LEARN · PLATFORM TYPES
Online Advertising Platforms: Types, How They Work and How to Choose
An online advertising platform is the software through which an advertiser buys placements and an audience: it takes the campaign, runs the auction or the booking, serves the ad and reports the result. This page sorts the main types, shows the workflow they share and lists the questions that decide which one fits a campaign.
The main types
| Type | Where the ads appear | Usual pricing | Typical buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search advertising | Results pages of a search engine, matched to the query | CPC | Businesses with demand already searching for them |
| Social advertising | Feeds and stories inside a social app, matched to profile and behaviour | CPM, CPC | Brands and app marketers with creative to test |
| Ad networks | Pages and apps of many publishers, bought in one account by GEO, device and source | CPM, CPC, CPA | Media buyers and affiliates running performance offers |
| Demand-side platforms (DSPs) | Inventory from many exchanges and networks, bought by a bidder in real time | CPM | Agencies and trading desks with their own data |
| Native advertising platforms | Recommendation widgets and in-feed units on publisher sites | CPC | Content and lead-generation campaigns |
| CPA and affiliate networks | Not a traffic source: a catalogue of offers that affiliates promote with traffic bought elsewhere | Paid per action to the affiliate | Affiliates |
| Retail media | Search and display inside a retailer's own site or app | CPC, CPM | Brands selling through that retailer |
Two of these are often confused. An ad network aggregates inventory from many publishers and sells it in one account; a DSP is the buying software that bids on inventory from many sources, including networks and exchanges. Some companies are both: Reacheffect sells its own publishers' traffic through a self-serve panel and also lets DSPs bid on it over RTB.
How they work
Whatever the type, the workflow is the same five steps, and the differences lie in what each step offers.
- Account and fundingSign up, pass whatever verification the platform runs, add funds or set billing. Minimum deposits range from tens of dollars on performance networks to thousands on managed platforms.
- Campaign and targetingChoose the format, the audience (query, interest, GEO, device, source), the schedule and the frequency.
- Pricing and biddingCPM pays per thousand impressions, CPC per click, CPA per action. Auctions decide the price per impression or click; a few platforms still sell fixed bookings.
- Serving and moderationThe platform reviews creatives and landing pages, then serves the ad in the places the targeting allows.
- Reporting and optimisationImpressions, clicks, conversions and cost per result, by the dimensions the platform exposes. On performance platforms the key dimension is the source: which site or zone the traffic came from.
How to choose
Six questions sort most cases.
| Question | What it decides |
|---|---|
| What is the goal? | Sales and leads favour CPC and CPA models and source-level reporting; awareness favours CPM on reach |
| Where is the audience? | People searching → search; people scrolling → social or native; people reading and watching across the open web → networks and DSPs |
| Which vertical? | Platform policies differ by vertical. Check that the offer, its creatives and its landing pages are accepted before funding an account |
| How much budget, how fast? | Minimum deposits, minimum bids and daily caps set the floor; the volume per GEO sets the ceiling |
| Who runs it? | Self-serve panels suit buyers who optimise daily; managed service suits teams that want the platform to do it |
| What tooling exists? | Postbacks, macros and an API decide whether the platform fits into the tracker and reporting you already use |
Where Reacheffect fits
Reacheffect is an ad network with its own publisher inventory and a self-serve panel: nine formats (popunder, push, in-page push, native, banner, interstitial, domain redirects, in-stream video and Telegram Mini Apps), 195+ GEOs, CPM and CPC pricing with per-source targeting, postback tracking and a public API, plus RTB access for DSPs. If that is the type of platform your campaign needs, the advertise page lists formats, minimums and how to start.
FAQ
What is an online advertising platform?
Software through which advertisers buy ad placements and audiences: it handles campaign setup, targeting, the auction or booking, ad serving and reporting.
What is the difference between an ad platform and an ad network?
An ad network aggregates inventory from many publishers and sells it in one account. 'Platform' is the broader word for any buying software, including search and social self-serve tools and DSPs.
Do platforms charge for access?
Most self-serve platforms are free to use and you pay only for the traffic; the minimum deposit and minimum bids are the practical entry cost. Managed service may add a fee or a margin.
Should I run on more than one platform?
Performance buyers usually run two or more so that one platform's policy change or volume dip does not stop the campaign. A tracker with postbacks keeps the reporting in one place.
How do I measure results across platforms?
Pass each platform's click ID into your tracker, fire the conversion back by postback and compare cost per result by platform and source.
Test a performance ad network
Self-serve, 195+ GEOs, per-source targeting and postback tracking.