Top 8 Ad Networks for eCommerce Sites

Increasingly, publishers are using eCommerce monetization to diversify revenue streams and increase income. Indeed, the trend of publishers using ecommerce to make more money online has been in the ascendancy since 2021. The abundance of choice out there, it can make it difficult to find the perfect network that fits your needs. Paid ads remain the best way to increase brand awareness and impact earnings. Thus, it is vital that you make a good choice. To help you decide on the right ad network this article will take you through the top 8 ad networks for eCommerce sites, taking notes of their features, pros, and cons.

First, though, we’ll explore what ecommerce advertising is and how you can use it in your marketing campaigns.

Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Not much time to spare? Here’s a quick summary of our top 8 ad networks.

What is eCommerce Advertising?

eCommerce advertising helps publishers increase awareness of other companies’ products and services to improve sales. However, publishers can also use advertising to further their own development. Publishers pay ad networks like CodeFuel, Google Ads or YouTube Ads to show their ads online. Payments are made to publishers based on certain goals and metrics agreed upon beforehand. These metrics can include:

• Impressions - The advertiser pays a fixed amount to publishers based on the number of times an ad is viewed or the number of impressions it accumulates.

• Placement - Advertisers pay publishers a fee for hosting an ad on their website or blog.

• Clicks - The publisher receives a fee from the advertiser when users click on ads.

Deciding How Your eCommerce Advertising Fits in With Your Marketing Strategy

It is vital that you have some idea how you will fit ecommerce advertising into your overall strategy. The good news is, there are several ways you can use paid social media ads to your advantage. You can:

• Use custom ads to address the issue of cart abandonment to and target customers who have not completed the purchasing process.

• Increase website traffic for specific sales and offers, for example Christmas or Black Friday.

• Use them to reach customers in new locations and markets.

• Do A/B testing to discover customer preferences so you can improve and develop your strategy.

• Help turn visitors into customers and increase your conversion rate by retargeting people who have shown interest in products but have not purchased anything.

To devise an effective advertising strategy, it’s a good idea to test and measure your ROI often, by testing one or two channels at a time using a small budget. Then you can scale up the budgets for those ads that are converting well. If you don’t take this approach you could end up wasting a lot of money.

Now it’s time to discover some of the top ad networks you can choose from.

Top 8 Ad Networks for eCommerce Sites

1. CodeFuel

CodeFuel is a fantastic ad network, founded in 2014. It offers users terrific value for money and multiple effective methods to monetize online content and improve user experience. Their experts have a wide range of experience and work to make a success of your marketing campaign. CodeFuel has a huge list of over a thousand publishers and much experience to draw upon to boost your online revenue.

Main Features

• Website monetization.

• Intent-based searching.

• News feed monetization.

• Search mediation.

• App monetization.

Pros

• Fast, effective results.

• Streamlined processes.

• Good value for money.

• You can manage and monitor campaigns from one dashboard.

• Various options for monetization.

• Will integrate with over 1200 publishers, giving you access to the best Google Adsense programs.

• Excellent, responsive customer service.

Cons

• No in-depth visualizations or analytics.

• Need a medium-sized audience to get visitors with high intent.

2. Google Ads

Formerly Google AdWords, you can use Google Ads to monetize SERPs by placing paid ads on the results pages. You can also advertise on popular websites to increase brand awareness. This can help drive up your online revenue and gain more customers.

Main Features

• Displays ads on search engine results pages (SERPs).

• The Google Display Network (GDN) let’s you display ads on popular websites, thereby increasing brand awareness and revenue.

• Displays auction insights.

• Multiple automated bidding systems.

Pros

• Huge reach because the search engine processes over 1 billion searches per month. You can use this to drive more traffic to your website and increase revenue.

• Great return on ad spend (ROAS) at a ratio of 2:1.

• It is affordable for small and medium-sized publishers who have fewer resources and limited budgets.

• Simple integration.

Cons

• Limited customer service.

• It takes time and effort to learn how to use Google Ads and familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of it.

• There are strict standards for you content.

• You will face greater competition.

3. YouTube Ads

YouTube has over 2 billion monthly users, so their ad network provides vast reach for a superb opportunity to monetize your content and drive traffic to your website. You can also take advantage of that reach to increase brand awareness.

Main Features

• Skippable in-stream ads.

• Non-skippable in-stream ads.

• Video discovery ads.

• Banner and overlay ads.

• Audience targeting.

Pros

• Good support and great targeting capabilities.

• Access to a diverse, vast audience.

• High audience engagement.

Cons

• Can be prohibitively expensive for smaller publishers because the videos need to by high-quality to grab people’s attention.

• Video ads may irritate users so they may be interrupted.

4. Facebook Ads

This network has vast reach and thus can be an asset when you’re promoting your brand. Facebook offers a wide variety of ads to help you meet your campaign goals. Smart targeting allows you to drive new and repeat purchases from customers to increase your online earnings.

Main Features

• Third-party tag integration.

• Creative hub.

• Facebook analytics.

• Audience insights.

• Campaign budget optimization.

• Ability to schedule ads.

• You can manage your publisher list and block list.

• Automated rules.

• Location targeting.

Pros

• Provides you with a vast potential audience.

• Can be a fantastic way to find the perfect audience for your niche.

• The targeting is first-rate.

• You can easily track the amount you spend, so it is easy to budget for Facebook ad campaigns.

• Facebook ads is one of the best networks for video ads which can help increase customer engagement.

Cons

• As a result of more competition, it’s becoming more expensive to run Facebook ad campaigns.

• Effective marketing and advertising on Facebook are skills that takes time to master. Smaller ecommerce site may lack the resources and time you need to put into to these campaigns to make them worthwhile.

5. Media.net

Media.net is an excellent ad network for you if you are getting traffic from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Even small websites and blogs can benefit from using their services. They help monetize content by displaying ads containing relevant keywords. You can take advantage of their large customer base who use both the Bing and Yahoo network.

Main Features

• Mobile ads which automatically resize to fit the screens of different devices.

• Native ads that match the layout and design of your website.

• A media suite that can analyze large amounts of data which is then used to match advertisers and traffic to maximize revenue.

• Contextual ads which are targeted based on the content of a website or blog.

Pros

• Free to join.

• Has access to a massive network of Yahoo and Bing users, which will provide high-quality traffic.

• There’s a good chance you will see an improved click-through rate because native ads will blend in with the layout of your site.

• Good customer support.

Cons

• Visitors must double-click on ads before you earn.

• The updates on your campaign performance are not in real-time, there is a 24-hour delay.

• If you are not getting traffic from the US, UK, Canada, or Australia it will be hard to earn substantial amounts of money.

6. Taboola

Taboola provides users premium content and creative, innovate captions to improve user engagement and drive online revenue. It has a minimum traffic requirement of 1 million views each month but is open to all websites regardless of their niche. Taboola prioritizes user experience and gives users the ability to block and filter content.

Main Features

• Reporting and analytics.

• Editorial management.

• Sponsored content and native ads.

• Retargeting.

Pros

• There are no setup fees.

• User-friendly app.

• Has huge reach to help increase brand awareness.

• Can track the campaign and monitor conversion rates.

Cons

• Lack of performance.

• There is not a free trial.

• Only one payment method.

• High API response time.

7. Microsoft Ads

Previously know as Bing ads, Microsoft ads still commands a significant percentage of the market share — particularly amongst PC users — and boasts a high conversion rate among searchers. So, use this network to gain access to this shopping audience and improve your conversion rates and make more money. You will also be able to reach users you could not if you only ran Google ad campaigns, which makes up for these network’s more limited reach.

Main Features

• Can import campaigns from Google Ads to Microsoft Advertising.

• Both global and local advertising offered.

• Location targeting.

• Reporting and analytics.

• Easily track campaign spend.

• Can use insights to develop your ad campaigns.

• Evaluate the performance of your keywords.

• Use Microsoft Merchant Center to create a catalog of your products.

Pros

• Less competition means you’ll get better value for money.

• You will have access to different audiences you would miss if you only ran Google ads, such as AOL and Yahoo users.

Cons

• The features are not as advanced as those you will find on other ad networks like Google ads, so the reporting will not be as detailed.

• There will be a more limited reach with this network and there is a lower search volume on this network.

8. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is the world’s biggest professional network. As such it hosts a large professional based, meaning most of the ads are targeted to a cooperate audience. This network supports lead generation, brand awareness, website visits and engagement, and site conversions. It’s a great way to tap into a cooperate audience to increase revenue. It is better suited to B2B advertising campaigns.

Main Features

• Sponsored content ads.

• Text ads.

• Sponsored InMail.

• Programmatic display ads.

• You can use the Elevate platform to pay to appoint some of your employees as brand advocates to help promote brand awareness.

Pros

• B2B advertisers can generate high-quality leads by reaching the decision makers within companies.

• Gives you the chance to reach niche audience and diversify your customer base. There will also be less competition on this network.

Cons

• Can be tricky to use because it’s harder to easily duplicate ads and campaigns because this network lacks a bulk editor and duplication tool which can make testing harder too.

• You won’t have access to the variety of reporting metrics you see on Google or Facebook ads because the tools are basic.

• LinkedIn ads are typically less popular with ecommerce sites because it is suited to B2B campaigns.

Conclusion

There you have it, our top 8 ad networks for ecommerce sites. Whether you’re looking for a good mix of reach and value or need stellar reporting tools and insights from your campaign there is one out there that’s ideal for you, even if you need to run a B2B advertising campaign.

Our recommendation is that you try out CodeFuel today to get a nice balance of value and reach, combined along with great options for monetization which are sure to help increase brand awareness and boost your online revenue.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes