Advertiser Campaign Management
Article | December 10, 2020
When print publishers transitioned to online publishing, they were keen to find a way to generate revenue. Their revenue model in the print world was advertising, so they needed to monetize their content online. Display ads were a great start for them. They sold their advertising space to interested advertisers directly. Even then, there would always be some ad inventory that remained unsold. The need of the hour was a platform that could help them sell this inventory. That is when ad networks for publishers and advertisers came into the picture. Let us take a deeper look into how ad networks are helping both publishers and advertisers optimize their selling and buying processes.
Ad Networks: Simplifying Ad Buying and Selling
An ad network is a technology-backed platform that acts as an intermediary between a group of publishers who want to sell their ads and advertisers interested in buying them.
Ad networks for publishers and advertisers first appeared in the mid-nineties as the earliest advertising technology to support online advertising. They helped advertisers buy ad space across multiple publishing platforms.
The primary purpose of an ad network was to collect unsold ads from different publishers and put them up for offer to advertisers at a lower price than what a direct sale would cost. This kind of ad inventory was mostly referred to as remnant, non-premium ads that publishers struggled to sell directly.
Today, ad networks for publishers focus on offering advertisers exclusive ad deals at premium prices. They pre-buy inventory from different publishers and then resell it to advertisers at premium prices to help advertisers get the impressions they expect.
Types of Ad Networks
Based on your audience, industry, topics, and formats, you have four main types of ad networks to choose from:
Inventory-specific networks: Such networks have ads of a specific type, such as mobile or video.
Vertical advertising networks: These are ad networks that focus on a specific topic, such as fashion, automobiles, or business.
Premium networks: These are the networks that offer premium inventory, mostly from popular publishers.
Targeted networks: These networks offer specific targeting capabilities through a built-in ad server.
How do Ad Networks Work?
Ad networks for publishers and advertisers keep on evolving with technological advancements. To understand how the best ads network works, here are the dynamic steps they follow to benefit publishers and advertisers:
Ad networks compile multiple publishers with available ad inventory.
Advertisers create campaigns using the ad network’s campaign panel, keeping in mind their budget, target audience, and any other special attributes.
The publishers install relevant ad network tags on their websites.
When there is a match between an ad campaign set by an advertiser and the publisher’s ad inventory, ad information is sent to the publisher. The ad network provider gets a share of the ad revenue generated from the campaign or by selling the inventory at a higher price than the publisher.
Using the ad network’s campaign panel, the advertiser tracks and manages the ad’s performance.
Ad Networks in Programmatic Advertising
Ad networks for publishers and advertisers are a part of programmatic advertising, which is the process of automatically buying and selling digital advertising space. In this space, demand-side platforms (which help advertisers) and supply-side platforms (which help publishers) streamline the buying and selling process through real-time bidding (RTB).
Businesses and enterprises rely on programmatic advertising for their digital advertising needs because publishers are adopting native ads on their websites. Thanks to native ads, ad blockers don’t affect advertising, and marketers can optimize and improve their ads with programmatic techniques for campaign success. It's no surprise that programmatic digital display ad spending is expected to increase by 25.8% this year (Source: Brand Equity).
In conjugation with ad networks, an ad exchange connects DSPs and SSPs autonomously. An ad exchange came into the picture in 2005 when ad networks were not enough to solve the cumbersome problem publishers were facing ─ selling unsold ad space. Automation in the open marketplace for buying and selling digital ads was the solution. An ad exchange offers a streamlined platform for advertisers, publishers, ad networks, and other parties to connect their ad serving technologies for efficiency.
Ad Network and Ad Exchange: What is the Difference?
In the programmatic advertising ecosystem, the ad network and the ad exchange are two important components that are often mistaken to be the same because of their role in media buying. Let us take a look at the factors that separate the two.
Attribute
Ad Network
Ad Exchange
Function
Intermediary between publishers and advertisers
Open marketplace for everyone
Identity
Company
Technology
Key Users
Publishers, advertisers and agencies
Publishers, advertisers, agencies, ad networks, DSPs, SSPs and ATDs
Important Characteristic
Pre-segmented ads for particular audience. Promotes bulk buying and selling.
Pool of various types of ad inventory. Based on an impression-per-impression trade
Ad Quality
Top-tier ad inventory, often sold for the first time
All available inventory on sale including remnant ad slots
Optimization
Time consuming
Optimization possible on-the-go
Cost
Stable and determined by the ad network
Dynamic pricing based on real-time bidding by advertisers
Impact on Advertiser
Ad prices are higher
Advertisers can define the pricing
Impact on Publisher
Low control over inventory pricing and optimization
More control over value per impression
Buyer/Seller Information
Advertisers are unaware of the placement of their ads
Publishers don’t know who the advertisers are
Both advertisers and publishers have each other’s information
Why Advertisers and Publishers Rely on Ad Networks?
A Wider Range of Options
With the help of top ad networks, advertisers and publishers can buy or sell more ad space. As a part of monetization strategies for publishers, they can rapidly increase their revenue through premium or remnant inventory because ad networks bring them the highest paying bids. Advertisers, on the other hand, can easily find any type of ad inventory that matches their budget for ad publishing.
Higher Return on Investment
Top ad networks bring in more revenue from advertising. The better the quality of ads, the higher the revenue for advertisers because they get precisely matched with their targeting needs and they can choose the most profitable deals.
Increased Efficiency
Automation in matching publishers and advertisers is the biggest advantage of advertising networks. It saves the time of manually looking for suitable deals or favorable pricing. The best publishers that bring the best impressions on ads can easily be approached. Publishers can get their inventory sold for the best price thanks to digital advertising networks.
Features of an Ideal Ad Network for Publishers & Advertisers
Here is a list of features you can refer to while choosing an ad network that caters to your needs:
Size: The size of the advertising network matters because it facilitates a steady traffic. The more traffic it can deliver, the higher your ROI will be.
Quality: Identify the quality of the inventory that an ad network offers. It should match the kind of inventory you need.
Audience Targeting: Your ad network should support different audience targeting options so that ad campaigns work perfectly well.
Format Support: Your ad network should support different formats like responsive, call-only, animated GIF or simple banners so you can diversify into different formats without any hassles.
Reliability: Depending on your requirements, ensure that the network doesn’t go down and provides consistent service so your business remains unaffected. The interface should also be easy to use, clean, and rich with data to help your marketing team optimize their personalization efforts.
CTV Streaming Platform Used PubMatic to Bump its Revenue by 400%
Future Today, a premium CTV streaming platform, used PubMatic’s platform to drive its ad revenue. PubMatic helped Future Today partner with a leading CTV DSP and achieve a lucrative private marketplace (PMP) agreement to create incremental demand through direct integration and optimized engagement.
“PubMatic has been one of Future Today's fastest growing demand partners in the last 6 months. The entire team has been a pleasure to work with and they genuinely understand the value of CTV in the market.” – Katya Shkolnik, Head of Partnerships, Future Today Inc.
Key Takeaways
Display, native, and banner advertising campaigns are critical for marketers like you to scale your business, so understanding how and what an ad network for publishers and advertisers does is important to creating the best, most effective advertising campaigns that bear results.
Read More
Advertiser Campaign Management
Article | December 11, 2021
Just like with any small business, advertising an Etsy shop can seem like an overwhelming task. There are so many options, learning marketing strategies on your own is time-consuming, and many advertising methods can get expensive fast. But don’t worry! This article is a complete guide that will break down all of the different ways you can start advertising or promoting your Etsy Shop cheaply or for free. How Does Etsy Marketing Work? Advertising an Etsy shop can be very different from advertising other online businesses. For example, you don’t need to have your own website to run an Etsy shop. This is convenient in many ways, but it also limits your ability to use traditional advertising methods. Ad platforms like Facebook Ads Manager are a great way to get exposure, but without a custom domain, you’re advertising Etsy instead of your shop.
Read More
Advertiser Campaign Management
Article | July 19, 2022
When it comes to PPC advertising, it’s not uncommon to think: Bing Ads vs. Google Ads. On top of that: Which platform has more reach? Is Bing less expensive? Which has more targeting capabilities? Which will produce more conversions and revenue? While many PPC advertisers view the two platforms as competitors, they actually work best hand-in-hand. Google undoubtedly has the majority of the search market, but Bing advertising certainly shouldn’t be forgotten. Rather than Google Ads vs. Bing Ads, marketers should be thinking Google Ads plus Bing Ads.
Read More
Display Advertising
Article | May 21, 2021
The world is changing every minute and so is the structure of business and marketing tactics. Digital advertising has changed drastically over a period and is growing at a break neck speed. Although native advertising is at a nascent stage, it is a popular, creative, authentic, interactive, and engaging form of advertising.
Native advertising is also called paid content or sponsored content. Gone are the days when native advertising was just a buzz word. Today it is the new marketing reality. Native content marketing has winged its way into emails, e-commerce platforms, social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram), video sites. Social media ads, recommended ads, and promoted search results are a few examples of well-known native ads. Native ads are cohesive with the content on the page and ingest themselves very well with the design and look of the page.
Many online marketers are turning to native advertising that eases the opportunity of connecting to their users in the format they are comfortable with, such as articles, videos, and infographics. Native ads normally do not look like ads. They look like a part of the content in a user’s viewable area.
Media companies like The New York Times, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal are few examples that invest in native content advertising.
Native advertising is the driving force leveraging advertising strategy. As per the Native Advertising Institute, by 2021, the revenue from native advertising is expected to increase by 46%.
Types of Native Advertising
There are various types of native advertising that publishers may offer on their sites. They may offer a few or all of these:
In-stream
In stream ads are the ads put in before, during or after the streaming of any video, music, and animation that the consumer has requested. In-stream ads termed as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post roll. In-stream ads are most commonly visible on YouTube.
In-article
In-article are the ad formats that helps you to put native ads between the paragraphs of the pages. These articles are optimized by google for better performance. They blend well and provide a better experience of the readers.
Content recommendation
Content or product recommendation provide you with personalized content or product recommendation based on data collected about user’s online behavior. Offering better effortless customer journey.
Commerce
Native video
Native videos are the in-feed videos that are created and uploaded on various social networks. Facebook, , YouTube, and Twitter are most widely used platforms for native video.
Custom formats
Custom native ads are developed by brand itself. Custom ads are user-defined allowing you to define your variable.
In-mail
There are two ways of In-mail native advertisements, they are one-off long-form and programmatic. Native email marketing will boost KPIs.
Sponsored content
Sponsored content naturally blends in with content on the webpage but is marked as “sponsored” within the ad.
What Does Native Advertising Look Like?
In Feed Ads
In Feed native ads are slipped between the content allowing the readers to view them easily and with less effort. Example of in-feed ads are the ads that appear in your newsfeed on social media and news sites (Facebook, Buzzfeed)
Search & Promoted Listings
Search and promoted listings appear at the top of your Google search results or in the side bar increasing the product visibility and sales. Search and promoted listings are fee-based advertising services.
Content Recommendations
These are the articles that appear at the bottom of the webpage. This is a great way to increase the audience and attract new leads. Content recommendations are the personalized articles keeping the target audience in mind.
Best Practices of Native Advertising
Content is King
Content plays a key role in native ads for engaging the audience and comes in different shapes and sizes. Developing an innovative format for delivering quality content such as short snappy text, animations, infographics, videos, carousels of images, will earn you higher ROI. Customers are likely to return to your site without any native medium advertising. Successful native ads are colorful, easy to read, and stand out among other content around the same page.
Keep Native Advertising Programmatic
Partner with a top-notch premier content house to stand out. Keep native advertisements programmatic. Programmatic help brands make the most of micro-moments. In Programmatic advertising, automated technology is used for buying advertising space allowing advertisers to make native ads more relevant to potential customers. In the traditional buying media process, advertisers have less control over buying the placement. Native advertising can achieve higher engagement and conversion with the programmatic platform.
Native Ads Placement Smarter
Native ads are embedded onto the webpage much like the publisher's editorial. It is best practice to let the ad be on the same page for several days so that the potential customers come back to the website to have a look at it.
Keep it Personal
Keep your ad copy simple, interactive, and direct to connect with the audience. Try to call out the problem-solving content to make people feel identified and easily relatable with the solution. Keep content personal and relevant to increase engagement. The copy that is simple is more persuasive. Write ad copy as though you are speaking to your audience.
The Rise in Video Popularity Trend
Generating high-quality content that educates and entertains at the same time is far more effective in building long-term customer relationships. Video happens to be one of the successful formats of native content marketing. Video content accelerates the engagement of customers and the revenue earned from native video advertising. One of the successful ad trends is interactivity. Video content being interactive creates a sense of personal touch and leads to word-of--mouth marketing.
Targeting the Right Way
The success of any campaign largely depends on sites, audiences, and gadgets. Gather your user’s information through tools and analytics to decide your audience. Emphasizing the need of the audience is important to maintain the foundation of native advertising. Knowledge about the audience will ensure you target the right audience on the right native advertising platform. According to a recent study, click-through rates on native ads are higher on mobile devices.
How Does Native Advertising Work?
The most inevitable question arising to any advertiser’s mind is whether there is sustainable growth for native content marketing? Well the answer to this is very positive. Native advertising works in terms of demand and supply. Publishers fall under the supply category looking out for ads to monetize their site and advertisers fall under the demand category reaching an audience to generate promotion, sales, and lastly leads. The brand pays on a native advertising platform of their choice for the placement of their content. Selecting the right platform is an essential step of native ads. Once the content is created and approved, it will be tagged by saying something like, “Advertisements”, “Paid advertisement”, “Sponsored”, or “Recommended” to create transparency within native advertising platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is native advertising?
Native advertising is a paid content that mimics the design of the platform upon which it is published. Native ads are commonly visible on most of the social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) but are also seen on websites. They function differently from advertorials. Native advertisements blend perfectly with web page organic content therefore are not jarring.
Why native advertising is important?
Native advertisements bring brands and customers together on a single page by better targeting and using personalization technology, making it more engaging. Native advertising content has a longer shelf life and reaches the target audience through trusted channels. It generates higher CTR, boosts conversions, and creates higher sales for your website and company.
What is an example of native advertising?
Media companies like BuzzFeed, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Instagram filter, Nickelodeon, and social media ads are a few popular examples of native advertising that have invested in the creation and distribution of native advertisements on their respective platforms on behalf of the brands.
Why is native advertising so successful?
The success of native advertising heavily depends on the relevant and engaging content, better received by target customers. Native ads are viewed 53% more than other banner ads. Native content is cohesive, blends smoothly with the organic content so they do not appear as ads, making people inclined to view them more and consume them. Native ads are worth the hype provided used correctly and created and promoted the right way.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What is native advertising?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Native advertising is a paid content that mimics the design of the platform upon which it is published. Native ads are commonly visible on most of the social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) but are also seen on websites. They function differently from advertorials. Native advertisements blend perfectly with web page organic content therefore are not jarring."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Why native advertising is important?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Native advertisements bring brands and customers together on a single page by better targeting and using personalization technology, making it more engaging. Native advertising content has a longer shelf life and reaches the target audience through trusted channels. It generates higher CTR, boosts conversions, and creates higher sales for your website and company."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What is an example of native advertising?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Media companies like BuzzFeed, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Instagram filter, Nickelodeon, and social media ads are a few popular examples of native advertising that have invested in the creation and distribution of native advertisements on their respective platforms on behalf of the brands."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Why is native advertising so successful?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "The success of native advertising heavily depends on the relevant and engaging content, better received by target customers. Native ads are viewed 53% more than other banner ads. Native content is cohesive, blends smoothly with the organic content so they do not appear as ads, making people inclined to view them more and consume them. Native ads are worth the hype provided used correctly and created and promoted the right way."
}
}]
}
Read More