As you’ve worked hard to grow your website, created high-quality content, and boosted your monthly traffic, you’re now wondering how to sell ads online and get paid. As of 2024, there are many ways in which you can do that. However, selling ad space on your website seems to be one method that increases your revenue without hurdles.
Furthermore, 81% of digital advertising revenue will be generated through programmatic advertising by 2028, so why not jump on this train and efficiently maximize your revenue? Will there be any challenges? Of course, but we are here to guide you!
So, regardless of your experience, whether you are a newbie or already have some knowledge, in today’s guide, you will uncover everything you need to know on how to sell ads on your website and get advertisers.
Key Highlights:
- Three ways to sell your ad space: Direct sales, programmatic advertising, and affiliate advertising;
- 4 solutions for programmatic advertising: Google AdSense or Ad Manager, Sevio, and OpenX;
- There are many ad types that a publisher can choose from, ranging from banners, interactives, videos, and other ads;
3 Ways to Sell Ad Space
We all know that the digital ads industry is lucrative, surpassing the traditional advertising medium and accounting for more than half of global advertising spending. Not to mention that users’ behavior has drastically changed in the past years, thus making the internet an integral part of our lives.
As a result, there are many ways in which you can monetize your website, yet three ways are known for being the most used methods for increasing your revenue.
Additionally, you could ask yourself three questions to find suitable methods to sell your ad space:
- What is my expected goal concerning how much time I invest?
- What degree of control do I need?
- What should be my initial focus?
Here, you can think about the stage you’re in: Do you want to prioritize connecting with advertisers, do you want to focus solely on your ad space, or do you wish to promote specific products that are in line with your audience?
So, read further and find out which method is suitable for you!
1. Directly Selling Ad Space on Your Web
Choosing such a selling method for your ad space may seem more straightforward. However, it is essential to understand that it comes with some degree of sales expertise.
First, directly selling your advertising space requires a manual workflow whereby you must find relevant businesses to pitch your offerings to buy ad spaces on your website.
You could say that such a method could generate the highest revenue, and based on recent studies, 58% of publishers expect 41% or more of their 2024 ad revenue to come from direct-sold deals, up from 14% in 2023.
Still, directly selling your ad space comes with multiple challenges, such as finding the right advertisers in line with your target audience, strategizing the prices for each ad placement, and negotiating takes a lot of work.
Not to mention that direct selling is time-consuming, requires active effort, and comes with a limited reach – only the advertisers you contact.
5 Pros of Direct Sales
- Higher profit potential;
- Increased control of your content;
- Direct networking;
- High flexibility;
- Data access;
5 Cons of Direct Sales
- Time-consuming;
- Sales skills required;
- Limited reach;
- Technical knowledge required;
- Though competition;
2. Programmatic Advertising to Sell Your Ad Space
As the name says, programmatic advertising utilizes different data insights and Machine Learning algorithms to display your ads to the best audience possible at the best time and price. When buying ad space, the process is done quickly through automatic workflows, unlike the previous method.
Additionally, to better understand what principles of programmatic advertising work, it is essential to know that there are three types:
- Real-time bidding (RTB) is also known as open auction. This method is considered a cost-effective strategy.
- A private marketplace (PMP) works only based on invites, and as a result, this strategy is only for some.
- Programmatic direct: bypasses the classic auction, thus selling inventory at a Cost Per Mille to an advertiser or more.
Furthermore, there are three key components of the programmatic advertising ecosystem:
- Supply Side Platforms (SSPs): The publisher manages and sells ad inventory.
- Advertisers use Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) to buy ad space on multiple platforms.
- Ad Exchanges are marketplaces where bids are placed, and publishers are matched with advertisers.
So, how to sell ads online and get paid, you might wonder. As we broadly explained programmatic advertising, let’s see what the market offers.
Programmatic Advertising Solutions for Your Business
There are many platforms on the market, but some of the most prominent ones offer multiple features and benefits but are addressed to different types of publishers, from beginners to more seasoned ones.
Based on their complexity, the following chapters will delve deeper into Google AdSense, Sevio, Google Ad Manager, and OpenX while analyzing key benefits and differentiators.
1. Google AdSense
Google AdSense offers a free advertising platform that allows publishers to monetize their ad space easily. AdSense matches ads served by Google Ads with your website based on your target audience and content niche.
One critical mention is that since a publisher can have multiple-sized ad spaces on a website, the earnings will vary based on the demand and the number of clicks.
2. Sevio
Sevio offers an all-in-one platform for efficient ad and advertiser management on your website or app. Sevio Ad Manager is an ad management platform built for publishers that want to monetize their websites and apps by displaying digital advertising.
With comprehensive features and granular control over the ad delivery, Sevio allows you to upstream your revenue stream easily. Sevio’s Ad Manager is slightly more complex than AdSense, so it caters to needs beyond its previous competitor’s basic functionality.
Moreover, its user-friendly design and straightforward tools allow anyone to manage their advertisers without intermediaries, taking the pressure to sell off.
Sevio Ad Manager Features:
- Real-time bidding solution for your ad space;
- Fast ad delivery;
- Publisher-oriented;
- Advertisers’ management;
- Custom ad sizes;
- Cost and ad priority;
- Audience targeting;
- In-depth Statistics;
3. Google Ad Manager
As the name says, Google Ad Manager is an advertisement management platform dedicated to large publishers with high traffic volume and technical expertise.
The Ad Manager offers outstanding control while supporting multiple ad exchanges, but it can be overwhelming for small-medium-sized publishers.
Additionally, Google Ad Manager requires publishers with high traffic volume and good technical knowledge, but we’ll get to that with a side-by-side comparison.
4. OpenX
OpenX is a programmatic advertising medium that offers marketplaces for publishers and application developers to monetize their publishing process by connecting with key advertisers who value their audiences.
Additionally, OpenX is known for its complexity and focus on advanced features, such as real-time bidding, private marketplaces, and other programmatic deals.
General Differentiators
1. Minimum Traffic Requirements
Platforms like Google Ad Manager and OpenX have high minimum traffic requirements, but Sevio has other requirements cateringto small and medium publishers.
2. User Experience
Sevio’s user-friendly interface and simple setup process could alleviate any publisher’s workflow compared to more complex platforms suited for larger publishers.
In general, it is known that more complex platforms could offer multiple features, but if it overwhelms publishers, why bother?
3. Increased Flexibility
Sevio Ad Manager welcomes all websites and apps, regardless of their domain of activity or traffic requirements, compared to Google Ad Manager or OpenX.
Another platform could be Google AdSense – however, as users reported, it comes with a problematic site verification process, limited reporting, or delayed data updates.
How to Sell Ads on Your Website with Affiliate Advertising
Lastly, you can sell your ad spaces through affiliate advertising strategies. In contrast, a publisher earns commission by promoting a brand’s product or service through visual displays but is not limited to this.
Furthermore, affiliate advertising works in exchange for the commission of sales, which gets tracked through a unique ID when someone clicks on the publisher’s banner.
3 Advantages of Affiliate Advertising
- Publishers get access to a broad market, yet it depends on the publishers’ niche.
- There are no hurdles accounting the qualified leads, as everything is tracked down.
- The cost of affiliate advertising is more cost-effective than traditional advertising methods.
3 Disadvantages of Affiliate Advertising
- Affiliate advertising is subject to fraud due to fake clicks, increasing the click-through rate but not conversions or cookie stuffing.
- Publishers get limited creative control as they must align with advertisers’ brand books. As such, publishers must accept restricted content guidelines and ensure uniform ad formats.
- Another aspect is the high risk of theft – links, ad banners, content scraping; you name it.
Amazon Affiliate
Here’s one of the largest retailer and affiliate programs on the market – Amazon Associates. Publishers sign up with Amazon to sell their ad space on their website in exchange for a commission.
Amazon is known for having strict benchmarks, such as original and relevant content it’s mandatory. And, of course, no harmful content.
Etsy Affiliate Advertising
Etsy is another marketplace for selling goods that uses affiliate advertising techniques through different channels, including the publisher’s website.
As with any brand, it works through an application submission, and the publisher’s website must ensure specific benchmarks, such as original content, publisher branding identity, and others.
5 Must-Haves for Selling Your Ad Spaces
It’s all fun and rewarding; however, we think going through the basic requirements for selling your ad spaces is essential. As such, we will discuss the required traffic and the quality of your content, not to mention the UI and UX design.
But don’t let these must-haves overwhelm you; we are here to guide and help you maximize your revenue. So, let’s jump in!
1. Minimum Traffic
High-quality traffic is essential as it is one of the wheels that put brands, sales, and revenue into motion. The more qualitative traffic you have, the more interested advertisers become in buying ad spaces from your business’s inventory.
As such, it is common for an advertiser to ask a publisher about its traffic, a less than 50% bounce rate, impressions, unique visitors, and other influential metrics.
Additionally, it would be best to consider that popular ad networks like Google Ad Manager or OpenX often have higher minimum traffic requirements, sometimes requesting over 1 million monthly impressions.
On the other side of the fence lies ad managers like Sevio, relying on quality and other influential factors such as niche, content quality, and user experience design.
So, a monthly review of your traffic and other metrics could help you prepare to sell your ad spaces and help you establish your prices.
2. High-Quality Content
High-quality content is another wheel for riding the winds of high revenue. As the good old saying goes, Content is King, influencing advertisers’ decisions and overall profitability.
At this point, it is best to understand that when discussing content, we’re not only referring to the subject, whether the content is SEO optimized or not, even though those are also important.
Qualitative content refers to the bittersweet mix between relevancy and targeting, brand image, SEO, and niche expertise to attract specific target audiences, which are relevant for a new advertiser that associates its brand and image with a particular publisher.
For example, let’s take websites A and B.
While website A uses keyword-stuffing techniques to manipulate the search algorithm and rank higher, its content lacks foundation. On top of that, add poorly written articles irrelevant to user needs and offer no real value; you’ve got a recipe for failure.
On the other side is website B, which focuses on creating engaging, informative, and well-written content that speaks directly to users’ pain points and interests. While B might not rank higher for all keywords, it builds loyalty and reattracts visitors.
Which website is more likely to attract high-paying advertisers?
3. Smooth UI & UX Design
UI and UX design aren’t about a stunning website and whether it sacrifices usability and responsiveness across multiple devices.
As a publisher, you want to ensure your target audience can easily navigate your platform or application, thus encouraging them to stay longer (here’s the bounce rate discussed earlier), and they will come back, which ensures consistent traffic.
Also, we’ll include a website’s loading speed here, as no one wants to feel like they’re using Internet Explorer on a dial-up connection. So, ensure you optimize your website’s front end, including images.
Depending on your website, you could collaborate with a developer to optimize the code, server, and hosting. Moreover, a website with a clean design makes ads feel more natural and seamlessly integrated within the story in a non-invasive format.
4. Security Policies
The advertising industry boasts irresponsible data processing and, as such, ensuring your website complies with the usage and security policies could bring you one step closer to reaching the right advertisers and selling ads online.
For example, data protection and privacy, like GDPR in the EU and CCPA in California, are crucial. Then, strictly adhering to advertising content policies, such as the IAB standard sizes, is considered key within the industry, besides the Intellectual Property Rights, Consumer Protection Laws, and Accessibility Standards.
5. Transparency and Trust
Advertisers must know what they are paying for as they invest significant budgets. As a result, having a dedicated page for your offerings and providing clear and concise data insights on their ad performance is mandatory for a long-term collaboration.
Invest in accurate reporting and analytics tools to offer advertisers the key metrics that get revenue moving – think of it as The Advertisers’ Media Kit.
As such, you will build trust with your advertisers, and only good things could come out of such professional collaboration.
How to Start Selling Ads Online and Get Paid
As we’ve discussed, everything you need to know about how to sell ads on your website, only one more aspect was left untouched: ad types and placements. You could think of it as the real estate of your website where visitors enter it, and advertisers lease a specific space in line with their requirements.
As a result, there are many types of creatives, each with a dedicated space.
Ad types & Placements
Display ads
The billboards of your virtual estate may come in different IAB standard ad sizes or custom sizes, depending on the chosen platform. Furthermore, display ads can have various formats:
- Banner ads, which can be static images;
- HTML interactive advertisements, which are more dynamic;
- Scripted ads that add functionality or interactivity to a creative;
- Rich media ads that combine video, audio, animation, and interactivity elements;
- Native ads imitate the feel and touch of the website;
Video Ad Types
- In-stream video ads play before, during, or after video content;
- Overlay ads are semi-transparent banners displayed during video playback;
- Outstream ads are video ads embedded on non-video websites;
Furthermore, when placing advertisers’ ads, the publisher can choose web specifics as the AdSense heatmap highlights or use programmatic targeting to mix and match the best-case scenarios for your web visitors.
Website Placement
- Within articles: Based on content relevance;
- Homepage or high-traffic pages: For maximum exposure;
- Sidebar or footer placements: More subtle options;
Programmatic targeting could help publishers deliver the best ads at the right time based on audience demographics and interests, offering highly targeted reach.
How Much Can I Earn from Selling Ads on My Website?
When it comes to how much you can earn from selling ad spaces, there isn’t a limit or a benchmark, yet you shouldn’t limit yourself to some pocket money, as the industry is lucrative.
However, some traffic benchmarks could give you a rough idea of the revenue potential.
- 500K monthly page views: $1,000 – 5,000 per month;
- 1M monthly page views: $2,500 – 25,000 per month;
- 5M monthly page views: $10,000 – 100,000 per month;
- 10M monthly page views: $25,000 – 250,000 per month;
- 20M monthly page views: $50,000 – 700,000 per month;
- 40M monthly page views: $100,000 – 2,000,000 per month;
Please keep in mind that these are just some estimates, and you should charge what feels best for your efforts and keep adjusting constantly to find your sweet spot that brings in advertisers and is in line with your marketing efforts.
Final Thoughts on How to Sell Ad Space on Your Website
As we’ve reached the end, it is essential to start by measuring your efforts, thinking of how much time you’re willing to invest to maximize your website revenue, and, overall, assessing what the market offers regarding advertisement solutions.
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