{"id":14149,"date":"2026-09-09T13:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/?p=14149"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:24:25","slug":"what-is-an-ad-network-and-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/business-faqs\/what-is-an-ad-network-and-how\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an ad network and how does it work for game publishers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ad network matches your game\u2019s ad slots to buyers and pays you per impression or view. For web games, it is not just a demand source but an operational layer: deciding between Google AdSense H5 Games Ads, AdinPlay, Playwire, Venatus, or a managed service like Playgama Ad comes down to who runs setup, mediation, and optimization, you or the network.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a glance<\/h2>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Fact<\/th>\nValue<\/th>\nSource<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Demand partners connected through Playgama Ad<\/td>\n11 partners<\/td>\nplaygama.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Interstitial eCPM versus banner eCPM in RocketGoal case<\/td>\n8x higher<\/td>\nmobidictum.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Share of revenue from interstitials at 4.5x fewer impressions<\/td>\nabout 60%<\/td>\nmobidictum.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AdSense H5 Games Ads requires account approval<\/td>\nyes, not instant<\/td>\nsupport.google.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fill rate reported for Play-Games.com<\/td>\nabove 96%<\/td>\nplaygama.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Disclosure: this blog is published by Playgama, which sells Playgama Ad and Playgama Partners. Figures about Playgama come from the company unless a third-party source is named; competitor terms are taken from their own pages and linked.<\/em><\/p>\n

An ad network sits between your game and advertisers. It collects bids for your ad slots, picks a winner through an auction or a waterfall, and pays you a share of what the advertiser spent. For a web game, that basic loop looks the same as for a blog, but the mechanics underneath do not.<\/p>\n

Why web games are not a standard website for ad serving?<\/h2>\n

A news site serves a handful of page views with banner units and moves on. A web game holds a player for a session that can run for minutes, with natural pause points: level transitions, deaths, reward moments. Ad networks built for games use that structure directly, with interstitials between levels, rewarded video tied to an in-game bonus, and in-page video players, instead of only static banners. Google formalized this with a dedicated product: H5 Games Ads<\/a> reuse the AdSense code but add game-specific placements, and Google\u2019s own help page states, \u201cH5 Games Ads use the AdSense code which means you can use the same ad code for your game ads and content ads.\u201d<\/p>\n

What actually decides the right network<\/h2>\n