Learning how to sell ad space on your website marks an exciting step in launching a website project – monetizing your site and gathering the sweet fruits of your endeavors.
In other words, once you create a great website and start generating traffic, you can start looking for opportunities to sell ads.
There are numerous ways of doing so, and in this article, you will read about various possibilities that you can benefit from once you enter the realm of website monetization.
Table of Contents:
Read also:
- 9 Ways to Start Monetizing Your Website
- How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing
- How to Add Google AdSense to Your WordPress Website
Before You Sell Ads on Your WordPress Website
Before you jump into the various ways you can sell ads on your WordPress website, you should first meet several prerequisites that would ensure optimal ad revenue.
Launch Your Own WordPress Website
This might seem apparent, but there’s a logic behind this advice. The reason is that having your own website grants you full independence and control over ad placement, types of ads, and price negotiation with advertisers.
Should you be using a platform or a service that doesn’t grant you full control over your website, you risk dealing with various ad quantities, types, and pricing limitations.
This is why, if you wish to benefit fully from ads revenue, you should have your own website. The most effective and affordable way by far is by using WordPress.
AwardSpace can help you in the process. Simply register a domain name, subscribe to our special WordPress hosting plan, and create your website today!
Increase Website Traffic
Building a WordPress website is only the beginning of your journey. Once you have your site up and running, you should increase website traffic, or, in other words, you should attract new visitors.
This is due to a simple reason: the more site visitors on your pages (the greater the website traffic), the larger the audience that would see site ads is. The greater the audience, the greater the chance of conversion. The greater the chance of conversion is, the greater the number of potential paying advertisers becomes.
In most cases, advertisers aim at one of two goals when placing ads on a given website:
- Branding. Advertisers aim at showing their brand to as many site visitors as possible, to ensure that visitors who saw the ad have a great chance for future purchases from this brand.
- Conversions. Advertisers aim at prompting your site visitors to click any of the placed ads on your website and make a purchase, register for a service, or directly jump to a given web resource.
Either goal advertisers aim at, they would always prefer a website with more traffic.
Create High-Quality Website Content
Although very important, having high traffic is not enough. Advertisers would look for websites with high-quality content and better-engaged audience.
Having high-quality content on your WordPress website is important for several reasons:
- High-quality content keeps attracting new visitors and prompts them to return to your pages. In the eyes of advertisers this is great news – not only there would be more people who would see and potentially click the ad, but there would also be people who return to the website and see the ad numerous times.
- High-quality website content keeps visitors engaged for longer. The more engaged your site visitors are, the more willing advertisers are to pay for ads on your pages. The opposite is also true – if you generate high traffic, but visitors leave your site immediately, potential advertisers won’t be willing to place ads on your website.
In short, always focus on delivering high-quality content that is up-to-date, informative, and to the point. Otherwise, advertisers would prefer to launch ad campaigns on different websites.
Ensure Flawless Performance for Your WordPress Website
User experience is of paramount importance for the success of your website and the potential for monetization. Remember that poor user experience leads to lower traffic, lower SEO rankings, and low interest in advertisers to buy ad space on your website.
In short, users don’t like slow and poor-performing websites and no one would give such a website a second chance, especially advertisers.
So, to be able to attract more paying advertisers, make sure your WordPress website is fast, well-performing without any flaws, provides users with easy-to-use navigation, and is aesthetically pleasing.
Use Web Analytics to Prove Point
Via web analytics, you can prove to advertisers that your pages generate traffic, your visitors are engaged with your website content and therefore it is worth it for them to advertise on your WordPress website.
Apart from that, web analytics is an essential tool for each successful website project. This is a key factor, as the more successful a website is, the higher the chance of selling ad space becomes. See how in this article:
What Are Web Analytics and Why Do They Matter?
Furthermore, web analytics can help you find the optimal placement of ads on your WordPress website. By monitoring user behavior via web analytics, you can see which placements resonate best with your site visitors, or, in other words, see which ad positions generate more money than others.
Choose the Optimal Ad Placement
It is essential to place ads strategically for two main reasons.
- Proper ad placement can generate a lot more revenue than expected – this is good for you and welcoming news for advertisers.
- Improper ad placements can cause flaws in your website’s performance, and increased bounce rates, and can generally lower the user experience on your website. This is why, it is important to become creative and include ads that fit your brand voice, design theme, and niche.
How to Sell Ads on Your WordPress Website – 3 Lucrative Methods
There are three main methods of selling ads that you can use on your WordPress website. Each method can be very lucrative and worth giving it a shot.
As a rule of thumb, try out all suggested methods and see which one works for you and which doesn’t. This would help you focus your efforts on the methods that are most lucrative for you and avoid spending time and endeavor on the ones that are not performing optimally.
Method 1: Automated Advertising
Automated advertising is a term referring to selling ads online via automated software.
With this method, you sell ad spaces on your website to online ad auctions where advertisers bid for every ad space you offer.
With automated advertising, you benefit from the real market value of your ad placed on your website. This value is based on your website audience demand by bidders.
The greatest advantage of this method is the entirely automated process of selling ad space. This means that the automated software matches your website content and audience to relevant ads without having to search for advertisers on your own.
One handy platform for automated advertising is Google Adsense.
Method 2: Sell Ads by Directly Reaching Advertisers
Via this method, you don’t have to use automated advertisement software. Instead, you seek ways to establish business connections with brands and businesses that are willing to place ads on your web pages.
To fully benefit from selling ads directly, you need to spend a lot of time and effort, to establish robust business relationships with brands and businesses.
Via using this method, you invest in long-term collaboration with various organizations, which can become very lucrative in the future, especially if your branding strategies are on-point and use the services of a strong sales team.
Method 3: Use a WordPress Form Builder to Promote Ad Space
Sometimes the best way to attract advertisers is to promote your available ad space. This method is especially effective if you are starting with establishing your website’s online presence and brand.
The idea behind a WordPress form builder is to create a contact form for site visitors who are interested in advertising on your website and therefore reach you via the form you conveniently placed on your pages.
Most Effective Ad Types
There are 4 very effective ad types you can incorporate on your WordPress website. All four can be equally lucrative and you can use all of them simultaneously, or experiment with various combinations to see which work best for you. In most cases, the most fitting ad type depends on the niche your website operates in, the type of site audience, and their personal preferences and behavior patterns.
1. CPM Ads (Cost per 1000 Impressions Ads)
CPM, Cost Per 1000 Impressions, or Cost Per Mille, hence the abbreviation, is one of the most popular ad types. The way it works is very simple – it doesn’t matter at all how many site visitors click the ad itself, you still get paid each time it is shown 1000 times.
The more traffic your website generates, the more effective this type of ad becomes, so it is best to use it when you have already established your online presence and generate large amounts of traffic that can effectively generate impressions quickly.
2. CPC Ads (Cost Per Click Ads)
Cost Per Click, or simply CPC is a type of ad that generates revenue each time a user clicks it. When using a CPC ad, impressions don’t matter. To be able to benefit from such type of ad on your pages, placement is essential, as it is much harder to persuade a site visitor to click on an ad, instead of only seeing it, such is the case with CPM ads.
However, CPC ads are known to be very lucrative, should the placement be optimal and the ad design be persuasive enough to prompt your site visitors to click it.
3. Affiliate Ads
Such ads contain the potential for massive revenues and give you optimal freedom and flexibility in how and where to place them on your website.
Here’s how affiliate ads work – you place an ad somewhere on your website and if any of your site visitors complete a given action connected to the ad (make a purchase, subscribe to a service, download a file, or something else) you get paid.
When conducted properly, affiliate ads can become more lucrative than both CPM and CPC ads, but require more experience, experiments, and time to start generating revenue.
4. Flat Fee Ads
The flat fee ad revenue is determined by you by claiming a periodic fee that the advertiser should pay to include their ad on your WordPress website. Usually, prices are determined on a monthly or annual period.
The great advantage of flat gee ads is that they are very simple to set up and the price doesn’t fluctuate, regardless of impressions and clicks.
Conclusion – How to Sell Ads on Your WordPress Website
Monetizing your WordPress website via selling ads is a great way of earning additional funds.
To fully benefit from selling ads, there are a few things that you should first ensure to maximize the revenue of selling ads:
- Make sure you generate a good amount of website traffic
- Make sure your website content is engaging, up-to-date, and of high quality.
- Ensure fast loading speeds with flawless performance.
- Use web analytics tools to monitor site performance and prove points to advertisers.
As it comes to the ways you can monetize your website, there are three main ones:
- Use automated advertising tools.
- Reach out to brands and businesses.
- Add a WordPress form to prompt visitors to advertise on your WordPress website.
