You’ve worked hard to create quality content and drive high traffic to your website. Now you’re ready to start making money, and selling ad space is a great place to start.
Reading: How to create a website and sell advertising
For any publisher thinking of making money from their website, selling ads has many benefits. While there are some important boxes to tick beforehand, once you have a process in place, it can become a lucrative and stable source of income.
Selling ad space involves determining available areas of your website for ad hosting. These ads take many forms such as: B. Banner ads, sponsored content or videos. In fact, according to eMarketer, nearly 50% of advertisers’ programmatic budgets are spent on video ads, both on desktop and mobile.
Regardless of ad type, the potential for publishers is significant. Depending on the size of the site and niche, publishers can earn thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars passively simply by serving the right ads to the right audience at the right time.
By the end of this guide, you will understand how selling ad slots works for publishers and what are the best methods of selling ad slots on your site.
The best ways to sell ad space
- Programmatic advertising
- Sell ad space directly
- Affiliate advertising
Basic Criteria for Selling Ads for Web Publishers
Not all websites are the same, but all advertisers are want some of their message to reach the right audience. High-quality websites are more likely to achieve this goal, which means less ad spend for brands and marketers.
Here are the basic requirements you need to meet in order to sell ad space:
High Traffic
Publishers should have a significant Having traffic to attract advertisers. The more page views you get, the more eyes advertisers will draw to your ad.
You don’t need traffic to sell ad slots on your site if you go directly to the advertiser. However, certain affiliate networks and ad platforms have specific thresholds.
For example, to qualify for a Google AdX account, you must:
- Have 5 billion page views per month
- Adequate brand safety measures
- An updated ads.txt file with inventory buyer details
Further reviews may be in progress regarding ad viewability and security concerns. For example, Google AdX may reject a publisher’s website if it is known to display inappropriate content and/or has a low viewability rating.
To join other networks, some require your website to have at least 1 million visitors a month and may have bounce rate requirements (e.g. you must have a bounce rate of less than 50%).
Quality content
All those things that drive high traffic to your website are the same things your advertisers will be looking for: original, high – Quality and relevant content that will keep readers on the site and coming back for more.
For example, if you run a niche blog in your industry, you can share thought leadership, exclusive interviews, how-to articles, and more. For example, you can find lots of recipe ideas and inspiration at Taste.com.au.
Do not expect to score with advertisers if your site contains prohibited content categories such as pornography, hate speech and explicit violence, guns and ammunition, illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, gambling, online casinos, spyware, malware or hacking software.
Professional Design
Advertisers are looking for the same design features that provide a great user experience for their visitors.
In addition to a visually appealing design, easy navigation is essential. Your website should offer a streamlined user experience with an easy flow from page to page. And if you want to show ads on your web pages, you need to make sure that load time and latency aren’t impacted to an extent that degrades the user experience.
The Mamamia women’s media site is a brilliant example of a well-designed, attractive and user-friendly site:
Make sure your site is also mobile-friendly – this is non-negotiable .
Google AdSense also recommends including non-intrusive features that drive engagement, such as B. Comment sections and eye-catching graphics. All of these things can increase the time spent on page and therefore the exposure time for ads.
When optimizing a website’s design, don’t forget to also pay attention to page load times. This is the key to a good user experience.
Loyal audience
A lot of traffic is good, but a loyal audience is more valuable.
In fact, you can still sell ad space from a low-traffic website. It all depends on the engagement of your audience, which many advertisers recognize as an important measure of good websites.
Some advertisers are willing to pay more to get their message in front of a highly engaged and loyal audience that keeps coming back for more content.
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For example, We Are Explorers says on its website:
“By creating exceptional content every day, we reach 1.3 million travel-hungry 24 – 44-year-old Australians and is fast becoming a leading destination for information and inspiration on adventure, travel and the great outdoors.”
How do you prove you have a loyal, engaged audience when selling? Ads?
Show advertisers your content comments (e.g. Facebook ad comments), email click/response rates and other interactive signals. All of this helps increase the value of available ad space on a publisher’s site.
Transparency
Transparency means everything to consumers today. Your website must display login information and contact information on the main website pages for visitors.
Digital advertising is plagued by transparency issues, and both publishers and advertisers are familiar with the problem of unauthorized resellers, domain spoofing-related fraud, and security breaches. Advertisers are increasingly wary of sacrificing their budget and more importantly their reputation on dishonest websites.
To remedy this, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recommends that publishers host ads.txt (which stands for Authorized Digital Sellers), a file of verified sellers from the publisher’s inventory. The goal is to shift programmatic media spend to authorized delivery paths and limit the ability of criminal organizations to profit from fake programmatic ad inventory.
For publishers, another way to demonstrate your transparency is through a media kit to create. Showcase your metrics, content policies, and authors so advertisers know exactly who they’re collaborating with.
Ad servers
Each publisher requires its own ad server in order to participate in forms of website advertising that include ad creatives, which are the final ads delivered to an advertiser’s website.
Ad servers automatically collect data such as impressions and clicks and provide reporting options for the publisher to gain insights into the performance of ads on your website. They serve as a library for storing and managing the creative media, and they manage decisions about which ads to show based on what is known about a visitor.
3 Ways to Sell Ad Space
If your website already has a solid flow of traffic, a sizeable audience, and quality content, it’s time to Time to think about how to sell advertising space. Publishers have a number of options for selling ad space on their websites.
Consider these four monetization strategies to monetize your website:
1. Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising is the process of selling ads online through automated platforms.
Ad space is traded in real-time auctions where advertisers compete for impressions and publishers can maximize their income.
Instead of buying ad blocks, advertisers bid on single impressions. Website owners then get real market value for their rankings and can earn more for in-demand audiences.
The advantage here lies in the automation of the buying and selling processes. There’s no need to search for media buyers to run relevant ads or wait for the right affiliate program because programmatic advertising matches appropriate ads to relevant audiences.
It allows publishers to streamline sales, streamline the process and maximize revenue. At the same time, they can gain meaningful insights from real-time statistics and better understand the value of their inventory so they can better adapt it to the highly competitive bidding environment.
How programmatic advertising works
Publishers typically choose to sell ads in real-time Bidding (RTB), an auction process for buying and selling advertising impressions to a select audience. Advertisers place bids using software, and transactions are completed in milliseconds.
The bidding process takes place on ad exchanges, with the agencies and advertisers represented by the buyer connected via the Demand Side Platform (DSP), while the Publishers are connected to exchanges via the Supply Side Platform (SSP).
The SSP helps manage and sell the website owner’s digital ad inventory via real-time bidding or programmatic deals.
When a user visits the publisher’s website, the ad tag forwards the ad request to the SSP and informs it about the user and their characteristics in order to match them with a relevant ad from the advertiser.
The ad space is then programmatically auctioned off to interested advertisers, and the site can then serve ads.
The advantages of the platform are that it allows website owners to connect to various monetization sources, receive bids from many DSPs and complete transactions directly, allowing them to generate maximum profit.
When you sell through the SSP you can set price floors so you never lose out on profit. Depending on your goals, you can also choose to work with local or global brands.
Ad Network
Publishers who want more control over the process and Selling narrow audience segments to more brand-safe advertisers should consider an ad network or ad server.
Ad networks are more than just intermediaries between advertisers and publishers – they are platforms that enable data stewardship and creative management.
Ad exchanges and SSPs cover the basics of the media commerce market, so ad networks focus on premium inventory and typically specialize in specific content themes or audiences. For example, publishers like The New York Times and Forbes trade through ad networks.
How do ad networks work?
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Unlike Google AdSense, where advertisers and agencies do the management manage bidding, targeting, and optimization, most ad networks manage campaigns on behalf of their advertisers.
The ad network and the buyer negotiate the terms of an ad, such as how long it takes to advertise. B. Audience goals, impressions (how often an ad is shown), and average cost per impression (CPM).
The ad network then performs targeting, optimization, and reporting. Ads are served to a publisher by the ad network’s ad server using the publisher’s website code that is calling the ad.
The performance is then tracked via a tracking pixel placed on the advertiser’s conversion page, e.g. B. on a thank you page after a download or a form submission.
2. Sell ad space directly
You can sell ads directly for maximum control over the advertising process. This is also a good option for publishers looking to increase their traffic.
If you sell ad space directly, you don’t need an ad network or SSP. They simply establish a direct relationship with the advertising brand or company. Selling ad space directly means you can invest in building long-term partnerships and reserve blocks of ad space for specific advertisers.
But selling advertising space directly takes time and effort. You have to manually find potential advertisers, negotiate terms and costs, and build relationships. But you can also set your own prices and have control over how you charge media buyers.
In short, it has to be worthwhile for you.
How to find direct advertisers?
Don’t underestimate the work involved in selling direct ads. It requires generating leads, converting customers and building long-term relationships.
Selling ads directly is easier for publishers who work in a content niche and have a dedicated niche audience. The best approach is to research media in the same content categories and look for brands and companies promoting it.
Website publishers should create a media kit to attract advertisers and prove the value of ad space. The kit should include website analytics such as page views and bounce rate, user segments, reach and engagement – all the information advertisers want to know when considering placing ads on your website.
Selling advertising space directly, of course, involves direct contact with buyers, building unique business partnerships, and negotiations and agreements between the two parties. So before you offer ad space on your website, take some time to understand the true value of your audiences.
3. Affiliate Ads
The last way to start selling ads is through an affiliate program.
An affiliate is a promoter or publisher who places an affiliate link on their website, blog or social media. Individual influencers, large companies, small and medium-sized websites and content platforms can be affiliates.
Ideally, the affiliate will publish content about the industry that is directly related to the product being promoted. Because the content audience and the advertiser’s target audience are the same, the ad feels more natural and fits well.
Affiliate marketing is growing – by 2022, corporate spending on affiliate advertising campaigns will top $8.2 billion in the US alone.
How do affiliate models work?
First, the website owner must become a member of an affiliate network. There are many affiliate networks that connect publishers and advertisers and offer thousands of affiliate programs with different goals.
These networks make money by typically charging advertisers a setup and license fee. Participation is free for publishers.
In order for publishers to join affiliate programs, you must:
- a unique domain name
- have at least one email account associated with that domain is
- a website layout that supports different ad formats
No two affiliate advertising campaigns are the same. For example, to promote a retailer’s product, the publisher may need to rate the product, write a product review, or compare two similar products.
For sites that have a loyal audience that trusts the advice and information given, this is very valuable to the advertiser. You can also show people how to use the product or service.
Affiliate programs are usually performance-based and have different conversion goals. The models differ depending on the advertisers’ goals – they can be based on installs, leads or actions.
An affiliate receives a payment or commission only when a visitor takes the desired action based on the conversion goal.
For example:
- Get paid for leads. The affiliate gets paid when the visitor becomes a lead, which could mean that he signs up, contact the sales rep for a free trial, etc. The advertiser doesn’t measure the quality of the lead. This model is typically used for high-value products and services where salespeople are heavily involved.
- Earn commissions on sales. The affiliate receives a commission from every sale they make through the link. This can be used for all types of products and services.
- Get paid for clicks. Regardless of whether a lead or a sale is made, the affiliate is paid per click. This is not a popular model for advertisers as not all clicks turn into leads.
Due to how affiliate advertising works, this model can turn a website or blog into a real cash cow. Sales commissions can be high, and the investment of time and effort on the part of the publisher pays off.
For example, Amazon Associates is the largest affiliate marketing network with over 900,000 active affiliates. Affiliates can earn up to 12% in affiliate commissions from qualifying purchases and programs.
Conclusion
Digital publishers looking to sell ad space need to consider these options carefully through before you take the plunge. In this article, we’ve covered four popular methods of selling ad space. Regardless of whether you choose to sell direct, programmatic advertising, affiliate marketing, or through ad networks, each method has its pros and cons. Your choice will depend on how much control you want and what type works best for your website niche. Think carefully about your goals and the time you are willing to invest both upfront and on-going. Whatever you decide, there’s a lot of ad revenue to be gained if you get it right.
Generate revenue from your website
At Publift, we can help you monetize your website or app by serving high-quality ads without clicking having to give up a great user experience. Getting started is easy – contact us for a free website or app review with personalized optimization advice from our experts. Onboarding is quick and there are no lock-in contracts. Let’s increase your sales – talk to our friendly team today.
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