A typical network buy from an agency involves using fewer ad tags than there might be sites on the network buy. Thus, planners and buyers don't often see the level of detail that network reps do when they look at their performance statistics.

Sometimes, a media planner might run one ad tag per size across an entire network, eliminating the ability to see which network affiliates are driving success and which are dragging down the performance of the buy.

In these situations, agency planners look to networks for assistance with optimization and performance enhancement.

In network buy situations, impressive lifts in click rates, conversion rates and branding metrics can be achieved simply by altering the mix of network affiliates. With decreased visibility into which sites are performing best, agency planners and advertisers need committed networks that can assign account managers to help with optimization.

A good way to show this commitment is by developing a number of case studies that show improvement over time as ad campaigns run.