Despite the sale-channel conflicts and the premium price erosion that ad networks bring about, their benefits -- like alleviating market complexity, and improving operational efficiency -- guarantee
their continued use, according to Robert Coolbrith, VP of Equity Research at ThinkEquity.
A clear majority -- 72% -- of marketers say efficiency is the reason they rely on ad network,
according to a recent Collective Media study. By contrast, only 13% attributed efficiency to portal buys. Likewise, in recent years, ad network have helped performance based metrics -- like
cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition -- overtake the once dominant CPM model.
Coolbrith says there are four possibilities for the future: The market will remain unchanged; publishers will
create new sales channels to better differentiate between premium and non-premium content; the creation of a “real-time†audience targeting and delivery ecosystem; or a hybrid approach
that would consist of some combination of the above scenarios.