14 Best Ad Networks for Publishers in 2024

Maximizing ad revenue involves more than just setting up ad inventory and finding advertisers to fill it. It takes partnering with an ad network that will match the right demand partners to your target audience.

While Google AdSense remains the most popular choice for publishers, there are many other ad networks available that can help publishers monetize their platforms more effectively.

Given the stakes at play—media owners' global advertising revenue is projected to climb from $874.47 billion in 2023 to $1.1 trillion dollars by 2028—publishers need an at network that will be able to connect them to premium buyers willing to pay the best rates.

If you're considering changing ad networks or are looking for your first network, we've compiled a list of 14 of the best ad networks for publishers in 2024 that can help monetize your content in various ways. 

Please note that this article undergoes regular review and updates to ensure that the guidance provided remains current and the list stays up-to-date. If you notice anything missing from the list, we would greatly appreciate your feedback or requests, so please don't hesitate to contact us.

The 14 Best Ad Networks for Publishers in 2024:

1. Publift

2. Adcash

3. Epom Market

4. Clickadu

5. Ad Maven

6. HilltopAds

7. PopAds

8. BidVertiser

9. Traffic Force

10. Adblade

11. Undertone

12. Vibrant Media

13. Adsterra

14. RevenueHits

Why Is an Ad Network Important? 

Ad networks allow publishers to maximize their ad sales by automating deals between publishers and advertisers. By acting as an intermediary between the two sides, ad networks remove the need for direct individual negotiations.

Ad networks streamline the sale of premium and remnant inventory to demand partners, helping to improve fill rate and, therefore, ad revenue. However, the best ad networks will not sacrifice ad quality for fill rate, ensuring the integrity of your site’s user experience (UX).

What Should You Consider When Choosing an Ad Network?

There are many excellent ad networks available to publishers looking to serve ads on their sites. However, there are several factors to consider when deciding which network or networks will work best for your current business model. These include:

Your Audiences’ Devices

It is essential for publishers to consider how and when people are using their devices to decide whether to prioritize mobile or the desktop platform.

For instance, many people use desktops during working hours, while mobile devices are more likely to be used during the evenings and weekends.

For mobile publishers and app publishers, a mobile ad network would be more suitable than a platform specializing in serving ads on desktop sites.

Therefore, publishers need to understand their target audience and choose an ad network accordingly.

Targeting Options

Today's ad networks offer access to sophisticated targeting options, including geolocation, demographics, device, income, and many other elements.

Some networks also offer retargeting features, enabling advertisers to display ads to customers who have visited their website in the past.

Publishers need to assess their target audience to determine which targeting options they want and which ad networks can best offer them.

The Network's Publishing Niche

Large ad networks often have multiple advertisers and ad agencies operating across different agencies on their books. Partnering with a network that specializes in the same or a similar niche to that of a publisher can unlock synergies between the network's strengths and the publisher's capabilities.

Types of Ad Networks

Advertising networks are often categorized by their strategy, method of traffic delivery, and volume of inventory.

Below are a few examples of the most popular ad network systems:

1. Premium Ad Networks

A premium ad network is an advertising platform that offers high-quality, exclusive ad inventory to advertisers. Premium ad networks typically work with a select group of publishers and websites that offer premium content and have a large and engaged audience. 

These networks provide advertisers with access to premium ad placements, such as homepage takeovers, high-impact display ads, and video ads, that are designed to capture users' attention and drive engagement.

Premium ad networks typically offer higher CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) and provide a more personalized experience for advertisers. They often have higher standards for ad quality and ensure that ads are relevant and contextually appropriate for the audience. 

Premium ad networks may also offer additional targeting options, such as demographic, geographic, or behavioral targeting, to help advertisers reach their desired audience more effectively.

Some examples of these advertising platforms include:

• Google Display Network (GDN)
• Yahoo Gemini
• One by AOL
• AdMob by Google
• AdCash

2. Vertical Ad Networks

Vertical ad networks are topic-specific and represent publications that fall within a particular portfolio. They can include a technology ad network, a business ad network, a fashion ad network, and an automotive ad network, among others. 

This type of ad network gives an advertiser full transparency about where their ads will run and are most frequently used by brand marketers to promote high-quality traffic.

Although volume can sometimes be low, the quality of the traffic tends to be better due to more precise targeting that reaches a specific audience. 

3. Horizontal Ad Networks

Horizontal ad networks are higher volume networks that offer a wider base of inventory for advertisers to tap into. Targeting is more generalized which means the quality of the traffic could be lower, but horizontal ad networks offer the ability to potentially serve billions of ad impressions per day.

While horizontal ad networks offer reach, scale, and some targeting capabilities, they're often referred to as blind networks as advertisers don't always know where exactly the impressions will serve.

This means that while the scale of reach could be higher than a vertical ad network, the value of impressions delivered will likely be lower.

4. Specialized or Inventory-Specific Ad Networks

Specialized networks focus on a certain type of inventory and could be device-specific—for example, mobile ad networks or video ad networks.

Mobile ad networks are marketplaces where publishers can sell ad units to advertisers on apps. Developers use a mobile ad network to monetize their app with ads and advertisers use mobile marketing to reach their audience through a different medium.

5. Performance and Affiliate Ad Networks

Performance and affiliate networks connect publishers with advertisers seeking to promote their services or products. Some large networks also provide training, reporting tools, and additional resources that empower marketers to be more successful.

Amazon is a good example of an affiliate ad network. It allows influencers and publishers to connect with sellers and earn commission on every purchase that their followers or readers make through one of their affiliate links.

Now that we've understood the types of ad networks, and how to choose an ad network suited to your needs, we look at the 14 best ad networks for publishers in 2024.

The 14 Best Ad Networks for Publishers in 2024

1. Publift

Publift is an award-winning, Google-certified publishing partner that helps digital publishers and app developers access premium ad partners that may have been beyond their reach otherwise.

Publift has been named among the top 10 of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and has won the best sell side technology category in The Drum's Digital Advertising Awards APAC 2019.

It has also been acknowledged by The Australian Financial Review and Statista as one of Australia's Fast Starters in 2020.

Publift's niche is catering to small and medium-sized publishers who may not always have the resources to navigate the complex world of digital advertising. It does this through its award winning programmatic advertising solution—Fuse—which integrates easily with a publisher's website. All it takes is replacing the existing ad tag with a single line of code and publishers are ready to optimize their website for maximum revenue.

Publift is known for its expertise in optimizing ad revenue for publishers by using innovative technologies and strategies, providing personalized support, and ensuring transparency and trust with its clients. At the time of publication, the advertising network received ratings of 4.7 stars on Trustpilot.

Publishers can improve their ad performance with Publift by implementing header bidding to increase competition among advertisers, optimizing ad placements for better visibility and engagement, and using ad refresh to serve fresh ads to users and increase revenue.

Publishers need to have a minimum of 500,000 monthly pageviews or minimum monthly earning of $2,000 and comply with Publift's content and quality guidelines. Publishers must also have an active Google Ad Manager account and be willing to work with Publift's team to optimize ad performance.

Model: CPM

Minimum Traffic: 500,000 monthly pageviews

2. Adcash

Adcash is a global ad network that runs more than 1,000 campaigns worldwide.

It offers a range of different ad formats, including popunders, native ads, push notifications, banners, and interstitial ads.

The platform also offers advertising technology that fights against digital ad fraud and is designed to bypass ad blockers.

A great Adcash feature is its Autotag capability that rotates three high-performing ad formats—popunder, interstitial, and in-page push—with just a single ad tag placement. Publishers can select a monetization goal such as increased earnings, better user experience etc. Autotag then adjusts the frequency and consistency of ads to maximize this goal.

Adcash is also known for its high level of technical support from experienced and multilingual account managers.The platform does not have preference for publishers of any particular size or scale—its solutions are designed to be customized to large, small, or medium-sized publishers alike.

All publishers need to do to integrate Adcash into their websites is register on the Adcash portal, integrate its tag into their website's HTML code and they're good to go. Adcash then works by optimizing their website for advertisement, finding the right ad content, size, and format and placing it on the publishers' website, and even deploying anti-adblock technology for greater ad viewability.

Publishers can join Adcash by registering on their platform. Publishers are responsible for making sure that they adhere to Adchash's guidelines, and for providing accurate information including their payment details.

Model: CPM, CPC, CPA Target

Minimum Traffic: None

3. Epom Market

Connecting advertisers and publishers operating across 15 verticals in more than 40 countries, Epom Market is a cross-platform ad network that serves over 13 billion ad impressions per month.

It works with publishers of all sizes, and helps monetize both website content and apps. 

Epom Market supports a range of ad formats, including standard banner ads, in-text ads, video ads, and mobile-specific ad units, using category-targeting for higher eCPM rates.

Epom Market offers a 30-day trial through which customers can receive up to 1 billion free impressions. 

Epom is especially useful for publishers trying to leverage the potential of rich media. Rich media ads can be resource-intensive and may take longer to load, which can negatively impact ad performance. Publishers can use Epom Market's Rich Media Ad Serving feature to optimize ad load times by compressing files, minimizing code, and utilizing browser caching.

Integrating Epom market with your content is a simple three-step process:

• Set up a publisher's account by registering on the Epom Market portal
• Insert the Epom ad tag into your website's HTML code
• Get ready to monetize your content.

Publishers must have a website or app with original content, have a clean traffic history, and comply with Epom Market's policies. This includes having original content and no illegal or adult content.

Model: CPM, CPC, CPA, Auction

Minimum Traffic: 500,000 monthly impressions

4. Clickadu

Clickadu is a digital advertising network for web and mobile channels, serving a range of innovative ad formats, including video pre-roll, skim, and pop-under ads. It offers both fully managed and self-service campaigns with advanced targeting options, including geo, site, and device type, to maximize ad revenue.

Integrating Clickadu with your website is a simple four-step process:

• Sign up with the Clickadu platform
• Wait for Clickadu to approve your website. The platform will need to vet your content to make sure it meets their criteria
• Insert the Clickadu ad tag on your website
• Start earning money from your content.

Publishers can improve their ad performance by utilizing high-performing ad formats such as push notifications, pop-unders, and native ads to capture user attention and increase engagement. Clickadu's Safe Ads feature uses advanced algorithms to analyze and categorize ads based on their content. 

By ensuring that ads are safe and relevant, this feature helps to reduce ad fatigue among users and leads to longer engagement with ads.

Publishers must have a website with good traffic quality and comply with Clickadu's content policies.

Model: CPM

Minimum Traffic: None

5. Ad Maven

While it is regarded as the best pop-under network for advertisers, AdMaven actually supports multiple ad formats, including mainstream display ads banner, lightbox, interstitial ads, and slider ads.

Serving hundreds of millions of ads in around 200 countries, it offers advertisers the opportunity to leverage geolocation-based targeting in their online advertising campaigns.

AdMaven works with publishers of all sizes, whether large, medium, or small. One of its strengths is its native push notifications feature that helps publishers improve their ad performance by providing a non-intrusive, highly targeted ad format. These ads have a high engagement rate and can generate additional revenue. 

Integrating AdMaven on your website is as simple as registering, inserting a code in your website, and starting earning. Once integrated, AdMaven's platform also allows for easy access to analytics and viewing of reports from its dashboard.

Publishers need to apply and be approved by AdMaven before they can start displaying ads on their website or app.

Model: CPA, CPI, CPL, CPC, CPM

Minimum Traffic: None

6. HilltopAds

Recommended for publishers with medium to high-traffic websites, HillTopAds' anti-ad blocker technology is very popular. The tech saves publishers and advertisers revenue that is often lost due to ad blocking software.

It offers a modern, simple-to-use interface that allows publishers to monetize several websites through one account.

HilltopAds works with publishers located across the globe publishing both mainstream and non-mainstream content. With its multilingual interface, publishers can create and manage ad campaigns in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, and more. It provides publishers with the tools they need to reach a global audience and maximize their ad performance.

To integrate HilltopAds on your website, follow these steps:

1. You need to first sign up on their portal. Once approved, add your site in the Manager Sites and Zones tab.
2. Next, you will be given a unique verification code which needs to be added to your website.
3. Once your website has been verified, click the Add Zone button and select the kind of advertisement you want to display. You will be given a code which needs to be placed at the appropriate place on your website.
4. And that's it. You are now ready to monetize your website with HilltopAds.

Publishers must have a website or app with original content, high traffic quality, and comply with HilltopAds' policies.

Model: CPA, CPM, CPC

Minimum Traffic: None

7. PopAds

PopAds is a pop-under ad network that advertises itself as the highest and fastest paying ad network in the pop-under arena.

Its ad servers are also considered to be faster and more secure than those of its competitors.

PopAds offers real-time consumer data to its clients, which can be leveraged to assist in ad layout optimization for more significant user acquisition. 

PopAds' landing page prefetching feature can help improve ad performance by reducing the loading time of landing pages. When a user clicks on an ad, the feature automatically starts loading the landing page in the background, before the user is redirected to the landing page. 

This prefetching allows the landing page to load faster when the user actually arrives at the page. Users are more likely to stay on a page that loads quickly and is easy to navigate, which can result in higher engagement and lower bounce rates. 

PopAds works with websites of all sizes, and any website that does not break US or Costa Rica law is eligible to partner with PopAds. However, the rates it offers depend on the quality of the content and the niche the publisher operates in. 

Websites with higher quality content, and operating in lucrative niches such as loans and insurance tend to get better rates.

To integrate PopAds on your platform, register with PopAds and insert their ad tag into your website's code.

To join PopAds as a publisher, you must have a website with substantial traffic, a good reputation, and high-quality content that complies with their terms and conditions.

Model: CPV, CPM

Minimum Traffic: None

8. BidVertiser

BidVertiser is an ad network that supports publishers across all formats, allowing them to monetize everything from websites to mobile apps to toolbars and even extensions. All ads placed on publisher inventory are scanned by BidVertiser internally, as well as by third-party apps for compliance, safety, and appropriateness. 

Publishers can improve their ad performance by conducting regular A/B testing to determine the most effective ad designs and incorporating targeting options such as geography, device, and user behavior. 

BidVertiser's Smartlink feature ensures that publishers get the highest possible revenue for each ad impression, by automatically optimizing the ad format and offer for each user. When a user clicks on an ad, Smartlink redirects them to the most relevant offer, based on their browsing history and other data.

BidVertiser allows minimum payouts as low as $10, allowing even small publishers to take advantage of the platform. Payment methods include wire transfer, Paypal, Wise, and even Bitcoin. In allowing payments via cryptocurrency, Bidvertiser stands among all the entries on our list.

To start using BidVertiser, all publishers need to do is sign up on their portal and integrate their ad tag on their web page.

Model: CPM, CPC

Minimum Traffic: None

9. Traffic Force

Traffic Force is a supply-side platform (SSP) that connects publishers with over 100 demand-side partners. This ad network sells targeted web and mobile web traffic on an impression basis.

Traffic Force offers a range of ad formats for publishers to implement, including display banners, pop-unders, IM floaters, and in-stream video ads. It employs OpenRTB technology to deal with traffic.

It also offers a high level of online security by utilizing advanced software to scan all ads that go live on its network. This ensures there is no malicious advertising. It also offers SSL secure ads.

Traffic Force works with publishers of all sizes and working in almost every niche. To improve ad performance, publishers can focus on optimizing their ad creatives with attention-grabbing headlines, high-quality images or videos, and clear calls-to-action. 

To use Traffic Force, you need to create a publisher account by signing up here.

Once your account has been approved, you will need to insert the Traffic Force ad tag on your page and you are good to go.

Model: CPM

Minimum Traffic: None

10. Adblade

Targeted at premium publishers and media agencies, Adblade counts FoxNews, Hearst Corporation, Yahoo!, and ABC among the more than 1,000 publishers that make up its ad network.

Adblade supports standard IAB ad units, as well as headlineNewsBullets® units, which it claims have three to five times the engagement rate of banner ads.

To join Adblade, you need to register as a publisher on their portal.

Adblade have three categories for publishers based on the traffic they receive on their website:

• 1-499,999 unique monthly page views
• 5,00,000-49,99,999 unique monthly page views
• 50,00,000+ unique monthly page views

It provides unique services tailored to each segment. 

Once you've entered your page traffic, you will be asked to fill up your contact information and payment details. Once approved, you can insert Adbalde's ad tag on your page and start monetizing your content.

An important performance-enhancing feature of Adblade is OptiServe, a proprietary technology developed by Adblade. It is a real-time optimization engine that helps improve ad performance for publishers by dynamically selecting the most appropriate ad creative to display to each user. 

OptiServe analyzes various data points in real-time, including the user's location, device, browsing behavior, and other contextual information, to determine which ad creative is most likely to engage that particular user. 

Model: CPM, CPC, Real-time bidding

Minimum Traffic: 500,000 monthly impressions

11. Undertone

Undertone partners with top brands and publishers across several verticals. It prides itself on its quality video marketing, creatives, and flexible integrations.

It specializes in serving high-quality mobile ads, in-app ads, and web ads on a range of devices.

Undertone provides three integration options:

• Client-side header bidding via pre-bid or Index exchange
• Service-side header bidding via Amazon's TAM
• Direct-tag via GAM

By implementing inventory in non-traditional ways, Undertone ensures zero cannibalization of existing ad products, along with 100 to 1,500% higher CPMs than standard display ads. Publishers can improve ad performance by using ​​responsive ad units that automatically adjust to fit the size of the device being used to view the website.

To join Undertone as a publisher, you must have original content that is updated frequently and complies with Undertone's content guidelines

Model: CPM, CPC, CPA, CPV

Minimum Traffic: 500,000 monthly impressions

12. Vibrant Media

Vibrant Media's USP is deploying natural language processing (NLP) and computational linguistics to detect not just the context, but also the emotional content of the page. This, in turn, allows it to match publisher inventory with ads that best suit the content, resulting in greater user engagement. 

Even with content that changes frequently and dynamically—such as news—Vibrant's Contextual Technology ensures that the ads displayed stay relevant and compliant with ad safety norms. 

To improve ad performance with Vibrant Media, publishers can consider incorporating engaging and relevant visuals and videos in their ads to capture the attention of viewers and increase click-through rates.

Vibrant offers two products for publishers:

• Inarticle: Allows ads to be seamlessly embedded within editorial content
• Inimage: Allows display ads to non-intrusively overlay editorial images to capture user attention

To partner with Vibrant, publishers need to share their details by filling up this contact form. If found eligible, the Vibrant sales team would get in touch with publishers. 

Publishers must have a strong engagement rate and a significant social media following to be considered for acceptance into the Vibrant Media ad network

Model: CPM, CPC

Minimum traffic: None

13. Adsterra

Adsterra is one of the most respected networks available to publishers in 2024. Publishers can monetize any traffic with Adsterra, from desktop/mobile website traffic to social/mobile app traffic via almost every available ad format, including pop-unders, in-page push notifications, native ads, banner ads, and video ad serving template (VAST) ads.

Here's how publishers can integrate Adsterra with their website:

• To begin with Adsterra, publishers need to fill up an online registration form. 
• Once an Adsterra account has been created, publishers can open their account and add their website by entering its URL.
• Next, publishers can select the ad unit they would like to display on each page.
• Once the website has been approved, publishers are sent code snippets which they need to add to their website to start monetizing it. 

Website approval is usually quick with Adsterra. 

With over 12,000 advertisers on board, the network boasts a 100% fill rate.

To join Adsterra, a publisher's website or app must have good traffic quality, preferably from Tier 1 countries.

Models: CPC, CPM, CPI, CPA, CPL

Minimum traffic: None

14. RevenueHits

RevenueHits allows publishers to monetize websites, mobile sites, add-ons, widgets, toolbar, and more. 

Its use of contextual and geo-targeted ad-serving technology makes it a great choice for publishers working in the EU who need to be careful of GDPR Compliance. 

RevenueHits' Advanced Technology Tool for Adblock monetization is designed to help publishers monetize their traffic even when users have ad-blocking software installed. This tool can detect ad blockers and then either replace blocked ads with alternative ads or deliver the ads directly to the user's browser. This allows publishers to ensure that their ads are seen by a wider audience, which can lead to higher click-through rates and improved ad performance.

RvenueHits has a simple four-step integration process:

• Sign up for the platform and enter your business name and the website URL.
• Specify the device details and the placement of ads on your page.
• Once you receive the tag code, copy and paste it into the backend of your website.
• You can now view and track traffic and monetization analytics for your website using RevenueHits' easy-to-use dashboard.

RevenueHits takes care of billing, charging advertisers on your behalf, and transferring the amount into your account once you've crossed the required threshold. 

Publishers can join RevenueHits by registering on their platform and complying with their content and quality guidelines.

Model: CPM, CPC, CPA, CPV, Auction

Minimum traffic: None

Final Thoughts

When it comes to choosing the right ad network, there are many things for publishers to consider.

You need to not only weigh up your target audience but also their device usage, your publishing niche, as well as the business model that best suits you and your team. 

Publift has been helping its clients realize an average 55% uplift in ad revenue since 2015, through the use of cutting-edge programmatic advertising technology paired with impartial and ethical guidance.

If you’re making more than $2,000 in monthly ad revenue, contact us today to learn more about how Publift can help increase your ad revenue and best optimize the ad space available on your website or app.

Best Ad Networks—FAQs

What Is the Best Ad Network for Publishers? 

Publift, a Google-certified publishing partner, is one of the best ad networks for publishers. It uses programmatic advertising technology to assist publishers in optimizing their ad revenue. It has been helping publishers see an increase of up to 55% in their revenue since 2015.

Is Google an Ad Network?

Google is not an ad network, but Google AdSense is. This ad network vs ad exchange guide can help publishers understand the difference between the two.

What Is Ad Network Integration?

Ad network integration is allowing an ad network's technology to dynamically place ads on your website or app. This is done by inserting a small line of code known as an ad tag in your web page or on your app.

What Is the Role of an Ad Network?

An ad network connects publishers with advertisers by matching the ad space available on a publisher's website or app with the right ads.