Key Takeaways

  • Own Your Digital Real Estate: Creating your website or blog is crucial for long-term revenue success, offering more control and stability than relying solely on social media platforms.
  • Understand the Ad Tech Ecosystem: Learn the roles of publishers, advertisers, and the technology in between to make the most informed decisions about monetizing your content and partnering with the right ad tech platform.
  • Prioritize User Experience: Balance your ad strategy with a seamless user experience by testing standard and custom ad formats, and ad layouts in addition to prioritizing site speed optimization for audience satisfaction.
  • Leverage Data and Expertise: Monitor key performance metrics and consider leveraging an ad monetization management platform to optimize ad strategies and maximize revenue potential.

 

If you’re a content creator trying to turn your passion into profit, crafting killer content and building a business are two sides of the same coin. The trick is to balance giving your audience what they want with finding the right monetization strategies to complement your content. 

Here is where ad tech solutions come in handy. 

What is ad tech? Essentially, ad tech includes the tools, solutions, and platforms that enable the buying, selling, and delivery of digital ads.

It deals with everything from navigating third-party cookies and reaching your target audience to critical analytics and reporting that drive business growth.

To help budding creators and ad tech industry veterans alike, Playwire COO, Stacy Willis, recently sat down with the host of The Sami Cone Show, content creator, inspirational speaker, author, and much more, Sami Cone, to discuss how publishers and creators can make the most of the ad tech tooling available.

Here are a few key ideas from their Playwire Live conversation. 

The Digital Advertising Essentials

The ad tech world is as diverse as it is changing. 

Matching the pace of innovation is the driving force of competition. Both publishers and advertisers lean on ad tech to better understand what strategies are working and which ones are failing. 

You can do a lot with basic ad tech tools, but the more advanced offerings separate casual creators from successful digital entrepreneurs. 

Stacy gives us an essential education on the ad tech world. It starts with a simple distinction.

Owning Your Platform: Renting vs. Owning

Here’s a fact: Instagram made around $16 billion in the first half of 2022 alone. Now, how much of that revenue went back to creators on the platform?

Social media is undoubtedly a great way to build an audience. But if you’re serious about monetizing your content and earning more revenue, you need to own your content, which you can do by creating the platform on which it lives. Think of this as the difference between renting and owning.

With social media, you’re only renting your space. 

When you have a website to host your content, you own it. Instead of facing risks like de-platforming, shadow banning, or simple (yet, never actually simple) algorithm updates, you gain the long-term benefits, such as complete creative control and stability, associated with ownership — plus all the possible monetization paths.

The Technology Behind Advertising

There’s a bit of complexity in the ad tech space. 

But, don’t get discouraged. Playwire offers custom solutions tailored to your exact needs, backed by a team of ad tech experts. We’re not a plug-and-play option, nor are we a complex setup that requires an advanced developer on your end. 

Rather, we offer powerful technology that is also easy to implement and utilize.-

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Learn how Playwire Drives More Revenue for Publishers

While we’d love for you to work with us, you have many options. Free tools like Google AdSense and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) are a good starting point. As you grow, begin testing your options to find the ad tech tools that will evolve at the pace of your success.

Understanding the Ad Tech Players

To master ad tech, you must learn who’s playing the game.

There are website owners, publishers, and content creators, like you, comprehensive ad monetization providers (like Playwire), and advertisers. But that’s just the beginning.

Then, there’s the role of programmatic advertising, which connects advertisers with available ad inventory, including websites, apps, CTV, OTT, and so on. What about ad targeting or custom ad campaigns sold through direct brand relationships?

While you can manually manage ads, working with an ad partner offers numerous benefits. Not only do they often provide additional support and technical expertise, but they also open up access to a wider range of premium advertisers and demand for your ad inventory.

User Experience and Ad Layout: Balancing Aesthetics and Revenue

The user experience is so important. Just like a restaurant brings patrons back with good food and service, your job is to craft an experience that engages, wows, and is never disrupted as a result of your chosen monetization strategies.

That’s the key to the revenue generation equation.

There’s an inherent tension between maximizing revenue and preserving the aesthetics of your site and, more importantly, the user experience.

Experimentation here is key. The right approach won’t come off the shelf but rather be custom-built to meet your audience and content needs.

At Playwire, we understand the importance of finding the right balance of content, layout, and advertising. Whether you're an independent creator or a large enterprise publisher, we are dedicated to helping you optimize user experience and user engagement. Together, we will collaborate to carefully incorporate the most effective ad placements and formats to enhance your user experience and ensure quality is never compromised.

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Ad Layout Recommendations

Check out our ad layout recommendations for real estate websites.

Beyond Basics: Growing Your Platform with Data

Mastering the monetization mambo means accessing the right reporting tools and data. That’s another area where advertising technology shines.

There are a number of critical metrics that can help you gauge site and ad performance. 

In this Playwire Live episode, Stacy spotlights a few key metrics to help you better understand user behavior including time on page and scroll depth, but this is only scratching the surface of the analytics you can and should be monitoring. 

Again, experimentation is vital, as is collaborating with a partner who has a deep understanding of how to utilize these insights to inform digital advertising, marketing, and content decisions.

Monitoring and Optimization: Key Metrics and Routines

If you’re monitoring ad performance, revenue per session is the key metric to follow. 

Why? Traffic sources, user devices, and browser type changes can impact ad revenue. By monitoring top-level metrics like revenue per session and total sessions, you can regularly spot fluctuations.

For deeper insights, Stacy recommends reviewing deeper analytics, like traffic source breakdowns (organic, direct, social media, etc.), for advanced troubleshooting.

Navigating Google Algorithm Changes and Organic Traffic Fluctuations

If you’ve been managing your content on a website for some time now, you’re well aware of the impact that Google’s algorithm changes can have on your performance.

While we might not have a crystal clear picture of why these changes occur, we know that the creators and publishers prioritizing the user experience and focusing on high-quality, original content often prevail.

Of course, with new technologies like AI becoming mainstream, these waters only become more muddy. In the end, Google wants what the user wants. If you focus on your user’s needs, you don’t have to stress every time the search behemoth drops an update.

Addressing Common Concerns: Site Speed and Ad Optimization

If you’re incorporating ads incorrectly (too fast, too many, etc.), you’re going to end up slowing down your page speed, which is a no-no in terms of user experience. 

How fast should your site load? According to market research, an ideal load time is between one and four seconds.

But with ad strategies like delayed loading, incorporating custom ad units, and correctly balancing the number of ads to content to mitigate site speed issues, you can find the right equilibrium, leaving your audience happy and coming back again and again all while the revenue engine hums along smoothly. 

Some simple tactics, like image optimization, can also help a lot here. Finding small ways to improve performance can pay off in a big way. 

Conquer the World of Ad Tech with Playwire

While the ad tech world can be complex, with the right strategy in place, any type or size of creator can strike that perfect balance between keeping their audience happy and maximizing revenue.

After nearly two decades in the industry, we understand that the right monetization partner can make all the difference.

At Playwire, our mission is to empower creators like you with advanced tools and access to the ad tech experts needed to thrive. We provide the latest and greatest in ad technology; you provide the killer content. It’s as easy as that.

If you want to learn more about how Playwire can help you push your content to the next level, get in touch with the team today.

 

Are you interested in catching a future Playwire Live episode? Please join us every other Tuesday on LinkedIn and YouTube where we’re joined by a variety of guest speakers across digital media, ad tech, and content creation to have important discussions centered around helping you drive more revenue for your business.