I see any new ad networks everyday, I guess it’s good business. But I always wonder how easy or hard it is to start an ad network.
I guess the hardest part would probably be getting advertisers to use their ad network. How do they do it?
Another thing I don’t understand is how networks can work together with. Mediation. Do they go to one another and make deals to share their ads? Do they right special apis that allow them to access each others ads?
Hi,
We find advertisers by simply approaching them. We do that in many ways - online marketing, Linkedin, events, conferences, etc. The secret is creating a direct and personal relationship with the advertisers. On the other hand, at first a lot of networks take campaigns from affiliate networks. Those campaigns pay a lot less, but they are available and usually very easy to use. Once an ad network matures, if it wants to go “the extra mile” and become more competitive, it has to create direct relationships with advertisers.
As for mediation - it’s usually in the best interest of both parties to integrate. Mediation platforms can offer the publisher more options to choose from, and the ad network gets access to more publishers. A win-win situation for all, provided that the technical aspects are solved.
For CPI ad networks that have offers from apps and games, getting advertisers seems fairly easy IMO. If you can prove that you have scale and performance, they will work with you. The risk is on your end since they only pay on the install.
For brand based ad networks, it is much more difficult. You need salespeople with connections that sell into large advertising companies and agencies.
Agree with jonathan.
Ad networks benefit by getting access to new publishers, or continuing relationships with existing publishers as they move to mediation. Large publishers have no choice but to use a mediation platform, either third party or home-grown. They simply have too much traffic for one ad network to handle on their own. If ad networks choose not to work with mediation platforms, they’re shooting themselves in the foot.
you mean DSPs right?..my ad network is new and I don’t use affiliate networks, we use DSPs and opitmize out the bad campaigns and our eCPMs are $2++
No ad network is 100% direct, not even you guys, I should know because appnext is connected into my ad network and we serve eachother campaigns.
Of course no network is 100% direct. But you should always strive to get there.
Technically, it’s not super hard to start a network. However, getting a critical mass of publishers onboard and advertisers to run campaigns at the same time is probably the biggest issue (chick & egg thing). Not to mention making sure they are driving quality installs for advertisers and also making sure their publisher partners are getting good eCPMs and fill rates.
Plus, these days, with literally thousands of networks out there, it’s hard to get the attention of advertisers as they’re bombarded with 100s of emails per day with new offers. Hopefully this will change in the future with increased transparency.
This is true - the competition is tough and the market rapidly evolving. To stay ahead of the game, we at AdBuddizare constantly making technological advances, to attract advertisers and publishers alike 
Technological advances like what?
like plugging their adnetwork in all the posts on this forum
Hi dav800,
For instance, we are constantly improving our machine learning algorithms, to drive the best revenue possible for our publishers. Since we are indeed not the only active ad network in this forum, you’ll understand that I cannot go into too much detail about the technical specifics
Other changes/additions to our ad solution will be announced in the near future, so stay tuned. Feel free to PM me or send me an email ([email protected]) if you want more information about our current service 