For advertisers trying to build awareness and drive other brand-related initiatives, ad networks offer a valuable complement to portal and single site strategies. Today's leading ad networks offer comparable and complementary audience composition, reach and frequency, with stringent quality controls and the ability to demonstrate measurable lift in key brand metrics.

The key to successfully working with ad networks is to select a partner you can trust to protect your brand online and to form a close working relationship that takes advantage of their account management expertise and their technology, media planning, targeting and creative capabilities. The end result will be a measurable impact in the efficiency of your overall online brand marketing objectives.

Here's how to do it.