The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Display Ad Revenue

Display advertising is the main monetization strategy for many online entrepreneurs, in part because there are extremely low barriers to entry (both technical and otherwise).While some larger web properties have entire sales teams dedicated to selling ad space directly, smaller sites tend to rely on ad networks to meet demand.Most often, this involves using Google's AdSense platform.AdSense is a revenue stream that only takes a few hours to activate; The ease of capturing that first dollar of revenue is a big draw for the platform.But optimizing AdSense to ensure that both your visitors and advertisers get the most out of your site or blog is a much more complex process that requires creativity, analysis, and a constant willingness to experiment.  

I recommend taking this course that just launched in January 2020: how to get started with Adsense.

Below are 101 tips, tricks, tips, and resources to help you make money with Adsense.These tips can also be applied to Media.net that currently offers extra 10% earnings for MonetizePros readers and has passed Adsense in some tests. 

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• Tips and tricks: quick tips , ideas for experiments , technical tips
• Resources: alternatives/supplements, inspiration, newsletters, forums, resources, and expert advice
• Further reading: AdSense plugin, further reading, what not to do

Quick tips

If you're just starting out, there are several things you should definitely do to get the most out of AdSense.The official guides offered during the sign-up process are quite limited, they don't offer any particularly noteworthy advice.Maybe you're already implementing a lot of these, but there are probably some pieces of low fruit hanging between the following.

1. Ad units max out .We'll start with a simple one: AdSense allows you to have up to three standard ad units on a page, so it would be wise to take advantage of it by making the most of it.
2. Max out connection unit. Link units are a wildly underutilized AdSense option; Putting up to three of these on one page should give you a quick and significant boost.For example implementations of attachment units, see these sample pages.
3. Pay attention to the connection units .It is worth reiterating this point.While many publishers focus primarily on traditional ad units, link units have the potential to outperform rankings and rectangles.
4. Set up a custom search engine.This is another way to get more AdSense units on your site; Custom search engines will generally see very high RPMs (although traffic is relatively light).
5. Enable placement targeting.This allows advertisers to include your website in their campaign, either by name or by targeting an interest group.Placement targeting should be enabled by default, but if you're using DFP you may need to take a few additional steps.
6. Set up custom channels.Setting up custom channels will allow you to get better information about what's working and what's not, and will make testing easier along the way.It's quite easy to put them up and running, and it's worth making the initial investment to do it.
7. Allow text and images.One of the primary choices in AdSense is to limit an ad unit to "image only" or allow both text and image ads.Allowing text ads to appear gives AdSense a deeper pool of ads and will almost certainly increase your click-through rate and revenue.
8. Use standard drives.While AdSense allows partners to choose from more than a dozen ad units, there are some more common units among advertisers.Using these common ad sizes (300 × 250, 728 × 90 and 160 × 600) will give AdSense a deeper pool of advertisers to choose from.
9. Monitor the fill rate.Make sure you run ads and not blank spaces on your site.Fill rate monitoring is an easy way to do this; if you have any discrepancies, here are five reasons why AdSense and Analytics might mismatch.
10. AdSense supplement.AdSense terms and conditions only allow three ad units per page.In many cases, pages can comfortably host more than three ads per page without overwhelming visitors and leading to a bad experience.If you think your site can use multiple ad units, there's nothing stopping you from integrating your AdSense units with ads from a competing provider.(For more information about AdSense integration with additional ad networks, go to this section.)
11. Place units above the fold (ATF).This might seem obvious: the higher up on a page your ads are, the more they'll be viewed (and the more you'll earn).
12. Positioning issues .Although placing ads above the fold is generally beneficial, the relative placement of ads (i.e. what's next to it) is more important than their explicit position on the page.Scroll down to #24 in this list for an example of an above-the-fold ad, but probably out of sight within the first few seconds of a visitor viewing on the page.
13. Beware of exaggerating .When chasing AdSense revenue, it's easy to get carried away and make decisions that are detrimental to the user experience in order to generate additional revenue.While there may be a short-term win, you'll ultimately hurt your site's long-term earning potential by eroding your traffic base.Here's Google's example of what not to do (far right):

Here's an example of a site that overdoes it enough with above-the-fold ad placements.

14. Check your health in the dashboard.Within AdSense, partners will see a "scorecard" widget that shows their revenue optimization score.This tool is pretty generic, but it's worth confirming that you have the highest possible score there.

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Ideas for experiments

The crucial element of success with display ad monetization and making money with Adsense is the ability and willingness to experiment.Through trial and error, you'll eventually find combinations, layouts, and styles that offer a higher level of revenue for your site.Because every site and audience is unique, it is impossible to provide universally applicable suggestions.We can, however, provide some ideas for experiments to get started and run.

15. Replace your 300 × 250 with a 300 × 600.This ad unit relatively provides an opportunity to dedicate more real estate to ads.Plus, the larger size allows you to show more compelling ads with better calls to action (which hopefully translates into higher click-through rates).
16. Replace your 728 × 90 with a 970 × 90.Similarly, there is a larger ranking that helps ads stand out more for both new and returning visitors.
17. Get familiar with Google Experiments.It's now easy to run A/B experiments in AdSense; There's no reason not to have at least one experiment going on at all times.
18. Become familiar with the concept of "statistical significance". When performing experiments, it is important to avoid jumping to conclusions based on insufficient data.(There are plenty of free tools out there if you need a hand.) 
19. Change the colors of your ad unit.It sounds like a simple suggestion, but this idea of the experiment can take on hundreds of variations and become a very long process.Finding the optimal combination of text color, background color, and border color can take quite a while, but it results in a big jump in revenue.
20. Try the ugliest color scheme you can come up with.It probably won't increase your click-through rate or revenue, but there's a chance that going against your boyfriend will result in more visibility and increased clicks.
21. Change the color of the connection unit .The connection units will be automatically set to the traditional blue color normally associated with connections, since this setting generally offers the best performance.But in many cases a bolder color will work better, especially if the links on your site are a color in addition to standard blue.(For example, on MonetizePros.com we'll try orange link units.)
22. Put a link unit below the navigation bar.This falls within the terms of service and will immediately become one of the best.
23. Insert banner ads in your text.Ads placed in content can be very effective in attracting attention (and therefore engagement).Here's an example of a 300 × 250 ad that appears between two paragraphs of an article:

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