How to increase your mobile advertisement revenue

You maybe missing out on ad revenue from mobile viewers. Nowadays most people have smartphones that can do most functions that are performed by desktops therefore as a publisher, you have to be proactive, and reach your audience on their own terms through efficient mobile advertisement.

Success in mobile advertising demands speed, versatility and adaptability. You need to be able to react instantly to the feedback from your traffic. Keep monitoring your traffic, diversify and improve where necessary.

Key factors to consider when optimizing your mobile ads to improve revenue 

Use more than one Ad network 

Revenue from ad networks fluctuates all the time. If your networks are based on CPC or CPM, this can vary up to 15-20% per day. You can buffer against this by using more than one network together. When one goes down, the other will be up, and you’ll end up with a steady stream of income. Note that no ad network has a 100% fill rate, you need at least two or three just to ensure that none of your impressions are lost. 

Sell ads to the highest bidder through a specialist Mobile ad exchange

 Consider selling space programmed  through real-time auction. Ad exchanges that specializes in mobile, like Axonix offer several benefits. Publishers receive the highest market-driven price for every ad. These auctions provide much better ad targeting than normal network, so you get relevant ads for your viewers plus, you get to keep the margins usually made by networks.

Use geo-targeting to reach your audience

Check where your traffic comes from. Working with an ad network that offers geo targeting will allow you to deliver the best ads for your viewers based on their location. 

There are networks that specialize in certain areas. For example if you are in Australia, you can try Crimtan or Lead bolt.

Set up ad refreshing to keep the offers rolling

Set up ad refreshing function to enable your viewers get more offers. This will show a new ad every so often without the viewer reloading the site. The important thing here is to find a refresh time that is short enough so that the viewer will get new ads before they leave the site, but long enough that they have the chance to check out and click on them. This might be like 25-30 seconds to 3 minutes. This all depends on your content and the ad network you use. Some networks like Google Adsense, have strict regulations about ad refreshing or don’t allow it at all. Make sure you check your network’s terms before you go this route.

Find the best ad size

Don’t disturb your viewers experience with big, intrusive ads. Note that it might be important on Desktop where the where the screen is much bigger as compared to the mobile screen which is smaller and where the audience are much less patient. Get the best size and format. According to MediaLets study, the best converting formats are the mini-leaderboard: (350×50) and (300×50) and the medium rectangle (300×250). Testing the ad size is important to know the performance. 

Attract positive associations by repeating ad units

It is recommended that some ad units be repeated like the banner ads. The more they are seen, the more subconsciously we have positive associations with them. This is called the mere-exposure effect or the reason why after a while you start singing along to over played pop songs that you hated at first. When a viewer sees an ad several times, they might not notice it at first, but after a while the product will start seeming familiar and appealing. This is a great way to gently pique interest.

Catch your viewers in their downtime 

Many viewers may not likely pay attention to ads when they are reading a long article or researching something. Try to reach your viewers in their downtime. When they are in a chill, browsing mood like when they are playing a game or poking a round the social media. This is the time when they might be interested in shopping and you’ll see a lot time more ad engagement. The best times to show a lot of ads are usually from 8-9 am, 5-7 pm and after 9 pm, this may vary, therefore do some test to figure out your viewers schedule.

Incorporate new, mobile-centric ad formats 

Try some new ad formats to boost viewing and reduce ad blindness. Mobile Anchor ads are like small leaderboard ads that are attached at the bottom of the screen. When the viewer scrolls down, the ad comes long. Interstitial ads, are full-page ads that pop up at strategic moments like between pages or game levels. The user has to close them to move forward. They can be highly effective and visually compelling-as well as impossible to ignore-but can also be very intrusive. For this reason Google now has strong policy against them. However, they can convert very well and there are always ways to get around it.  Then there is native advertising, a user-centric message that is in the same format as normal content. It flows right with viewer’s experience and matches their interest. Native advertising takes more work and sensitivity, but it can pay off big time in higher CTR and overall engagement.

Paginate your content 

Breaking a long page of content into several smaller chunks or pagination can  really boost your revenue. It improves your page load time and gives your users a better experience. It has proven to reduce bounce time and it has a better SEO and contextual advertising. 

Related: Ezoic vs. Google Adsense – Which is the best option to monetize your site?

Bottom line

Many people are currently using smartphones and can handle Mobile Advertising. Reaching your mobile audience doesn’t require any big changes. Great content and relevant non-intrusive ads will appeal to your readers on any platform. If you can understand how your audience interacts with your site, then you can show then the right offers in a way that flows with their activity on your page hence improving your revenue stream.