As pricing becomes more transparent courtesy of ad exchanges, putting downward pressure on ad networks as well, what incentive is there for a premium publisher to put its inventory at the disposal of either? The answer is how they present the inventory to the networks, according to Josh Jacobs, VP and GM of ad technology for Yahoo. If the premium impressions are presented in a premium way â€" with extensive metadata describing the audience characteristics â€" it’s inherently worth more and will attract more buyers, driving up the price.

“If they won’t use one, make them one, right?” quipped moderator Michael Barrett, the CEO of AdMeld, talking about premium publishers with panelists. Barrett was reacting to a suggestion that â€" rather than figuring out how to get premium publishers to join existing ad networks â€" premium publishers might be better served by building out their own footprint and adding new verticals to offer advertisers more scale and market penetration. The end result, of course, would be… still more ad networks! Sort of interesting, in light of the consensus that there are already far too many ad networks.

New branding is everything -- even for an ad network. “We call it a platform,” says Andy Ellenthal, chief executive officer of QuadrantOne, of his new ad network. “We call it a portfolio,” says James Smith, vp of West Coast advertising sales for Disney Online, which also owns ad net. Perhaps no name is best. Mark Papia, senior vp of performance marketing for Fox Interactive Media, says some of Fox' sites don't use ad networks: “For some of our sites we protect the CPM and the brand equity like with ‘American Idol,’” he says.

Two morning presentations (an address by Jordan Rohan and a panel discussion on "Vetting the Nets") left an unmistakable sense that people on the buying side are looking for more efficiency in their ad network buys -- specifically, cost efficiencies -- specifically, paying less. First of all, the consensus seems to be that networks have become commodities because of their sheer numbers. There's also a sense (not to say a sense of grievance) among buyers that too many ad networks engage in low-quality practices like "daisy-chaining" ads -- with ads sub-contracted out repeatedly across multiple networks so, for example, the …

Vetting The Nets It's important to know who gets you the cheapest stuff or does the best targeting. You need to know what's new for pricing, but also the technology. A couple of years ago, if we would have stuck with one ad network, think about all the technology we would have missed, according to Sarah Potemkin, Group Communications Director, Universal McCann.

Recommendations: Get big Get niche Get data Strengthen sales Jordan Rohan, founder and managing partner of Clearmeadow Partners, says "when the entire consolidation plays out, you will see those with the best sales organizations and data will be survivors."

Top 5 Ad Network Truths 1) Better data and sophisticated insight provides results 2) No compelling reason to use dozens of ad networks 3) Measuring the impact of ad network buys on branding is still very difficult, if not impossible 4) Scale matters 5) Ad networks rise and fall with key hires and defections ... according to Jordan Rohan, founder and managing partner of Clearmeadow Partners.

According to Jordan Rohan, they are: