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"Never before have Web site publishers like you had such an accessible opportunity to improve the performance of your advertising; ad serving costs are down and the explosion of ad networks has created an opportunity to get highest possible price for your inventory."Here the details:
The Essential Web Site Publisher’s Guide to Ad Revenue Optimization
by Rajeev GoelIntroduction
![ad-revenue-optimization_id14933631_size300.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization_id14933631_size300.jpg)
Optimization Tips
1) Diversify of Your Ad Networks
![ad-revenue-optimization-diversify_id102378_size200.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-diversify_id102378_size200.jpg)
Benefits: By diversifying your mix of ad networks, you as the publisher, can determine what the most valuable aspect of your audience and content is, and therefore, determine the best mix of ad networks that can monetize your audience. Travel ads might be a source of high-income advertisements, or alternatively the audience that is interested in travel might be high-income and therefore can be sold higher value financial products with related financial ads.
What to do next: Look at the mix of ad networks you are using, and classify them along the lines of behavioral, contextual, and demographic targeting capabilities. Depending on the size of your site, look to get one to three ad networks in each area and identify which targeting mechanism works the best for your site.
2) Implement a Segmentation Strategy
![ad-revenue-optimization-segmentation_id443623_size185.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-segmentation_id443623_size185.jpg)
Benefits: Smaller Web sites enjoy ad rates that are up to three times as high as large Web sites. You can significantly raise your monetization rates if you can present a more targeted advertising opportunity to the advertiser. And you can do this by limiting the scope of a single ad tag to the most relevant areas possible.
What to do next: Check out the navigational areas of your Web site, and use that as the basis for carving up your large, broad site into a collection of smaller sites. Create one set of ad tags for each smaller area of your site, and use those ad tags with each of your ad networks to get more targeted advertising.
3) Monetize International Traffic
![ad-revenue-optimization-monetize-international-traffic_id14486021_size160.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-monetize-international-traffic_id14486021_size160.jpg)
Benefits: As a result of the significant foreign readership of a typical U.S. Web site, the drop in U.S. ad rates, and the weak US dollar, monetization rates for the 30-40% of foreign traffic on a U.S. Web site can be higher than that of U.S. traffic, resulting in up to half of a Web site’s revenues based on foreign visitors. This foreign traffic is often overlooked as a source of revenue for U.S. Web sites. If you’re not making a significant stream of revenue from your foreign visitors, it is time to re-evaluate your monetization strategy.
What to do next: Check your server logs or Google Analytics reports to identify your top 5-7 geographies outside of the U.S. You will likely be surprised by the amount of foreign traffic. Then determine if your current ad networks can monetize inventory in these geographies. You need an ad network that can reach advertisers in these foreign countries. A U.S. ad network will often default (show blank or empty ads) to visitors from foreign countries, and you typically have no way to know this because you’re sitting in the U.S. and won’t see the default ads! Check if your ad networks have a sales office in the foreign country. If not, do a bit of research to find an appropriate ad network in that country and start working with them right away.
4) Monetize Every Impression
![ad-revenue-optimization-monetize-every-impression_id15139971_size155.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-monetize-every-impression_id15139971_size155.jpg)
Benefits: A solution that both eliminates defaults and ensures that the impression is sold to the highest possible ad buyer can add 30-50% to a publisher’s revenue base. The key to the solution is detecting when a default happens, then re-selling that ad impression to ensure that the sale is dynamic, and not through a pre-determined or static daisy chain of ad networks.
What to do next: See how often your ad networks are defaulting. If it is more than 10% of the time, consider a dynamic default optimization solution. The only known solution is one that PubMatic provides (learn more at PubMatic.com/news).
5) Sell New Inventory
![ad-revenue-optimization-sell-new-inventory_id15269231_size195.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-sell-new-inventory_id15269231_size195.jpg)
Benefits: New ad units can lead to entirely new revenue streams. For example, in text ads can pay $1 CPMs and up, as can page takeovers. This is new revenue that is almost entirely additive to your Web site. Moreover, you might find that these new ad units are so beneficial that you can remove some of your existing ad units. Best of all, trying out these new ad units won't cost you any money as you can leave your existing ad units in place.
What to do next: Take some notes for the next week as you surf around the Web. Write down any new ad units you see that you aren't currently using on your Web site. For example, I saw a page takeover on the Wall Street Journal's Web site for the first time last week (courtesy of new owner Rupert Murdoch). Once you've got a short list, find ad networks that provide these new ad units (your existing ad network partners might provide some of these) and get them up and running. And don't try them all out at once - rotate them through one at a time, and see what performs the best for you. Be open with your readers and let them know that you're testing new ad options to bring them more of the content they love, and they will probably help you in the process.
6) Call Your Ad Network Representative
![ad-revenue-optimization-call-account_id303177_size200.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-call-account_id303177_size200.jpg)
Benefits: By being on the top of an ad network representative’s list of sites to work with, you can help ensure that you get first crack at new ad campaigns. This means more advertising dollars can flow to your Web site, and you will see higher monetization rates.
What to do next: Identify representative at each of the ad networks you’re working with. Call them up and spend 15 minutes getting to know them and how they work, then explain some of the differentiating aspects of your Web site content and audience. Set a regular check-in period – once per month for example – and keep in touch.
7) Experiment with CPA
![ad-revenue-optimization-experiment-with-CPA_id15741131_size190.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-experiment-with-CPA_id15741131_size190.jpg)
Benefits: Depending on your site and audience, CPA offers can often times outperform regular advertising. If you are seeing low monetization rates (10, 20, or 30 cent eCPMs), then you may want to consider adding some CPA offers to the mix on your Web site. The key is finding relevant offers that will be attractive to your audience and will pay you a significant amount each time a user completes the required action.
What to do next: Identify the lowest paying ad spots on your Web site. Then find some appropriate offers. This might take a bit of research but there are affiliate networks out there like Commission Junction that can provide you with a broad array of offers in one place. Put the offers on your Web site, be open to experimentation, and see if you can raise your monetization rate.
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8) Email Your Users More Often
![ad-revenue-optimization-email_id5106491_size200.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-email_id5106491_size200.jpg)
Benefits: There are three major benefits to emailing your user base on a more frequent basis: First, the email typically generates a pop in terms of traffic to your Web site. People may read something interesting in your email and click through to your Web site, increasing the number of ad impressions for you. Second, the email itself contains valuable ad inventory that you can monetize. And third, it increases your mindshare and engagement level with your readers.
What to do next: If you are already emailing your user base, see if you can make it slightly more frequent – once every three weeks instead of once every four weeks. If you’re not emailing your user base, put a subscription box on your Web site and start collecting email addresses -- then get your email list going as soon as possible.
9) Create a Media Kit
![ad-revenue-optimization-create-MediaKit-by-Pubmatic.jpg](http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/ad-revenue-optimization-create-MediaKit-by-Pubmatic.jpg)
Benefits: Direct sales can be very profitable for you because they do not involve the typical ad network fee (30-50% of advertiser’s rate). Part of the reason ad networks are used is to aggregate audience, but if you have a large enough audience, it might be more cost effective to do that on your own. Even if you do not want to sell advertising directly, having a media kit makes your Web site appear much more professional and credible. Other ad networks or ad buyers do not know that you are not selling directly. The media kit will give your site the professional look it needs to get those first few buyers in the door.
What to do next: You can manually create a media kit by using media kits from sites you like as a guide. You can also create a media kit in just a few minutes by using PubMatic’s automated tools at www.PubMatic.com/MediaKit. PubMatic has partnered with Alexa, Quantcast, and Compete, to bring relevant data to your media kit instantly.
10) Speed Up Your Site
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Benefits: The sooner your visitors can see and click on your ads, the more revenue you will make. A slow Web site with poorly loading ads will end up driving down the performance of ads on your Web site. Ad networks will notice and pay you less as a result. Anecdotal evidence shows that each second of increased time to download your page can reduce advertising revenue by approximately 10%.
What to do next: Measure your Web page download speed and then set yourself a goal to speed it up. You can use measurement tools like WebSitePulse or Keynote to measure your page download speed. Next, analyze your page to see what items take the most time to load. There are several great, free tools out there like Firebug for the Firefox browser and YSlow from Yahoo. Identify and eliminate or correct those items that take the longest to load.
11) Re-examine Your Ad Server Options
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Benefits: While the cost of providing ad serving has dropped, uninformed publishers continue to pay the same rates for ad serving that they paid several years back. As the cost of ad serving has come down, you should consider re-negotiating your ad serving contract annually, and ensure that some, if not most, of those savings are accrued to you.
What to do next: Check your contract to see when you last negotiated your rate. You likely do not want to switch service providers, as this can be disruptive, but check with other publishers who have recently switched to your ad serving provider. Get a sense for the market rate, and then have an open discussion with your service provider. You may be able to save a few cents on your eCPM.
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