How to maximize ad revenue on black friday?

The hottest shopping weekend is around the corner. We all know it’s not only a golden time for retailers but also one of the most lucrative times for publishers to make money from ads on their website.

The concept of Black Friday origins from Philadelphia, US, but has slowly yet firmly spread to every corner of the world, regardless of whether Thanksgiving is being celebrated in that country or not. The bonanza starts to build up already in October, increasing the closer in time we get. In November most large retailers start to warm up for upcoming sales and the Black Friday to Cyber Monday madness.

How can publishers make the most of this? Let us tell you, it’s like waiting for Christmas. The ad spends generally peaks in the last quarter of the year, and this weekend represents in many cases, the very best in terms of website revenue and high CPMs. Online shopping is hotter than ever and everyone out there wants to highlight their special offers. Since the competition is crucial on this weekend, you can expect some of the highest CPM’s of the whole year.

In 2018, the online sales on Black Friday reached a world record of a whopping $6,22 billion in the US only. What’s interesting here is that ⅓ of that number was generated from mobile sales, another world record. Let’s not forget about Cyber Monday, which resulted in even higher numbers than Black Friday. Online sales reached $7,9 billion and mark the highest online selling day in US history. These numbers are estimated to increase further during 2019.

So how can you as a publisher prepare for this 4-day ad madness? The work starts way in advance. Here is a checklist for surviving the hottest ad weekend of the year.

1. Research your own site and data

• First of all, make sure that your site is working as it should so you don’t by any chance miss out on valuable ad income due to a website crash on this crucial weekend.
• Take a look down memory lane, and analyze which ad units performed well last year around the same time and while at it, why not go way back to see if you can find a pattern or some significant findings. Bear in mind that the ad landscape has develope a lot in only a few years, so don’t build up your whole strategy based on this piece of old data.
• Rumor has it mobile is hotter than ever. Make sure the user experience and responsiveness are great on all devices and pay a little extra attention to mobile.

2. Test your floors and increase them

• It’s the hottest quarter and the hottest weekend of the year, it’s time to increase floors.
• Raise your floors little by little – check how it affects fill rate, coverage, and RPM until you find the optimal combination. Advertisers are willing to pay a lot more during the shopping season and especially Black Friday through Christmas Eve than they will for instance in January. NOW is the time to maximize.

3. Ramp up your ad portfolio

• The more the merrier is not always the case when it comes to ads and a successful monetization strategy. The amount and type of ads affect page speed and user experience. This time of the year, however, exceptionally high advertiser demand can turn a few extra units into something very lucrative.
• Be flexible. Can you offer native? Do it. Video? Go for it. Just be careful you don’t go for instance all-in on video since this can be very harmful for page speed. Be smart.
• With the risk of sounding bi-polar here, remember quality before quantity. You might not even have to add more ‘new’ units, but make sure you offer the ones that are performing really well and focus on those.
• Not on mobile? Do it. You are missing out on ⅔ of the potential if you ditch mobile.

4. Consider all options available

• It is, as mentioned a few times, the best time of the year. Go through your strategy one more time. Are there any potential gaps you still could cover?
• Go through all the categories and blocked sites, is there something to add? Can you flex when it comes to categories you usually choose not to display on your site (like retail)? We are of course not talking about blocked sites or anything forbidden, but more about broadening the “normal”.

5. Find a good partner – Wink wink

• Partner up with a publisher monetization platform that can help you with all of this mentioned above and a little more.
• You probably already have a zillion things to think of? You can’t be an expert in everything. Let us be the experts and help you maximize your site’s potential. We have done this every day for the past decade, and we know exactly what settings to tweak in order to help you earn the most possible.
• We also have a few aces in the pocket, like non-standard unit sizes that pay higher CPMs than traditional ones, 10 years of data on what units work best and how to optimize floors in order the generate the largest revenue possible.

Are you new to Kiosked and would like to partner with us?

Drop us a line on sales@kiosked.com and we will get you up and running just in time for BLACK FRIDAY and the rest of the quarter since it’s the best time of the year for many reasons.

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