9 Best video ad networks for publishers in 2023

Video ads have become increasingly popular in recent times, making video marketing more prominent across the globe. But what’s so great about video ads? If you’re in two minds about whether to implement video ads in your app, here’s a blog post that can clear your confusion.

• What are video ads and why are they so popular?
• Benefits of video ads for publishers
• Types of video ads: Instream vs. outstream
  • Instream video ads
  • Outstream video ads
• What is a video ad network?
• 9 best video ad networks for publishers

What are video ads and why are they so popular?

Video ads are a marketing strategy where businesses use video content to promote their product or service. They believe that video ads get more engagement than any other ad format. People prefer watching an informative video ad than anything else, which creates more visibility and reach, in turn, resulting in a higher number of conversions.

As publishers, this means an opportunity to drive better ad revenue. Clearly, it’s a win-win!

Let’s look at the benefits of video ads exhaustively.

Benefits of video ads for publishers

• Video ads convince users better

Consumer traffic on video content is expected to grow more in the future. Moreover, 84% of people have said that they find video ads more convincing when it comes to buying a product. This says that employing video ad formats in your app or website is highly beneficial.

• Advertisers love video ads

It is natural that advertisers now prefer video ads over other formats because of their increasing popularity among users. Thus, they are on the lookout for more publishers with support for video ads and are even ready to pay more!

• Video ads improve CPMs

The more interesting video ads are, the better it is to improve click-through rates. Since they are more noticeable and likely to be watched, it leads to better CPMs. Also, did you know that video ads generate 5X more CPM than standard banner ads?

• Video ads mean better engagement rates

This one’s a no-brainer. Users are interested in video ads more; hence, they tend to engage with them more. As publishers, you can use pricing models that involve user interactions, such as CPI, CPC, and CPA. The more users engage with the ads, the more likely it is for your ad revenue to grow.

Additionally, the rise of mobile advertising has been a catalyst in the increasing popularity of video ads. As more people have started to use mobile devices, advertisers’ reach has improved, thus improving the chances of better monetization for publishers.

Types of video ads: Instream vs. outstream

There are two types of video ads - instream and outstream.

Instream video ads

These ads play within video content. For instance, if you already have video content on your website, you can embed ads into it to start monetizing. The key is to stay relevant to the consumers by placing ads that they can relate to.

Outstream video ads

Outstream video ads play outside the video content like any other ad format. There are multiple types of ad units in outstream video ads.

• In-page: These types of video ads play in a customized video player set up within a website.
• In-banner: These ads contain a video player within a banner ad unit.
• In-text: These ads appear in-between the content of a website as the user scrolls through it.

There are also interstitial video ads used specifically by app publishers. They are displayed in full screen, muted by default, and have a dismiss button.

Now, the question that arises is - which one is more beneficial?

Generally, outstream video ads are more advantageous for myriad reasons. They are less intrusive and can be placed in websites and apps. Most importantly,

you can tell whether users watched them because the ads pause when the user moves away.

However, the bottom line is that you still need to find advertisers who can deliver highly relevant ads, whether instream or outstream. Video ad networks can help you with this.

What is a video ad network?

A video ad network is a pool of video impressions. It connects publishers who want to sell video ad space to advertisers who want to buy it to promote their product or service through video content.

It’s not easy to find the right advertisers all the time. Even if you do, you must have detailed analytics at hand to gauge ad performance. Essentially, you must also be able to keep fraudsters, spoofers, and unauthentic advertising partners from buying your ad space. Video ad networks help you with all this and more. Now, how do you choose the right one?

When you’re finalizing a video ad network, there are some traits you must consider.

Read our blog post that summarizes all the ad network features that are essential for publishers.

Finally, let’s take a look at the top 9 video ad networks.

9 best video ad networks for publishers

Below are the top five ad exchange companies in India and their features.

AdMedia

AdMedia has an ad network platform that sells impressions to advertisers who use the platform. It works with contextual targeting to find the right audience and also has its own demand partners to choose video ads from.

AdPlayer.Pro

AdPlayer.Pro is an outstream video ad network that is excellent for increasing ad revenue. It supports in-app and in-page video ads with proven video monetization strategies. It also has targeting options that display ads only to relevant users, thus retaining user experience.

Facebook Audience Network

Facebook Audience Network or FAN serves instream video ads that you can use in your own content. FAN is especially great for mobile video ads as most Facebook users are on mobile devices.

Fyber

Fyber offers multiple video ad formats and works based on real-time auctions. Its programmatic system allows users to perform A/B tests to identify the right placements and formats that yield the highest revenue.

Magnite

Earlier called Rubicon Project, Magnite is one of the best video ad networks for publishers as it offers global premium demand. It serves some of the biggest publishers in the world through its programmatic demand. By leveraging the video ad technology and video header bidding, it has significantly increased ad revenues.

OpenX

OpenX can run both instream and outstream video ads with header bidding, open auction (RTB), and private marketplaces (PMP) services. It also comprises campaign optimization tools and supports custom targeting features.

Primis

Primis is a video discovery platform for publishers to boost their ad revenue. Hundreds of publishers already use this platform because of the control they get over channels, categories, and keywords to display highly-relevant ads.

SelectMedia

One of the top video ad networks in Asia, SelectMedia is the best option for Asian publishers. This is a useful platform to generate better ad revenues with outstream ads, multiple video ad formats, and yield optimization tools.

Unruly

Unruly is an IAB-approved platform that gives you access to DSPs and trading desks, and offers instream and outstream video ads. It also includes tools to analyze the performance of your ad units.

As a publisher, your goal is to monetize your inventory in the best way possible. You can experiment with video ad networks to find the right one. However, don’t forget that those with appropriate analytical tools help you make data-driven decisions, which are critical for increasing ad revenue.