Table of Contents
What’s changed in our 2026 update:
Four new networks added:
- Amazon DSP
- Media.net
- Adsterra
- HilltopAds
In 2026, it’s vital to find the most appropriate display advertising network for your brand. Increased competition, a rise in AI-generated content, and shifting consumer behavior are making it more challenging than ever to reach your targeted audience, so to help you narrow the options, I’ve compiled nine of the best display ad networks for 2026, including their key features, supported ad formats, and budget options.
9 of the Best Display Ad Networks for Performance Advertisers in 2026
| Network | Ad Formats | Special Features | Budget Options |
| 1. Google Ads | Banner, in-stream, out-stream, bumper, responsive, dynamic search, responsive display, shopping, local search, discovery. | Smart bidding, Google Display Network, local services ads, and YouTube Ads. | Cost per click (CPC), cost per thousand impressions (CPM), cost per acquisition (CPA), daily budget, and total campaign. |
| 2. Amazon DSP | Display, video, audio, streaming TV, online video. | Amazon first-party audiences, on- and off-Amazon inventory, cross-channel measurement. | CPM, managed or self-service budgets, custom campaign budgets. |
| 3. Facebook Audience Network | Banner, native, video, carousel, slideshow, Stories, and Messenger ads. | Facebook audience targeting, multiple ad formats, and built-in fraud protection. | CPC, CPM, CPA, daily budget, total campaign. |
| 4. Realize | Display ads, vertical ads, carousel, app promotion, native ads. | Gen-AI AdMaker, Gen-AI Landing Page, Social Importer, Predictive Audiences, Search/Mail Domain Targeting, Contextual/Topic Targeting, SpendGuard, Performance Simulator, ABBY (AI Assistant), Codeless Conversions. | Maximize Conversions (with/without tCPA/CPC Cap), Maximize Value (ROAS), Optimize for Engagement, Enhanced CPC, Fixed Bid, Frequency Cap control. |
| 5. Media.net | Display, contextual display, native display. | Contextual targeting, premium publisher network, privacy-first advertising. | CPC, CPM, and custom campaign budgets. |
| 6. Raptive (formerly AdThrive) | Banner, native, video in-stream and out-stream, sticky, anchor, interstitial. | Premium publisher network, Raptive Data Studio, Raptive Represents. | Contact Raptive. |
| 7. PropellerAds | Push notification, popunder, interstitial, native banner, direct link. | Multiformat campaigns, ad-fraud firewall, industry-focused campaigns. | Daily, total campaign. |
| 8. Adsterra | Banner, native banner, popunder, interstitial, Social Bar, video. | Self-service and managed campaigns, advanced targeting, proprietary anti-fraud protection. | CPC, CPM, CPA Goal, Smart CPM, daily budget, total campaign. |
| 9. HilltopAds | Banner, popunder, in-page video, direct link. | Advanced audience targeting, self-service platform, and real-time campaign optimization. | CPC, CPM, CPA, daily budget, total campaign. |
1. Google Ads
Google Ads, Google’s online advertising platform, allows you to sell products and services, drive traffic to your website, and promote your business across various Google properties, such as the Google Display Network, the Google search engine, YouTube, etc. Google Ads supports multiple ad formats, including video, display, shopping, discovery, and local search. While the cost of advertising through Google can be high for competitive niches, its massive reach puts the world at your fingertips.
Special Features
- Smart bidding: Take advantage of AI-powered bidding strategies that can help you maximize conversions.
- Google Display Network: Advanced targeting offers access to over 2 million websites and 90% of global internet users.
- Local Services Ads: Ideal for service-based businesses that want to generate local leads.
- Advertise on YouTube: The Google Ads network gives you access to YouTube’s massive audience of over 2 billion monthly users.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| No minimum ad spend. | High competition means that popular keywords can be pricey. |
| Benefit from Google’s massive reach. | Steep learning curve. |
| The pay-per-click model can be cost-effective. | Requires a solid understanding of keyword intent to optimize. |
| Wide range of ad formats. |
You can explore other options to advertising on Google Ads.
2. Amazon DSP
Amazon DSP, Amazon’s demand-side platform, allows advertisers to buy display, video, and audio ads both on Amazon properties and across thousands of third-party websites and apps. It uses Amazon’s first-party shopping and browsing signals to help advertisers reach relevant audiences throughout the customer journey. While it’s designed primarily for ecommerce brands, you don’t need to sell on Amazon to use the platform.
Special Features:
- Amazon audience insights: Reach shoppers using Amazon’s first-party purchase and browsing data to target audiences more effectively.
- Use on- and off-Amazon inventory: Serve display ads across Amazon-owned properties, including Twitch and IMDb, as well as third-party websites and mobile apps.
- Cross-channel advertising: Run display, video, and audio campaigns from a single platform while measuring performance across multiple touchpoints.
| Pros | Cons |
| Powerful first-party audience targeting. | Steep learning curve for first-time users. |
| Access to premium on- and off-Amazon inventory. | Some buying options require large budgets. |
| Strong measurement and attribution capabilities. | Best suited for advertisers with clear conversion goals. |
| You don’t need to sell products on Amazon. |
3. Facebook Audience Network (FAN)
Facebook Audience Network is a part of the Meta Ads (formerly Facebook Ads) platform. It allows you to run ads on third-party websites and mobile apps, including gaming apps. It’s designed to reach users based on demographics, interests, and behaviors, leveraging Meta’s audience targeting tools. Several ad formats are supported, including banner, native, video, and interstitial.
Special Features
- Facebook audience targeting: When you advertise through Facebook Audience Network, you can access the same audience targeting features that Facebook uses on its platforms.
- Multiple mobile ad formats: Audience Network supports many different mobile ad formats, including native, interstitial, and rewarded videos.
- Fraud protection: Audience Network has been granted TAG and JICWEBS DTSG accreditations and has built-in systems to protect against fraud.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Vast reach: Over 1 billion people see a Facebook Audience Network ad every month. | Limited to third-party websites and mobile apps. |
| Choose from a wide variety of ad formats. | You must have a Facebook business account. |
| The same targeting capabilities that are used on Facebook platforms. | Ad blockers might hurt visibility. |
| Meta has a direct relationship with all publishers on the FAN. |
Explore alternatives to Meta Ads .
4. Realize
Although it has a reputation for being one of the world’s leading native ads companies, Taboola has expanded far beyond that market. Realize is Taboola’s AI-powered performance advertising platform, designed to help marketers reach lower-funnel audiences that are becoming increasingly difficult to capture through traditional search and social channels alone.
Unlike many advertising platforms that emphasize broad “full funnel” awareness campaigns, Realize is focused on measurable performance outcomes. The platform is designed to support the consideration and action stages of the customer journey, helping advertisers drive clicks, leads, and conversions across the open web.
Realize supports a wide range of high-visibility ad formats beyond native, including display, vertical, video, and carousel ads. Its GenAI AdMaker suite helps advertisers create and target ads with maximum efficiency, while the Social Importer tool makes it easy to repurpose existing assets. Advertisers can also use Abby, its AI assistant, to help streamline campaign management and optimization.
Special Features
- Predictive AI Targeting: Realize draws on over 17 years of proprietary data to help advertisers reach users based on intent signals, rather than third-party identity tracking.
- Social Importer: Allows marketers to quickly repurpose existing creative assets from social campaigns and other platforms.
- SpendGuard: An AI-powered optimization feature that automatically identifies underperforming placements and helps reduce wasted ad spend.
- Performance Simulator: Lets advertisers model different budget and bidding scenarios to forecast potential campaign outcomes before committing further spend.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Dedicated platform for performance (lower funnel) marketing (vs. full funnel). | Smaller ecosystem than Google Ads or Meta. |
| The Social Importer tool makes it easy to repurpose assets. | Less focused on brand awareness campaigns. |
| Leverages partners like Wix, Elementor, and WordPress for quick and easy landing page-building. | |
| Dedicated AI assistant to help manage the entire ad process. |
Drive customer acquisition at scale, beyond Search and Social
5. Media.net
Media.net is one of the world’s largest contextual advertising networks. It helps advertisers place display ads across a broad network of premium publisher websites. Unlike platforms that rely heavily on third-party audience data, Media.net uses contextual targeting to match ads with the content users are already viewing. This makes it an attractive option for advertisers looking to reach relevant audiences in a more privacy-conscious advertising environment.
Special Features:
- Contextual targeting: Ads are matched to page content, which improves relevance without relying solely on user-level data.
- Premium publisher network: Access inventory across a large network of established websites in verticals such as news, finance, technology, and more.
- Privacy-friendly: Media.net’s focus on contextual targeting means advertisers can reach audiences without depending on third-party cookies.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Strong focus on contextual targeting. | Audience targeting is not as granular as some of its competitors. |
| Access to premium publisher inventory. | Not as widely adopted as Google Display Network. |
| Simple way to scale contextual display campaigns. | Performance depends heavily on contextual relevance. |
6. Raptive (formerly AdThrive)
Raptive is a premium ad network that offers publishers end-to-end ad management. Website owners who meet specific traffic requirements can use Raptive to monetize their websites with high-quality ad placements. Unlike other major ad networks, Raptive focuses on individual creator audiences, which it claims are 40% more likely to have purchase intent for products and services they view on creator websites.
Special Features
- Premium Publisher Network: Raptive works exclusively with high-quality publishers with engaged, niche audiences, leading to better ad performance than many other networks.
- Raptive Data Studio: Raptive uses AI technology to analyze audience data, allowing it to identify “peak attention moments” and optimize ads for engagement.
- Raptive Represents: A turnkey ad solution that connects advertisers with diverse content creators.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Access to premium publishers. | More expensive than other ad networks. |
| Ads are optimized for user experience and page speed. | Less scale and reach than large networks like Google Ads or Facebook Audience Network. |
| Audiences are typically highly engaged. | Limited publisher pool (websites must have 100,000+ monthly pageviews to qualify). |
7. PropellerAds
PropellerAds is a global ad network offering multiple ad formats to an audience of over 1 billion people. Its customers include affiliates, agencies, media buyers, and direct advertisers. Ad formats include push, in-page push, popunder, interstitial, and survey exit. Unlike Raptive, it doesn’t have a high minimum traffic requirement for publishers.
Special Features
- Multiformat Campaign: PropellerAds’ multiformat CPA Goal Campaign allows you to create multiple ad formats within a single push campaign.
- Ad fraud firewall: PropellerAd’s traffic partners must comply with its robust anti-fraud policies, helping to ensure that ads are being delivered to a trusted audience.
- Industry-focused campaigns: PropellerAds offers campaigns that are targeted for specific verticals, including finance, ecommerce, and software.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Offers a broad global reach. | Lower-quality traffic than more premium networks. |
| More cost-effective than more premium networks. | Audience segmentation is less advanced than premium networks. |
| Supports multiple ad formats, including push, popunder, interstitial. |
8. Adsterra
Adsterra is a global advertising network that helps advertisers reach audiences across desktop and mobile devices through a network of publishers worldwide. The platform supports both self-service and managed campaigns, allowing advertisers to launch, manage, and optimize campaigns using a range of targeting options and bidding strategies. Adsterra offers several display ad formats, including banners, native banners, interstitials, popunders, and its proprietary Social Bar format, making it a flexible option for performance-focused campaigns.
Special Features:
- Wide range of ad formats: Run banner, native, interstitial, in-page push, social bar, and video campaigns from a single platform.
- Flexible optimization tools: Campaigns can be optimized using CPC, CPM, CPA Goal, and Smart CPM bidding strategies to help improve performance.
- Global reach and fraud protection: Adsterra combines proprietary fraud detection with manual reviews to help maintain traffic quality while delivering billions of monthly impressions.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Self-serve and managed campaign options available. | Publisher quality can vary by campaign. |
| Supports multiple pricing options and optimization tools. | Can be a steep learning curve for some advanced features. |
| Large selection of display ad formats. | Better suited to performance marketing than premium branding campaigns. |
9. HilltopAds
HilltopAds is a self-serve ad network that helps advertisers reach audiences across desktop and mobile devices through a global publisher network. It supports traditional display formats and higher-impact placements, making it popular with affiliate marketers, app developers, gaming companies, and other performance-focused advertisers, who can quickly launch campaigns with flexible targeting and real-time reporting.
Special Features:
- Multiple display formats: Supports banner, popunder, in-page video, and other display ad formats for different campaign objectives.
- Advanced targeting: Target users by geography, device, operating system, browser, connection type, and other campaign settings.
- Real-time optimization: Built-in reporting and optimization tools help advertisers monitor campaign performance and adjust bids as needed.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy self-serve campaign management. | Premium publisher inventory is more limited than other ad networks. |
| Flexible targeting options. | Smaller overall reach than the largest platforms, like Google or Microsoft advertising. |
| Competitive pricing for smaller advertisers. | Better suited for performance campaigns than brand awareness. |
How to Choose the Best Display Ad Network
The best advertising platform for one person might not work for the next. Here are some factors to consider when choosing a display ad network
Pricing
Ad networks offer a range of pricing models, including cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM), or cost-per-acquisition (CPA). It’s important to make sure your budget aligns with your campaign goals. For example, if your goal is brand awareness, you’ll likely want to run a CPM-based campaign on a major network like Taboola or Facebook Audience Network. This will ensure that a large audience sees your ad, whether they click on it or not.
Available Ad Formats
These days, most ad networks offer multiple ad formats, but you still want to do your research to ensure that the network you choose offers the format(s) you want to use. Some networks specialize in a specific format — PropellerAds, for example, offers one of the largest push ad networks.
Audience Targeting Capabilities
You can improve your ad performance over time using advanced targeting. If this is important to you, make sure your ad network offers demographic, behavioral, contextual, and retargeting options. Unsurprisingly, Google Ads and Facebook Audience Network offer some of the most advanced audience targeting capabilities among ad networks.
Performance Tracking Tools
As you run your campaigns, you need to be able to track your ad performance to gauge your success. Look for ad networks that offer features such as A/B testing, real-time reporting, conversion tracking, etc. You can use the data these tools provide to refine your strategies mid-campaign and improve your results.
Key Takeaways
Reaching your target audience online is becoming more and more challenging due to increased privacy rules, changing consumer behaviors, and overall ad fatigue. That’s why choosing the right ad network to run your campaign is so important. By considering factors such as pricing models, available ad formats, audience targeting, and performance tracking options, you can rise above the noise and deliver your message to the right audience.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How is display advertising different from ad exchange?
Display advertising is a type of ad format, whereas an ad exchange is a marketplace for buying and selling ads. Display advertising can include banners, images, or even videos displayed on websites or apps, including social media platforms. Ad exchanges like Google AdX or OpenX connect advertisers with publishers who sell ad inventory.
How much does Facebook pay for 1 million streams?
While Facebook does not disclose specific earning rates for in-stream ads, a rough estimate is that creators can expect to make between $1 and $10 per 1,000 views. Based on those figures, 1 million views would generate around $1,000 to $10,000.
Remember that your earnings depend on several factors, though, including the cost per thousand (CPM) rates charged to the advertiser, the number of views you receive, and how your audience interacts with your videos. Also, your earnings might be outside of this range, either higher or lower.
What is the highest-paying ad network?
There is no “highest-paying” ad network because ad earnings depend on many factors, including ad format and placement, CPM and CPC rates, etc. That said, premium ad networks like Mediavine and AdThrive tend to have above-average payout rates.
