Which is more beneficial: Buying inventory through ad network or through direct publisher. Explain with reason?

Direct publisher relationships are best. Why? Here are some of the reasons pointed out: 

1) Quality transparency

The industry is demanding viewable and non-fraudulent impressions. It is more important than ever for brands to understand exactly what value publishers are providing.  Are the ad placements well-integrated within the publisher’s content, or are they stacked at the bottom of an article in a location most users won’t ever scroll down far enough to see?  How are publishers generating their traffic? Is it all organic, or are they using third parties to help generate traffic that may be of lesser (or fraudulent) quality?  These are all questions that can only be answered directly by the publisher.  Beyond their own direct buys, advertisers can achieve scale by finding partners who are already asking these important questions and are transparent about their publisher relationships and inventory mix.

How MonetizeMore does it:

As part of our ad optimization process, we make sure we are optimizing publisher sites to gain the highest revenue yield. That means making sure ads are strategically-placed on areas that’ll bring impressions. Our round-the-clock-ad-optimization-work enables us to fully implement better ad targeting based on publisher’s content and audience. We have also worked with publishers in making sure their sites are protected from invalid traffic and click fraud.

2) Cost transparency

Exchanges can create a somewhat competitive relationship between advertisers and publishers. It goes something like this: Advertisers are looking to take the publishers’ best impressions while paying the least amount possible. Publishers may respond by implementing various price floors.  The advertiser side responds by decreasing bid density, creating information asymmetry. Publishers, as a result, often are not placing their best inventory on the exchanges.  So on and so forth in this game of cat and mouse.

How MonetizeMore does it:

We are selective in offering ad networks with our roster of publisher sites. We make sure ad space buyers will get the best value for their money because of our quality publisher inventory – disclosing vital information with regards to traffic value, audience targeting, etc. Also, we have always been transparent in showing how much ad networks will be paying and what level of CPMs our publishers will be getting.

3) Ability to offer revenue-sharing

With revenue-share arrangements, there is more of a partnership between advertiser and publisher. Advertisers are chosen to fill the publishers’ best impressions, given that they pay the best rate to win them. The more the ad network earns on the publisher, the more the publisher earns by default.

How MonetizeMore does it:

We are a performance-based company, so we only earn when our publishers earn. There is a fair revenue-sharing scheme in place which benefits both our publishers, and our partner ad networks that only pay the best for top quality ad inventories.

4) Ability to get key audience segments for advertisers

Quality ad networks who work with high quality and mid-tier passion sites often get first look access, and consequently fill all of the high value impressions.  These high-value impressions will thus never become available via exchanges or other sources, meaning the advertiser may miss out on a key segment of their target audience since they do not have the time, nor the tools, to access these sites directly themselves.

(source: mediapost.com)