In affiliate marketing, the term “inventory” stands for the set of different tools and various Internet assets used for advertisement and promotion purposes. Simply put, that’s all the space, tools, and assets that help marketers to create the ad campaign for the product or service promotion. As a rule, the key ad inventory is the ads space, located on popular websites or platforms with high traffic, as they can significantly influence the campaign performance.
The more inventory a publisher operates, the more they can sell. For advertisers, inventory is critical to get the best space and type for their ad for the most beneficial cost for the existing campaign.
Inventory is usually sold directly to the advertisers, the most valuable is the site’s home page placement. The other inventory can be offered through the various ad networks that concentrate the same of different publishers and show them to advertisers, or any other channels available.
There are several methods of how you can categorize the inventory:
- according to the specific features (due to the site location, audience demographics, purchase options, etc.)
- according to the media space category (premium guaranteed, audience targeted, remnant, sponsorships, etc.)
Additionally, the inventory can be sold through the ad exchanges – the specific marketplaces, where advertisers can bid on inventory in real-time after it’s available.
