One of the biggest risks for publishers is working with ad networks that either pay late or not at all. Unfortunately, many publishers have suffered this fate with the bankruptcies of Mode Media and Say Media. There are also many scammy ad networks that never intended on paying at all.
Since MonetizePros is in constant contact with many large publishers that work with hundreds of ad networks all together, we get the inside info on which ad networks tend , which ones are scam ad networks and the ones that haven’t paid lately. In this article, we will mention the ad networks to avoid and the ones publishers should be wary of at the very least.
Make sure to bookmark this link since we will be updating this post on a regular basis from our collaboration with publishers based on culprit ad networks.
Ad Networks That Tend to be Late
Risk: 6/10
- Specific Media: This ad network has had a history of years of being late. They have developed a reputation of late payments and have slowly died down as a result.
- Defy Media: Their finance department seems to have a tendency to let due dates come and go. They have an internal rule to only send out payments on Fridays. If the publisher agreed to Net 45 for example, they will send the payment after the due date on the next Friday instead of the earlier Friday. This is clearly an issue in their leadership and their dedication to deadlines.
- Wayfare: This native ad widget company seems to simply forget about their payment deadlines. Publishers would have to remind them that they didn’t receive a payment. The reaction from Wayfare each time seems like they either completely forgot to pay or simply see how long they can go without having to pay.
- Chitika: There was a recent scare that Chitika was going out of business. There were many reports that they haven’t paid any of their publishers for a while. They were using weak excuses about issues with PayPal and Payoneer. After a few months they eventually paid. Publishers should be wary of this happening again though.
- TOK Media: TOK is a small Israeli ad network that runs display ad widgets that’s a combination of surveys and in-banner videos (IBVs). For high time-on-page sites, they tend to perform well, however, they also tend to pay late. This seems to be the case with several publishers we’ve spoken to.
- Wise Data Media: Here’s an Israeli ad network that claims to have unique user targeting technology. Publishers told us the performance is mediocre and the payment reliability is even worse.
- Netseer: This is another ad network that monetizes non-standard ad inventory. In other words, they have sent many emails sitting in your spam folder telling you about the untapped potential of new revenue streams from adding even more ads on your page. That untapped potential is sullied by consistently missed payment deadlines.
- AdSparc: Here’s another Israeli company that runs too many IBV ads at flat CPMs and 100% fill. Not only do your users indirectly hate them because their ads kill their user experience, but your accounting team does as well because they tend to not pay attention to their payment deadlines.
- Millenial Media: Millenial was acquired by Verizon a couple years back but that doesn’t seem to have improved their financial reliability. The deep pockets have changed but perhaps not the people sending the payments.
- Adsiduous: They have great payment terms at Net 30, however, that doesn’t mean much if they don’t pay on time. Unfortunately, that happens often.
Ad Networks That Haven’t Been Paying Lately
Risk: 8/10
- Technorati: We have been notified by several large publishers that Technorati is still very late on their payments. Some publishers reported late payments of up to 7 months! Of all the publishers we have spoken to that run Technorati, all of them have late payments due.
This might have something to do with their header container solution called Contango that came out early when header bidding was becoming big, but has been struggling in the market since. Many other header containers have outperformed Contango and publishers have switched away from Contango as a result.
If you’re running Technorati or thinking about it, we’d recommend shutting them down immediately to avoid having more unpaid ad revenues. Please comment below if you have recently received a payment from Technorati or if you’re still waiting to get paid. We will keep this post up to date if we hear any word of publishers getting paid or any other relevant information.
Ad Networks That Won’t Pay Because of Financial Issues
Risk: 9.5/10
- Say Media: Don’t expect to be paid anytime soon from this failed ad network. The payments stopped being paid in early 2016 and because of these financial issues, we recommend publishers not to work with Say Media.
- Mode Media: This ad network that used to be worth over $1 billion went out of business late in 2016. They couldn’t keep up with the technology trends of the ad tech industry like header bidding and fell victim to their own lethargy. We heard that Mode Media Japan has been trying to recruit publishers. We recommend to not work with any Mode Media office based on their financial irresponsibility.
Scam Ad Networks that Never Plan on Paying
Risk: 10/10
- CPZ Media: There were many reports of this ad network setting up flat CPM deals at 100% fill several years ago then becoming completely unresponsive by the payment due date. We suspect they planned on “buying” ad impressions and monetize them via other demand sources and take whatever ad revenue they could get and never payout anything to their publishers.
Please comment below if you had a different experience with any of these ad networks or had a negative payment experience with an ad network that would fit within one of the above categories. Ad networks should not get away with avoiding to payout on revenue shares they agreed to.
We want to help publishers decrease their risk of not getting paid by ad networks by warning publishers before any ad revenues could be wasted and not be paid out. If you run an ad network that does pay on time consistently and has a unique offering, get it reviewed by the MonetizePros team. You can find out more here.