Best Ad Network

[casbboy]

I am sure this has been answered 100 times within the articles on this forum but: here it is again, with details required:

What is the best Ad Network? ValuClick, CJ, Fast Click, what?
What Ad Networks offer payments based on CPM?
What are the Requirements of each Ad Network?


I ask this because I have a site that did a total of 116 Uniques for August, 562 for September, 1400 for October, and now looks to be like 6000 for November. I have about 1600 page loads a day[25,000 hits]. I think I am pretty close to qualifying for some of the big boys and want to know the best routes to go.

However, I do not plan on doing pop-up or pop-under banners at all.

Thanks
Ryan

[OnlineGuide]

There is no best network. They all have imperfections in some way, shape, or form. As with all things in life, you have tiers.

Tier 1: Tribal Fusion, Fast Click, Burst, 24/7 Real Media
Tier 2: Casale, RealTechNetwork, Max Online, RightMedia, Rydium
Tier 3: BUDS, JoeTec, RealCastMedia, GorillaNation, ValueClick
Tier 4: FocusIN, EzzPublishers, BannerSpace, ClickXchange, Adtegrity, BraveNet, Undertone Network
Tier 5: ValueAd, CompactBanner/Adinfinity (same company), ClixGalore

I think I covered most of the known ones. It's by no means a scientific chart, but I put it together based on rates, difficulty of becoming accepted, and quality of advertisements. Tiers 1 - 3 are, overall, good ad networks. Anything below three either means their ad quality, ease of entrance into their network, or questionable business in the past is in question. Some networks work better than others, and some just do not fit a site well. I did not include the European networks since most do not offer North American campaigns. It is also important to mention that RightMedia, Tribal Fusion, Max Online, Bust (besides UK), and 24/7 Real Media (besides UK) do not pay well (I.E. less that .07 CPM) for non-us based traffic.

[casbboy]

My site is basically all US. So, those systems would be fine for me as in most my traffic is us based?

Thanks
Ryan

[Cutter]

Tribal Fusion is usually considered the best. If you can get on them.

[OnlineGuide]

Originally Posted by Cutter

Tribal Fusion is usually considered the best. If you can get on them.

True, but it they have two problems. One, they have A LOT of defaults, so you need to have a back-up network so that you can at least for their defaults. If none is provided, then PSA are shown. Problem two, see problem one.

I would recommend that you apply starting with tier one and work your way down, not the other way (like a lot of sites do). First start with Tribal Fusion, then Fastclick, then Casale, then Realtechnetwork, then etc... There is strength in the numbers game, but the only problem that I see is the # of uniques you receive per day. I know Tribal Fusion and FastClick need like a 1000 per day or so. Starting off with the second tiers are not a bad way to go either. But use the third tier and lower for defaults.

[lo0ol]

I consider the top four to be Tribal Fusion, FastClick, Casale Media, and Burst. They can be swapped into different positions depending on what you need (different networks have different strengths).

[theguy]

i think adtegrity is better than tier4
it should 2 or 3
they are legit and they do pay "not much but they do pay"

[ryanw]

ValueClick wasn't mentioned in any ratings. I've been with them for over 5 years, and they have been reliable, accommodating, and open to negotiation. Their rates sometimes leave something to be desired, but I'd place them at a 2nd tier level for almost any situation. What they do leave out from their network is all of the annoying flashing/alert/etc ads which is a bonus (at least from my experience). What is bad is that Active-X sometimes jump into their pop inventory...kind of easy to remove once you find out what campaign has them.

I just stopped running pop ads and am happy with their CPC/CPM rates atm.

[N_F_S]

Originally Posted by OnlineGuide

There is no best network. They all have imperfections in some way, shape, or form. As with all things in life, you have tiers.

Tier 1: Tribal Fusion, Fast Click, Burst, 24/7 Real Media
Tier 2: Casale, RealTechNetwork, Max Online, RightMedia, Rydium
Tier 3: BUDS, JoeTec, RealCastMedia, GorillaNation, ValueClick
.

Can I ask you why did you put RealTechNetwork on tier 2? I'm using BUDS now, and the rates are higher, anyone can confirm what rates are they getting with RealTechNetwork?

N_F_S

[casbboy]

I can almost guarentee I will be receiving over 10,000 uniques per month at the end of this month.

I will wait it out till after Christmas to test my luck with the banner networks.

thanks
ryan

[scotlandforvisit]

Who is undertone-do they go by another name?

[OnlineGuide]

Adtegrity is at number 4 due to the high amounts of active-x. I have had to ask them several times for removing them.ValueClick is at tier 3, from my own opinion. RealTechNetwork I placed at number 2 because of the ease of use, variety of creatives, large geo-base accepted, relatively fast paypal payment (which they ate all the fees), and their rates. I checked BUDS a few weeks ago, and I saw a good amount of banners at .14 CPM. Whether that was just what was available at that time, I do not know, but that was what I used for my own judgment in my considerations in the stated tier structure. Again, I do not know what rates you are receiving from all the networks you use, but I am averaging in the low thirty's in banners and skys, half page over a buck, and rectangles are in the forty’s. I spread my traffic around to a few different networks, but I can only say from my experience that I've been treated well by RealTechNetwork, FastClick, Burst, and Casale; not to mention some international networks. But again, this is just based on MY opinion. Other members may have different feelings on any of the companies that I had listed. That is fine, but I am just looking it from my perspective and data that I have.

[levik]

Let's not forget that you can put more than one ad on a page. Also, seems like you've got yourself a pretty sticky site (average of 8 pageviews per unique), which means you will end up getting a lot of defaults from any network you put into top spot.

With a leaderboard + skyscraper + below the scroll banner you ought to be able to make $1 CPM on the first 3-5 pageviews by each visitor, if you play your cards right. You may not get into TF with your traffic levels, but depending on site topic, FastClick and Casale Media are a distinct possiblity (I'd rank both as tier 1).

Supplement it all with some AdSense, and you have a solid earnings strategy.

[casbboy]

Yeah,

The site I am talking about is this:
www.canmag.com


Also mentioned in the sig.

Thanks
Ryan