Glossary
Ad network
A platform that sells ad placements across many sites and apps at once: it collects publishers, sets formats and prices, takes the advertiser's money and shares it with the publishers. Push, native, pop and banner networks are the affiliate's daily sources.
Also called: advertising network, traffic network.
On the buyer's side an ad network is a dashboard: pick a format, a GEO, a device, set a bid and a budget, upload creatives, add your tracking link. Placements are anonymous (site IDs), so the work is in blacklisting the bad ones and whitelisting the good ones.
Networks are described by their format (push, native, pop, banner, video), their pricing (CPC, CPM, CPA), their minimum deposit and their review rules. The traffic-sources catalog on this site covers them one by one.
Related terms: Traffic source, Push network, Teaser network, Banner network, Bid.