Here is how publishers can determine the more lucrative way of selling ads and making your site and ads more attractive to advertisers. This article will explore the following:
- The criteria publishers need before selling advertising space.
- How to sell ad space.
- How to generate revenue from your website.
The Criteria Publishers Need Before Selling Advertising Space
Not all sites are the same, but most advertisers are interested in the same thing. They are interested in high-quality sites that reach their niche market's relevant, targeted audience. Here are some essential criteria to consider when selling ad space:
Valuable High-Quality Content
It is at the core of generating high traffic to your website. Advertisers are interested in authentic, high-quality, relevant content that hooks readers and keeps them returning for more. For example, if, as a publisher, you run a blog in the health industry, you should be sharing how-to articles, inspirational stories, and healthy recipe ideas.
You won’t grab the attention of potential high-quality advertisers if your site features tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, or irrelevant information that won’t draw in their target audience.
Generate High Traffic
Advertisers are attracted by high traffic; the more site views you generate, the more attention your ads will receive. If you sell ad space directly, there isn’t any traffic requirement. Still, some ad platforms and affiliate networks have certain restrictions, such as qualifying for a Google AdX account:
- A Google Ad Manager account.
- Require 5 billion monthly pageviews.
- Suitable brand safety measures in place.
- Up-to-date ads.txt file with inventory buyers included.
- No history of policy violations, invalid traffic, or unsafe content.
- At least six months, a minimum of 10 million ad impressions per month.
Source: Google
For many publishers, that number is almost impossible to achieve, particularly for smaller websites. However, there are many options available to you, and working with a monetization partner rather than a standard SSP can help you overcome such obstacles.
Intuitive Design
Today's digitally driven world is about user experience (UX). Therefore it is essential for a website design that caters to the best UX by being simple to navigate, intuitively structured, and visually attractive. And most importantly, ensure your latency and load time won’t be impacted when you feature ads on your site, as this could compromise UX significantly.
Publishers should also ensure that their sites are optimized for browsers on all digital devices.
Complete Transparency
Publishers should not only focus on a specific niche for their site; it’s also important to feature your contact information and credentials for users to view. Advertisers have become warier to forgo their reputations and advertising budgets on deceptive sites. The transparency concerns in digital advertising have become apparent to advertisers and publishers alike.
The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) supports the Google AdX requirement of up-to-date ads.txt files with inventory buyers and recommends it to publishers. They can create a media kit to display authors, content guidelines, and metrics to potential advertisers.
Loyal and Engaged Audience
Although high traffic is essential to advertisers, you can still attract and sell ad space on your site if you have low traffic and a highly engaged audience. Some advertisers are willing to pay for ad space on a site with loyal and engaging audiences that keep returning to a site.
But how do you show advertisers that you have a loyal and engaging audience? Share ad comments from social media accounts or response/click rates.
Ad Servers
Clicks and impressions are data collected automatically by ad servers to provide publishers with reports that give insights into the ad's performance on a site. It manages and stores creative media and decides what ads to show according to user experience knowledge.
- Directly Sell Ad Space
By removing the middleman, publishers can have maximum control and generate high revenue, but establishing lasting relationships with advertisers takes time and effort. Here at Rev·Amp, we help publishers choose suitable brands when considering a long-term direct partnership. Advertisers are interested in a guaranteed safe return on ad investments.
Finding Direct Advertisers
When it comes to direct selling of ads, it is best to realize it takes a lot of effort. It is necessary to build long-lasting relationships, convert clients and generate leads. Publishers with a loyal niche audience find direct ad selling somewhat more manageable.
By creating a media kit site, publishers can attract advertisers by providing value to a site's ad space. The information advertisers want to evaluate when considering ad space on a site, such as engagement, user segments, page views, reach and bounce rates, is all the analytics that will help them decide.
Establishing remarkable partnerships will require direct contact with potential buyers and negotiations and agreements. Consider the understanding value of your loyal audience and the worth before offering ad space.
- Programmatic Advertising
A lucrative way to generate revenue is through programmatic advertising (or display advertising). It is a process where ads are sold online through automated bidding. As a publisher, you can register with an SSP (supply-side platform) and then decide on the following:
- RTB or real-time bidding auctions (ad space sold on the open marketplace),
- Or Direct deals (ad space sold in the private marketplace),
- Or Preferred deals (ad space sold to preferred advertisers)
3. Affiliate Advertising
The last but not least method to generate revenue through selling ad space is to become an affiliate publisher through an affiliate program. Affiliate advertising is growing; statistics show it will reach 8.2 billion U.S. dollars by 2022.
How Does It Work?
Many affiliate networks aim to connect advertisers and publishers. Publishers can join these networks for free, but for the affiliate networks to earn money, they charge advertisers a license and setup fee.
What publishers need to join an affiliate program:
- A domain name.
- An email account linked to the domain name.
- A site layout to support various ad formats.
Conclusion
In this article, we covered the four popular methods of selling ad space, and as a publisher, you should consider all your options before making the final decision. Ultimately, your choice will depend on how much control you prefer and what suits your site niche best, not to mention the time and effort you are prepared to invest.
Publishers can get in touch with our rev·amp team, who can help improve ad revenue and monetize your website.
