Ultimate Guide to Publishing: Tips to maximize ad zone optimization
Have you ever wondered how to make more advertising inventory available? Are you looking for the best possible traffic monetization platform for website Publishers and the best ad network features to monetize your website? We are constantly helping you, our Publishers, to grow your business by working with you to monetize your traffic with our tips to maximize ad zone optimization, optimize your ad zones, stay Google compliant, give you business tips and ultimately improve your revenues and still ensure a great end user experience. We have put together 13 great problem solving solutions using ExoClick’s Publisher platform tools and features to improve your bottom line and how to keep your website industry compliant. if you ask, “How can I fully optimize my website with ExoClick?” read our Ultimate Guide to Publishing!
Table of Contents: best features to monetize your website
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- #1 Ad Refresh: How to make more advertising inventory available to monetize
- #2 Ultimate Guide to Publishing: Our Async ad zone codes are packed with features
- #3 How to increase eCPMs and ad revenue: New Responsive Display Ad formats for your ad zones!
- #4 Optimize your Direct Link Menu Tabs
- #5 Smart data analysis with ExoClick’s Customizable Dashboards
- #6 Monetize Adblock traffic and boost your revenues
- #7 Increase Advertiser demand with Keyword matching
- #8 Maximize revenues with Fullpage Interstitials and Popunders
- #9 How to serve multiple ad formats per zone with Multi-format ads
- #10 Take Native to the next level with 1×1 widgets and CSS customization
- #11 Optimize your Video ad zones using ExoClick’s tools and placements
- #12 Ad placement tips for Desktop and Mobile websites
- #13 ExoClick’s Compliance Team at the service of your website safety!
#1 Ad Refresh: How to make more advertising inventory available to monetize
First one of the tips to maximize ad zone optimization in this Ultimate Guide to Publishing: Ad Refresh is one of ExoClick’s features to monetize your website that allows Publishers to refresh ad content on various Banner ad zones, including Responsive Display Ads (or RDAs) and Multi Format Ads, on their website, in order to serve not one, but several ads per user, per session. So the more time an end user spends on a page section that has an ad zone, the more fresh ads they will get the chance to view. Here are the main benefits of using Ad Refresh, one of the best features to monetize your website:
- You are making more of your inventory available to Advertisers buying viewable impressions through ExoClick.
- Increase quality impressions and revenues per ad zone on your website.
- You are optimizing end user time on the page showing them more than 1 ad per session.
- You offer your end user a better user experience and reduce ad fatigue by avoiding showing them always the same ad.
- This feature has been specially designed to be fully compliant with the IAB Standards. Here’s how to keep your website industry compliant!
- Ad Refresh operates according to the Ad Best Practices recommended by Google’s viewability logic.
How it works: In order to refresh, an ad zone needs to be directly viewed by an end user in real-time, which promotes high viewability rates. As a Publisher you have full flexibility to choose the refresh frequency for ad zones. There are 4 time settings:
#1 30 secs: The ads will refresh every 30 seconds
#2 60 secs: The ads will refresh every 60 seconds
#3 90 secs: The ads will refresh every 90 seconds
#4 120 secs: The ads will refresh every 120 seconds
And here’s how to keep your website industry compliant: there is a limit of 10 rotations per user session, which means that you are not at risk of damaging your eCPMs because of a too constant ad rotation. Read this Publisher’s Case Study to find out what Ad Refresh can do for your ad zones!
#2 Ultimate Guide to Publishing: Our Async ad zone codes are packed with features
Have you made sure that your site codes are up-to-date and contain Async tags? Another of ExoClick’s features to monetize your website. If you run on unoptimized code it will affect your site performance and you will not be able to enable RDAs. Which are key to increase eCPMs and attract more Advertisers to your ad zones. Async tags are also important to keep your website industry compliant and improve the performance of your site and ad zones – And bear in mind that Google rankings of Publisher sites are heavily based on their performance! Also, your site’s code will affect the quality of your ad displays:
#1: Make sure that your ads display correctly: Async is one of the best features to monetize your website; Async enables your site to load independent HTML elements such as videos, forms, widgets, and ads. Making sure that your Async tags are updated is key to make sure that ads continue to display properly.
#2: Enable your site to load ads asynchronously: Async tags enable other content on your site to load while the ads are also loading, increasing performance when used on well-optimized sites, improving loading speed and user experience.
#3 Enable multiple ad zones with one single request: Gain the ability to use a single request to activate multiple ad zones on the same page with Async tags, also increasing efficiency, speed and performance of your ad zones.
#4 Keep it clean and compliant! How to keep your website industry compliant? Our async ad zone codes ensure that the ads you show load fast to help with improved Google rankings. Additionally, they ensure compliance with GDPR & CCPA. Interprets the consent of the end user and displays the ad aligned with IAB TCF 2.2 standards.
#3 How to increase eCPMs and ad revenue: New Responsive Display Ad formats for your ad zones!
More tips to maximize ad zone optimization; in addition to Banner ads, we now have introduced RDAs for Sticky Banners, Instant Message and Fullpage Interstitials. They are a great asset for Publishers and one of the best features to monetize your website because they open up more bidding opportunities for Advertisers, increasing demand of their ad zones:
- Attract more Advertisers to bid on your ad zones and increase demand.
- How to keep your website industry compliant? RDAs are aligned with the IAB industry Standards and Google.
- A great end user experience, hence qualified clicks, therefore higher eCPMs.
- Easy setup, because RDAs are set up by default on your ad zones. However you can toggle this off if you wish.
Case Study: Tips to maximize ad zone optimization
Desktop and Mobile
This Publisher updated his Async codes and enabled RDAs on his website’s Mobile and Desktop Banner zones and managed to visibly increase revenues and eCPMs:
Revenue increase: +16%
eCPMs increase: +13%
Check out our blog post for more information.
#4 Optimize your Direct Link Menu Tabs
Direct Links are a powerful and highly flexible ad format. Think of it as a click that goes ‘directly’ to an Advertiser offer landing page. Direct Links are strategically placed ad zones of Menu Tabs and Back Button offers.
All our Menu Tabs are ad zones that are displayed in prime position within the menu section of your website. In the example below the Activity, Search and Chat tabs are tools to help an end user navigate the content of your website. The tab: Games and Dating are really Direct Link ad zones.
So you can monetize end user clicks on the Games and Dating tabs. Therefore it does not look like an ad to the end user and becomes a part of the user experience on your website. You can choose different verticals for Direct Link Menu tabs such as Dating, Live Streaming, Games, etc.
Tips for optimization using some of the best features to monetize your website:
- Test different verticals to see Advertiser demand on your site and end user favorites.
- Use images instead of texts for the Menus, e.g. use a heart emoji for the Dating tab, this makes the tab understandable in all languages.
- Test out positioning of the Menu Tab to experiment with the sweet spot.
Check out our blog post for optimization tips and case studies for Menu Tabs on Desktop and Mobile using one of the best features to monetize your website.
#5 Smart data analysis with ExoClick’s Customizable Dashboards
Data analytics help Publishers better understand their traffic and maximize ad zone revenues. ExoClick’s platform gives you a customizable set of data analysis dashboards that will reveal fresh data insights that you might have missed with ad networks that do not provide these tools. You can have several dashboards with different widget types:
- Table Setting: Metrics and numbers in a table within rows and columns.
- Line Chart: Data points connected by straight lines to showcase the evolution of important segments.
- Bar chart: The evolution of your data is represented by height or length rectangular bars.
- Combo Chart: A combination of a ‘Line’ and ‘Bar Chart’, allowing you to compare two metrics simultaneously.
- Pie Chart: This chart is useful to get a quick overview of your segment distribution.
You can change the time period of the data shown in the widgets and there are additional filter options:
- Ad Block
- Browsers
- Carriers
- Categories
- Countries
- Device Types
- Devices
- Languages
- Operating Systems
- Regions
- Sites
- Sub IDs
- VR
- Zone Types
- Zones
You can create multiple dashboards, and each single one can have a maximum limit of 12 widgets. Drag and drop a widget and the dashboard automatically adjusts. Check out this blog post about ExoClick’s traffic monetization platform for website Publishers for more tips to maximize ad zone optimization and to see how you can harness the power of ExoClick’s Customizable Dashboards, one of the best features to monetize your website.
#6 Monetize Adblock traffic and boost your revenues
ExoClick, Traffic monetization platform for website Publishers, offers two completely free Adblock monetization solutions for our Publisher clients:
In-line Popunder Code: Popunders can be stopped by ad blockers, but this single code, which is very easy to implement, ensures Popunders to be still shown to Adblock users.
Adblock Monetization Tool: Recover lost ad blocker traffic on Banners, Sticky Banner, Native and Instant Message. This solution’s script has been developed to be compatible with multiple ad blockers, all browsers, platforms and devices.
We recommend implementing both solutions simultaneously to increase eCPMs and ad revenue.
#7 Increase Advertiser demand with Keyword matching
Keywords allow you to help attract Advertisers to target your ad zones contextually in order to find ad zones that display similar content to the vertical of their offer, and attract more targeted end user clicks.
E.g if you have video content that shows a couple going on a date, add the keyword ‘Dating’ to the video ad zone to attract Advertisers with Dating offers to bid for your ad zone, creating more competition, increasing your eCPM values.
#8 Maximize revenues with Fullpage Interstitials and Popunders
Another one of great ExoClick’s features to monetize your website: Popunders can sometimes be blocked by Chrome. Optimize Popunder revenues with Frequency Capping, using Fullpage Interstitials (or FPIs) as an alternative, or using a Popunder and FPI combo to ensure all browsers can show you large format ads.
Tips to maximize ad zone optimization: Test Frequency Capping on Popunders
Experiment with Frequency Capping on how often a Popunder ad is shown to an end user and increase revenues while providing a great end user experience. Here is a case study carried out with 2 Publishers. Both were advised to change the Frequency Capping to 1 Popunder per hour to the end user:
Case study 1: Popunder Traffic monetization platform for website Publishers
Desktop & Mobile test
Previous Frequency Capping: 1 every 12 hours
When the Publisher changed both Desktop & Mobile versions of the website to a Frequency Capping of 1 every hour the results were revenue increases of:
Desktop: +40.92%
Mobile: +27.47%
Case Study 2: Popunder Traffic monetization platform for website Publishers
Desktop test
Previous Frequency Capping 2 every 12 hours
When the Publisher switched to 1 every hour, the results were revenue increases of:
Desktop: +106.39%
When experimenting with Frequency Capping, test 1 every hour as a starting point. Check out this third Case Study from an ExoClick Publisher who noticeably boosted his Popunder revenues using Frequency Capping.
Popunder and Fullpage Interstitial combo to recover Chrome audiences
Another one of the best features to monetize your website from the best traffic monetization platform for website Publishers: In your admin panel you have various trigger options for the FPI and Popunder combo to recover Popunder audiences:
Trigger combo #1: Set a webpage to trigger both ad formats at different stages of the user journey on your website. Set the Frequency Capping of the Popunder to show the ad to an end user once every hour, then set the interstitial after the 3rd click. This shows 2 different large format ads to the same end user, doubling your revenues.
Trigger combo #2: You can monetize the end users’ visit even further by adding an extra impression. ExoClick’s admin panel allows you to set two trigger points for the FPI. So if you repeat the set up in ‘double your revenue’, but add a second trigger for FPI, say after the end user’s 15th click, to show 3 large format ads to the same end user.
Trigger combo #3: You can also place triggers within the webpage to show both ad formats when a user clicks on specific places on your web page such as: Thumbnails, tabs, video player play, pause, stop buttons, etc. This allows you to show combinations of the two ad formats to end users.
Browser combo: ExoClick’s admin panel allows you to use browser settings to show the FPI in one browser and the Popunder in another to bypass Chrome’s Pounder block and not miss out on Chrome revenues.
#9 How to serve multiple ad formats per zone with Multi-format ads
Multi-Format ads allow Publishers to create ad placements that serve multiple formats: Banners or Native in just one placement, pitching different Banner sizes and Native ad widgets against each other and serving the highest paying ad in the Multi-Format ad zone. This ability to serve multiple formats can increase the number of eligible bids for your impressions while giving Advertisers access to previously unavailable inventory. As a Publisher you can select different Banner sizes and Native ad zones by generating a single ad script, choosing multiple existing ad zones and letting them compete against each other, showing only the one with the highest CPM value.
As an example, Desktop Footer is a typical large 900×250 display Banner zone. An Advertiser can’t target this zone with a smaller Banner or a Native ad, however if you use the footer as a Multi-Format ad zone, this opens up new inventory for an Advertiser that wasn’t previously available. With Multi-Format Ads, the Footer now has different combinations of inventory depending on which won the highest bid for either the whole Footer zone, or parts of the Footer zone. For example a Multi-Format ad Desktop Footer can display the following different combinations:
1 Banner 900×250
1 x Banner 728×90
3 x 300×250 Banners or 4 x 300×250 Banners 100% width
1 x 3 Native widget, 1 x 4 Native widget or 1 x 5 Native widget depending on the website layout.
Read our Publisher Case Study to see how one Publisher increased revenues by +215.63% and a +48.67% increase in eCPM & +93.81% eCPC.
Tip! Native/RDA layout improvement: You can customize the style of your Native/RDA widget placement to the site 2×1 to further match the look and feel.
#10 Take Native to the next level with 1×1 widgets and CSS customization
Native is a highly flexible ad format that is designed to perfectly merge with your website’s editorial content, arguably one of the best features to monetize your website. Advertisers love it because they can get really creative with it in order to convert their offers, so it is an ideal way to monetize your website’s traffic.
1×1 Native widget
Native ad zones are set up using different widget sizes, for instance the 1×1 widget. Members Area Dating sites have been using the 1×1 as In-Content, placing it amongst Dating profile images (In-profile Native ads), or in end users’ Inboxes (Native Inbox Message Ads). These two Native formats are exclusive for Premium Members Area sources.
Please note: These Native zones are not available for RDAs, they are pure Native only.
Premium Publishers example of 1×1 Native In-Content:
Ultimate Guide to Publishing: CSS editing for Native
ExoClick, one of the best traffic monetization platform for website Publishers, offers Native advertising, which seamlessly blends with your website content. You can customize your widgets’ design using custom CSS code, further improving the impact of your Native ad zones and increasing eCPMs.
Here are some custom CSS ideas and more tips to maximize ad zone optimization using ExoClick’s features to monetize your website:
- Reduce the height of your text box to fit your website style.
- Place the text over the image.
- Add a solid element under the text.
- Customize the text box’s color.
- Customize the text font.
- Set a border around each image and text within the widget.
#11 Optimize your Video ad zones using ExoClick’s tools and placements
What makes ExoClick possibly the best traffic monetization platform for website Publishers for Video is the vast array of Video tools. Continuing on the Ultimate Guide to Publishing we will give you some tips to optimize Video ad zones:
Test Frequency Capping for In-Stream
One of our tips to maximize ad zone optimization, we recommend to use a Frequency Capping between 5-15 minutes, or 1 every 2-3 videos, depending on user behavior on your website.
Here are 2 Publisher Case Studies which showed revenue increases after using Frequency Capping, one of the best features to monetize your website:
Case study 1
Desktop & Mobile
Previous Frequency Capping: 1 In-Stream ad every 24 hours
When the Publisher changed both Desktop & Mobile versions of the website to a Frequency Capping of 1 ad per single user every 3 videos the results were revenue increases of:
Desktop: +38.8%.
Mobile: +41.22%.
Case Study 2
Mobile test
Previous Frequency Capping 1 ad every 1 hour per single user
When the Publisher switched to 1 ad every 10 min, the results were revenue increases of:
Mobile: +48.33%
3 Publisher benefits using Frequency Capping for video ad zones:
Increase your revenues: In-Stream eCPMs are of a higher value compared to Banner eCPMs. You then have a greater revenue earning potential from your In-Stream ad zones, setting the best possible frequency for your specific website and end user behavior.
Increase your In-Stream zones’ value: Your video Impressions will increase and you will be able to offer Advertisers more volumes for your In-Stream ad zones, also increasing your zones’ value and demand.
Achieve a great user experience: Because you are in total control of how many times your ads are shown, you can ensure that it is just the right amount for your website and end users.
Read the Case Study for the full details.
Try using Post-roll for your In-Stream video ad zones
Post-Roll In-Stream ads fit perfectly into the end user’s experience since they play right after the video that the end user has chosen to watch. It is a great format to use alongside other video placements:
Post-Roll allows you to diversify revenues: Adding an extra Post-Roll placement on your In-Stream zones makes them more competitive, attracting more Advertisers and having a visibly positive impact on your overall ad revenues.
A quick and easy setup: Post-Roll placements are very easy and quick to implement in most of the players including Fluid Player, by using the same zone ID or an entirely different one.
Non-intrusive user experience: Post-Roll In-Stream video ads are non-intrusive, creating a positive impact on the end user’s journey. Read this Post-Roll Case Study to find out more!
Here are 2 Ultimate Guide to Publishing Case Studies which showed revenue increases after implementing Pot-Roll In-Stream ads:
Case study 1
Mobile and Desktop
When this Publisher added a Post-Roll placement to his In-Stream ad zones, the results were revenue increases of:
Mobile: +53.9%
Desktop: +9.5%
Case Study 2
Mobile and Desktop
When this Publisher added a Post-Roll placement to his In-Stream ad zones, the results were revenue increases of:
Mobile: +25.1%
Desktop: +36.1%
ExoClick’s CTA Video feature
The CTA feature allows your Advertisers to add a Call To Action on their video ads to direct the end user to their offer’s landing page. You have full control in your admin panel to select which CTAs you want to be displayed on the Video ads on your site:
- Automated (Default)
- Click for More
- Click Here
- Play Game
- Play Game Now
- Play Now
- See More
- See Now
- Try for Free
- View Here
- View More
- Watch Free
By enabling this feature you get:
- More control: Control whether the Advertisers can display CTAs on your page.
- Better User Experience: No confusing or misleading CTAs from video campaigns.
- Revenue increase: A strong CTA generates more clicks, and higher CTRs and eCPMs.
Check out how to set up the CTA feature here.
How to show Live Streaming ads in your In-Stream video ad zones
If you use Fluid Player on your website you can show Live Streaming video ads. These are the main benefits:
- Higher eCPMs: Live Streaming ads are more resource-consuming and more expensive, but they receive higher engagement, so Advertisers are happy to pay more for them, providing higher eCPMs.
- Great User Experience: Streaming formats don’t need to be edited, allowing a faster rotation of ad content, keeping the ads fresh and providing a better user experience.
- Extra Content: Because streaming video ads are live entertainment with social interaction they bring extra value content to your users.
If you are using Fluid Player as your video player, see how to set this up here.
Ultimate Guide to Publishing: Slider versus Instant Message
Video Sliders work similarly to Instant Messages, as they both appear in the bottom right of the website screen. We recommend swapping your Instant Message zones for Slider ones because Slider stands out more to the end user and generates higher CPMs for Publishers due to the effectiveness of Video advertising.
Case Study: How to increase eCPMs and ad revenue
Mobile
This Publisher swapped his Instant Message Mobile ad zone to a Video Slider zone. Here are the revenue increases results:
Mobile: +32.37%
Here are the main benefits of the using Slider instead of Instant Message:
- Video ad formats are very popular amongst Advertisers, making your zones more competitive.
- They generate higher CPMs.
- If your website is image based and not video based, using Video Slider you can still monetize Video ads.
In-Content Banners vs Outstream
Outstream can be an alternative for In-Content Mobile and Desktop Banner placements such as Mobile Middle or Desktop In-Content; it can bring you extra revenues and is non-obtrusive. Also, the Publisher has full control on the timing when the video ad will be displayed on the website. When comparing Outstream to In-Content Banners we see that Outstream gets a much higher eCPM and CTR.
According to the global data below requested to our BI department, Publishers using Outstream get a much higher eCPM and CTR compared to In-Content Banners:
The main benefits of Outstream are:
- Outstream is shown to an end user during their user journey and is fully responsive across all devices.
- It is non-obtrusive, and clicking the video ad opens the Advertiser’s landing page in a new tab.
- Its close button feature makes Outstream 100% Google compliant.
- No need for a video player, you just insert one piece of code and you can start monetising video.
#12 Ad placement tips for Desktop and Mobile websites
Following on the Ultimate Guide to Publishing we will give you a few expert Ad placement tips for Mobile and Desktop.
Ultimate Guide to Publishing Desktop Tips!
Tip! Rotate your NTV placements Ad Refresh: Rotate your Multi Format ads from 300×500, Banner 300×250 vertical x2 to Native 1×2 using Ad Refresh for great ad visibility and engagement.
Tip! In-player Video formats: If you have enabled In-player formats such as In-stream, make sure to also enable Pre-roll, Mid-roll and Post-roll. You could also add In-video Multi-format Banner ads. Most Publishers set them to trigger before the video starts or when paused.
Tip! Under Video player: Add a Native widget under your Video player, that is well blended and customized to look like video thumbnails – Make sure that the widget has got the same amount of positions as video thumbnails above the placement. Enable Ad refresh for good visibility and engagement.
Tip! Make your Slider ads closable: To provide the best possible end user experience, make your Slider ads closable from the beginning, adding a visible button the second the ad appears to the end user.
Ultimate Guide to Publishing Mobile Tips!
Tip! Multi Format Header Banners: Add a Multi Format Banner 300×100 + 2×1 native combo on your header section and use a CSS customization to show the text over the image as if it was a title, and then use Ad Refresh for extra great visibility and engagement. Because it is in the header area, your ad zone will really stand out.
Tip! In-Player Mobile formats: Similar to with Desktop, enable In-Stream Pre, Mid and Post-roll inside of your video content video player. Then, to add up to the combo, enable In-Video Multi Format Ads: Banner 300×100 + 2×1 native and once again use CSS customization to show the title on top of the image.
Tip! Footer Multi Format Ads: On the footer section, enable Banner 300×250 + Native 2×1 + Native 2×2 Multi Format Ads. On the 2×2 Native placement use CSS to show the title over the image to make it really pop.
Tip! In-Content Outstream-Native combo: If you have a video or gallery based website, add a Video Outstream placement below the fold between the 2nd or 3d thumbnail so that the end user will see it when they scroll down. Combine the placement with a Native 1×1 widget within the thumbnails 5 and 6.
#13 ExoClick’s Compliance Team at the service of your website safety!
Last tip of the Ultimate Guide to Publishing, on another one of the best features to monetize your website, on how to keep your website industry compliant: ExoClick’s Compliance team works to guarantee ad security, quality and full industry compliance. To ensure a great browsing experience and that all parties within the ad supply chain are protected, we have strict policies and guidelines. We closely monitor our Advertisers’ campaigns, to make sure that our ads are aligned to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Google Chrome and the Coalition For Better Ads.
Our Compliance team, composed of trained employees, works everyday around the clock 24/7, 365 days a year in order to check campaigns and landing pages manually for malvertising and non compliance. The Compliance Team also uses multiple AI detection tools including 3rd party software AdSecure, to scan all ad creatives, links and landing pages for malvertising and non compliance. This occurs before a campaign goes live and whilst it is running on our network. This is how to keep your website industry compliant.
We hope that our Ultimate Guide to Publishing will be very useful and will help you optimize your ad zones’ revenues and with Ad Refresh show you how to make more advertising inventory available. If you have any more questions on how to increase eCPMs and advertising revenues streams on your website using the best features to monetize your website, want to join the best possible traffic monetization platform for website Publishers or have any more questions on ExoClick’s features to monetize your website, make sure to get in touch with the ExoClick Team here for more tips to maximize ad zone optimization!
