| Ad Network | Ad Exchange |
|---|
| Ad Network is an aggregator of unsold ad inventory from the publisher websites and sell them to the advertiser at a predefined price | An Ad Exchange is an aggregator of ad space from the publisher website and sell them to the advertiser based on the Real Time Bidding |
| Ad inventory is sold in packages to the advertisers | Ad Inventory is sold in Real Time Bidding to the advertiser |
| The advertisers cannot bid high for the potential customer instead, they can only bid ad space from the publisher at a predefined price set by the Ad networks | Advertiser can bid high amount for a potential customer |
| Each impression on the publisher website is bought for a fixed price | Each impression on the publisher website is bought for a different price |
| Advertisers don't have control over ads. | Advertisers have control and can target a specific audience by bidding. |
| Ads are targeted based on the contextual targeting | Ads are targeted based on the Behavioral targeting meaning ads are targeted based on browser cookie history |
| Ex: Tribal Fusion(exponential), Adsense, Yahoo Ad Network etc,. | Ex: AppNexus, BidSwitch, OpenX, DoubleClick for Ad Exchange etc,. |
| Best suited for small publishers | Best suited for large publishers |
| A publisher can earn less when compared to the Ad Exchange | Through Ad Exchange, Publishers can earn more money using Open Exchange and Private Marketplace |
