When you run a blog, you probably have a whole bunch of ad networks that you use. You want to make sure that your revenue from each one is as high as possible, but how do you manage to do that?
This article shines a light on some tips and tricks for increasing the monetization of your site using ad revenue optimization techniques.
Increase Ad Revenue by A/B Testing Your Ads
With so many ad networks out there, there’s a lot of choice regarding what to run on your website.
According to Forbes, around 33 percent of online users felt that ads lowered their page loading speeds, affecting their website experience.
One way to maximize the potential revenue from each ad is with A/B testing – giving two or more ads a chance to prove their worth and then choosing the winner based on metrics such as click-through rate.
Start by placing two ads in the same spot on your website, then split test them against each other to analyze which one performs better.
You can do this in a few ways: you could run a Facebook ad for one and a Google Adwords ad for the other, or you could serve different creatives from an Adsense block, and so on. Then watch both ads closely, looking at metrics such as CTR over time and revenue over time, before declaring the winner.
Increase Your Revenue with Native Ads
Native advertising involves producing sponsored content that’s essentially indistinguishable from editorial content created for non-sponsored purposes.
It is more beneficial than banner ads because it looks like something that you would expect to see in the context of your website, rather than being tacked on to the top of the site.
Native ads are effective because they make use of the fact that most online audiences don’t mind sponsored content if it’s relevant to what they’re already reading. It is also more likely to be approved by them since it has editorial integrity.
Optimizing AdSense Placements
When you’re running ads through Google Adsense, there are several things that you can do for ad revenue optimization and maximize the profit that each ad is generating.
One of these is to change your settings so that you’re serving more than one ad per page. Run an ad unit in the top position and another in the bottom position, then track your metrics for a while to figure out which spots work best.
You could also consider using different sizes of image ads within the same block – both 160×600 and 300×250 have proven to be effective at getting clicks, but again if you run them side-by-side, it should be easier to determine what size works best for your site.
Monetizing Your Mobile Site
Mobile accounts for ~ 50 percent of all web traffic in the US, yet many sites are still not monetizing this audience by serving ads to them.
It is easy enough to run a separate ad block that feeds into an iPhone or Android ad size – either one of those will work well on your site.
Add AdSense Code Snippets Widget-wide
If you’re using a plugin like Gravity Forms, it may be a good idea to place a custom widget within your sidebar that allows visitors to enter their code snippets for AdSense.
This way, you can increase the quantity of product information on your website without producing more content yourself.
For instance, if you have a shop that sells clothes – you could ask people to enter their measurements into a box that you place on your sidebar, and then this information would be pulled through as AdSense ads.
Optimize Your Header Bidding Strategy
Header bidding is the process of allowing multiple ad networks to bid for inventory simultaneously so that they can compete with other networks inside individual ad units.
It has been shown to increase revenue by up to 10 percent depending on the network, but if performance is lower than average, there may be a problem with how it’s configured.
