In order to increase ad revenue, the most important things to consider are:
Customizing your ad setup to fit the exact needs of your website and users
Choosing ad tech that can support these customizations with advanced ad layouts
In this guide, we discuss 11 tips to help you achieve both of these goals. Along the way, we’ll show how our header bidding solution, Snigel, can help you increase ad revenue. Finally, we’ll end with two case studies that bring these tips to life.
Use a header bidding partner: Increase revenue by up to 50%
Run Snigel’s interactive and adaptive ad format: Increase revenue by up to 30%+
Run video ads: Increase revenue by up to 20%+
Combat bid shading with dynamic floor pricing: Increase revenue by up to 20%
Use different ad setups for different GEOs: Increase revenue by up to 7%
Recover revenue from ad blockers: Increase revenue by up to 10%
Switch between server-side and client-side header bidding
Connect to the right SSPs for your vertical
Utilize different types of ad refresh: Increase revenue by up to 6%
Prioritize the user experience over short-term revenue
Have an ad expert run your ad strategy
Note: It’s impossible to cram everything you need to know about increasing ad revenue into one article. It takes decades of experience working with hundreds of websites and ad setups to know the best approach. So, if you don’t feel like building and maintaining a custom ad setup yourself, book a call with us, and we’ll do all the heavy lifting for you.
1. Use a Header Bidding Partner: Increase Revenue by Up to 50%
Header bidding is a form of programmatic advertising that allows you to sell your ad inventory on multiple different demand sources such as ad networks, ad exchanges, and SSPs. This increases CPM (Cost Per Mille) and helps you earn more ad revenue because more advertisers are bidding against one another to win ad impressions on your website.
Additionally, if you’re only using an ad network like Google AdSense (and not utilizing header bidding technology), you may be limiting your revenue potential because you won’t have control over:
Your ad setup: While you will have some control over ad formats and ad placements, this isn’t enough to design a truly optimized ad setup. Publishers who are serious about earning the most revenue possible from every ad impression use a highly customized ad setup (you’ll see examples of this in later sections).
What ads appear on your site: Poor quality content can negatively affect the user experience and result in fewer impressions (or clicks) overall.
Plus, with an ad network like AdSense, you’ll be limited to Google’s demand source.
Header bidding partners help you increase revenue by giving you more control over your ad setup and what ads appear on your site.
However, not all header bidding partners are the same. For example, most header bidding partners provide a self-serve platform that leaves you on your own to implement and customize your ad strategy. On the other hand, Snigel handles all of the implementation and customizations of your ad stack for you.
For a more thorough discussion of what to look for in a header bidding solution, read this article. However, a good place to start is to make sure they have solutions for all of the following tips.
If you want to see how much more you can earn by switching from AdSense to header bidding with Snigel, you can test this yourself by using our AdSense revenue calculator.
2. Run Snigel’s Interactive and Adaptive Ad Formats: Increase Revenue by up to 30%+
Many publishers are limited to standard ad formats such as banner ads and interstitial ads because of the header bidding partner they’re working with.
While these can generate good revenue and are an important piece of any ad strategy, Snigel’s interactive and adaptive ads can be more profitable.
An interactive ad is an ad that engages readers with quizzes, surveys, and fun facts. The main benefit of interactive ads is that they engage users for longer than typical static image ads, so advertisers are willing to bid three to four times more money for them.
Ira is Snigel's Head Of Marketing. She supports our team and publishers by creating awesome guides on the latest adtech trends. Ira's background is in software development, communications, and media.
