As a content publisher, you’ve likely realized that there are many ways to monetize your website or social media page.
From affiliate marketing to publishing advertisements, many options are available to generate revenue from your content.
Additionally, if you want to place ads for your business on third-party websites, you can benefit from low CPMs and high click-through rates—the perfect combination to drive revenue for your business.
Advertising increasingly transitions online—the industry has accrued over $40 billion over the last two years, representing nearly 40% of total revenue. For this reason, ad campaigns on your website remain one of the best ways to earn cash from content.
And regarding revenue, nothing is more important than ad placement. With this strategy, you can leverage video ads, brand awareness campaigns, and many other types of advertisements.
Reaching your target audience has never been easier—now learn to leverage your audience network to earn money with this guide on ad placement examples.
What is Ad Placement?
Ad placement refers to one or more ad units across websites and platforms indicating where to place your ads. Some campaigners choose different ads based on marketing or SEO strategies, while others simply place ads for convenience. Native ads, for example, represent content that looks like the publication’s editorial content but is promotional.
Ad formats and sizes differ depending on your website or platform. For example, Instagram ads can take up an entire post and show up on someone’s newsfeed.
The most common ad types are:
- Banner Ads: These ads are horizontal and often appear at the top or bottom of a page.
- Sidebar Ads: These ads typically appear alongside your vertical sidebar
- Video Ads: Video ads appear in feeds and other social media apps. Alternatively, you can post them on your website.
Consider the following popular ad placements to learn more about where to strategically post advertisements on your website, blog, or other content publishing tool.
Website/Blog Ad Placements
The United States is the most prominent digital advertiser in the world—and the vast majority of those ads are located on websites and blogs.
There are many locations across a website where you can publish ads, including above the fold, below the fold, in calls-to-action, and more.
- Above the Fold: Above the fold refers to the top part of your website where you can advertise your products or those of others. ATF ads are considered 73% viewable—far more than most others.
- Below the Fold: Below the fold (BTF) refers to the area underneath the main content on your home page. This is also an excellent place to put advertisements.
- Sidebar Banners: Sidebar banners are often located vertically alongside your toolbar and offer prime real estate for advertisements.
Website ads come in many shapes and sizes. While banner ads tend to feel more intrusive, they are more effective. However, BTF ads may be less invasive but harder for your target audience to see. You’ll want to balance both considerations when choosing where to place your ads.
Google Ad Placements
Advertising on Google is one of the best ways to promote your business and monetize your content.
There are many possible ad placements through Google Ads—over 18. Display ads on Google typically take three formats:
- Static Ads are images or other non-dynamic ads.
- Animated Ads are dynamic and often appear as videos or GIFs
- Interactive Ads encourage viewer participation and improve your CTR
You can also leverage different ad formats and sizes. Consider the following:
- Medium Rectangle: This format appears within or at the end of articles and is ideal for showcasing products related to your target audience.
- Large Rectangle: This ad type appears at the articles’ bottom or upper-left side.
- Half Page: Half-page ads appear on the left or right side of the page
- Leaderboard: These ad types appear on top of articles or Google forum sites.
Is Ad Placement Important?
Ad placement is critical when marketing your business or promoting for others.
Ads perform differently based on where they are placed, and your campaign will often determine where you place your ad and which format type you choose. Then, you can customize the size and formatting of the ad to accommodate your needs.
It’s important to consider that your ads must be prominent without detracting from the viewer experience. Intrusive ads, like interstitial ads, which cover the length of the page, may deter viewers from accessing your site or page. However, they are evident and attention-capturing.
Lastly, consider manual placements to optimize for mobile devices, as some ads won’t convert well to different formats.
Consider the following ad placements for more information on each.
- Banner Ads: Banner ads are considered the most basic type of ad. They appear on the top or bottom of your site, driving users to interact. Google estimates that the click-through rate for display ads is 0.6%, so they offer less visibility than other ads but are less intrusive.
- Sidebar Ads: Sidebar ads typically have a higher click-through rate than banner ads with a 1% CTR. They also offer high branding power and are minimally intrusive.
- Interstitial Ads: Interstitial ads are full-page advertisements. They are highly intrusive but also highly effective.
Ad Placement Tools to Rely On
With so many placement options, advertising can be a dizzying process.
Thankfully, there are many tools you can rely on to optimize your campaigns and create the best possible advertising experience for your clients.
Tools like Google Analytics, Heatmaps, and Ad Manager dashboard can allow you to view your ads’ performance, optimize your efforts and align your ads with your campaign objective. These intelligent tools can help you track your ad performance and revenue to make better decisions next time.
Google is an excellent resource for learning more about advertisements and tracking your ads. You can leverage many resources, including Google ads.
Google ads allow you to create advertisements and promote your business. You can leverage Google ads to find promotions from marketing teams seeking to place their offerings in your publication.
Google ads work best for static ads and those you plan to add to your website.
Analytics Heatmaps
Analytics heatmaps are among the most helpful tools for posting advertisements on their pages or sites.
A heatmap is a graphical representation of data, where values are indicated by color, allowing you to determine what is working and what isn’t.
Your heatmaps will allow you to increase user engagement and retention by pinpointing drop-off rates and determining how much of your content is appealing to users.
Analytics heat maps work best with video ads and interactive ads.
Ad Manager Dashboard
Google’s ad manager is your central hub for Google ads.
This ad management platform allows you to monetize your inventory and content, tracking and managing your revenue through the dashboard.
You can generate reports to gain insights into your performance.
- First, you’ll define your ad units to determine where to place your ads.
- Google will generate a tag for each ad unit you can palace on your web pages or apps.
- You’ll then create line items and orders to track transactions. Campaigns that target this ad unit can then request an ad to serve.
Google ads manager is ideal for website ads and ads that draw significant revenue.
Finding the Best Ad Placement
Finding the best ad placement can occasionally pose a challenge. With so many options, you might be wondering where to start.
You’ll need to ask yourself critical questions to optimize your ads.
First, ask yourself what the user is attempting to achieve on your website. This will help you determine how visible your ad should be and whether you need to pivot to an alternative strategy.
Determine how your viewers typically behave on your webpage to place your ad set appropriately.
This is an ideal place for an ad if you have a central webpage where ads typically go.
Lastly, consider keeping your page clean and uncluttered without sacrificing revenue, as ads can often add chaos to an otherwise professional-looking page.
If you use automatic placement from Google, you won’t need to worry about placing your ads, as they will be shown automatically.
Many ad networks like Newor Media offer ad placement assistance, allowing you to leverage the expertise of industry-leading marketers to place your ads best and drive more revenue to your site.
4 Websites With Awesome Ad Placements
The following websites feature some of the best ad placements on the internet. Consider the following before designing and launching your ad campaigns.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
This website leverages the emotional power of images to generate a highly compelling banner ad.
Banner ads are a great way to advertise and are minimally invasive. Using powerful images is the best way to inspire interest in a brand without intruding on your viewer’s ability to navigate the website.
Autozone
This famous automotive parts manufacturer and retailer use banner ads on its website to leverage the power of pain points. The ad addresses a problem many people have with retail: they can’t access their products right away and have to wait.
Advertising for same-day delivery is a great way to address this pain point before it even comes up, and the banner ad is prominently featured on the website to ensure that most people will see it.
Stay Golden
Stay Golden is a jewelry manufacturer that places most of its ads on social media apps and webpages like Instagram and Facebook.
If you cater to a younger audience, it’s best to stick to social media platforms to reach the widest audience. You can cull reviews and testimonials straight from the comments, so it’s a great way to gain exposure.
Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal uses a pop-up, interstitial ad to capture its audience’s attention and advertise its paid products.
This is an excellent strategy for websites with a paywall and those seeking to captivate their viewers.
Although it’s a somewhat invasive strategy, it works well to maximize conversions.
Understanding Ad Placements
Understanding ad placements is crucial to the success of your business.
Ad placements can directly affect your viewership and conversions, crucial first steps for your funnels.
Remember to consider the following:
- Where your ads are most likely to be seen
- How do you want viewers to respond to your ads
- How can you keep ads minimally invasive without sacrificing visibility
- How you can maintain a clean-looking web page without sacrificing your ads.
It’s essential to track your video views, click-through rates, and other crucial metrics to stay on top of your ad performance.
Consider assessing the examples above to determine how you can best emulate the examples given.
If you’re stuck, reach out to us, here at Newor Media, for more information on optimizing your ad placement and driving conversions for your content publishing business.
