The idea of ad monetization is that you can generate revenue through your website or blog by featuring advertisements. While many see this as a get-rich-quick method, the truth is that scaling earnings can often be complex.
The advertising industry is huge and has gatekeepers that can make it hard for normal website owners to access premium ad rates and campaigns. Those lucky enough to get involved with the right ad networks and providers still find the right balance between user experience and creating high-performing ad units. But with the right strategies, any publisher can maximize their earnings. Let’s jump right into the components, tips, and best solutions you’ll need to know to successfully make money with ads.
Have The Right Requirements
With so many publishers trying to break into the upper echelon advertising industry, ad platforms can afford to be picky. Any platform worth joining will have a set of standards to ensure website quality, AKA that you actually help make money–be sure to meet these requirements before applying! Without the right ‘stuff,’ you’ll either be rejected or (and definitely worse) settle for a poor-quality or fraudulent ad network. The right ‘stuff’ is usually a combination of website traffic and website quality. Decent traffic will help you generate revenue, and your website quality will make or break your access to premium ad campaigns.
Balance User Experience
All too often, a publisher will get the concept of ‘more ads=more money’ stuck in their head, and as a result, user experience is greatly affected. While displaying a large number of ads will give a temporary boost (maybe), the reality is that user experience and website quality will crumble just as quickly. Ads can lead to poor loading speed and interrupted user intent, resulting in high bounce rates and lost traffic. Balancing user experience means no obnoxiously-placed units or spammy amounts of them either! High-performing ad units are engaging and relevant but don’t compete with the content on your website, they complement it.
Ditch Conventional
Ad types have changed significantly over time; they’re not just the same old banner ads users are accustomed to seeing. There are a variety of formats that can generate more revenue and are better for user experience. Just a few to consider:
- Native ads blend and look similar to their surrounding content, improving viewability and CTR.
- Rich Media Ads are interactive media, such as streaming, video, and audio. When done correctly, rich media ads can lead to increased impressions and CTR.
- Sticky ads are placements anchored to the page that stay with a user as they navigate a page. They give users more time to view an ad and register an impression on the backend of things.
A/B Test Regularly
What works best for one publisher doesn’t necessarily work for another. Despite plenty of recommended ad layouts and designs being available, A/B testing is the only way to gauge what suits your content and users best.
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It’s also important to run A/B testing regularly, particularly when you implement a new ad unit. Doing so will allow you to gauge its performance. Regular testing will also allow you to access website speed and user experience (yay for website balance!).
Optimize For Mobile Devices
Mobile ads are a very lucrative and straightforward way to increase ad yield. Sadly, it’s a revenue sore-spot for many publishers as they don’t properly optimize for mobile devices! What works for desktops is likely unsuitable for mobile devices; instead, ad units must be tweaked. Starting with a 300×250 below the fold tends to work well, but be sure to A/B test other ad unit types, sizes, and placements to get the most from mobile earnings.
Find The Right Partner
Ad Platforms? There are too many to count–and new ones popping up every day. Unfortunately, many are poor-quality, and some are even fraudulent (have no intention of paying). Since the platforms and networks you involve yourself with directly impact your ads’ quality and earnings, choosing the right one will be instrumental in maximizing revenue. Before jumping into a partnership with the first network that’s willing to work with you, be sure to do your research.
What to consider
Network size: Be sure to partner with a decent size ad network, as network size plays a vital role in the relevancy of the ads shown, fill rate, and ad unit value. The very best ad networks should connect you to an ample supply of advertisers.
Compensation: Compensation type varies from network to network, but payouts will either be on a cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-action (CPA), and cost-per-impression (CPM) basis. CPM is the most common, and so long as your website gets decent traffic, you’ll see steady revenue. Depending on your traffic’s behavior, you may feel one is a more profitable type for your website; just be sure the provider can offer you what works best for you.
Another important note to make about compensation is to be sure you will actually be compensated! It’s hard to believe, perhaps, but it’s a growing concern with the rise of so many new ad networks. Between clawbacks, bankruptcies, and scammy networks, it’s essential now more than ever to do your research. Investigating payment history is a reliable way to indicate whether a network can provide you with dependable and reliable payouts.
Ad Management: In order to throw caution to the wind and experiment with different types of ad formats and placements, publishers must have options and control when it comes to their ad units. You should have control over how many ad units are on your site, what types, positions, etc., to test for success. Some networks have fixed requirements or limited ad types, restricting you from experimenting and improving.
Don’t settle for an ad platform that solely connects you to advertisers. There are a significant amount of factors that go into creating high-performing ads, and without having a hold on them, you’ll never see the revenue you want. Some services go above and beyond with the features and technology they offer–bringing you closer to revenue maximization. Try to look for partners offering:
- Compliance solutions for privacy and data laws
- Ad layout optimization technology to maximize earnings
- Revenue-generating solutions (like revenue recovery from Adblock!)
Starting with AdSense
Google’s AdSense is the most common starting place for publishers; it offers a simple setup process and no further effort from publishers after that. They have a traffic requirement of 100 unique visitors per day, which is great for new publishers. Compensation is on a pay-per-click basis, meaning you get paid for users clicking on your ads.
While the ease of use and hands-off approach is charming initially, it quickly becomes a huge roadblock when trying to scale your earnings. The lack of transparency, control, and limited demand pool, pushes many to seek out greener pastures.
Starting with Header Bidding
Header bidding, AKA the best alternative to AdSense (and other ad networks), is an advanced programmatic technique that brings a chosen array of ad networks together to bid in real-time for your ad units simultaneously. The increase in competition that comes from drawing on numerous networks and suppliers generally boosts publishers’ earnings anywhere from 50-200%. The increase in demand supply also helps provide better fill rates, ad unit values, and more relevant ads.
Beyond partnerships with quality networks, many header bidding providers offer a wealth of services to help with revenue maximization. The right header bidding provider will optimize your ad layout to balance revenue and user experience, offer a consent management platform, and much more to spare you from doing any heavy lifting. Having things optimized on the back-end is often neglected, but they’ll be sure to take care of everything for you.Getting Started
Many elements go into crafting high-performing ad units and finding the right partnership is far and away the most important of those. Using the tips and strategies discussed above should help lead you in the direction of success in no time! If you’re still unsure whether advertising or header bidding are right for your site, there are plenty of experts ready to assist. Check out this free earnings calculator to find out how much untapped revenue your site has to offer.