by Kean Graham | Jul 13, 2017 | Ad Optimization, Blog
Choosing ad placements for your website is not rocket science, but it does require some data and research to know where your ad inventory can perform best. Tons of publishers initially started with A/B testing based on their website’s layout until the heat map tool from AdSense got released. This development has become very helpful, especially for new publishers starting out with display ads on their websites. Here are the AdSense heat map suggestions for ad placements on a sample page layout. The darker the shading is, the bigger the chance for the ad position to perform well. This image does not imply that it is the only layout you can follow. Google Analytics’ Page Insights can also be an excellent source of information to find out where users frequently linger across your website, aside from a few other third party plugins and tools. If you’re serious about maximizing display ad revenue consider the following factors when deciding where to position ads on your site: Traffic Sources Geography is a crucial factor in determining ad size and placement. The standard IAB sizes for desktop 300×250, 336×280, 728×90 and mobile 320×50, 320×100 is very common amongst different kinds of the websites because of the significant volume of advertisers that use these formats. This means that the demand is huge for these ad sizes, however sites with their biggest traffic from Sweden or Finland, as an example, might perform better with an ad size of 980×120 since these tend to deliver impressive results regarding CPMs within that particular region. Another example is Poland where 750x ads get used a lot. This...
by Kean Graham | Jul 6, 2017 | Blog
It’s estimated that programmatic advertising will grow at an unprecedented speed of over 30% in 2017 alone. Not only is this channel growing at a faster rate than any other within the digital industry, it’s also completely dominating the market. With spending set to reach heights of over $60 billion in 2018, it’s safe to that programmatic advertising is here to stay. Today I’m going to help you decrypt this area of digital advertising and educate you on every aspect of programmatic. What is programmatic advertising? Definition: Programmatic advertising is the process of using technology to buy and sell ad inventory through an automated and data-driven procedure. It also represents most types of ad spaces on all screens including video, mobile, native and display ads. The term gets used a lot within the digital advertising industry and often relates to areas such as real-time bidding (RTB), remnant inventory and open auctions. Before we get into the technical details, it’s best to show you how programmatic got started in the first place. How programmatic advertising got started: A brief history Let’s rewind back to the early stages of the internet. Buying an ad space online was a much simpler process than it is today. It originally started with a relationship between publishers and advertisers. The advertiser is also known as the buyer and the publisher as the seller. The goal of the Advertiser normally was to reach their target market or audience and to influence them to perform some action. This action could be to make a purchase, build brand awareness, promote an event, etc. The goal of the Publisher...
by Kean Graham | Jun 29, 2017 | Ad Optimization, Blog
Ad optimization is the process of optimizing the impact of a website’s ads and maximizing its revenue potential. Having a dedicated ad optimizer for each website is very important and essential to publisher success. The benefits of using a dedicated Ad optimizer include: Worry-free website ad management As a publisher, you can have peace of mind knowing that someone is looking after your site’s ad inventories. It allows you to passively sit back and relax while waiting for your earnings to grow or focus your time on other important factors of your business. Ads are monitored and ad quality maintained Part of the responsibilities of ad optimizers is to ensure the quality of ads rendered on site. A regular monitoring of the creatives, placements, and ads presented is an essential process to determine bad ads that may harm site and produce low-quality results. Focus on site and content management Ad Optimizers not only pay attention to the ads but also to the website itself. Part of their responsibility is to regularly check the web property’s layout and contents to make sure that it is compliant with policies of the Ad Network partners that the site has partnered with. Ads get optimized to their potential optimum performance Ad Optimizers not only monitor the quality of ads but also most importantly focus on the revenue the ads are generating. As an example, they may adjust the CPM rates and frequency caps of the ads depending on the real-time results the ads are producing. Thus there’s assurance that the ads sent in auction win bids approximately equivalent to the rates that they...
by Kean Graham | Jun 22, 2017 | Ad Optimization, Blog
Safe frames is a technology to enhance the delivery of ads on websites and allow the measurement of viewable impressions. By using Safe frames, you can protect your site and users from having a degraded experience due to faulty advertisements. How do Safe Frames work? It starts with an <iframe>. Banner ad contents are delivered from the advertiser or ad network to publisher websites via an iframe. An iframe is like a window placed on websites with a clear view of content produced by an advertiser or network. Iframes provide very inflexible advertising. Sizes and shapes can’t be changed on their own. Therefore, rich media ads can’t take place anywhere but inside an ordinary iframe ads. Here’s where Javascript comes to the rescue. Javascript can read and change almost anything on a publisher’s webpage. This means publishers have to trust that advertisers or ad networks are providing safe ads and not ads that can spy on credit card information once a user types into a form. Safe Frames provide single and unified mechanisms for advertisers to deliver rich media ads to websites that enable consumer protection, rich interaction, and publisher control. Benefits of Safe Frames: Consumer Protection The publisher chooses what to share when ad content is served and can guard sensitive consumer data like personal email addresses, passwords, or even banking information. Publisher Control Publishers can choose what website information (if any) should be exposed to which advertisers and vendors. Publisher Efficiency Publishers can provide rich interaction from advertisements delivered to an iframe while having the control that prevents ad code from breaking page function. Enabling rich media...
by Kean Graham | Jun 14, 2017 | Blog
Maintaining a high-quality website is an art and science. Numerous facets in setting up a website as a successful publisher involve wearing multiple hats. Each hat depicts a unique role or skill. While there are many hats geared for success, some foster improvement better than others. Here are six productive hats that a new website publisher should wear for ultimate success. Coding Hat While owning a website does not require a complete web programmer virtuoso’s skill set, some basic coding skills is a must have. This way you can troubleshoot minor technical hiccups within your website if you wear your basic coding hat. Limited knowledge of HTML, CSS or Javascript can help you keep you keep your site in tip-top shape. If you are not much of a technical user, at least learn how to install plugins, if you are running WordPress, so that you can extend your site’s functionality without too much coding effort. Social Hat These days, the lifeline of a blog post lies in its ability to be shared by users online. Your social hat will make sure that your site is well-connected to the world and your content get’s the recognition it deserves. Use your digital marketing skill set or social hat to increase the chances of getting your content shared within your target market. You can initially begin connecting your site with people you know or social groups within your niche. If you build a following and figure out the best way to engage with your audience socially, your reach will grow and with it traffic to your website. Writing Hat You do not need a...
by Kean Graham | Jun 13, 2017 | Ad Revenue Optimization, Blog
There are many strategies for increasing ad revenues. Choosing the right theme, perfecting ad placement, using multiple ad formats to entice different types of visitors, and more are all effective optimization strategies. If you are a publisher that runs WordPress websites, there are a few additional plugins you can install to increase ad revenue. WordPress makes management of content very easy. Plugins make navigation, editing, and income generation much easier. Here are five of the most ad friendly WordPress plugins that you can install for ease of use and improved ad experience within your website. WP Ad Center This multi-functional plugin allows you to have statistical reports on ad performances. It is the ultimate ad management tool. It covers everything from ad zones, management, statistics and even enables you to allow advertisers to sign up and pay via PayPal for an ad on your website. Google Adsense Ad Manager With the death of Google’s official AdSense WordPress plugin, many WordPress owners turned to alternative plugins. The Google AdSense Ad Manager plugin exists to replace that gap. With this plugin, you can customize your Adsense code and transform it into a suitable format that matches the styling and appearance of your content. It also simplifies the process and offers a few other neat options like alignment of ads, letting you remove AdSense code from specific pages and more. Advanced Ads This lightweight WordPress plugin is advanced in name and performance. The plugin allows for ad injection, ad rotation, ad management, supports many advertising and affiliate networks and boasts of a very solid support service. Ad networks and ad varieties can be...
by Kean Graham | Jun 8, 2017 | Ad Industry News
A hot topic within the publisher community is ad blockers and the effect they have on a website’s revenue. It’s easy to understand why it gets so many headlines when you look at the numbers. According to research conducted by Google over $20 billion in ad revenue was lost due to ad blockers in 2015 and in 2016 more than 10% of internet users had them installed on their devices. Recently Google has placed a lot of focus on ad improvement and user experience taking the issue of ad blocking head on. As you probably are aware of, many online website publishers monetize their content with display ads. However, a middle ground needs to exist between engaging content, ads and user experience. Intrusive monetization methods like auto-play music or videos and other formats can promote the use of ad blockers. This is the exact opposite effect publishers, and even Google wants. Keep in mind; Google is just as reliant on publishers monetizing their content with ads as publishers are on their network (AdSense). Clarification of this was shown when Google recently announced changes to its AdSense policy and how they will focus on page-specific ad bans in an attempt to prevent site-wide lost revenue. See the post here: Transparency Set To Change With New AdSense Policy Center The fact is that ad blockers hurt the internet as a whole, advertising, and even journalism. Google’s aim has always been to improve the web experience for the individual user and wants to improve ads across the internet. Their recent announcement of collaboration with the Coalition for Better Ads is...
by Kean Graham | Jun 7, 2017 | Ad Monetization
Aside from having a reliable ad server and partnering with numerous ad networks for maximum profit, having a high converting website design is one of the most efficient ways to monetization success. The right choice of theme in WordPress can mean increased revenues for your site from ads. Many people use WordPress because of its simplicity in managing and posting content. The level of expertise required for website owners is minimal if they use WordPress. As such, it is one of the most popular content management systems in the world. Themes in WordPress play a crucial role. It affects the presentation of content to your site’s followers. Aside from this, it also determines how your ads will look like when served to your site readers. Here are some of WordPress’ best ad and AdSense optimized themes for 2017. Divi This Elegant Theme is one of the most suitable ones for website owners who want to rake in ad revenues with properly presented ad slots. It comes with built-in ad management options. Many users use this theme to serve ads and content seamlessly. Also, numerous tutorials on ad placements have been created especially for this particular WordPress theme. DizzyMag Described as a money maker theme, DizzyMag has designated hot spots for ads aside from its SEO integration and responsive design. It’s also good for those who want to integrate WooCommerce as an additional income source. Newspaper The Newspaper platform is an all-time favorite because it is friendly to ad codes. It automatically makes ads responsive via its template. It also boasts of an auto-detect feature for Google Adsense code. Kouki Kouki’s...
by Kean Graham | Jun 6, 2017 | Ad Servers
Part of your monetization success in serving ads comes from your choice of tools or online weaponry. The most solid foundation of any ad serving activity lies in the ad server’s capability. Fortunately, it is in your hands to make this important choice. A variety of factors affects the selection of the best ad server in the market for your needs. Certain qualities of an ad server make it stand out above the rest. Here are a few factors to look out for when choosing an ad server: Reliability The ad server of your choice should be able to deliver the inventory accurately, quickly, and without unnecessary disruptions. The heart of programmatic advertising lies in being able to meet the average website visitor’s short attention span. Success depends greatly on how reliable your ad server is. There should be no excessive downtimes or lag in loading the ads especially the rich media units. Large Storage Aside from being able to handle multiple streams of ad inventory, a top notch ad server should have ample room for multiple processes. This storage shoulders the capacity required for useful reports and statistics. What good is there in being able to serve a lot of ad inventory automatically to your readers if you don’t have any insight into what works best for your visitors? Versatility These days, it is not just enough to handle ad inventory and traditional waterfall setups. There is also the header bidding code snippets to consider. Your ad server of choice needs to be able to adjust to this. Apart from that, a good ad server serves various ads...
by Kean Graham | Jun 1, 2017 | Ad Optimization, Blog
Last year, header bidding became a significant factor in the ad industry. Since then it has completely disrupted programmatic advertising. Multiple ad tech companies have started their header bidding solutions, and medium to large publishers have taken advantage of this tool to maximize their yield. Despite the advancement in header bidding, it is still relatively new, and everyone is experimenting to find that sweet spot between maximized revenue and good user experience. Every website and user are unique so achieving a suitable outcome is tricky. Also, every publisher has his set of priorities regarding user experience and revenue. However don’t fret, we’ll show you three of our most successful Prebid optimization techniques here today. First of all, before we begin with the techniques, make sure that you’re using a good and reliable open source wrapper. A wrapper is a snippet of JavaScript code that gives you the flexibility to run multiple header bidder partners at the same time. When selecting a wrapper, you need to make sure that your wrapper treats all bid partners fairly and does not prioritize any of them. Another thing that you should take into consideration is to use an asynchronous wrapper. This will ensure that all ad calls from your partners are triggered at the same time and will not block the page load. Choosing the right wrapper is quite a challenge. Well, no need to look any further. MonetizeMore, the global leader in ad optimization, offers its state of the art and best in class Header Bidding Solution. Bid Scaling Bid Scaling is one of the most important and critical...
