Advertising has made the Internet a commercial powerhouse
and remains the most compelling aspect of Internet business
for many Web professionals.
Influencing everything from what we purchase to who we
vote for, advertising innovation continues unabated. And quite
naturally, advertising service providers in the market are
becoming more sophisticated. Witness the influx of both adserving
platforms and advertising exchanges, even the use of
behavioral targeting to generate more clicks from qualified Web
users — and that’s just the beginning.
While most advertisers restrict their budgets to the familiar
big three (Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!), it is essential to look
at vendors outside those that generate the most attention. These
lesser-known networks and providers can yield immense value,
often providing a higher return on advertising investment
thanks to a greater focus on managed services and targeted,
niche advertising — something the big three provide but at another
premium.
A mix of CPM, CPA, and CPL and CPC-based ad networks
and even some non-standard or non-traditional networks (e.g.
those focusing on pop-ups, expandables, mobile, paid reviews,
etc.) are included in Website Magazine’s August Top 50 of Alternative
Advertising Marketplaces.
You will notice that many large providers (including those
provided by Google, AOL, Yahoo!, Microsoft and others) are
absent from the list. These providers were excluded from the
Top 50 due to the broad reach of their advertising services (ad
serving, ad networks and ad exchanges) and lack of exclusive
focus on advertising. These providers clearly garner the bulk
of ad spend but the purpose here is to highlight competition in
the marketplace.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of assembling a list of
alternative providers is they are not all exclusively pure-play ad
networks. For example, one might provide services for both
affiliate marketers and advertisers or specialize in a particular ad
serving medium, such as mobile or pop-ups. Considering the
limitations, what is illuminated here is the exposure these companies
receive among their prospective clients. It is equally important
to remember that most advertising networks cannot exist
without content partners or affiliate publishers. In the end, the
strength (quality and volume) of a network’s traffic is a key element
to success, and how every network should be measured.
Website Magazine’s Top 50 rankings are a measure of a website’s
popularity. Ranks are calculated using a proprietary method
that focuses on average daily unique visitors and page views
over a specified period of time. The site with the highest combination
of factors is ranked in the first position.
1. shopping.com
2. superpages.com
3. pricegrabber.com
4. cj.com
5. bidvertiser.com
6. local.com
7. miva.com
8. looksmart.com
9. payperpost.com
10. shareasale.com
11. chitika.com
12. reachlocal.com
13. federatedmedia.net
14. valueclick.com
15. admob.com
16. linkworth.com
17. genieknows.com
18. marketleverage.com
19. adonnetwork.com
20. revenuegateway.com
21. maxbounty.com
22. mediawhiz.com
23. mammamediasolutions.com
24. industrybrains.com
25. brightroll.com
26. bannerconnect.net
27. adbrite.com
28. clickbank.com
29. adengage.com
30. accelerator-media.com
31. tribalfusion.com
32. burstmedia.com
33. vibrantmedia.com
34. 7search.com
35. valueclickmedia.com
36. tradedoubler.com
37. zedo.com
38. blogads.com
39. kontera.com
40. revenue.net
41. clickbooth.com
42. 247realmedia.com
43. cpxinteractive.com
44. marchex.com
45. paypopup.com
46. zanox.com
47. pheedo.com
48. kanoodle.com
49. addynamix.com
50. affiliatefuture.co.uk