What NAF Digital does

NAF Digital is a Chicago-headquartered, privately held digital media agency operating since 2001 with 11–50 employees and additional sales offices in Aliso Viejo/Los Angeles, New York, and Renton/Seattle. The company sells managed programmatic media buying, cost-per-call advertising (including warm and live transfer calls), retargeting services (site, keyword search, and commercial webmail), and complementary agency services such as media planning, campaign management, creative development, SEM, and mobile display. Its technology stack is built entirely on third-party industry-standard platforms — Zedo for ad trafficking, DoubleVerify for brand safety and verification, and direct integrations with major RTB exchanges and SSPs (OpenX, Rubicon Project, AppNexus/Xandr, Yahoo, AOL, DoubleClick/Google, MoPub, Index Exchange, Advertising.com) — with no disclosed proprietary core technology.

The company's core go-to-market is sales-led and relationship-based, with dedicated account representatives at each U.S. office. It targets three primary customer segments: advertising agencies, direct advertisers, and web publishers/directories, using a horizontal segmentation approach. Its distribution advantage comes from direct resale and inventory partnerships with major U.S. local directories (YP, Yelp, Local.com, SuperPages, Yellowbook, DexKnows, CityGrid, Whitepages) and ISP portals (Cox, AT&T, Time Warner Cable/Spectrum, Windstream, EarthLink), giving it access to brand-safe, geo-targetable inventory on paid subscriber audiences. NAF Digital monetizes through advertising fees on programmatic media buys, performance-based cost-per-call charges, and managed services for publishers seeking to optimize CPMs and ad operations. No pricing tiers are publicly disclosed; engagement is quote-based and varies by campaign scope and volume. The firm is independently operated with no evidence of institutional or parent-company ownership, and no funding rounds, M&A activity, or disclosed financials appear in the available data.

Name

NAF Digital

Legal name

NAF Digital

Website

https://nafdigital.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

NAF Digital is a privately held, Chicago-based digital media agency (11–50 employees, founded 2001) offering managed programmatic media buying, cost-per-call, retargeting, and publisher monetization services to agencies, direct advertisers, and publishers across the United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Programmatic Media Buying: Revenue generated through managed programmatic media buying services including Preferred Deals, Private Marketplace access, and site-specific placement targeting. The company acts as an intermediary between publishers and advertisers, earning fees for campaign management and media planning services.
2. Cost per Call Services: Revenue generated from delivering phone calls to businesses through warm transfer calls and live transfer calls. Advertisers pay per call or per action, making this a performance-based revenue stream.
3. Publisher Traffic Monetization: Revenue generated by helping web publishers optimize their available ad inventory to generate increased CPMs. This includes sales representation, ad serving operations management, and ad trafficking services for publisher partners.
4. Retargeting Services: Revenue from site retargeting, keyword search retargeting, and commercial webmail retargeting services. These are bundled into overall campaign management fees.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

NAF Digital is a digital media agency that provides managed programmatic media buying and cost-per-call advertising services. The company plans, buys, and optimizes digital media campaigns on behalf of agencies and direct advertisers across premium publisher and ISP inventory, while also helping publishers monetize their ad inventory through traffic monetization, sales representation, and ad operations management.

Product overview

NAF Digital is a managed programmatic advertising and cost per call specialist offering a comprehensive digital media platform for both advertisers and publishers. The core offering centers on Programmatic Media Buying with real-time bidding capabilities across premium inventory sources, paired with Cost per Call services for performance-based inbound call generation. Additional targeting products include Site Retargeting, Keyword Search Retargeting, and Commercial Webmail Retargeting. The company also provides full-service agency capabilities including Media Planning, Campaign Management, Creative Development, Search Engine Marketing, and Mobile Advertising. For publishers, services include Traffic Monetization, Sales Representation, and Ad Serving Operations Management. The product architecture combines proprietary managed services with integrations to major ad exchanges (OpenX, Rubicon, AppNexus, Yahoo, AOL, DoubleClick, MoPub) and verification tools (DoubleVerify) for campaign quality assurance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Programmatic Media Buying

Quantifiable outcome

• 59% of searchers on YP properties make a purchase
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• YP (Yellow Pages)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerYP is a major directory advertising partner with 58 million monthly unique visitors and 3.3 billion monthly digital impressions. NAF Digital offers Display, Keyword-based Search, Cost per Call, Cost per Click, and Mobile advertising opportunities through YP.
• YelpcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNAF Digital offers Enhanced Profile Pages, Targeted local advertising, Search Cost Per Click Ads, and Mobile and Desktop Presence through Yelp's platform.
• Local.commajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLocal directory advertising partner providing local business search inventory for campaign targeting.
• SuperPagesmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDirectory advertising partner for NAF Digital campaigns targeting local audiences.
• Cox Media GroupcoreTechnology or IntegrationISP portal partner providing premium publisher inventory and homepage placement. Users are high-quality paid subscribers with verifiable disposable incomes, enabling local campaign geo-targeting.
• AT&T AdWorkscoreTechnology or IntegrationMajor ISP portal partner providing premium publisher inventory access and brand-safe traffic from paid internet subscribers.
• Time Warner CablecoreTechnology or IntegrationISP portal partner enabling direct-response and local ad buying with geo-location targeting capabilities through ISP subscriber data.
• WindstreammajorTechnology or IntegrationISP portal partner providing access to Windstream subscriber base for local advertising campaigns.
• SpectrummajorTechnology or IntegrationISP portal partner (formerly Time Warner Cable/Charter) for premium publisher inventory and local campaign delivery.
• EarthLinkmajorTechnology or IntegrationISP portal partner providing programmatic direct inventory access.
• WhitepagesmajorTechnology or IntegrationDirectory site partner providing local search inventory for programmatic campaigns.
• YellowbookminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDirectory advertising partner for additional local business search inventory.
• DexKnowsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDirectory advertising partner for local search targeting.
• CityGrid MediaminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLocal directory advertising network partner for local business campaigns.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Hanapin Marketing: Hanapin Marketing (now part of brainlabs) is a digital agency specializing in paid search, paid social, and programmatic — comparable in size and service focus to NAF Digital's performance and direct-response offerings.
• AdParlor: AdParlor is a digital media agency with strong programmatic and social media buying capabilities — competes with NAF for similar advertiser and agency clients in the managed media buying space.
• ReachLocal: ReachLocal (now part of Gannett/LocaliQ) provides managed digital advertising services focused on local businesses and SMBs across search, display, social, and directory channels — directly comparable to NAF Digital's local advertising and cost-per-call specialty.
• LocaliQ: LocaliQ (Gannett's local advertising arm, successor to ReachLocal) offers a full-stack local digital advertising platform with proprietary technology and managed services — competes with NAF for the same local advertiser and SMB budget pool, though at significantly larger scale.
• Adtaxi: Adtaxi is a digital media agency specializing in programmatic media buying, paid search, and audience targeting — directly comparable to NAF Digital's programmatic buying and retargeting core offerings with similar mid-market positioning.
• PMG: PMG is an independent global media agency with strong programmatic, search, and direct-response capabilities — competes with NAF in the managed programmatic and performance media space, though at much larger scale and with proprietary technology.
• Tinuiti: Tinuiti is an independent performance marketing agency with deep programmatic, paid search, paid social, and direct-response expertise — directly competes with NAF for advertiser and agency clients seeking outsourced programmatic buying.
• Resolution Media: Resolution Media (Dentsu) is a performance digital media agency focused on programmatic, search, and connected commerce — comparable to NAF in service mix though embedded within a global holding company network.

Broad incumbents

• Merkle: Merkle (Dentsu) is a large performance marketing agency with data, analytics, and programmatic capabilities — a broad incumbent serving enterprise clients with similar managed media services but with proprietary technology and CRM data assets NAF lacks.
• iProspect: iProspect (Dentsu) is a global digital performance marketing agency offering programmatic, search, and direct response at significantly greater scale and geographic reach than NAF Digital — a broader incumbent competing for the same enterprise advertiser budgets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/nafdigital
• Facebookfacebook.com/NAFdigital
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/naf-digital

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about NAF Digital