Having your own ad network is a pretty big competitive advantage.
Ad networks make it possible for advertisers to buy digital ads across a slew of publisher sites and apps, scaling their digital ad buys across a growing number of websites without having to deal with each publisher directly. For publishers everything is as simple as those: they want to increase inventory demand and ad revenues.
There are two types of ad networks: those who specialize in one type of ad format and those who sell just about anything. In addition to standard IAB ad units, some examples of very popular ad formats are native display and video ads, in-image ads,recommendation widgets and in-text ads.
Video is the fastest growing digital advertising unit, expected to grow at about 24 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014 to 2018, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers report “Global entertainment and media outlook 2014 to 2018”.
If you want to jump into the train of revenue growth, video ad network may be a good point to start.
Preparation
- Choose Video Ad Server
A proper Ad Server enables you to launch and manage complex and targeted video ad campaigns on mobile and desktop within one ad serving platform. Consider using the White Label Ad Server from Epom with customizable features. Ad Server should be settled before you find advertisers so that you could quickly provide them with traffic.
2. Find advertisers and publishers
Make a research: find relevant websites via Alexa Top 500 Global Sites. You can find alternatives to a popular websites, if you are looking for publishers in a particular niche. Check the traffic volume with SimilarWeb, but note that some sites look small based on volume, but are actually part of a large media group.
A common way of partnering with publishers is networking or cold calling. Here’s a brief checklist for publisher selection:
- Unique and frequently updated content, absence of popups and intrusive ads.
- The content written in English or in one of Major European languages (German, French, Spanish, etc.).
- Minimum 25% site traffic coming from the US, CA, and EU countries.
- Avoid adult content.
3. Evaluate traffic from publishers
Take a close look at the overall amount of your traffic: 20–100 million monthly impressions is good enough to start an ad network.
Don’t neglect ad network promotion to ensure constant traffic growth. A good option will be using self-serve platforms for media buying where you can choose relevant traffic sources and website categories.
Metrics to Consider In Video Ad Serving
When you’ve got everything ready for video, it’s time to discover the most important metrics.
- VAST/ VPAID tags
The ad server, which stands amid of the media buying process, shares the advertising tag with different publishers to enable delivery and performance tracking across all of them.
There are two types of commonly used tags in video advertising: VAST and VPAID.
VAST is a set of standardized code that is placed on the publisher’s site or in the app. It communicates to the ad server what type of ad to display based on the targeting criteria.
VPAID tags can have more complex elements, like interactive features, and more advanced measurement capabilities to assess viewability and engagement. Most publishers accept VAST tags, but only some accept VPAID.
2. Waterfall Algorithm
This algorithm determines the optimal order of ad delivery. In Epom we have a tailored solution called “simultaneous waterfall” — it allows to request demand side tags simultaneously, thus saving a lot of time for unit to get filled and shown to a specific user.
3. Ad Formats
The evolution of video formats was influenced by users’ viewing behavior and their willingness to interact with ads. The most paid-for ad formats are as follows:
Outstream
This is an auto-playing or user-initiated video that is inserted into a traditional display ad space, typically between paragraphs of text or images. They are designed to play only when in view, which ensures extremely high viewability.
Video Slider
This 100% viewable ad format encompasses highly customizable in-content video ads with advanced features. Best part — no video player needed. The unit can be white-labeled for a specific brand or campaign needs, which delivers additional value to advertisers.
In-read
Video unit is placed into the middle of editorial articles for optimal user experience. The video plays when visible on the user’s screen.
Push up/push down video banners
Once the user hovers over the banner, a video expands to a nearly full-screen view and it remains open until user moves his mouse away.
4. Anti-fraud protection
If your ad server is integrated with one of the these digital ad fraud checkers, you have an additional advantage:
- WhiteOps;
- DoubleVerify;
- MOAT;
- Forensiq;
- The MediaTrust.
5. Customizable Video Player
The best option is to look for an ad server, which allows selling different types of inventory: display ads, mobile ads and video ads (e.g. Epom Ad Server). Such servers can provide you with their own video player to serve ads in a more sophisticated and customizable manner.
Video advertising is something that will bring you solid revenue if you spend some time to study the rulebook. Hope these tips will help you successfully embrace video advertising!