The affiliate glossary ↗AFFDude / Field notes
Ad network
In plain English
What does Ad network mean?
A company that buys ad inventory from many publishers and sells it to advertisers, usually with self-serve targeting and bidding.
For affiliates an ad network is a traffic source: you deposit money, pick a format (push, pop, native, banner), set targeting and a bid, and buy visits. Networks differ in formats, GEOs, minimum deposit, fraud filtering and whether they let you target specific publishers. The ad network directory on this site compares all of that.