7 Strategies to Optimize Banner Ad Revenue

For publishers to maximize profits, banner ads need to be optimized. Wrong placement of ads can reduce click-through rates (CTR), causing revenue to plummet, and worst of all: not every audience will react the same way.

A website about real estate might find that banner ads perform much better, while a medical website might need to place banner ads within its content to maximize revenue. What is the best strategy for optimizing banner ad revenue?

It depends on the website and its visitors, some websites have blind visitors so text ads may work best, or ads at the end of the main content of the website may prove to have greater benefits due to their placement.

Here are some proven strategies for banner optimization:

1. 1A/B testing to optimize banner ad revenue
2. Optimize for mobile devices
3. Get started with native ads
4. Be cautious when experimenting with video ads
5. Using heatmaps
6. Less is more (sometimes)
7. Try CPM Network

1. A/B Testing to Optimize Banner Ad Revenue

With A/B testing, you can optimize your ad revenue and eliminate banner blindness. This is the first strategy on our list for a reason: it should be performed first. With A/B testing, you’ll be able to:

• Change ad placement and type;
• Optimize revenue based on user behavior;
• Track how placement affects revenue and user behavior.

A/B testing is an ongoing process of gaining insight into how your visitors behave in response to different ad placements and changes, and the only way this can be done correctly is to:

• A: Control variables (one is your income base);
• B: A quantifiable attribute can help you observe its impact on the banner.

The A variant remains constant because it allows you to carefully judge the performance of your split test, which is a continuous process that must be ongoing. As your website grows, you’ll want to continue split testing to see what changes you must make that still work to optimize revenue.

If you use online marketing advertising instead of Google AdSense or contextual advertising, A/B testing will have many advantages. Instead of experimenting with different types of ads (images and text), colors, fonts, and other elements, you have more control over the actual ads that appear.

Some simple tweaks to your ads can make a big difference, like trying different languages:

• Saving 50% or saving $10 might be better;
• Utilize different calls to action;
• Focus on the main points: "Download now" or "Free shipping."

While these measures may only apply to affiliate ads, they can still result in huge revenue increases.

2. Optimize for mobile devices

Mobile ad spending grew 50% in 2015. Why are people using mobile devices instead of PCs to access the internet? This means that those large banner ads that looked great on large screens may not look as good on mobile devices.

In the Internet field, mobile technology has surpassed PC.

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re losing money. You must integrate mobile ads into it; if you’re using Google AdSense, you should at least try to incorporate anchor ads.

These ads stay anchored at the bottom of the user’s screen as they scroll up and down. Anchor ads are hard to ignore, but they also have user-friendly features, such as the ability to be rejected by users.

3. Start using native ads

Consumers are blind. In fact, 86% of them ignore your banner ad. It’s not that the ads aren’t aesthetically pleasing or that the product is bad, users have just learned to ignore them.

When banner ads were first used, click-through rates were astronomical, and it was not unusual for ads to have a CTR of 20% or more. Eventually, users began to recognize common ad types and ignored them.

But now, users are accidentally doing the same thing. People are so used to seeing ads that they have trained themselves to ignore them all. This is a major problem for publishers because even users cannot see the ads in effect.

How to solve the problem of ads being ignored?

Try using native ads. These are ads that are tightly integrated with your content. The idea is simple: blend the ad into the content itself. When using native advertising, the blindness of the banner ad is reduced and results in more people seeing the ad and potentially clicking on it.

You can incorporate these changes in several ways:

• Change ad colors: Ad colors that don’t contrast with your site design will flow better, which will reduce banner blindness for users.
• Text ads: Using text ads in the content flow will eliminate the neglectability of banner ads.

You have to be very careful when incorporating native ads. If you use AdSense specifically, then native ads that are indistinguishable from your site content may be a violation of the Terms of Service.

Eliminating the possibility of your ads being ignored by users is only relevant for ads that cost a click; if you're using CPM ads, you won't see any difference in revenue.

4. Be cautious when trying video ads

It is well known that video is a more effective form of advertising. With video, viewers can listen to the ad, visualize the product, and feel a personal connection to the brand showing the ad.

Video ads also cost more, leading to higher revenue.

Many banner ad networks have incorporated the use of video ads into their programs. You may not find traditional 468 x 60 ads in videos, but large ad blocks (such as 728 x 90 or 300 x 250 sizes) will often offer video ads.

These are ads that usually cost more, but there’s a problem: they can drive visitors away from your site.

Some sites perform better than others when using video. An image-heavy site that displays video ads generally won’t see a huge drop in traffic when using video, whereas a site filled with informational text may cause visitors to leave the page if an ad autoplays.

Two suggestions when using video:

• Conduct A/B testing to evaluate video performance: time spent on page, bounce rate, user retention.
• Select a video that doesn't automatically play after loading.

Video ads can greatly increase your revenue, but they require thorough testing to ensure your site visitors aren't abandoning your website because of them.

5. Using heatmaps

How do you find the areas of your page that your visitors are focusing on?

Everyone wishes they had complete knowledge of user behavior and that their content was exactly what users were looking for, but hope doesn’t provide a clear picture of user behavior.

Where do users spend the most time on the page? How far down do users scroll before leaving the site? Which areas of the page do users click most often?

These are all questions that heat maps can help answer, and you can’t play the guessing game when it comes to ad revenue. Instead, you’ll want to use a heatmap tool to adjust your ad placements to the “hot spots” on your site.

This will solve two location-based problems:

1. First release issue

Many websites are advised to put their banner ads first, and ideally, the ads should be placed so that they can be seen immediately when entering the website without scrolling. If users tend to scroll, you can place the ad lower and see the best results.

By understanding how far users scroll down, you can adjust ad placement accordingly.

2. Hotspot

Where is the user's mouse on the page? Where do users click most often?

If you want to increase your click-through rate, it is wiser to place your ads in areas that attract your visitors’ attention.

Even if you don’t want to place ads within your content, you may find that users click on the right side of the screen, so a properly placed skyscraper ad may help you increase revenue.

It’s all about testing, but heatmaps provide publishers with valuable insight into where their users are focusing.

6. Sometimes, less is more

More isn’t always better, and some ad networks (like AdSense) will show the highest-paying ads first. That is, an ad placed at the top of the screen (if clicked) will earn more money than an ad at the bottom of the page, why?

It’s all about relevance, the best performing ads show first and are the most expensive ads. If you place an ad higher up the page and it gets fewer clicks than the second or third ad, you will lose money.

One way to negate this is to reduce the number of ads you have. But you should do this strategically: determine which ads are most profitable and remove unprofitable ad placements.

Taking a technology company’s Internet advertising service as an example, you can use 3 banner ads on one page. Reducing this number to 2 or even 1 will provide a better user experience and generally result in higher revenue.

You can also choose to use only a limited number of ads from a specific ad network, for example, you can use:

1. 1 ad from AdSense;
2. 1 ad from Index;
3. 1 ad from Conversant.

This is just one example, but it gives you a good idea of ​​how you can use all of your ad inventory without using just one network to increase your revenue.

NOTE: Ad networks have unique terms of service. Make sure you can safely integrate ads into your site without running afoul of other networks' terms of service.

7. Try using CPM networks

Some websites will never realize their true revenue potential because users won't click on their ads. Forum sites are a good example. Although many forums have tens of thousands of active users at any one time, the vast majority of these users will ignore the ads on the site.

The more frequently a user visits a website, the more likely they are to become banner blind, which is a major problem.

Even the most popular sites in the world, like Reddit, can’t seem to find a revenue model that works for them, and while Reddit will be a completely different story due to user backlash every time ads are mentioned, most sites do have the option of abandoning clicks and moving to a CPM-based revenue model.

What is CPM?

Instead of paying every time someone clicks on an ad that appears on your website, you are paid based on the number of ad views you receive, which is done based on every thousand people who have viewed your ad.

There are many CPM networks to choose from, with rates ranging from a few cents to several dollars. Does it pay as much as CPC or CPA advertising? No, but it is a good option to increase your income.

You also have the option of trying CPA advertising (pay when an action is taken), which can significantly increase your revenue. With the cost-per-acquisition advertising model, you pay for specific actions. It can be: when the user chooses to subscribe to news, when purchasing a product.

If a product is purchased, you may receive a significant portion of your income in the form of a commission. This is a great model for sites that review products or have frequently purchased products related to the site’s niche.

There are many optimization strategies to choose from, but always keep your users in mind when implementing ad changes. You may find that visitors tend to leave your site or don’t come back due to excessive use of ads. Keeping visitors happy and optimizing ad revenue should be the main goals of every publisher.

Author: Wangzai1558

Source: Wangzai1558