10 Large Online Advertising Agencies and Networks

Online advertising agencies and networks take much of the work out of selling ads on a site. But like everything in life, it comes at a cost.

Companies that sell advertising for sites usually provide a piece of code that runs on the site and delivers performance information to the companies and their advertising clients.

In some cases, the agencies automate the entire process via self service. In other cases, they have sales representatives who help develop highly targeted campaigns for specific clients.

Anyone who chooses a new network to place ads on a site should run small tests to track average CPMs and especially to track safety. Some networks have been notorious for lax safety standards that allow malicious advertisers to inject malware in their campaigns.

1) Google AdSense

The largest ad network on the planet got that way by allowing anyone to sign up for free and by having an enormous number of partners — plus the world’s largest search engine.

Google AdSense typically provides 68 percent of the revenue from a sale to the publisher and keeps the other 32 percent. It’s a reasonable split because the cost of selling usually ranges between 30 and 40 percent of total revenue. The minimum payout is $100.

Although it is easy to sign up for AdSense, it is not a given that an applicant will be accepted. Unlike other networks, AdSense does not require a minimum audience size, which makes it popular with new sites.

2) Media.net

Media.net is an up-and-coming challenger to Google AdSense because it uses a similar business model. But it does not accept as many new publishers as Google.

The company is a partnership of Bing and Yahoo! Ads run on both of those sites in addition to partners who carry their ads, just like Adsense. Also like AdSense, the ad campaigns are contextual.

The revenue share is unknown. The minimum payout is $100.

3) Advertising.com

Advertising.com is one of the largest online ad agencies with nearly 600 million global unique visitors and relationships with more than 70 of the top 100 Comscore sites, the company says.

Its ad-serving technology delivers 140 billion impressions a month and covers more than 25 content verticals.

The company requires a minimum of 500,000 impressions a month for a publisher to qualify for its program.

4) PropellerAds

The company offers push notifications, onclick ads, interstitials, widgets and smart links. It claims a client list of 150,000 publishers and eight years in existence. It has weekly payouts and a minimum withdrawal as low as $5. The company does not list any minimum site requirements, but it may reject sites for quality or if they don’t have enough inventory in a content category.

5) Exponential

The company that evolved from Tribal Fusion says it works with “88 of the top 100 global brands.”

“We focus on direct, first-look inventory access with premium publishers, allowing us to sell to premium advertisers at higher CPMs with large budgets,” it says.

It has three programs depending on the publisher: self service, technology service and enterprise service. The enterprise service level offers direct sales opportunities, but the other two do not.

Company requirements include 500,000 unique visitors a month, highly targeted content and an attractive design. Like all agencies, it reserves the right to accept or reject any applicant even if it has the necessary audience level.

6) RhythmOne

RhythmOne, which has been in existence in some form for 20 years, has developed from the previously named Burst Media. It has a much lower minimum requirement of 25,000 page views or 5,000 unique visitors a month.

It says its advertisers include Gap, Payless, Old Navy and Mott’s fruit juice. Besides display ads, the company provides advertiser-sponsored content and a video library.

7) Undertone Networks

The company requires a minimum of 250,000 unique visitors a month.

8) Infolinks

Infolinks is one of the dominant players in an advertising type based on its name. It turns the words in articles into links, and it provides a popup box at the base of the browser fold that also provides links.

The company also has other non-standard display positions including ads on the unused left and right sides of the page. It reportedly delivers more than 2.5 billion ad impressions a month.

The product has no minimum audience requirement.

9) RevenueHits

RevenueHits claims 20,000 publishers and no site requirements. It offers a wide range of the most common available ad types including banners, interstitials, buttons and sliders.

10) AdBlade

AdBlade offers all major IAB ad units and no minimum site requirements. It pays net 30 days after the end of a calendar month.