Very few people want to navigate to a website and be confronted with tons of ads. It’s not that advertising no longer has a place in digital media; it’s just that less is sometimes more. But this reality isn’t good news for those who monetize the online space they’ve carved out for themselves. You built your website to generate sales — and website ad revenue. The problem is too many ads can be overwhelming, causing your ad impressions to tank or, worse, causing visitors to click away and never return.
Even when taking a less-is-more approach, it’s important to periodically evaluate your website and review the efficiency of your ad unit inventory. After all, there are two ways to learn how to increase ad impressions: drive more traffic to the site or optimize the site itself. However, more traffic doesn’t necessarily increase ad revenue, especially if operating under the pay-per-click model. And with the potential of earning thousands of dollars in passive income, optimizing the site before devoting all attention to increasing traffic is critical. Less-than-stellar results for advertisers can spell doom for your website.
Getting More Bang Out Every Buck
Thanks to advancements in technology, a lot of the grunt work can be done for you when it comes to sourcing ads. Ad servers can embed code on your website to enable advertising and then read what’s on the page for context. Any ad server worth its weight wants to ensure advertisements are relevant to the content. After all, relevancy will affect website ad revenue. Where you come in, if you so choose, is with ad placement. You can set the criteria, as ad viewability directly impacts impressions and revenue.
Though the top section of the site (i.e., leaderboard) seems like the most effective location for an ad, it often ranks low for viewability. Visitors are likely to have scrolled past before the creative even loads. Your best option is to place ads near the content visitors are most interested in, which is why context is so important. Just make sure wherever you locate ads doesn’t impact the user experience. It’s all about striking a balance.
However, location isn’t the only consideration. Size also impacts viewability, impressions, and revenue. Larger ads tend to grab more attention than smaller ones, but it’s often wise to provide a mix. You may want to conduct some A/B testing to determine the right size and placement combinations to deliver the best results for you and your advertisers. In fact, some advertisers might do their own A/B testing to gather insights for their strategy.
Boosting Ad Impressions and Maximizing Website Ad Revenue
Once you’ve settled on these aspects of your website, there are a few things you should consider going forward — most of which will make your site more attractive to potential advertisers. The following steps will be essential:
1. Embrace the power of data.
Analytics are essential to marketing. There’s no getting around that if you want to derive insights from behaviors, preferences, and, of course, ad performance. Leverage analytics tools to track and monitor your ads, and do so regularly. Which ads are performing well? Which ones could be doing better? Then, it’s a matter of using the insights to optimize your ad inventory and maximize revenue.
2. Optimize for mobile.
With an increasing number of consumers accessing content on their phones and tablets, mobile optimization is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It’s a necessity. Ensure that the website and ads are responsive on smaller screens. Can visitors read all the relevant content within those ads? If not, you risk a drop in engagement levels and conversion rates. Mobile-optimized ads increase the chances of capturing larger audiences and generating more impressions.
3. Refresh and rotate ads.
Need to know how to increase ad impressions? Try refreshing and rotating ads. An ad refresh involves automatically reloading ads after a certain period of time, increasing the number of impressions. Ad rotation, on the other hand, will involve rotating ads within an ad set. Consumers would then see different ads during a given visit and be more likely to click through, leading to more website ad revenue. Remember: It’s important to select the right cadence. You don’t want to overwhelm visitors with too many flashing ads and negatively impact their experiences.
4. Explore geotargeting.
Geotargeting can be a powerful strategy when used correctly. You’re serving location-specific ads relevant to a target audience, which enhances the relevancy of the ads and potentially leads to higher engagement rates and more impressions. This can attract local advertisers and increase the cost per thousand. Advertisers are willing to pay more for highly targeted impressions, thereby increasing website advertising revenue.
Content has been king for some time now. If you’re looking for an increase in ad revenue for your website, it will be king, queen, lady-in-waiting, and court jester. If you provide value to visitors, you will also provide value to advertisers. Think about the experience, recognize how ads can influence engagement, and continue to optimize your website. Though it’s considered passive income, with digital advertising, your job is never done.
