The Next Network - Alex Magnin-Martini Media

It's time for the ad network to move up the value chain.

The exchange-driven marketplace makes "inventory procurement"—the traditional role of ad nets—a thin value proposition. Ad networks need to bring technology and media services together to create higher-value connections with the people who matter most to an advertiser.

To do this, networks must do three things:

1) Invest in technology that creates tangible value, such as data-harvesting and ad-targeting engines.

2) Get in the mix with publishers to bring innovative, custom advertising solutions at scale to market.

3) Provide quality assurance in the niche, or long-tail of the web, sites that attract a disproportionate number of people with money and influence.

Why do I say this? Despite buy-side advances in targeting and efficiency, advertisers still aren't meaningfully accessing some of the most interesting, powerful websites. What's more, the financial equation is upside down. CPMs and ad-responsiveness are stagnant at best, and advertiser spend still severely lags behind time-spent with the medium.

Advertisers have built the engines to analyze campaigns and develop best practices for who, what, where and when. Now they need publishers to respond with what I call "smart" impressions. That's shorthand for site-specific intelligence combined with custom content and creative capabilities. That combination is the key to advertiser satisfaction and higher CPMs.

While big publishers (e.g., Conde Nast and NYTimes) can build their own engines, they are the roads more traveled. The great opportunity online is activating the premium, niche sites where the most powerful people online—the ones who buy and share the most—go first to feed their individual passions. These sites, from finance to travel to yachting, are in a priority position to drive brand lift and preference. But none of them alone have the resources to create compelling data engines, and their inventory gets commoditized on ad exchanges.

The new ad network will bring the long-tail publishers to scale, providing sharp tools for sites grouped by content and audience. Because they have direct relationships with publishers, these networks will execute custom creative campaigns and share the value—so publishers get higher CPMs.

To get there, today's ad networks need to focus more on the long-term creation of value for brands and publishers, as opposed to short-term direct-response and arbitrage opportunities. When advertisers explore the power of the niche web, they'll see that networks are the most direct way to activate it. When networks vet sites for content and engagement, limit impressions per page, and share their numbers, they'll show themselves to be powerful conduits.

In the process, they'll restore a balance to online media.

Alex Magnin is an early team member at Martini Media and currently serves as director of business development. You can find him onLinkedInandTwitter.