Monday, April 24, 2017

Monetizing with Adsense


Ensure your ads are mobile responsive and automatically adapt to different screen sizes - this way you can create a great user experience and continue to earn revenue when people view your blog on a smartphone or tablet.

Guide to blog monetisation, here`s how:
  1. Your content
  2. Ad networks
  3. Target the right audience
  4. The ad glossary
  5. Other ways to monetise your content
  6. When your ads are up and running, what to do.

Your content

Your content can introduce your readers to new concepts and resources, help them troubleshoot problems, entertain them and inform their decision making process.

But understand the following: For the most part, readers expect to consume your content without paying for it, even if you pour considerable time and resources into making it. So how can you monetise content your audience expects to get for free? One option is to sell advertising spaces alongside your content to relevant advertisers who are keen to reach your audience.
For small businesses, finding advertisers could be challenging and time-consuming, particularly when it comes time to arranging and managing ad campaigns with a large number of publishers.

Her are the online advertising networks that can help:


Ad networks
Online advertising networks bring together advertisers and publishers using automated targeting technology. Google and Facebook have large ad networks, and there are also others like AOL Advertising or Yahoo's publisher network dedicated to placing ads at scale across the Internet.

Turning your blog or website into a destination for ads is quite simple. You sign up with an ad network, add some code on your site and start displaying ads. Advertisers pay the network for the ads, and then that revenue is shared between you and the network. The largest share of revenue generally goes to you, the publisher.

Target the right audience

To ensure the ads on your blog reach the right audience, there are a number of targeting methods ad networks may use in assisting to achieve high relevancy.
  • Contextual targeting allows advertisers to place ads on a web page based on the words and subject matter of that page. Similar to a keyword-targeted search campaign, advertisers choose a small number of keywords on a particular theme and then the network matches their ads to pages or articles on the same subject.
  • Placement targeting allows advertisers to choose a number of specific sites for their advertising. This affords the advertiser more control over where their ads are shown.
  • Remarketing or personalised advertising lets advertisers target users based on their past browsing behavior. Although this strategy is based on targeting people rather than content, it can still produce good results for publishers. Since ads are tailored to the known interests of visitors, users may be more inclined to click.

The ad glossary

Glossary to some of the most common words used:
  • Cost-per-click (CPC): Is the money you earn each time a user clicks on your ad.
  • Cost Per Mille (CPM): CPM mean "cost per 1000 impressions." Advertisers running CPM ads set their desired price per 1000 ads served and pay each time their ad appears. As a publisher, you'll earn revenue each time a CPM ad is served to your page and viewed by a user. The number is useful because it allows you to compare the efficiency of ads across networks or campaigns.
  • Revenue Per Mille (RPM)Represents the estimated earnings you'd accrue for every 1000 impressions you receive. RPM doesn't represent how much you have actually earned; rather, it's calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views, impressions, or queries you received, then multiplying by 1000 [RPM = (Estimated earnings / Number of page views) * 1000].
  • Clickthrough Rate (CTR): The clickthrough rate is the percentage of impressions that led to a click. 
  • Viewability: Whether an ad on the Web is typically seen on a user's screen. Sometimes ads are said to be shown, but in reality users might need to scroll down to see them. AdWords, for example, lets advertisers choose 'above-the-fold' targeting, which guarantees that an ad is viewable when the page loads.

Sunday, April 09, 2017

Native advertising: Do you need it?

What it is.

Native ads are paid ads that have the goal of being “so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong.”

Native ads allow you to have an ad styled to fit within the page and it’s surrounding content, unlike traditional display banners. They are designed to match the look, feel, and function of your site.

Why does it matter?

Since most people these days, access the Internet from a mobile phone, you need to prioritize a mobile first user experience. This shift in thinking requires a change in the way we approach our ads too.

You need to put a lot of effort into shaping your site to meet the high expectations of a clean and mobile-optimized user experience. It’s just as  important to experiment with how you deliver ads to meet those user expectations and retain users’ interest in your site. So native ads may open up new earning opportunities on your site where traditional ad formats weren’t appropriate before. Ad formats, like banner ads, are effective but sometimes limited by size and placements. Native Ads can be customized to fit seamlessly within your content’s look and feel.

Do you need it?

Supporting and offering this ad format will provide you with access to a huge portion of the market for advertiser budgets. Additionally, as mobile consumers increasingly drive the publishing industry, native advertising is a key strategy for  connecting with that audience and  delivering a profitable mobile experience.

If you implement native ads, do the following:
  • Prioritize your customer: Consider your users’ expectations of your site and how they’ll respond to the type of ads you choose. Native ads meet users’ expectations by seamlessly fitting within your site’s user experience.
  • Optimize for user experience and ad revenue: It’s important to consider how to create the best user experience while maximizing your ad revenue. Strike a balance between content and ads by testing new native ad units and formats to measure their impact on revenue and user engagement.

Are you ready to get started? With 54% of global marketing leaders already using native advertising, native ads are the solution to help grow your ad earnings.2