an appropriate revenue share formula. This lack of revenue share was one of the reasons why these other media failed to take off.
The lack of revenue is the main reason that many failed advertising networks like emx digital and webpages fell apart. Emx digital was known for allowing publishers to earn more through banner advertising. HubPages, on the other hand, had little to no tracking mechanism. The discovery of HubPages’ poor tracking system paved the way for the creation of a new platform, the ad network Research Platform (RPA), in 2010. This new platform offered advertisers a solution to earn revenues from publishers without requiring the latter to create and maintain content.
RPA was initially used by small publishers until the publishers themselves could not support it or they could not make money from it due to its limited scope. When Google bought Metacafe, another top ad networks, advertisers switched back to RPA. In spite of this setback, however, RPA is still being used today by a large number of publishers. Part of the reason for this could be the fact that publishers need to make a substantial amount of revenue in order to sustain themselves in the long run. Therefore, they are willing to give advertisements programs away for free.
There are two ways to monetize through advertising networks. One is through pay per click (PPC) wherein a publisher can allow visitors to click on his or her ads. Publishers bid on keywords that will be displayed on sponsored links. PPC advertising has been successful for both established publishers and new ones alike because advertisers pay only when their ads are clicked. Another form of monetization is through pay per impression (PPI). With PPI, advertisers only pay when a visitor sees their advertisement.
RPA and PPI are two of the more popular forms of advertising at the moment. This may be because they are less complicated than their traditional counterparts. RPA, for instance, requires publishers to have an affiliate account. This means that, with the help of a tracking program, marketers can easily see how their campaigns are doing. PPI, on the other hand, can be handled through crime.
Criteo is a powerful tool because it gives publishers an instant report on the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. It can also do a lot for advertisers because it allows them to choose the right kind of advertising networks that will work best for their business. Publishers only have to pay once for their ad campaigns and this can greatly reduce the cost of each campaign.
Criteo, which also goes by the name of PPC tracker, is not the first ad exchange program to come out. However, it is probably the most widely used one by publishers. Ad exchanges offer publishers the chance to earn money through the promotion of other people’s products. Advertisers who want to get into the game can take advantage of this programmatic advertising by signing up with a Criteo publisher.
