Hey Guys -
While I'm trying to learn more about affiliate marketing (going through the mobile "appetizer" course right now), I also want to figure out ways to better monetize a few of my existing websites. One is a German version of viralnova.com or upworthy.com. Traffic is 2M+ PV's per month and 99% comes from facebook, a large portion from sponsored posts.
While I'm ROI positive and quite happy to where I grew the site in a very short time, I currently only rely on adsense and a bit of content marketing through taboola. I'd love to get a few ideas on how to better monetize the site, what type of CPA offers, how to set them up on the site (i'm really a total AM Noob). Our audience is 70% female, mostly married/engaged/in relationship, 25-55 years of age. Given our traffic acquisition method, the audience is highly engaged on facebook (CTR on Newsfeed promoted stories is 10%+ and share rates are also super high.
Cheers
Max
I have some experience here and may be able to help.
My day-job is ad-operations manager for a large online news network, so I basically spend all day optimizing ad revenue from our display networks and programmatic buyers.
You of course should rely on a mix of revenue streams, but in regards to display revenue, here are my suggestions:
1. Make sure that you understand the general demographics of your audience (sounds like you already do). Consider a 3rd party data management platform (DMP) such as Lotame.
2. Setup an adserver (DFP is probably the easiest solution for you and it's free).
3. Sign up with a good-quality display network. I would highly recommend Tribal Fusion to begin with. If you need a contact I can assist.
4. Work with them to formulate a tag structure, and integrate this in your adserver. Also ask for their advice on floor rates. Pass back all unfilled impressions to Adsense.
5. After you have established a general CPM, approach a few other high quality networks and add them into the mix (Casale, CPX etc.)
6. Monitor CPM across all networks and prioritize accordingly. CPX usually is good for maximum fill % but tends to have lower CPM. Adsense is usually always the last-ranking option, but if the eCPM is out-performing any of your networks, cut that network or work with them to optimize.
7. Once you have a bit of a track record consider approaching a demand side platform such as Pubmatic who can connect you with some major programmatic buyers. The 3rd party data is super important here.
8. Continue to monitor performance and optimize floor rates.
A few additional points:
- Don't have too many ad units per page because it will kill your CPM. I find that 3 tends to be a sweet spot.
- 300x600's are hot right now CPM wise, and seem to be getting good fill (160x600 also). 300x250 is a core unit fill-wise as is 728x90 (monitor yield for each unit size).
- Work on some strategies to increase pages/visit. Although this sounds like old thinking, you would be surprised how many major buyers still stick to the plain old CPM model.
Anyway, thats my 2 cents.
Great advice, much appreciated. I actually work for a large digital publisher myself, so I'm familiar with the space to a degree. I like the idea of signing with a DMP and then building a chain of ad networks. I've actually used a similar strategy for another site (US food blog).
Do you think everything you've described would still work in Germany? My site is targeted to German speaking countries. Would definitely be interested in signing with Tribalfusion if you can connect me to someone.
If anyone has ideas on CPA tactics, let me know. So far I've only had luck with CPC placements, but for 1-2 CPM placements, I'll try Carboot's strategy.