5 Tips for Balancing Website Ad Revenue with User Experience

There is a common notion that having more traffic can lead to more advertisement revenue. To some extent, this does hold true, but at the same time, it must also be mentioned here that there are undoubtedly other ways too for maximizing the ad revenue.

Sites having a constant flow of visitors can go along with a technique that is popularly known as ad revenue optimization. With this process, any CPC, CPA or any other kind of advertisement exchange can work phenomenally to get more ad revenue from a site. It is essential that the user experience for a website balances its ad revenue so that the interest is kept maintained for a user to visit more often. Therefore, we look here at some techniques that can be helpful in achieving it.

1) The ad placements can make a difference:

Increasing the Click Through Rate (CTR) for an ad unit can be sufficiently achieved by mixing and matching different ads at different places on a site. This is perhaps one of the most tested methods. This type of work includes placing an ad on top of the fold, mixing an ad with the content of a site and keeping an ad very close to the Call to Action (CTA). Whatever be the method used, one thing that is for sure is that many permutations and combinations may have to be worked out before eventually, one gets favorable results from it. Making minor changes is the key and taking it from there on can help in finding out the best place for an ad on a site that can also promise a good experience for a user.

2) It can pay to experiment with varying sizes:

A person may think that a more substantial ad may attract more traffic and increased CTR. While in a way it does but there cannot be a guarantee for it. Like, removing a skyscraper from the side column and replacing it with a 728X15 unit that is provided by AdSense can work wonders for specific sites and yet the user experience can also be better. Likewise, replacing a 250X250 ad with a 36X280 unit can fetch rich dividends, but then it also depends on many other factors. Therefore, varying the size and choosing different locations can help in determining the best places for an ad that can fetch the revenue as well as user’s can get complete satisfaction from a site.

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3) Comparing different ad networks can be useful:

Some ad networks do pay more than the others. But this only cannot be the deciding factor during selection. The importance and quality of the ads are also critical to be considered because over a period the CTR, and effective CPM will determine whether the best placed and best-sized ads are working to their potential or not. Therefore, it is essential on the part of a webmaster to find out the best network that can be suitable, keeping the same position and size of an ad as constant.

4) Advertisement design and category can also be important:

It has been found that text ads are more attractive than image ads. The color style can also make a huge difference in attracting traffic. Comparison of CTR on these vital aspects can throw some good light on whether image ad or text ad should be used for a site. Additionally, blending colors in contrast to the site can also be used as more people can get attracted to them readily provided the content is as per their liking.

5) Comparing CPC to the CPM:

Many large site owners don’t care much for the CPC. Instead, they are more inclined towards the CPM. This way, more returns can be ensured by them, and fixed cost can easily be delivered. However, this also might not be the best way. The only thing that can help a person in determining it is through testing, testing, and more testing. Things will start working only after one has tested it with many variations and the one that performs as per planned should be then stuck with so that user experience and ad revenue generation go hand in hand.

You may also like: 5 Tips to Improve the UX (User Experience) of your eCommerce Website.

Final Words:

If you are serious about your website, the user experience is such a thing that you always concern about it. Ms. Gio Marie, the owner of calculators.org, is such an entrepreneur who even decided not to display any ad on her site to provide an excellent user experience to her customers.

To all the processes mentioned above, it is vital to keep on optimizing and testing by placing ads at different positions on a site. Usually, changing the position of an ad once in 5 to 6 months can be called a good exercise as more hits can be expected. The objective is always to strike the right balance between user satisfaction and ad revenue generation, and hence suitable methods will vary from case to case.