Part 1: Implementing an Ad Slot
Every website is personal and impressive because it is a person’s blood, sweat and tears that go into developing it. As someone who has worked on site building, it is not as easy as you would think and takes a lot to make it not look clunky. So right off the bat if you are reading this kudos to you for getting a site build.
That being said, for most sites where the main driver is content but typically content does not generate revenue – this is where ads come in. I was told by a professional in the field that a website is real estate and that ads are just a piece given to us to make money. As an advertisers our goal is to ensure a clean looking site that still has the potential to bring in money. This is where I bring in the rule of 4. No matter how greedy and how much money you want, the recommendation is 4 standard ads should be the max on any page. On desktop with a (leaderboard, two side banners and a bottom banner) and for mobile web a (mobile adhesion, two middle banners and a bottom) is all you need. This ensue you are taking up enough space to fund the site, while keeping the sites content visible and still the main priority.
Once you implement the ad slots on a page and make it look clean this is where we move on to the fun stuff. THE OPEN EXCHANGE!
Part 2: The Open Exchange
Building a digital advertising strategy is just developing a tactic to generate revenue. Everyone can do this, but the more detailed the more potential money. Before getting deep into this, I want to call out that this might work for some publishers but it all depends on the publishers set up.
Let’s start off with the basic of just the open exchange, (I am only speaking about open exchange currently, as direct advertising can be beneficial but if you are a small publisher any direct business will be difficult to garner). So back to the open exchange, AudienceGPS.com calls it “aggregated inventory from multiple partners allowing buyers to bid either manually or programmatically to purchase ad impressions. Ad inventory on an open exchange allows all buyers equal opportunity to purchase the same inventory.” To sum up what they said, an auction is a demand side platform (AKA DSP which the brands use to get the lowest price to place their ads) negotiating with a supply side platform (SSP which publishers work with to get the highest value for their ad slots).
This auction of brands and publishers is happening billions times in micro-seconds. Both DSP and SSP are putting in different variables about what they want to advertise on and at what price.