The Ad Network is the Answer for Entrepreneurs and Media Companies

Google buys Doubleclick. Yahoo! buys Right Media and Blue Lithium. Microsoft buys adECN. AOL buys Advertising.com and Tacoda. What do all these acquisitions have in common? All four of these online “giants” have realized that to serve the needs of advertisers, they must reach beyond their premium sites and bring advertising to the audience wherever that audience is on the web. Adify’s customers who are building expert Vertical Ad Networks recognize the opportunity in the continued fragmentation of the online audience. In fact, Adify’s Network Builder customers are bringing together the most elusive audiences on the web – the audience passionate about specific topics who seek out experts and communities on those topics and spend less time on broad sites.


On September 17, AOL announced Platform A – a consolidation of its advertising ventures into one company that would dominate AOL and move AOL’s headquarters and focus to New York City. AOL recognizes that while advertisers and agencies are targeting more dollars online for both brand and performance campaigns, and so AOL (as well as Google and Yahoo) are offering consolidated planning and buying across premium and performance networks. Their claim is that they can bring your message to virtually every online consumer – broad reach.


Advertisers want reach, but they also want targeting. And the best target is the audience of thought-leaders upon who the mass market rely. Adify calls this the elusive audience. Media companies and entrepreneurs realize the power of bringing the elusive audience to the advertiser and are building expert vertical ad networks that leverage their understanding of specific topics and communities. While the sites in these networks may participate in remnant networks to make incremental revenue, their expert vertical ad network delivers higher rates for premium placement and quality brand advertisers that are relevant to their viewers.


Every media company needs to offer advertisers something unique and strategic based on understanding of their audiences and the flexibility of their platform. Adify is enabling many entrepreneurs and media companies to leverage these assets and create compelling, viable businesses bringing advertisers to the elusive audience.


The possibilities for vertical ad networks are limited only by the granularity of audiences advertisers want to target and the prevailing trend is to prepare campaigns that target very unique audiences to maximize brand impact. The network is the past and the future for media companies – AOL has realized that the era of walled gardens is long past and acquired it