The Top Display and Mobile Ad Networks in Q2

During Q2, over $2.7B was spent by the top 500 advertisers across desktop, mobile, and video. On desktop, direct buys fueled the majority of ad spend, but ad networks took in thirteen percent of spend and delivered 38% of display impressions. On mobile, ad networks represented fifteen percent of the total spend share for the top 500 advertisers and were responsible for 40% of mobile impressions.

Which ad networks raked in the most money and fueled the most digital impressions during Q2?

What is an ad network?

For each ad impression, we credit an Ad Network with the sale when it is the entity in the last position In the ad path before the advertiser or the DSP. The Ad Network may have sourced the impression from an exchange or SSP.

For example:
espn.com → DFP → Rubicon Project → Dstillery (formerly Media6Degrees) → DFA → DirecTV

*In this ad path, DirecTV, through DFA, buys inventory from the ad network Dstillery. Since Dstillery is last in the ad path before the advertiser we give seller credit to Dstillery.

The Top Ad Networks

Here’s a look at the top ten ad networks for display and mobile by advertiser spend during the second quarter, along with impression data.

Top Display Ad Networks

Rank	Ad Network	Q2 Spend	Q2 Impressions	Q1 Rank
1	Google AdX + AdSense	$201,000,000	61,071,343,207	1
2	Amazon	$67,800,000	28,233,003,906	2
3	AdRoll	$31,400,000	10,289,394,955	3
4	Criteo	$27,900,000	8,995,181,890	4
5	Advertising.com	$17,000,000	5,540,445,857	5
6	Infectious Media	$8,109,069	2,265,532,017	7
7	Yahoo! Advertising	$7,986,279	3,060,212,908	8
8	Exponential (Tribal Fusion)	$6,886,111	2,480,356,334	6
9	Centro	$6,445,656	2,028,564,691	12
10	CDK Digital Marketing	5,837,183	1,830,226,381	19

Top Mobile Ad Networks

Rank	Ad Network	Q2 Spend	Q2 Impressions	Q1 Rank
1	Google AdX + AdSense	$24,300,000	9,406,011,859	1
2	Amazon	$15,900,000	11,894,698,867	2
3	AdRoll	$7,033,434	2,878,287,719	3
4	Criteo	$5,334,348	2,256,566,662	4
5	Advertising.com	$3,386,875	1,484,683,032	5
6	Exponential (Tribal Fusion)	$1,101,269	500,581,860	6
7	Centro	$1,078,910	428,706,280	10
8	Amobee	$807,123	312,581,659	8
9	Adara Media	$720,159	287,476,962	12
10	Yahoo! Advertising	$715,141	325,335,241	13

Digital advertising intelligence software, like Pathmatics, gives you visibility not only into the top ad networks and demand partners, but also lets you see which advertisers and sites each service is working with.

What ad network do you give your ad dollars to? Do you have competitive information letting you know if that network is also working with your competitors?