If you’re an advertiser looking to maximize the ROI of your ad campaigns, it’s more important than ever to choose the best display advertising network for your brand. After all, increased competition, a rise in AI-powered content, and strict privacy laws are making it more challenging than ever to reach your targeted audience.
To help you in your search, I’ve compiled five of the best display ad networks for 2025, including their key features, supported ad formats, and budget options.
5 Best Display Ad Networks
| Network | Ad Formats | Special Features | Budget Options |
| 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, YouTube Ads. | Cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM), cost-per-acquisition (CPA), daily budget, total campaign. |
| Facebook Audience Network | Banner, native, video, carousel, slideshow, Stories and Messenger ads. | Facebook audience targeting, multiple ad formats, built-in fraud protection. | CPC, CPM, CPA, daily budget, total campaign. |
| Taboola | Display, motion, sponsored content, carousel, native image, native video. | Content discovery ads, advanced audience targeting, AI-powered bidding strategies, Social Importer tool, GenAI AdMaker suite. | Daily, total campaign. |
| Raptive (formerly AdThrive) | Banner, native, video in-stream and out-stream, sticky, anchor, interstitial. | Premium publisher network, Raptive Data Studio, Raptive Represents. | Contact Raptive. |
| PropellerAds | Push notification, popunder, interstitial, native banner, direct link. | Multiformat campaigns, ad-fraud firewall, industry-focused campaigns. | Daily, total campaign. |
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.
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 .
Taboola
Although it has a reputation for being one of the world’s leading native ads companies, Taboola has expanded far beyond that market. With the launch of its latest offering, realize:, the company is looking to transform the entire performance marketing landscape, helping marketers to capture an audience that’s getting harder and harder to reach on search and social.
The focus of realize is on performance marketing that can deliver measurable results, moving away from the so-called full funnel solutions often touted by advertising companies (many of whom have shifted their focus to driving brand awareness through video ads on Connected TV platforms which, while good for brand awareness, does little to help advertisers who are looking for mid-low funnel results).
Launched in 2025, realize: zooms in on the consideration and action stages of the performance funnel, offering high-visibility options beyond native, including display, vertical, carousel, and more. Its GenAI AdMaker suite helps advertisers create and target ads with maximum efficiency, while its incredibly convenient Social Importer tool lets you quickly repurpose existing assets. And if you get stuck, use their AI assistant, Abby, to help manage the entire process.
Special Features
- Predictive AI Targeting: realize draws on 17+ years of data to serve ads to users based on user intent, not identity.
- Social Importer: Allows marketers to seamlessly repurpose their existing creative assets from other platforms.
- Diverse ad formats that move beyond native: realize supports high-visibility ad formats, including display, vertical, and carousel.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Dedicated platform for performance funnel marketing (vs. full funnel). | Brand-new platform for 2025, so it doesn’t have a long track record yet. |
| Social Importer tool makes it easy to repurpose assets. | Not as well suited for 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
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). |
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. |
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.
