Video ad networks facilitate the connection between video advertisers and advertising placements on a range of websites. Video networks collect ad space from publishers and unsold ad inventory from advertisers, orchestrating seamless transactions to ensure the most relevant video ads occupy available spaces. What sets a video ad network apart is its specialization in video advertising. These networks exclusively handle video ad inventory and match them with compatible ad spaces (and advertisers and publishers).

Why choose a video ad network?

For publishers, a video ad network offers an efficient way to monetize unsold video ad space and maximize earnings. They connect publishers with advertisers offering the creative content needed to monetize websites, apps, games, and other digital properties through video ads.

Video ad networks streamline transactions through automation, eliminating the need for manual interactions with each advertiser and simplifying the monetization process.

Types of video ads

While functionally similar, there are two primary methods for delivering video ads: in-stream and out-stream.

In-stream video ads

In-stream video ads are integrated into video content and displayed within a dedicated player. These ads often appear as segments within videos on platforms like YouTube.

These ads typically range from 5 to 60 seconds in length and may offer users the option to skip them after a predefined period, usually between 5 to 30 seconds.

In-stream video ads can be linear or non-linear. Linear ads briefly pause the user’s content to display the ad, while non-linear ads are overlays that partially obscure the content with banners.

Linear ads are further categorized based on when they appear relative to the video content:

1. Pre-roll – these linear ads play immediately when the user starts the video or hits the play button, showing before the content begins. While effective, they carry a higher risk of being skipped.
2. Mid-roll – mid-roll linear ads appear at a specific point in the middle of the video content, typically determined by the publisher. They are less likely to be skipped as users are already engaged with the content but need careful placement to avoid disrupting the viewer’s experience.
3. Post-roll – post-roll linear ads displayed at the end of the video content. While the least disruptive, they have the lowest reach since many users exit the video before it concludes.

Out-stream video ads

Out-stream video ads are self-contained video advertisements that do not play within or over existing video content. Instead, they appear to users as video players embedded directly into web pages, independent of existing video-sharing platforms.

Originally developed for the mobile market, out-stream video ads have also proven to be effective advertising tools on desktop devices. Today, they are among the most widely used methods for monetizing websites.

Out-stream video ads can be categorized into three types: in-slide ads, in-banner ads, and in-content ads.

1. In-slide ads – in-slide ads are a type of video ad that appears in a corner of the webpage, typically within a small video player or mini-player. They are designed to capture the user’s attention without obstructing the content. These ads often employ a “scroll follow” feature, where the mini-player follows the user as they scroll up or down the page. While the configuration of in-slide ads can vary by the publisher, a common example is an auto-playing ad that begins in mute and offers a skip or close option after a few seconds.
2. In-banner ads – in-banner ads utilize the ad space of a website’s banner to display video creative instead of a standard banner ad. While they lack the scroll follow feature found in in-slide ads, in-banner video ads allow publishers to repurpose existing ad spaces and can offer enhanced interactivity to users.
3. In-content ads – in-content ads seamlessly integrate video ad content into a website’s editorial content. They typically load but do not auto-play until the user scrolls to the designated position on the page. In-content ads are particularly popular on websites with substantial editorial content, delivering a smooth and uninterrupted user experience.

In-content ads operate using one of four distinct models:

1. 0% visibility – in this model, the ad loads concurrently with the rest of the page, but the mini-player remains hidden until the user scrolls to the precise point of embedding. Auto-play functionality is triggered exclusively when the mini-player becomes active.
2. 50% visibility – upon page loading, the mini-player promptly activates and preloads the ad creative. However, it postpones auto-play until the user scrolls enough to bring at least 50% of the mini-player into view.
3. Over 50% visibility – this model shares similarities with the 50% Visibility approach, but with a slight variation. Auto-play commences only when over 50% of the mini-player becomes visible, ensuring that auto-play doesn’t trigger when the mini-player is exactly 50% visible.
4. 50% scroll-past visibility – in this model, which is akin to the 50% Visibility model, auto-play initiates under different visibility conditions. Instead of starting when 50% of the mini-player enters the user’s viewport, it activates when at least 50% of the mini-player exits the view, encouraging users to scroll back to the video content.

Distinguishing between in-stream video ads and out-stream video ads

The key contrast between in-stream and out-stream advertisements lies in the video player required for playback. In-stream ads necessitate the use of a dedicated platform’s video player, while out-stream ads are compatible with any website’s player.

Which is the most popular one?

Although in-stream ads once held sway, driven in part by the ubiquity of YouTube and video-sharing functionalities on specific social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, out-stream ads have since emerged as the reigning champions among video ad formats.

Their ascendancy is primarily attributed to their adaptability; they can seamlessly play on nearly any website, irrespective of dedicated video platforms. Furthermore, they offer publishers the flexibility to configure them even without prior expertise in video advertising, thus enhancing accessibility.

How to select the best video ad network?

For publishers aiming to monetize their websites or digital assets through a video ad network, it’s essential to evaluate specific features and functionalities to maximize revenue potential. Here are key factors to look for:

1. Comprehensive analytics – a video ad network should provide a comprehensive suite of performance measurement tools, including an analytics dashboard, various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and extensive data reporting capabilities. These features enable publishers to gather data on all aspects of their video ad campaigns. Additionally, the network should allow real-time adjustments to campaigns, allowing publishers to adapt to changing performance metrics as they occur.
2. Diverse video formats – a diverse range of video formats is crucial to ensure that video ads can effectively reach a wide audience. Users access content through various devices and browsers, making it essential for publishers to choose an ad network that supports multiple ad creative formats compatible with different platforms.
3. Precise audience targeting – effective audience targeting is a valuable tool offered by ad networks to publishers. The ability to precisely target specific audience segments enhances the relevance of video ads, increasing the chances of views, clicks, and conversions. High-precision audience targeting tools are essential for optimizing the revenue potential of your digital properties.
4. Brand safety tools – two essential components of brand safety involve eliminating low-quality ad inventory from view and ensuring the quality and relevance of served ads. Reputable ad networks should prioritize fraud prevention by offering publishers a curated selection of security features and brand safety tools. Examples include block lists and allow lists, granting publishers control over which advertisers and ad creatives appear in their ad spaces. Implementing brand-safe ad formats is another effective measure.
5. Strong customer and tech support – many ad networks offer a wide range of features that can be complex to navigate and fully utilize. High-performing ad networks should provide various support channels to assist customers in leveraging the network’s full capabilities. Essential tech support includes free access to comprehensive documentation explaining each function. More advanced support options may include a helpdesk system or live tech support, allowing customers to reach out to trained staff for guidance on using the ad network’s features.
6. Technology and infrastructure – regardless of the features offered, it’s crucial to ensure that an ad network possesses the necessary technology and infrastructure to deliver high-quality services. Video ad creatives require substantial data storage to accommodate multiple formats. Moreover, video ad networks must reliably serve ads to ad spaces with minimal errors and interruptions, promptly addressing any issues that hinder ad delivery.

Best video ad networks for publishers

Below is a list of the top 15 video ad networks that deliver outstanding performance for publishers. Explore the offerings of each network and understand why they are dependable choices.

Video ad network Vidazoo

Vidazoo stands as a leading platform for video content and yield management. It provides publishers with an array of comprehensive automation tools designed to handle multiple video placements and optimize demand, all within a single platform. As a certified Google Video Technology Partner, Vidazoo offers cutting-edge video solutions to over 200 publishers worldwide, delivering more than 6 billion unique impressions every month. Key features for publishers on Vidazoo include a fully customizable video player solution for monetizing video content, fully managed services, and access to both direct and marketplace demand to maximize monetization opportunities.

Video ad network Xandr

Formerly known as AppNexus, underwent a name change in 2018 while retaining its status as one of the longest-standing and most reputable players in the video ad network industry.

With a history dating back to 2007, Xandr ranks among the leading video ad marketplaces. It boasts partnerships with over 175 supply-side platforms (SSP) and integrations with more than 80 demand-side platforms (DSP) across the globe. Additionally, Xandr provides an optional sub-platform designed to facilitate direct transactions between advertisers and publishers.

One of Xandr’s noteworthy offerings is video header bidding, a coveted feature that enables publishers to expose their video ad inventory to multiple potential buyers simultaneously. This capability enhances the efficiency of ad space sales. While video header bidding is particularly advantageous for larger publishers with substantial unsold ad spaces, it remains accessible to all platform members, regardless of their size.

Video ad network Primis

A prominent video discovery platform, provides publishers with a wide range of video ad solutions and features, making it a trusted choice for numerous high-performing publishers globally. With a monthly reach of over 350 million unique impressions, it stands out in the industry.

Primis offers publishers a host of valuable features, including an extensive library of ad units, support for both in-stream and out-stream ads, and a comprehensive set of brand safety measures and technologies. These measures include robust ad fraud protection systems, ensuring a secure advertising environment for publishers.

Video ad network OpenX

OpenX operates as both an ad network and an ad exchange, connecting hundreds of partners in the advertising ecosystem, including SSPs and DSPs. The platform offers publishers the opportunity to monetize their content across various devices, such as desktop computers, mobile devices (phones and tablets), and televisions (including CTV and streaming TV ads).

One of OpenX’s standout features is its highly comprehensive real-time analytics engine, along with its advanced infrastructure. It boasts support for a wide range of video players and ad formats, encompassing both in-stream and out-stream options. Additionally, OpenX provides publishers with the OpenAudience customer targeting solution, a natively-developed tool that helps enhance reach, create audience profiles, and deliver highly relevant ads to their viewers.

Video ad network SelectMedia

SelectMedia is a comprehensive video ad network that specializes in cross-platform out-stream advertising within the Asian markets. This versatile platform encompasses a wide range of out-stream ad formats, including in-slide, in-banner, and in-content ads, in addition to video ads tailored for connected TVs.

With a client base of over 650 premium customers, SelectMedia has gained the trust of advertisers seeking reliable solutions. The platform offers valuable features like real-time bidding (RTB), a robust ad server, and an array of brand safety and anti-fraud measures. These safeguards are designed to protect both publishers and advertisers by effectively countering bots and other forms of invalid traffic.

SelectMedia primarily caters to medium and large customers, setting a minimum traffic requirement of 10,000 unique visitors per month for publishers seeking to join the platform. However, clients meeting this threshold can take advantage of low minimum payout requirements and access a variety of convenient payment models and methods.

Video ad network AdPlayer.Pro

AdPlayer.Pro is a relatively new entrant in the ad network arena, having been established in 2016. This platform specializes in web-based video ads, making use of cutting-edge HTML5 player technology to deliver compelling ad experiences. It aspires to serve as an all-encompassing ecosystem, catering to a wide spectrum of users including publishers, brands, companies, and ad agencies, among others.

One of the notable features of AdPlayer.Pro is its built-in HTML5 video player, which is highly versatile and capable of accommodating various ad formats. It seamlessly supports both in-stream and out-stream ads, adhering to the latest industry standards such as VPAID, VAST, and Google IMA.

In addition to its advanced video player, the network provides an extensive analytics and reporting engine. This empowers publishers with the ability to access real-time, daily, and weekly metrics related to ad performance key performance indicators (KPIs). Furthermore, the report generator is fully customizable, granting users the flexibility to craft entirely tailored performance reports as needed.

Video ad network Unruly

Unruly, a British adtech company, stands as one of the foremost global players in the realm of video ad networks. Its roots trace back to its inception in 2006 in the vibrant neighborhood of Shoreditch, London. What began as a modest startup comprising just three individuals has since burgeoned into a behemoth in the ad technology sector. Today, Unruly boasts access to an extensive array of demand-side platforms (DSPs) and maintains an expansive library teeming with diverse video ad creatives.

One of Unruly’s key offerings is its solution for enabling publishers, including those lacking video content, to harness the potential of video ads for monetizing their digital assets. The platform, along with its trove of ad content, is impeccably aligned with consumer protection and brand safety standards. This commitment is underscored by its compliance with the Better Ads Standards (BAS) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ensuring a top-tier, relevant, and secure experience devoid of fraudulent elements.

Video ad network PubMatic

PubMatic, headquartered in California, is a prominent player in the realm of online advertising. With its extensive reach extending to over 200 DSPs and media buyers spanning the globe, PubMatic has established itself as a pivotal figure in the industry.

At the heart of PubMatic’s offerings lies its video ad network, a preeminent programmatic advertising solution. This platform presents publishers with a user-friendly interface, a consistent influx of top-tier ad creatives, highly competitive compensation structures, and the valuable opportunity to access a private marketplace (PMP) brimming with premium deals.

With a presence in seven key locations across the United States, Europe, and Asia, PubMatic has solidified its position as a global force. It has earned the trust of some of the world’s most prominent publishers, including industry giants like eBay, the Huffington Post, and various other high-ranking ComScore firms.

Video ad network Adsterra

Established in the year 2013, Adsterra stands as a global advertising network with a rich history of fruitful collaborations involving advertisers and publishers across the spectrum. Their services encompass an astonishing reach of over 30 billion ad impressions each month, with a remarkable 70% of these ads being served on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. Impressively, Adsterra boasts a clientele featuring more than 13,000 brands and 21,000 publishers who actively harness the power of the platform.

For publishers seeking to join Adsterra, they are welcomed into an ecosystem renowned for its user-friendliness. The platform offers one of the most intuitive dashboards and interfaces available, ensuring an exceptional user experience (UX) and granting publishers a considerable degree of control over their ad campaigns. Notably, all ads disseminated through this platform benefit from robust protection measures against malware, ad fraud, scams, and other threats to brand safety, courtesy of internally developed security software.

Furthermore, as a boon for publishers, Adsterra boasts one of the industry’s most approachable minimum payment thresholds, ensuring that even smaller earnings can be swiftly accessed. Additionally, the platform offers short payout frequencies, enabling more frequent disbursements, and presents a plethora of payment methods, ranging from conventional bank transfers to cryptocurrency transactions.

Video ad network Magnite (previously Rubicon Project)

The merger of Rubicon Project and Telaria in December 2019 resulted in the creation of Magnite, an advertising platform that is now the largest independent SSP in the world. While Magnite focuses on providing omnichannel SSP services, its video ad network is particularly successful, serving over 65% of the top global publishers including Bloomberg Media, CNN, ESPN, and the Economist. Although it primarily caters to large publishers, requiring a minimum of 5 million monthly pageviews for eligibility, Magnite allows for the delivery of various types of video ads across different devices. This includes in-stream and out-stream ads, in-app interstitials, rewarded video ads on mobile games, and more. In addition, Magnite offers unique monetization options like ad podding, which groups multiple ads into a single segment similar to a television ad break.

Video ad network Fyber

If you’re a publisher focused on making money from mobile platforms, you might be familiar with Fyber. Formerly known as RNTS Media, Fyber is a German company that specializes in video ads of all types and formats for mobile devices.

Fyber offers a way for publishers to earn money from their mobile apps and other digital properties by using VPAID ad tags. Integrating Fyber into mobile apps is made easy with their SDK, which is accompanied by detailed documentation.

The Fyber ad network gives publishers access to more than 180 reputable DSPs and delivers ads in various formats, including in-stream, in-app videos, rewarded videos, interstitials, and rich media.

Video ad network Meta Audience Network / Facebook Audience Network

The Facebook Audience Network (FAN), also referred to as The Meta Audience Network, is Facebook’s exclusive ad network. It provides an opportunity for publishers to earn money by placing video ads on Facebook. By joining FAN, publishers can utilize Facebook’s in-stream video ad system. While FAN is compatible with all platforms that support Facebook, it is most profitable on mobile devices because of the large amount of mobile traffic on the social media platform.

Frequently asked questions about video ad network

• What are the steps to add video advertisements to my website? To monetize your website with video ads, follow these steps: sign up on the preferred platform, purchase a subscription, configure your website to accept video ads (e.g., set up a relevant media player), select video ad creatives, test the player, and publish.

• How much can I earn from video ads? The revenue from video ads depends on factors like the type of video ads (in-stream or out-stream), ad format, chosen ad network, and payment models offered. Ad revenue can be influenced by market trends and viewer interests. Use your ad network’s analytics functions for an estimate.

• Which is better, in-stream or out-stream ads? Out-stream ads have become more popular due to their versatility and non-intrusive nature. While in-stream ads are standard for platforms like YouTube, out-stream ads are easier to set up and can fit a wider range of websites, including blogs and editorial content.
• Do video ads perform better than non-video ad types? According to a 2018 Google study, video ads have higher user engagement levels compared to image-based ads. Video ads retain user attention better and provide a clearer understanding of advertised products, leading to higher impression rates, increased chances of conversions, and more successful and higher-paying ad campaigns.