What are the display advertising companies in France?

Digital advertising is an important lever for advertising campaigns. In France, digital advertising continues to grow, driven by social media, video, and display, reaching a broad and varied audience. Digital advertising reached approximately €5.9 billion in the first half of 2025, with display accounting for €1.08 billion (18% of the market), representing a 12% year-on-year growth.

In this article, we present the major players in digital advertising in France.

>>>To better understand the difference between an advertising network and an advertiser, read this article

Summary: What are the display advertising networks in France?

1. What is an advertising network? 
2. How do display advertising networks work?
3. Who are the display advertising networks?

An advertising network can be a company, an interest grouping or a company department. It is responsible for marketing advertising space. In this way, they act as an intermediary between advertisers and the media.

These spaces can be :

• Online: websites, digital signage (DOOH), social networks such as Instagram, YouTube or Tiktok
• Offline: billboards, tactical media, television, radio, press etc.

A display advertising agency is not just an intermediary. It fulfils other important tasks in the course of an advertising campaign:

• It advises its clients on media strategy
• It defines a media plan in accordance with its client's needs
• It produces editorial content
• It can set up promotional operations
• Negotiates and manages advertising contracts
• It organises analytical monitoring and draws up reports on the performance of advertising campaigns

The display advertising agency, like the offline advertising agency, is paid by the advertiser, in other words it will take a commission for each click or impression sold to the advertiser.

>>> To find out more about advertising networks, go to this article

In the display ecosystem, networks generally operate in two ways:

 1. Internal ad network

An in-house team that exclusively manages advertisements on the company's own sites or apps.

For example:

• The company's official website
• A brand-specific mobile app
• Any advertising space directly owned by the company

2.  External ad network / programmatic platform

These are companies or platforms that offer advertising space across many different websites, often using automated tools to place ads.

In short:

• They aggregate ad spaces from multiple sites
• They automatically choose where and when to display the ad
• It is fast, nearly instantaneous, and automated

Display networks use two main purchasing models:

• Direct (over-the-counter): direct purchase of inventory from the publisher
• Programmatic: automated purchasing via real-time bidding platforms

>>> To better understand what programmatic is, click here

Advertisers are increasingly turning to display ad networks because they offer a wider variety of placements and formats, including audio and video display. Regarding dimensions, standard formats include:

• Rectangle (300 x 250 px)
• Large rectangle (336 x 280 px)
• Leaderboard (728 x 90 px)
• Half-page / Wide skyscraper (300 x 600 px)
• Large mobile banner (320 x 100 px)

Other formats frequently used in display campaigns include:

• Skyscraper (120 x 600 px)
• Wide skyscraper (160 x 600 px)
• Small square (200 x 200 px)
• Mobile leaderboard (320 x 50 px)
• Large leaderboard (970 x 90 px)
• Wallpaper (Skin): which covers the entire background of a website, providing high visibility (approximately 5 times more than classic formats)

>>> If you want to know everything about display advertising and its formats, click here.

Display ad networks include platforms that allow for the distribution of visual ads (banners, images, videos) to a targeted online audience.

In France, several players dominate the market.

Major display ad networks in France

These networks are the most widely used due to their massive reach and targeting capabilities:

• Google Ads (Display & YouTube): the largest display network in France, delivering across millions of sites and apps
• Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram): an essential social display network for brand awareness and engagement
• YouTube Ads: the gold standard for video display with high memory impact
• Amazon Ads: a key player in retail media and display based on purchasing data
• TikTok Ads: a fast-growing platform with highly engaging short-form video formats
• LinkedIn Ads: the go-to B2B display network for precise professional targeting

Specialized display networks

These players cater to more specific use cases:

• Criteo: a specialist in retargeting and e-commerce performance
• Teads: a premium network focused on outstream video display integrated into editorial content

Content discovery platforms (native advertising)

Often associated with display, these platforms mainly distribute sponsored content integrated into articles:

• Taboola: widely present across French news and media sites
• RevContent: a more niche alternative in the French market

Among them, we distinguish 4 main categories of distribution according to Antvoice, there are agencies that :

1. Distribute their ads on social networks such as Facebook Ads, Linkedin Ads, Instagram Ads or Tiktok Ads.
2. Advertising agencies that distribute their ads on search engines such as Google Ads or Bing Ads.
3. Those that allow the distribution of advertising simultaneously on different websites thanks to programmatic, among this top 13 are the Taboola and Teads platforms.
4. Digital advertising agencies that distribute on press media and important blogs.

Although these categories include a large number of display advertising agencies, there are others specialising in different sectors.

Some specialise in audio, such as Deezer or Soundcast. Others are experts in video and packaging, a very popular sector in digital, in this category we find players such as Viously or Dailymotion.

There are also platforms that specialise in targeting, particularly semantic and contextual targeting (which consists of precise targeting based on keywords present on websites and on the behavioural history of individuals on the web). Among them, we find the Weborama platform for example.

In digital, some platforms are specialised in web to store (online action that leads to in-store purchases), such as Deepreach or Solocal, and others are specialised in online marketing.

*non-exhaustive list 

Would you like to find out more about advertising networks by device?

>>>Find out more about billboard advertising networks in this article.

>>>DOOH advertising network

>>>TV advertising networks