Media Buying The Ultimate Guide for 2025

Media Buying The Ultimate Guide for 2025

by | Aug 3, 2021 | Media buying, Monetization

Paid advertising is a key part of every marketing strategy. As a marketer, you wonder how to get the most bang for your buck when buying ad space. In this post, we’ll explain how media buying works and give you tips to do it right.

What is Media Buying?

The term media buying refers to purchasing advertising space from a media channel. For instance, buying a time from a tv station, print space from a newspaper or magazine, or billboard signs.

Media buying in online marketing refers to purchasing advertising space in a blog or website, negotiating the price, and placement of ads.

So, What’s a Media Buyer in Marketing?

A media buyer is a person — usually a marketer—that is in charge of media buying for the company. Is someone whose job involves selecting and arranging payment to put advertisements on online channels at the most cost-effective rate.

Typically, media buying is done manually (direct) or with the help of technology tools (programmatic).

  • Direct buy: When media buyers negotiate ad inventory directly with publishers.
  • Programmatic buy: Media buyers use automated technology to buy ad placements.

According to eMarketer, 91.1% of digital ad spending belongs to programmatic buying today and is expected to rise to 91.5% by 2024. So, direct media buying is in decline.

But which is best? There are advantages and disadvantages of both methods. While direct media buying is still used, the market is clearly going in the direction of programmatic advertising.

Programmatic advertising saves time and effort and allows for better targeting your audience. It offers real-time bidding, which gives advertisers the chance to get better deals for their ads.

Media Buyers, Media Traders? Maximize Revenue per User Visit

Programmatic advertising

Image source

What’s the role of a media buyer?

Even with programmatic advertising, media buyers play an important role. A media buyer considers the target audience and marketing goals to find the ad type, channel, and site that maximizes the impact.

  1. Media buyers plan a media buying strategy according to the advertising strategy for the campaign.
  2. They select and buy the ad space at the best rates, controlling the budget.
  3. A media buyer’s job doesn’t involve buying the advertising space. They constantly analyze the data on the performance of the ads to optimize the ad-buying strategy.

Types of Media Buying

Now that we know what a media buyer does, we can look into the different types of buys available. Media buys may include buying from traditional and digital channels. Traditional media includes out-of-home ads, TV and radio airtime, and print advertisements.

Digital media buys include a broader range of ad formats and types, including:

  • Social media ads
  • Display ads
  • Video ads
  • Paid search
  • Mobile ads
  • Digital out-of-home ads (digital billboards, elevator advertising, bus stop billboards).

The State of Media Buying Statistics

According to Statista, in 2026, global programmatic ad spend is expected to reach $750 billion by 2026.

How is worldwide media buying evolving? Let’s check some mind-blowing statistics.

Digital advertising spending will reach $695.96 billion by the end of 2024.

Digital advertising spending 2021-26

Image source

91.5% of all display advertising is bought through programmatic advertising
In 2023, 69% of U.S companies surveyed moved the company’s programmatic buying in-house
80% of companies surveyed by the World Federation of Advertisers adopted programmatic buying in-house to some extent.

Benefits of Media Buying

Buying media is more than just exchanging money for ad space. An effective media buying strategy can reduce your ad spending while improving the impact of the advertising campaign.

These days, traditional media buying has been replaced by digital media buying. Digital media buying is the marketing process of purchasing digital advertising. The expansion of digital transformation makes digital advertising essential for any business’s growth.

By carrying the process programmatically, it allows advertisers to refine their targeting based on demographics, behavior, and other factors, reaching the right audience, at the right time, with the message relevant to them, and at the right cost.

Here are some benefits of digital media buying:

Specific targeting

The main benefit of digital media buying is that it allows you to target specific audiences based on different criteria, such as interests, behaviors, and demographics. Therefore, the ads reach the most relevant customers, resulting in higher conversion rates and improved ROI.

Cost-effective

Traditional advertising methods are usually expensive. Digital advertising, on the other side, is more cost-effective. The wide range of pricing models, from CPC (cost per click) to CPM (cost per thousand impressions), gives advertisers more control over ad spending, resulting in lower costs.

Campaign Optimization 

Digital advertising platforms allow marketers to monitor their campaign performance in real-time and adjust accordingly. Marketers can analyze measurable metrics and use the results to improve future campaigns. Platforms allow them to track impressions, clicks, and conversions.

Inventory management

With digital media buying, marketers can manage their advertising inventory efficiently, knowing the ads will be served to the relevant audience according to factors such as keywords, location, and demographics.

Seamless integration 

Most ad servers and ad exchanges integrate with media buying platforms, thus providing a seamless experience. The solutions centralize the data, providing real-time analytics and improving the efficiency of workflows.

How Digital Media Buying Works

Digital Media Buying

Source

Digital media buying or programmatic buying, buying ad impressions is automated. The negotiation step is conducted automatically in real-time through digital marketplaces. This automated buying structure has three main components:

Supply-side Platforms (SSP)

It is a software product designed to sell advertising space with the help of automation technology. Publishers use this software to sell their ad inventory to advertisers. The goal is to maximize the price of impressions for publishers. Examples of SSP include Google, Rubicon Project, AppNexus.

Demand-side Platforms (DSP)

Is the counter side of SSPs but from the advertiser side. Marketers use DSPs to bid on ad inventory and get ad impressions with the lowest price possible.

Examples of DSP:

  • Facebook Ads Manager
  • Rocket Fuel
  • Amazon
  • DoubleClick.

Ad Exchanges

In these marketplaces, advertisers and publishers buy or sell inventory via real-time bidding (RTB). The exchange works as a marketplace for advertisers and publishers to broker and auction ad space. Advertisers, marketers, and networks use the exchange to buy space for their ads. Publishers use the exchange to offer ad space for monetization.

Examples of ad exchanges:

  • DoubleClick
  • Microsoft Ad Exchange
  • Right Media Exchange
  • OpenX
  • App Nexus

Ad Networks

These marketplaces collect the ad inventory from publishers and sell it to advertisers. These intermediaries introduce the right publisher option to the right buyer. Usually matches suppliers and advertisers with the goal to maximize yield for both.

Ad networks work with real-time bidding but also are good options to sell remnant ad inventory.

Examples of ad networks:

Other options include private auctions, usually run by publishers which limit who can participate and selling ad inventory at a fixed rate per thousand impressions.

Learn more about the best ad networks of 2023.

Stages of the Media Buyer Process

Stages of the Media Buyer Process

Media buying consists of several steps that can be categorized into three key stages: Preparation, Execution, Optimization.

Stage #1: Preparation

This stage involves in-depth research and planning of the advertising strategy. The media buyer will take into account the target audience, the advertising budget, and the campaign goals to select the best channel where to buy the ad space.

Steps at this stage include:

  1. Look at your target audience and decide how to reach it. 
    Who are your ads intended for? What’s the demographics of your target audience? (age, gender, etc.). Where do they live? (geolocation), What interests them?.Once you have your audience profile, try to find your target group for the specific campaign. Identify where to reach them. Are they active in social media? Which sites they likely frequent? Do they buy online? Where? Know what platforms and devices your target uses.
  2. Look at your competitors
    Where do they advertise? Which ad networks are they using? Check whom your direct competitors are targeting. Learning from the successes and failures of others save time and allows the advertiser to have an edge on their campaigns.
  3. Define your media buying strategy
    The media buyer should align the advertising to the campaign goals. If the target is on their mobiles when they search or use the product, mobile advertising can be the solution.This involves choosing where to advertise and how. Should the buyer use one ad network or several? This will depend on the campaign strategy.
  4. Plan the campaign execution
    Allocate the budget according to the main goal (clicks, conversions, sign-ups, etc). Estimate how much is going to cost according to the pricing model you choose (Cost Per Mille, Cost Per Click, Cost Per Action). Plan all the marketing budget and account for unexpected expenses.

Stage #2: Campaign Execution

Here the media buyer should ensure the ads are appearing where they should, at the frequency they should, in front of the target audience, and in the right context.

Monitoring and tracking the progress is key to understand how the ads are performing. Look for metrics like customer engagement, number of conversions, or actions.

Stage #3: Optimization

Collect as much data as possible to analyze the effectiveness of the advertising space. Check if it generates as much revenue as expected. Analyze how the users reacted to the campaign and don’t be afraid to make changes.

Optimization should be an ongoing process, so monitor, analyze, test and repeat.

Optimization

Source

Factors to Consider When Selecting Media Channels

An essential aspect of effective media buying is selecting your media channels wisely. Whale digital media buying allows you to target specific audiences; you still need to choose which channels you want the ad to appear in.

There are several media channels to choose from. You can choose from websites, applications, mobile sites, or social media digital media. Displaying ads in every existing channel, while it seems tempting, is not a good idea. First, budget constraints may limit your choice, but most importantly, you should choose channels to reach your potential customers directly.

Before choosing your channels, here are some questions you may ask:

1. Do my customers frequent this channel?

You should advertise where your customers spend the most time. If your customers look for your products mostly on social media, you should advertise on their social media channels.

2. Is the pricing model cost-effective for my organization?

While digital media buying is more affordable than traditional advertising, it is not free of cost. Every platform has a pricing model, and advertisers must bid to buy ad space. Maybe CPC is more effective for your organization, or maybe your campaign is focused on awareness; thus, CPM  makes more sense to you.

3. Is the channel appropriate to my organization’s message and brand?

Not every channel is appropriate for every company. For example, contrary to popular belief, not every business needs to be on Facebook or have an Instagram page. While those channels can be great for B2C organizations, B2B companies should focus on other channels, such as websites, LinkedIn, or industry blogs.

Why is media buying important?

An effective media buying strategy can affect the bottom line of the company. It goes beyond the simple act of buying ad space. Selecting which channels will impact the audience most while ensuring the advertiser pays the lowest possible costs is the ultimate goal of a good media buying strategy. 

Ultimately, this enables companies to control the ad spending budget and, at the same time, maximize conversions. By using programmatic advertising, the software takes all the hassle of negotiating with publishers, automatically choosing the best ads for a publisher and the best space for advertisers.

Common Challenges in Media Buying

Even when using the right platforms, there are challenges. Measuring the effectiveness of the campaign, applying the right attribution model, and optimizing the campaigns in real time are some of the challenges marketers need to overcome.

Here is a short list:

Measuring right.

You need to understand which campaigns are working and which ones aren’t. This will help you allocate the budget better. Tracking the right metrics in real-time can be a challenge, as well as attribute accurately the conversions.

Optimizing campaigns on the go

Once you have the information about the campaigns, it is time to put them into use. Often you will need to optimize campaigns on the fly to correct course and make the most of your investment. An effective marketing platform can give you the analytics and insights to make the necessary corrections while the campaign is active.

Preventing ad fraud

Ad fraud is unfortunately very common, and it involves an organization buying ad space on a fraudulent site. Other times, sites will use bots to generate clicks. The right advertising platform will have tools to detect and prevent ad fraud, protecting the advertiser’s investment.

6  Tips to Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Media Buying Campaigns

Succeeding in media buying is as much a matter of strategy as buying right. Here are some tips on media buying to get results.

1. Research

Analyze the factors that impact the campaign’s success. Check what the ad rates in your industry are and how much it costs to ad placements on different sites for the size and type of the ads you plan to run.

2. Check the media where the ads will appear for relevance and context.

Where your ads appear is not only a matter of the best bidder. It is essential that the publisher’s website is relevant to your brand. Their aesthetics, profile, and branding should align with yours. The reason is simple, your potential customers will go to the publisher’s site to find relevant information, and if your product aligns with it, they’ll click on your ad. The same applies to social media and any other channel you use.

3. Align the bidding to customer journey stages.

After checking on the media channels for context and relevance, don’t forget the customer. Your potential customers come to the channels at different stages in their customer journey. Some will come to browse for information. Others will come with higher intent. Align your bidding so your ad gives the visitor exactly what they are looking for at this stage.

4. Invest in highly targeted inventory

The more targeted your inventory, the less effort you need to make in reaching high-intent customers. Yes, premium and highly targeted inventory is usually more expensive, but it is worth it when you reach visitors that are looking exactly for what you are offering.

5. Stay on budget

Be careful when calculating the budget, calculate the overall budget according to the pricing models you chose. Remember how to make the most of that budget while keeping the campaign’s impact. Allocate the budget for premium locations where you can get more ROI for your ads.

6. Prepare for unforeseen purchases.

Maybe you decided to run with one or two ad networks. Have an extra budget to account for unforeseen purchases. While you are working with these networks you may need to make changes to the campaign, with requires more budget. Be prepared.

Media buying vs Media planning

Media buying and planning are two different stages of processes. A media buyer focuses on getting the most impressions for the lowest cost. Media planning determines what channel is best for reaching the target audience. The media planner is the one behind the campaign strategy.

In larger corporations, media buyer and media planner jobs are carried on by different people. In smaller organizations, it is usually carried on by the same person.

Programmatic Advertising and Media Buying

Programmatic advertising relies on technology to automate the media buying process.  With over 91% of digital advertising done through programmatic techniques, it is important to understand how programmatic buying works.

Programmatic media buys work like a silent, real-time auction. The advertiser sets their maximum bidding, how much they would want to pay per click or impression, and the criteria for the ad placement. The AI platform does the rest of the work.

There are several types of programmatic advertising platforms, which we mentioned above. Publishers use supply-side platforms to sell their available ad inventory. On the other side, advertisers use demand-side platforms to set up and optimize campaigns and bid on ad inventory. Ad exchanges work for both suppliers and buyers, using a process called real-time bidding (RTB) to transact ad inventory.

How Can CodeFuel Help You as a Media Buyer?

How CodeFuel can help you

Media buyers can optimize the revenue per each click and visit. Sometimes big-names ad platforms are too generic in reach and offer a low ROI. Regardless of your platform, you can maximize the ad ROI with optimized landing pages that boost revenue across platforms and verticals.

CodeFuel search mediation partners with main search providers, you can deploy monetization pages on your domain if you’re a publisher, or used the ready-to-go pages designed for different buying platforms. Start monetizing smart today with CodeFuel.

In-App Advertising: All You Need to Know and The Best Networks

In-App Advertising: All You Need to Know and The Best Networks

by | Jul 30, 2021 | Advertising, Apps

You’ve created the ultimate app and are now looking for ways to monetize it. Here at CodeFuel, we have created this guide to help you plan your monetization strategy and select the best networks. It’s going to be a handful, so let’s get started.

Short in time?
Here you have a table of contents to help you.

In this post

What Is In-App Advertising?

First, let’s start with the basics. In-app advertising is a monetization strategy in which application developers — publishers — get paid to show ads within their mobile apps.   The type of ads you find in mobile apps, may include banners, videos, and images displayed right when you play the app.

How In-App Advertising Works 

To use In-app advertising, you dedicate a portion of your app’s digital real estate, installation, or workflow to advertising. To do this, you pair up with an advertising network specialized in in-app advertising.

To understand how in-app advertising works, first, we need to understand the mobile ecosystem: 

There are many actors in the mobile ecosystem, both on the buyer’s side and the seller’s side.

Sides of Mobile EcosystemThe mobile ecosystem has two sides: the buy and sells sides.

On the buy side: you have the app developers, agencies, and marketers buying the in-app ad space. You also have Demand-Side platforms, which help advertisers reach the inventory of multiple publishers.

On the sell side: you have the app owners selling ad space. You also have Supply-Side platforms, which help publishers to offer their inventory to multiple buyers.

Orchestrating all these buy and sell movements is an ad network. The ad network receives requests from the apps offering space to display ads, and by using advanced algorithms, it identifies the right advertisers.

All these happen in a matter of seconds, thanks to programmatic advertising. So let’s explain this briefly.

How Does Programmatic Work for In-App Advertising? 

Programmatic advertising is an automated way to connect buyers and sellers of advertising space. Buyers bid on ad space, and the programmatic system conducts a real-time auction when is time to display the ads. The highest bidder gets the ad space.

Mobile programmatic buying offers several options:

  • Open Auctions: Regular, second-price auctions in real-time with all buyers.
  • Private Auctions: Closed, private auction, usually invite-only. Publishers can select the advertisers they want to participate in the auction.
  • Preferred deals: These are direct deals between publishers and buyers before the auction.

Programmatic advertising offers more transparency for buyers and helps publishers reach more advertisers.

Three Easy Steps To Monetize Your App

There are three key steps to monetize your app using in-app advertising:

  • Choose an ad network: this is perhaps the more critical step. You need to choose the mobile ad network that caters to your niche and can bring you to the right pool of advertisers.
    Learn more: Best Mobile Ad Networks for Publishers
  • Select the type of ad: there are several types of ads you can leverage for your application, You can place the ads at the start of the application, in between stages, or at the end. Be careful that the ads won’t disrupt the user experience.Learn more: What Are In-App Ads?
  • Choose the right pricing model: Depending on the ad network, you can work under a CPM, a CPC, or a CPA model.
    Learn more: CPC vs CPM Bidding: What’s the Difference in 2022?

What Are the Benefits of In-App Advertising?

In the U.S, as much as 88% o mobile time is spent in-app. It allows publishers to maximize their gains and advertisers to reach more customers. Here are some of its benefits:

It Improves User Engagement

Since users seem to be on all the time on their phones, placing the right ad, one that enhances the user experience, when they’re using the apps increases the user’s engagement with the application. 

For instance, gaming apps usually give rewards for watching in-game video ads. Duolingo, the popular language learning app, rewards with points needed to continue learning every time a user watches an ad.

It Increases In-App Purchases

App owners can double their revenue sources by combining in-app advertising with in-app purchases. Users that are served in-app ads tend to view more products per session. Offering in-app purchases in addition to in-app ads can increase the chances of conversion.

Helps Monetize Freemiums

Free apps have few ways to monetize their content. Usually, app owners don’t make enough revenue from in-app purchases alone.

Gaming or gamified applications have an ideal interface to insert ads without disruption. Users served in-app ads see more products from inside the apps and have higher conversion rates.

In-app ads are useful for all types of applications if done right. Platforms like CodeFuel, leverage user intent, and behavior to serve relevant ads that enhance the user experience.

Start Monetize Your App With CodeFuel's In-App Advertisements Today!

What challenges can you face with In-App Ads?

In-app advertising is not exempt from challenges. Here are some.

You need to stand out against thousands of competitors

Since over two-thirds of brands use in-app advertising to expand their brands, advertisers look for applications that carry their ads. With over 3 million  apps in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store, your app needs to stand out if you want to catch the eye of high-paying advertisers.

What can you do? Check your app provides a great user experience and attracts and engages users and downloads.

Poor ad formatting

The wrong ad format can push users away. Also, publishers may have to test several formats until they find the format that works.
What can you do? Test in the early stages, and check your competitors’ ad formats. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Lack of Customization Options:

In theory, you can customize an app, but the options are limited, especially when you want to monetize the app. The ad network can limit your options for customization.
What can you do? You can refine your targeting as much as possible and offer in-app preferences to your users.

Types of Ads You Can Find in an App

The right ad can make or break your monetization strategy. According to the add type you choose, you can drive clicks or annoy users. You can use video or image ads, text, and interactive. As we saw above, native and interstitial ads perform better than banners. Let’s see which types of ads are the most popular.

Pop-up ads

You can include these ads in any kind of app. They can appear at pre-defined moments when the person is using the ad or during transitions. You can set them to appear triggered by opening the app or doing a specific action.

Pop-up Ads

Pros
They get noticed
They give a quick way to convert.
Cons
They can annoy the user
They can cover the actual content

Despite the detractors, pop-up ads work. According to a study by SumoMe:

The average conversion rate for pop-ups is 3.09%, with the top 10% highest performing averaging a 9.28% conversion rate.  

Conversion rates for Pop-ups

Image source

Transitional ads

These ads appear when the user transitions between screens. For instance, if you enter your breakfast data in your calorie counter, you may get an ad promoting healthy receipts.

Pros
They get users when they are in between tasks
They keep the user engaged in the app.
Cons
The ad needs to be relevant to the action being performed in the app
If too promotional, it can annoy the user by being “too salesly”

Text ads

Text ads can appear everywhere in the app. When the cursor hovers over a text or at any place on the app screen.

Pros
They are unobtrusive
They are easy to set up
They can be anywhere.
Cons
Be careful not to overuse them.
They can be boring to the user

Banner ads

A mobile screen is too small to fit a full-size banner ad. However, you can be creative and use these ads strategically. Place it at the header or the footer, whichever it stays more visible to the user.

Pros
They stand out more than other types of ads
Bigger visual impact
Cons
Can be too small to read the text inside
Ensure the app screen allows the banner to be seen.

Search Feeds

Adding a search feed to your app gives users a useful tool to improve their experience. In-app search ads allow your users to search from inside your app. The more active the users of your app, the more you generate ad revenue.

Pros
They are convenient
Enhance the user experience
Cons
They are not fit for all types of apps

In-App Advertising Formats

Maybe you are wondering which is the right ad format or a mix of them that will give you results. To do that, first, you need to understand how the different types of ads work. Here we explain the most popular types:

Interstitial Ads

Cover the entire mobile screen, generally at a size of 320 x 480 pixels. This size allows to display more content and the call to action becomes clearly visible. Other sizes include 300 x 400  or 300 x 250 pixels.

They are good to catch a user’s attention and to place in games in between levels, as they minimize the disruption for users. Beware of interrupting the user experience, so don’t push an interstitial ad in the middle of a game.

Interstitial Ads

Source: Amazon appstore

Best For 

Linear experiences, appearing at natural stop and start points within the app.

Video Ads

Video ads are increasingly popular, as they catch and retain the attention of the user when engaged with the device. However, if the video is intrusive, it may backfire. It’s important that the video ads are short (less than 30 seconds) and placed at natural breaks in the user experience.

Video Ads

Best For 
Applications that have stages or stops so it doesn’t disrupt the user experience.

Native Ads

Native ads can be of different forms and sizes, but what they have in common is that they are presented in a way that fits the publisher. Therefore, the ad blends with the app content.

They appear as part of the app’s content, thus are not intrusive or interrupt the user experience. The ad is relevant to the context of the app, making them highly effective.

Native Ads

Best For 
All types of apps when not obscuring the app content.

Expandable Ads

This type of rich media ad, is a combination of a banner and an interstitial ad. It starts with a 320 x50 pixels banner as a teaser, then when the user taps on it, it displays in full screen. It has the advantage of being less intrusive than full-screen interstitial ads, but presenting too many can be annoying for the user.

Expandable ads

Best For 
All types of apps.

In-App Pricing Models

The pricing model is almost always determined by the ad network. The most common are Cost per Click, Cost per Mille, and Cost per Install. Here is a brief overview:

Cost per Mille

Also called cost per thousand, it refers to a pricing model where the advertiser pays for every thousand times the ad gets viewed. 

Who is this for? It works well for publishers and ad networks.

Cost per Click

In this pricing model, the advertiser pays based on the number of clicks the ad receives.

Who is this for? While this model has advertisers in mind, and in theory, they only pay when the ads get clicked, advertisers may lose money through fake clicks.

Cost per Install

Popular when introducing a mobile app in the market. The advertiser pays based on the number of installations they get. Advertisers should be careful with fake installations, checking that installations appear in the Google Play Store, not only on the attribution platform.

Who is this for? New apps.

Best 5 In-App Advertising Networks For Publishers

Choosing a network is one of the critical steps to ensure your success with in-app advertising. Here we did the hard work for you and listed the 5 best in-app advertising networks for publishers.

1. CodeFuel 

Monetize your digital property

CodeFuel is a complete platform that allows you to monetize all your digital properties effectively. You can leverage search, ads, shopping, and news to monetize your app by using intent-based monetization. 

This excellent ad platform is geared specifically with publishers in mind. There are over 1.1 k publishers with 9billion annual searches, so you’re sure your digital property will be monetized.

Key features

  • Presents relevant display ads inside your app.
  • You can add a search feed based on user intent that presents shopping ads
  • Enhances the user experience.
  • Increases conversions by keeping the user engaged.
  • Integrates with Microsoft Bing, Google AdSense, and Yahoo.
  • Performance tracking and analytics.
  • CodeFuel also offers search mediation if you want to link to other networks.

CodeFuel is a versatile ad network that gives you the flexibility to monetize your app with search feeds and relevant display ads while enhancing the user experience. The platform presents ads offering multiple ad formats, including banner, interstitial and native ads.

2. AdMob

AdMob

AdMob is the mobile version of Google AdSense. AdMob includes ads automatically offering multiple ad formats, including banner, video, and interstitial ads.

Key Features

  • Multiple ad formats
  • Ad mediation
  • It is suitable for beginners and Google AdSense users
  • However, it has limitations on ad placements.
  • It is focused mostly (and logically) in Google products.

3. Smaato

Smaato

Smaato is a mobile ad platform for publishers and advertisers that focuses on matching publishers with relevant advertisers.

Key Features

  • Real-time bidding for ads auctions
  • Allows video, interstitial, banner, interactive, and rewarded ads.
  • Allows ad mediation.

The downside of Smaato is that it works only as an intermediary, for ads not dealing with user experience or search feeds. 

4. Unity

Unity - Monetization Network

Unity is a monetization network specifically for mobile games by using video ads. If your app is a game, Unity is your solution.

Key Features

  •  Compatible with iOS and Android
  • Compatible with all game engines including Marmalade and Adobe Air.
  • You can set up in-app purchases.
  • They support interstitial, video, or banner ads through CPM or CPI campaigns.
  • Target demographics segmentation
  • Almost real-time reporting.

5. MobFox

Mobfox - In-app Advertising Platform

MobFox is an independent mobile ad network for app monetization for publishers, app developers, and advertisers.

Key Features

  • Works with all advertising formats, like Unity, Cordova, AdobeAir, and GameMaker.
  • You can target your audience by location, carrier, channel, and demographics.
  • Allows for native, interstitial, banner, video, and rich media ads.
  • Provides analytics and reports.

The downside: it seems focused on gaming monetization. It also doesn’t offer mediation or search feeds.

Why In-App Advertising Works better than Interruptive Advertising

Interruptive advertising is any type of advertising that gets in the way (interrupts) what a person is doing. It is very common, and you are most likely familiar with this type of advertising. Think about TV commercials and radio ads, for example.

While interruptive advertising has been around for a long time, it is not very effective for the digital world. When you interrupt the user, you “cut” their engagement with the app.

In-app ads are presented in the context of an app and tend to be more relevant and, therefore, more effective. Since the user is already engaged with the app, in-app advertising blends seamlessly with the user experience.

When you integrate the ad with the app experience, for example, by giving recommendations, the ad gives value instead of pushing a sale.

Why In-App Advertising Vs. Website Advertising

People access both apps and mobile websites via their mobile devices. Some companies wonder if it is worth it to create an app. After all, they have a responsive, mobile website. However, they are different things, and their impact on the user is different too. Let’s examine the differences between mobile websites vs. mobile apps.

Daily usage in the U.S

Vulnerable to ad blocking?
What user data is available?
How does it track user activity?
Mobile Websites
52 minutes
Yes,
Web activity, favorite websites, demographics
Cookies
Mobile Apps
3 hours 14 minutes
Not in every case
Location, device type, OS, demographic
Device ID

Why is it better to advertise in-app than on a mobile website? 

More Friendly Interface 

Every person that had to zoom in or tried to understand infinitely small letters on a mobile website knows the struggle. Applications are more user-friendly.

Apps also offer better personalization. It is easier to target the offering to a specific user since most apps let the user set the app preferences.

Consumers spend more time in applications, and because one person only uses them, the level of connection with the user is higher.

Higher Conversion Rate

Because users offered in-app advertising see more products than visitors on a mobile website, apps offer a higher conversion rate. Think about it, isn’t it easier to purchase something directly from the app than having to go to the website to buy the item? Right, the convenience the app offers is a hard rival for a mobile website.

Mobile Apps Give Instant Notifications

Receiving a notification on your phone seems always more urgent and prompts a quicker action than an email. Push notifications reach a target audience anywhere, anytime. That’s why they are considered one of the most effective forms of marketing.

Better Targeting

Contrarily to websites, mobile apps allow users to adjust their preferences and create an individual experience. The resulting personalization creates unique targeting opportunities, increasing engagement.

Mobile App vs. Mobile Web

So, Why Should You Use In-App Advertising? Here Are 3 Reasons:

1. You can guide the user experience by mixing different in-app formats

When you use in-app advertising, ads are contextual and don’t look like ads, but like helpful suggestions. By doing so, you can enhance and guide the user journey. Mix ad formats, for example, video, interactive, and text, so it is more engaging for the user.

2. The user spends more time in-app 

Engaged users spend more time using the app. Therefore, providing relevant and helpful in-app ads increases the possibilities of conversion.

3. You can target ads accurately

An ad network platform can help you segment and target ads according to different groups, locations, and demographics. This helps your ads stay relevant to the customer’s journey and intent.

Tips to Use In-App Advertising for Monetization

When you put the right ads in the right context, it gives users an experience that is more relevant to their needs. As mentioned above, this increases CTR, engagement, and conversion rates.

The key to using in-app advertising for monetization is implementing the right monetization solution. This will get you an increase in ROI. How do you do it? Here are a few tips:

  • Pick the right solution for your app. Not all ad networks are the same. Some solutions focus more on banners, others are more directed to gaming apps. Make sure the monetization solution offers ads that match your audience.
  • When choosing the ad format, choose the most relevant and put them in front of the target audience within the app workflow. The less an ad seems like an ad, the better.
  • Find a vendor that works for your business. Keep in mind which platforms do you display the app on and find a vendor that works with all of them.

Strategies for Mobile App Advertising

The right network and ad type need to align with your strategies for mobile app advertising. Here are a few pillar strategies to succeed:

Contextualization

It helps to blend the advertising with the app experience. This feature lets you offer value and advertising at the same time, preventing disengagement problems like banner blindness. Display ads can be tricky in mobile advertising and disconnect the user from the app. By contextualizing, you tie the ad to the app function.

Understand and Target the User Intent

What’s user intent? The term describes what is the user’s intention and purpose in using the app. For example, a user that downloads a taxi app is probably looking for rides.

A user playing a game wants to enhance their gaming experience, so you can offer in-app purchases. When you understand the user’s intent, you can target the advertising towards specifically this intent.

Improving the user experience and adding value 

People use apps because they are looking to solve a problem with them. However, ads not always help with the purpose. Ads need to bring value and support the user experience. The more relevant and contextualized the ads, the higher the chances of converting.

Still, first, you need to promote your app to reach your target audience. How do you do it? 

App Monetization Statistics

First, let’s review some statistics that show how app development and monetization have grown in the last few years.

1. There are 6.6billion smartphone users in the world

Number of smartphone subscription worldwide

2. The number of apps in the Google Play Store  passed 3 million by the 3rd quarter of 2022

Number of available applications on Google Play Store

The pandemic stalled applications’ releases, lowering the number of applications to 2016’s levels. At the end of 2022, however, we could see a recovery tendency and now the number of apps surpassed 3 million.

3. Which Apps are the Most Popular? 

What types of apps do people use the most? 97% of people use Communication and social apps, followed by Shopping, Entertainment and Search, which are used by 95% of users and over 60% of users have a Gaming app on their phones.

App usage by categories

Image source

It is unsurprising that social apps like TikTok and Instagram were the most downloaded in 2022. Communication apps like Zoom and Messenger follow close.

Most Downloaded Apps in May 2022

Source

4. Over half of web traffic is coming from mobile devices

Global Mobile Phone Website Traffic Share

The percentage of people using their mobile phones to access the Internet has skyrocketed in the last years. On February 2021, over half of all Internet traffic came through mobile phones, compared to 42.9% of desktop traffic and a mere 2.85% from tablets.

5. Mobile Ad Spending is increasing

With more than half of web traffic coming from mobile devices and growing, it is no surprise that mobile ad spending is increasing too.

According to Statista, mobile ad spending will surpass desktop ad spending by 2022. From $189 billion in 2019, we can expect companies to spend over $240 billion by 2022.

Mobile vs Desktop Ad Spending data

In-app advertising is a market in expansion. In fact, Mobile in-app advertising revenues are projected to reach over $900 billions by 2023. This provides a great opportunity for app developers and marketers to tap into the market.

Mobile App Revenues Worldwide

Why is this? Because In-app advertising works. According to a recent report, in-app ads have a 10%  higher engagement rate than mobile web apps. In addition, the click-through rate of interstitial ads are 18 times higher than of web ads.

In-app eCPM Vs. CTR

Image source

While banners are the cheapest. They are also less effective. Interstitial display ads are more expensive, but the CTR is much higher. Native ads also have higher conversion rates.

Therefore, if you want your app to convert, in-app advertising can be the solution.

True, it is a very competitive market.

So how do you make sure you can make money from your app with in-app advertising? Let’s explore.

What to Focus on To Get Your App to Stand Out

To get the word out in a saturated marketplace — remember they are over 3 billion apps only in the Google Playstore—you need to be on target with your audience. To do that, start by asking the following questions:

Who are you advertising to?

Try to get as specific as possible with your audience. Chances are you already have a lot of information from when you created the app. Find out demographics, location, interests, and age group. The more you narrow the niche, the most effective your marketing.

For starters, you can work with the info you had to create your app. Once you begin advertising, you’ll get data through your ad network you can use to refine your campaigns. Learn what worked and what didn’t and re-target if necessary.

Where are they online?

If you are advertising an app, you need to reach your audience where they spend time online. Using the demographics and target audience profile you created on the last step, find out where your audience hangs out online.

  • Create buyer personas and use this data to find out which social media channels they are more active on.
  • Search on sites that cover your audience’s interests. Use social listening tools, search forums, or question-and-answer sites like Quora.
  • Look at your competitors. Where are they promoting their apps? Chances are you have a similar audience.
  • Survey your customers. Add a small survey after downloading, or in the middle of the app, workflow to check where your customers hang out online.
  • Search Facebook Groups. Groups are a great source of information and offer you a ready-packed audience that is interested in what you offer.

How do you reach them?

Now that you know who is your audience and where they are, it is time to find the optimal way to reach them. You can promote your app via social media platform ads, through buying advertising space, or using an ad network.

You’ll want to find ad networks that target your audience where they spend time online. For instance, if your target is professionals, LinkedIn will be more effective than Facebook, if your target is young people, try Instagram or Tiktok.

Find the right advertising solution

You can be as creative as you need to get the word out about your app. Some innovative advertising methods include smart installers, pay-per-install solutions, and bundling. Affiliate marketing, for example, lets you recruit online marketers to promote your product.

Advertising an app is not an exact science, you need to measure and refine your campaign until you get results.

Cool and Unusual Ways to Advertise your App

In the age of social media, you want the app to get the most exposure possible. You want everybody to know about it and use it.  Here are some out-of-the-box ideas to advertise your app.

Collaborate with Influencers

Collab with Influencers

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is when companies partner with influencers in order to increase brand awareness or conversions among a specific target audience. (Bigcommerce)

According to a study, the ROI of influencer marketing can be 6 to 1, meaning for every $1 invested in influencer marketing, you can get $6.5 in return.

Partnering with an influencer can spread the voice of your app very quickly and on target. After all, almost half of the people look for an influencer recommendation before making a purchase.

Here are some tips to make the most of influencer marketing:

  1. Find an influencer that caters to your target audience.
  2. If your product is very specific, try a micro or medium influencer.
  3. Look for an influencer with great rapport and steady relation with followers.

Social media

Nowadays, most consumers are using social media platforms before deciding whether buy something. You should advertise in the channel where your customers are. Over half of apps are discovered outside the app store.

Awareness of smartphone apps

Here are some tips to promote your app on social media: 

  1. Use paid ads on social media platforms.
  2. Encourage user-generated content
  3. Ask for reviews and ratings.
  4. Tease your audience and create anticipation with tweets.

Viral marketing

A viral marketing campaign is designed to generate the most buzz around your app possible. The whole point is using the public as your medium to spread the word.

How do you generate the buzz? You can create a giveaway, a contest, or an event. You can use clever tweets combined with a funny and memorable video in TikTok.

Provoke your audience, encouraging them to spread the word. A viral marketing campaign should be interesting enough that people would be compelled to share the video. Adding a freebie, for example, in exchange for shares can attract attention.

How to Optimize Your In-App Advertising Strategy in 10 Steps

In-app advertising helps brings a steady income, so you’ll want to do it right. The more effective your advertising, the more users will want to download and use your app. Below find some tips to monetize effectively with in-app advertising.

1. Put the User First

A user-centric approach in all your designs, from the user interface, to your website and ads, will help give a consistent user experience. Focus on giving a seamless user experience throughout all the elements that the user comes into contact with.

2. Test New Ad Formats

There are new ad formats appearing every once in a while. If it seems your current ad formatting is not working, mix it up. Test different formats to see which ones work better for your users, and increase conversion rates. Mix expandable ads, mobile video ads, recommendation engines, and interactive ads are some of the formats you can try.

3. Optimize What You Have 

Sometimes you cannot go over budget for every new strategy. If you’ve hit the ceiling of what new trends you can try, optimize what you’ve got. Keep re-testing and improving your existing strategy.

4. Use a One-Stop Mobile Marketing Shop

You can be tempted into signing in to every ad network and monetization program under the sun to maximize your returns. However, this can result in spreading your efforts too much, first, and you’ll end analyzing data and ROI from a hundred sources.

Instead, sign up for a monetization and promotion platform. You can then manage all your analytics and monetization solutions under a centralized dashboard. A platform also integrates different ad networks giving you a unified solution.

5. Make Engagement a Priority

Downloading your app and using it are two different things. In-app advertising can work only if you got your user’s attention. Create a high-value app they want to use again and again. Then, integrate ads seamlessly into the app so they will stay engaged.

6. Focus on Usability If You Want Conversions

An app that is difficult to use can put off users after they download the app. When you design an app, remember:

Designing for conversion = Designing for Usability

The easiest to use is your app, the better the user satisfaction. Sometimes, flashy graphics and heavy downloads make the user experience cumbersome. Whatever the goal of your app, ensure that your user can achieve it seamlessly. The more usable interface, the longer people will use it.

7. Don’t Slow Things Down

Speaking about stalling user journeys, ensure your app is easy and fast to download. The same happens with ads. If your interstitial ads take too long to download and display, users may leave the app.

8. Add Incentives

You want ads that convert immediately, so you can add immediate incentives for action. You can include limited-time discounts, giveaways, or bargains, as a way to get users to act immediately.

Another way is to add in-app upgrades, tied with an affiliate offer, and it will likely jump your conversion rates. Or, add incentives for social sharing if you want to promote your app.

9. Add Strong Calls-to-Action

Sometimes you cannot design the ads that appear in your app. But if you do, include strong calls to action. Add triggers like “Act Now” or “Click here for your discount”. This can influence a user to complete an action, which will increase your conversions and revenue.

10. Understand Your Users

Understanding what your users want is the best way to give them a great user experience. Conduct user testing through surveys, A/B split testing, and interface optimization. The secret to a soaring monetization strategy is to find out what your users really need and give it to them as seamlessly as possible

How To Target In-app Ads on Google

One of the most popular methods to monetize in-app ads is to use Google Ads. Here’s an overview. You can have more information in the Google documentation.

What do you need to show your mobile app ads using Google Ads? 

  • Join Google Ads.
  • Select your targeting options, including topics, app categories, and content exclusions.
  • The network will show the ads in the apps that match the targeting you’ve set for your campaign.

New and important: Google doesn’t support targeting app inventory using device settings and AdSense for mobile placements. 

Should You Use a Big Network or a Niche Solution?

When you try to monetize your app, finding the right network is critical. There are top companies you can use such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, that boast massive reach, but is it the right thing for your app?

Pros and Cons of Big Networks

Giant networks like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook offer a few benefits for developers that advertise with them.

Pros

  • Massive reach: The main benefit is the large user base these companies have. For instance, Google’s AdMob reaches millions of users around the world.
  • Cross-platform: Most big companies offer advertisers to present ads in-app, search results, social media, and other channels.
  • User targeting:  Facebook, for instance, draws from its social media data to target and optimize ads for users.
  • Multiple types of Ads: Major platforms offer many types of ads, interstitial, display, and contextual ads.

Cons

  • Lack of specialization: Major platforms reach everyone, which means they market to the masses. If you have a specific app for a defined niche, a big network cannot do the trick.
  • Too much to choose from: Large networks offer a lot of options, sometimes, too many. This can be overwhelming for startups.

Pros and Cons of Niche Solutions

Niche solutions come in where large networks result impractical. You can still benefit from large user bases, but ensure your app stays focused on your target audience. The goal is to reach the right users for your conversions to increase.

Pros

  • Specialized Advertising Methods: Niche solutions give you the types of ads that large companies are too big to deal with. For instance, marketing texts, recommendation engines, and video ads. If your niche is specific, then out-of-the-box ads may work better than generic ads from Google.
  • Niche Audiences: Let’s say you want to reach software users of a certain platform. It would be better if you use an ad network that reaches the users of that platform. You can use pay-per-install programs since they are already installing software. Recommendation engines can deliver relevant ads to users that search for something specific.
  • Innovation: Since niche networks are more nimble than large networks, they often dedicate resources to innovative creative approaches to monetization and advertising.

Cons

  • Not suitable for everyone: There are, however, apps that do require massive generic reach, and a niche solution wouldn’t be enough.

Best Practices for a Successful In-app Advertising Strategy

Now that we covered the basics of in-app advertising, there are some best practices advertisers should consider:

Best practices for In-App Advertising

How CodeFuel Can Help Monetize Your App

CodeFuel is a complete platform that leverages search, ads, shopping and news to monetize your application. It offers different types of ads and integrates with major search engines and networks for a complete solution. By adding user intent monetization, the platform ensures viewers get the most relevant ads in-app, enhancing conversions.

Are you ready to increase your app ROI? Learn more about how CodeFuel helps.

Top Marketing Statistics You Can’t Miss in 2025

Top Marketing Statistics You Can’t Miss in 2025

by | Jul 13, 2021 | Advertising, Search

An effective marketing strategy is based on data. That’s why it is critical for marketers to stay up to date with the latest statistics, trends, and developments in the industry. Having access to the right data about SEO, consumer,  content marketing, social media, marketing trends, will give your company a cutting edge over your competitors. 

Yet, too much information can be overwhelming. Here at CodeFuel, we’ve got you covered. We collected a list of the top marketing statistics you should watch in 2021.

1. SEO Statistics

93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. If almost all online activity starts with a search using an engine, then, SEO plays a critical role in getting your website seen. You want users to find your site as a result of the keywords they are searching. If they can’t find you easily, they will find your competitors. SEO has an undeniable value by letting your So audience find you, and the higher your rank, the higher the chances your customers will find you.  Here we collected some mind-blowing statistics you need to know about search engine optimization.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

  • The highest impact in conversion rates happens in the first five seconds after a page load. If the page takes longer to load the conversion rates drop a 4.42% with each extra second. 
  • Landing pages have a 24% conversion rate. 
  • Popups have only a 4% conversion rate. 

Ecommerce

  • Only half of the small businesses invest in SEO techniques and activities. Almost a fifth of small businesses don’t plan to invest in SEO in the future, while 30% say they plan to invest in SEO in the future.SMB SEO
  • Global B2C commerce is expected to reach $5 billion at the end of 2021. 

Global eCommerce

In addition to this, almost 20% of global retail sales are expected to come from online sales. Despite the re-opening of brick-and-stone stores, online sales will continue growing and take more shares from retail sales. Online sales are expected to reach over $6.8 trillion. 

  • More than half of shoppers (59%) surveyed by Google say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make online. 

Local SEO

  • 30% of mobile searches are related to location — “where to buy” type searches—. (Think with Google) 
  • 45% of online shoppers choose store pickup. (Think with Google)
  • Location queries like “Where to buy” and “near me” grown over 200%  from 2017 to 2019. 

Local SEO

Mobile Search

  • According to Statista, as of January 2021, the number of active mobile internet users was over 4.3 billion.

Global digital population

  • In the US, the average user has 10 connected devices in their household. (Statista)
  • 56% of people use their mobile devices to conduct organic searches. 
  • According to Google, 60% of smartphone users contact a business directly via the search results “tap to call” option. 
  • 39% of smartphone users consider it is easier to browse and purchase from a mobile app or mobile site. 

Organic Search

  • 53% of all trackable website traffic, comes from organic search.organic search
  • The first Google desktop search result gets 32% CTR. 
  • According to Ahrefs, 90.63% of pages don’t get organic search traffic from Google. 
  • 50.3% of browser-based searches result in no-clicks. 
  • According to a study by Brightedge, SEO drives 1000% more traffic than social media. 
  • 64% of marketers invest time in SEO.
  • The average CTR from image results on Google is 0.21%.

Voice search

  • 27% of online searchers use voice search on mobile. 
  • 40 million Americans own smart speakers and the number is expected to rise to 55% by 2022. 
  • 32% of marketers use smart speakers like Alexa. 
  • ⅓ of the US population uses voice search features. (emarketer. 2019), and it is expected to reach 122.7 million users by 2021. 
  • According to PWC, 71% of consumers prefer to use voice search than type their queries. 

voice search

  • According to Finances Online, half of the users use voice search when driving, or combined with other activities. In addition, speakers are becoming integral parts of homes. 
  • Adults usually use voice search to locate stores or businesses they want to buy from.  

2. Content Marketing Statistics

Content is king, we have heard about it for the last decade. But how important is in reality having a great content marketing strategy? 

Simply put, quality content engages the viewer and gives the answers to their queries. It encourages brand recognition and conversion. We’ve prepared an infographic on the importance of content marketing based on a recent survey

Now that we stated that content marketing is an essential strategy let’s break it down by exploring some statistics on content marketing tactics. 

Blogging

  • 53%  of marketers use blogging as one of their top content marketing strategies. 
  • If your brand has a blog, you can expect 67% more leads than those that don’t have a blog. 
  • More than half of marketers use content marketing to build loyalty among the audience.
  • How often should you publish blog posts? Companies that publish more than 16 blog posts a month get 3X more traffic than those that publish 4 posts a month. 

monthly blog posts

Source

  • How long should your posts be? The average word count of a top-ranked post is 1,890 words. 
  • Posts longer than 2,000 words are the ones that rank higher in Google’s search results. 

content word count

Source

  • According to Hubspot’s analysis, the posts with more organic traffic have between 2,250 and 2,500 words. 
  • Which type of content gets more results?  According to a survey by Orbit Media, “Guides and ebooks” perform better, followed by “How to” articles, and original research content. 

Video

  • Video content is the most popular content format as of 2020, according to HubSpot. 
  • Which types of video content are the most popular?  Promotional videos and brand storytelling and the most common types. 
  • 19% of bloggers are including video in their blog posts. 
  • 72% of people prefer to learn about a product through a video than reading a text. 
  • Video marketing is expected to grow to $22 billion by 2021. 

Engagement

Information quality

Source

  • According to a survey, 72% of marketers said content marketing increases engagement. 

Content Strategy

  • 70% of marketers invest in content marketing (Hubspot).
  • Traffic is one of the measures of success for content marketing strategies.
    • Marketing for multiple audience segments is a common content strategy (HubSpot). 
  • 77% of companies  say they have a content marketing strategy (SEMrush) 
    • Creating topic clusters, may increase traffic and improve the search ranking. (HubSpot)

Podcasts

podcasts stats

Source

  • The popularity of podcasts has increased in the US in the last few years. According to iTunes insights, as of 2020, there were over 30 million podcasts episodes. 
  •  According to Statista, 37% of Americans listen to podcasts monthly. 
  • 75% of Americans have listened to a podcast, (Edison Research, 2020). 
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3. Social media statistics

Social media usage

  • The number of people on social media globally has reached 4.2 billion, increasing more than 13 percent since 2020. 

social media use

Source

With that in mind,  it is critical for marketers to tap into social media platforms. Not only to distribute content but to create brand awareness. 

  • According to Statista, in 2020, the global social penetration rate was 49%. 
  • The most popular social network is Facebook, according to Statista. 
  • Users overlap, and Facebook users usually also use YouTube. 74% of Facebook users also use Instagram. Therefore, it is better for companies to identify the two or three platforms their users are on, and invest their marketing efforts in them. 

social media platforms

Source

  • The most used social media platforms are Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.Most used social platforms

Source

  • According to Statista, close to 800 million Chinese Internet users would access social media networks in 2023, from 673,5 users in 2018. (Statista)

Facebook

  • 2.8bn active users worldwide. 
  • 98.3% of Facebook users access the platform via mobile phone. 
  • 1.85bn daily active Facebook users worldwide. 

Facebook users

Source

  • 8 million is the number of active advertisers on Facebook, mostly small and medium-sized businesses. 
    • More than 100 million people use Facebook Watch daily (Facebook).
    • Facebook is the top content distribution channel for marketers. 
  • 79% of video marketers publish on Facebook as a video marketing channel (Wyzowl)

Instagram

    • There are 1,074bn Instagram users
  • 71% of Instagram users are under 35. 
    • The average Instagram post has 10.7 hashtags.
  • 500 million Instagram users use IG Stories every day. 
  • 71% of US businesses are on Instagram. 
  • 50% of Instagrammers follow at least one company.
  • Instagram is the channel with the second-highest ROI for marketers. 
  • 88% of users are outside the U.S.

Instagram users

  • By 2024, it is expected that Instagram will reach 149 billion users in Western Europe. 
  • 81% of consumers use Instagram to research products and services. 
  • 130 million users use the “tap to shop” Instagram feature. 
  • 58% of users say they are more interested in a product after seeing it in IG Stories. 
  • The average Instagram business account posts at least once a day. 
  • Instagram’s potential reach from advertising reached 1.16 billion users in Q# 2020. 

LinkedIn

  • 740 million active users  in LinkedIn
  •  According to Business Insider, LinkedIn was the most trusted network of 2020. 

Digital Trust

Source

  • Most popular platform for B2B marketing. (Content Marketing Institute)
  • The most engaging LinkedIn posts are posted on Wednesday mornings. 
  • LinkedIn conversion rates are higher than Google Ads (LinkedIn)
  • According to a HubSpot study, LinkedIn generates more leads than Twitter and Facebook.

social hubspot study

  • There are more than 55 million companies listed on LinkedIn. 
  • LinkedIn ads are more than ⅓ of the platform’s total revenue in 2020. 

Pinterest

  • As of January 2021, the number of global active users is 459 million.
  • Monthly active users grew 46% in 2020.

Monthly active users

Source

  • Women outrank men on Pinterest, but in 2020, the number of men in Pinterest increased to 40%. 
  • The potential audience of Pinterest advertising is 200.8 million, with 77% of the audience female and 14.5% male.
  • 80% of people that Pin weekly discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest. 

Pinterest discovery

(Pinterest) 

  • 85% of Pinners go to Pinterest when they want to start a new project.(Pinterest) 
  • Yet, 97% of Pinterest searches are unbranded. (Pinterest) 

Snapchat

Snapchat breaks the mold of other social platforms by offering to post short-lived content. This underrated social platform had Stories before Instagram. The app allows you to share messages that self-delete in up to 10 seconds. Snapchat now is one of the most popular social platforms for teens. 

  • 265 million daily active Snapchat users worldwide. 
  • 60% of Internet users between 13-24 in the U.S. use Snapchat.(DataReportal)
  • 210 million snaps are created in Snapchat every day (Snapchat)
  • Snapchat is the 2nd most used application on mobile. (Sandvine)
  • The average Snapchat user opens the app 20 times a day. (Snapchat)

DAU snapchat

Tiktok

The app has revolutionized the social media world by allowing people to post short videos with music. Within a year of development, the app reached 1 million views per day. The app started growing when acquired Musical.ly in 2017, which allowed it to cater to an existing market. During the pandemic, the app experienced a huge spike in engagement with a growth of 180% among 15-25 year old users. 

  • TikTok has 732 million active users.
  • The app has over 2 million downloads on the Google Play Store and Apple’s iOS Store. 

Tiktok downloads

  • 62% percent of Tiktok users are aged 10-29. 
  • Users spend an average of 52 min per day on the app. 
  • 90% of TikTok users are in the app every day.
  • On average, 1 million TikTok videos are viewed every day. 

Twitter

According to Statista, Twitter currently ranks as one of the social networks with more active users. 

  • As of the end of 2020, Twitter had 192 million monetizable daily active users. 
  • Twitter’s global revenue is $3.72bn.
  • The advertising revenue is $3.21bn 
  • The number of global users is projected to reach 340 million users by 2024. 

twitter use

YouTube 

YouTube is now the second most used social platform after Facebook. Most Facebook users also have a YouTube account. It is also one of the most monetized channels. 

  • YouTube has 3 billion active users worldwide.
  • 79% of online users have a YouTube account.
  • Users watch an average of a billion hours of video every day. (YouTube)
  • More than 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile.
  • 90% of users discover brands or products on YouTube.
  • It is the most popular channel for digital video consumption.
  • YouTube ad revenues in 2020, were or $77bn
  • Most YouTube users are under 35 years old
  • The best-paid YouTuber in 2020 was Ryan Kaji, a 9-year-old.

Youtube stats

Source: Statista

  • Most parents say their children 11 years and younger watch YouTube videos on a daily basis. 

Youtube stats children

Social media management

  • Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the most common social media platforms used by marketers (HubSpot)
  • The most used marketing tactic is social listening (HubSpot)
  • Marketers say social media increases brand exposure. (Statista)
  • Most companies publish 3-4 times a week on social media. (HubSpot)
  • Customer acquisition is the top goal for social media, according to 73% or surveyed marketers. (Hootsuite), followed by driving conversions with 66%.

    4. Mobile App Advertising Stats and Trends

In recent years, as people fulfill more activities on their phones, the mobile apps market has increased significantly. Here are some stats: 

  • 218 bn app downloads worldwide in 2020. 
  • $120bn was the consumer spending in mobile apps in 2019.
  • 32% is the user retention rate of mobile apps.
    • The user’s screen time on mobile increased to 4.2 hours. 
  • Mobile advertising costs were  $240bn. 
  • According to a study by SensorTower, the top non-game app in revenue is TikTok, followed by YouTube and Tinder. 
  • In Google Play, the most-downloaded app is Google One, followed by Disney+
  • In the App Store, the most downloaded app is TikTok, followed by YouTube. 

Gaming app revenue 2021

Games usually drive the mobile app segment, but since the pandemic, games download has increased to 45% in 2020, compared to the previous year. 

Which were the top mobile games in revenue? According to Sensor Tower, the top five mobile games earned over $1billion in 2020.  

  • PUBG Mobile is the mobile game with the most revenue on the App Store and Google Play in 2020, with $2.6 bn in revenue. 
  • The total revenue for gaming apps reached $35 bn in the first quarter of 2021. 

  • Email marketing statistics

Email marketing is one of the most popular marketing tactics. According to HubSpot, monthly email campaigns have a 30% open rate. 

  • The number of active email users is expected to reach 4.3 billion in 2023. (Statista)
  • The average ROI of email marketing is $42 for every $1 spent.(DMA)
  • 90% of marketers use email marketing to deliver content.(Content Marketing Institute) 
  • 81% of small businesses use email for customer acquisition. (Emarsys)
  • Despite a lower general open rate, 82% of welcome emails are opened. (GetResponse)
  • Adding videos to your emails, increase click rates by 300%.
  • 49% of consumers like to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands.

  • Digital ad statistics 2021

  • Digital advertising spending is expected to reach $389bn in 2021. According to eMarketer, spending will increase at a rate of 17% in 2021.  
    • The average cost per action (CPA) for advertising is $49 for paid search ads and $75 for display ads. (WordStream)
  • Social media ad spending increased 20% in 2020,  reaching $43 billion. (eMarketer)
  • Mobile display ad spending reached $61bn in 2020. This represented an increase of 22% from 2019, according to eMarketer.
  • Omnichannel campaigns perform better than a single channel. 

Source:ClickZ

  • Customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel campaigns. Loyalty rates are also higher in companies that offer engagement in several channels. (ClickZ)

  • Online Shopping Statistics 

Online shopping turned into the new normal and companies needed to adapt to it for survival. Online shopping has many advantages:

  • It’s convenient
  • You can opt for next-day delivery
  • Your shopping experience is more personal. 

How many people shop online? According to Statista, in the U.S. e-commerce is expected to go over $740bn by 2023. 

  • Amazon is the most popular mobile online shopping app. According to a Statista study in 2019, Amazon is the most popular shopping app.
  • 43% of online shoppers research products online using social networks. 

  • FOMO Statistics 

Everybody heard about FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Tapping in this emotion is one of the most effective marketing strategies nowadays. It involves people wanting to stay connected with what others are doing or having, fearing that they’ll miss out on rewarding experiences. 

  • 69% of millennials experience FOMO (Eventbrite)
  • 60% of millennials make reactive purchases because of FOMO (Strategy)
  • The biggest triggers of FOMO are travel, events and food (Strategy)

Source

Where can you find reliable marketing statistics? 

Finding accurate, up to date and reliable marketing statistics is not easy. Still, if you want to define an effective digital marketing strategy, you need to start with data. Using reputable sources like the sites we explain below, you’ll create a competitive advantage. 

In Statista you can find a market, consumer data, consumer survey results and industry studies from 22500 sources. Is the go-to place for reliable industry statistics. 

This company approaches research from the side of marketers as well of consumers. They provide reliable industry data and useful facts. 

Focused on the media industry, Nielsen measures across channels and platforms to discover audience interests and behavior. You can find here social media listening and audience statistics. 

It is one of the leading information technology research and advisory companies. They focus on technical analysis and statistics. 

This leading global market research company provides studies, statistics, research and papers about customer research. 

Focuses on social media marketing statistics. Publishes an industry report, and several studies, statistics. 

Find here business statistics, reports, and studies on finance, innovation, and media. 

You can discover what the world is searching by using Google Trends. You just enter a search term or topic and select a region or worldwide search. You can also let Google tell 

you what people are looking for. 

Source

What’s Next? 

Keeping up to date with the latest statistics is critical for a successful digital marketing strategy. Especially if you want to monetize your digital property, be it a website or an app, having the latest and accurate data is essential. 

CodeFuel is a complete monetization platform that lets you leverage search, ads, shopping, and news to monetize your website or application. Our solution uses intent search to present relevant ads, allowing you to monetize while improving the user experience. You can give personalization and increase conversions, build loyalty, and improve brand recognition. 

Learn more about how CodeFuel helps you monetize and grow your business. 

Free Marketing Tools you Must Have in 2025

Free Marketing Tools you Must Have in 2025

by | Jul 12, 2021 | Marketing

Marketers in small companies or startups feel they need to spend a small fortune on the right tools to get work done. But can you get the same results with free tools?

Your marketing stack should include tools for a range of uses, from content writing, social media, SEO, and website analysis.

So, can you build your marketing stack without spending a dime? 

We took this challenge and researched the top 24 free marketing tools that can help you build your stack without going over budget.

Short on time? Here you have the list.

Top Free Digital Tools for Marketers

Let’s start with four essentials for writing content, designing, testing, and research.

1. Landing Pages – WordPress

WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular content management and editing software out there. With an estimated 64 million websites and over 400 million visitors, it is a very versatile tool.

You can build your website, create, edit and publish your content. It features also many add ons and extensions that make creating and tracking metrics for landing pages easier.

2. Design – Canva

Canva

This design tool helps you create images and visuals for everything imaginable. From infographics, blog posts, ecards, prints, and whatever you need.

The site features free and paid templates for every type of content. Here at CodeFuel, we use it to prepare visuals and infographics for our content. The built-in templates make it easy to create different types of images for different social media channels.

3. Testing – UserPeek

UserPeek

UserPeek is a clever tool that allows you to test your product or website with real users. You can detect usability issues and get audience insights. You can set the test scenarios and tasks, or choose from test templates. The solution lets you test websites, apps, copy, images, and ads.

4. Google Alerts

Google Alerts

This tool can help you track trends and monitor the web for topics that interest you. You can check search results for a given query. Setting a Google Alert can save time since you can set keywords and get an alert every time there is new content related to it.

Social Media Free Tools

Investing in solid social media is a key strategy to drive engagement and grow your consumer base. Being consistent and covering your channels is at the base of every social media strategy. Social Media Management and scheduling tools make your life easier.

5. Social media scheduling – Buffer

Buffer

Scheduling your social media posts has several advantages:

  1. Create your posts in one go and publish them at the best time over the week or even month.
  2. Plan your entire weekly or monthly strategy and see it through. It gives you a bird’s eye over the entire strategy.

Buffer’s forever free plan allows you to connect one profile from each channel (Twitter, Facebook, and so on). You can schedule up to 10 posts for each network.

6. Manage your Twitter – TweetDeck

TweetDeck

You can manage your Twitter profile from the platform but if you have something more professional you can try TweetDeck’s free plan.

TweetDeck is a free tool that allows you to manage easily multiple (unlimited) Twitter accounts. It provides a single dashboard and unified interface. You can monitor lists, searches, and hashtags.

7. Facebook analytics tools – Agorapulse

Agorapulse

With Agorapulse you have two different free Facebook analytics tools. The first tool allows you to compare your page according to the market benchmark. You can monitor then how your content is performing regarding the market average and which metrics you need to optimize. The second tool is for competitor analysis.

The reports can be done at the page level or timeline level, according to paid, organic, or viral reach. You can even calculate the ROI of your Facebook marketing.

Marketing Research Free Tools

Every successful marketing strategy starts with great research. Good research tools don’t need to be costly.  Here are some options to do great research.

8. Trend research – Google Trends

If you’re looking to quickly search if a keyword or topic is trending, you should have a go with Google Trends.

See what the world is searching for right now and over time. For instance, I wanted to know the interest in “website monetization”, “monetizing with ads” and “monetization platform” search terms.

Google Trends

So, I imputed those terms into Google Trends and it looks like there is an interest in those concepts.

9. Research – Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Contrary to what you may think, this tool is not only for researching heavy science papers and reports. You can search online studies from universities, thesis, books, professional societies papers, on a wide variety of topics. If you add a Google Alert to it, you can get instant insights right to your email.

10. Blog Topics search – Answer the Public 

Answer the Public

This tool is a great starting point for question queries. Basically, you can input keywords and the platform will tell you what are the most common questions asked about that topic. The tool takes autocomplete data from search engines and presents the phrases and questions people are asking around your keyword.

Content Writing Free Tools

At the core of a successful website is great content. That’s why “Content is King” is heard by marketers everywhere. To write well, you’ll need to produce something interesting and unique, take care of your grammar and spelling, and be easy to read. Here are free tools you can use to improve your writing.

11. Write well – Grammarly

Grammarly

The free Grammarly is more than a grammar and spell checker. It gives you suggestions on clarity, synonyms, and other basic issues. While the premium package acts almost like a writing tutor, you can have great results with the free version.

They have an online editor and a plugin for Google Docs, that checks your writing while you are producing it.

12. Check for plagiarism – Plagiarismdetector.net

Plagiarismdetector.net

To be effective, content should be unique. With millions of articles, blog posts, and copy it is difficult to sure whatever you write is 100% original. Checking for plagiarism is key for producing original content that doesn’t get you flagged in search engines.

Plagiarism report is free and checks the uniqueness of your content against millions of online pieces. It analyzes the text not only based on words but also lexical frequency. To use it: upload a file, copy/paste the text into the tool’s editor or the URL.

13. Readability – Hemingway

Hemingway

Your content should be easy to read so you don’t bore or annoy your readers. Hemingway app helps you to grade your text for readability. It checks adverbs, passive voice, and complicated sentences.

Website Analysis Free Tools

To ensure your marketing efforts are successful you should track your website metrics. Here you have some free tools that can help you.

14. Keyword research – Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest

Having the right keywords is critical for connecting with your audience. One of the best free tools out there is UberSuggest, by Neil Patel. This tool gives you long-tail keyword suggestions and content topic ideas. The paid tier also includes competitor analysis and other features.

15. SEO – Open Site Explorer

Open Site Explorer

Open Site Explorer was developed by Moz to track the links that lead to your website. This optimization tool works as a search engine for links. While some of the filtering and comparison metrics are free, you’ll need an account for more advanced reports.

You can discover which links are pointing to your website and increase the authority. This, in turn, will increase your ranking in search engines.

16. Analytics – Google Analytics

Google Analytics

Source

Google Analytics tracks the traffic to your website. It is free and gives you a ton of info. You can see traffic from different networks, look at the engagement with Time on Page rates. Google Analytics gives you real-time statistics of who is looking at your website.

17. Heatmap – HotJar

HotJar

You know that users are visiting your website, how long they stay, and the pages they visit. But do you know exactly where do they look? Where they click? How far do they scroll?

Hotjar is a free tool that shows you in a heatmap how users are experiencing your website. You can see where they click, where they scroll. It is extremely valuable to see how someone interacts with your blog posts.

18. Analyze your headlines – IsItWP headline analyzer 

IsItWP headline analyzer

Having strong headlines is key to drive traffic and shares. A clickable SEO headline means your site will rank better in search results. IsitWP SEO Headline Analyzer gives an overall score to your headline, taking into account word balance, word count, power words, and other factors.

You should aim for a score of over 70 to be effective in terms of SEO. The tool also gives you tips to improve your headline. Unlike other paid tools, you can try as many headlines as you want until you find the perfect one, for free.

19. Website analysis tool – HubSpot Website Grader

HubSpot Website Grader

Website Grader is a website audit tool that also lets you analyze your site as a comprehensive all-in-one tool for free, so what more do you need? It gives you an overall score in terms of performance, SEO, speed, and mobile responsiveness. You also get tips on how to improve your website.

Relationship Management Free Tools

To be productive, your staff needs to have visibility over your projects. Staying on top of content production and distribution, deliver timely email campaigns, and relating with clients require tools to be effective. Here are our top relationship tools picks:

20. Project management – Asana 

Asana

Asana is a simple but powerful project management tool. It allows you to have visibility over the entire project cycle, add and assign tasks, get comments, share documents, all in a simple central dashboard.

You can group projects in a portfolio, manage multiple teams and projects. We use Asana to collaborate in your content production and other tasks.

21. Email marketing – Mail Chimp

Mail Chimp

MailChimp, one of the most used email marketing solutions, has a free plan you can use if you have less than 2000 people on our mailing lists. With this free plan, you can send up to 10,000 emails a month to up to 2,000 subscribers. Small businesses and personal accounts can benefit from this free account. The free plan also includes an in-built CRM.

22. CRM – HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM is a free complete software for contact management and productivity. It gives you visibility into the sales pipeline in real-time in a centralized dashboard. You can also get detailed reports on productivity, sales, and individual performance.

This tool is free with unlimited users and up to a million contacts. So, in our opinion, it has nothing to envy from paid CRM software.

Monetization Free Tools

Creating great content and having a high-performance website or app is just the first step. The goal of every company is ultimately to make money from their online properties. That’s why choosing the right monetization method and platform is critical.

23. Monetization platform – CodeFuel

CodeFuel

There are many monetization options for applications or websites available. You can use a different solution for every goal but it can be time-consuming having to track all the monetization methods you use. Instead, use a monetization platform that covers all your digital properties.

Codefuel is a complete free monetization platform that allows you to leverage user intent to display search and shopping ads to monetize a website, application, or extension.

Contact Us and Start Today!

24. Google AdSense 

Google AdSense

AdSense is one of the most popular free monetization options that works by displaying ads on your website. To qualify for Google AdSense your site needs to meet certain conditions. While widely popular and offering a huge reach, the earnings of using AdSense can be on the lower side. It may also not be suitable for niche sites.

Paid vs Free

Should you use a free tool? Or maybe your company needs to upgrade to a paid version? While this will depend on your company’s size and goals here you have some pointers to help you decide.

Who may use free tools

Most free tools have a limit on the number of users, contacts, or other factors. Therefore, free tools are best suited to small and medium businesses or solopreneurs. That being said, these will really depend on the company’s activity. For instance, a large company that doesn’t have yet a big email list can use free email marketing tools.

An exception may be monetization platforms since they are best suited to companies that generate a sizeable amount of traffic.

Who may need a paid tool 

Large enterprises that go over the limit of customers or users may need to upgrade their marketing stack to include paid tools. In many cases, upgrading to a paid version implies substituting the tool. Other companies invest in paid tools because of extra features.

That’s a Wrap!

Well, that was a handful, but we hope you can benefit from our complete list of free tools. In that list, you can have a free tool for every need in your stack. Building a successful marketing stack doesn’t mean you need to invest a fortune beforehand. From content creation to website analysis and monetization, you can find the tool you need, for free.

How Much Should You Charge for Advertising on Your Website

How Much Should You Charge for Advertising on Your Website

by | Jul 11, 2021 | Advertising, Monetization

Monetizing your website with ads is a great choice if you set your prices right. Learn our ultimate guide to know how to charge from advertising on your website.

In this post

How Much Does It Cost to Advertise On A Website In General?

Advertising spending is different for every business, but ‌you would expect a small business to spend less money on advertising than large enterprises. The global digital advertising market in 2022 will be worth $602.25 billion.

On average, businesses can invest anywhere between $584 to $10,000 a month in a digital campaign, depending on their goals and company size.

Digital Ad spending worldwide

For Small Businesses

A 2021 survey among small businesses in the U.S. showed that 45% of respondents paid for digital advertising.

  • Average spending in digital advertising for small businesses – $584 monthly

For Medium Sized Businesses

Much of the digital campaign costs will depend on the cost model you choose. Paying with a Pay-per-Click model can be less expensive than CPM models. A common rule is calculating your advertising budget as a percentage of your revenue. Medium B2B companies should spend between 2 and 5% of their revenue on marketing and advertising.

  • Average spending in digital advertising for medium businesses  – $1250 monthly

For Large Companies

Large companies have a larger budget for online advertising and can spend an average of $10,000 a month on advertising. 

Global advertising spending will continue to grow; according to Statista, the digital advertising spending projected for 2026 is $876 billion.

As we previously said, much will depend on your network ad pricing model.

Website Ad Rates Average

Small business
Medium Size Business
Large Enterprise
$534
$1250
$10.000

Sources: Statista, The Cost of Digital Ads

What Are The Average Online Advertising Costs Per Ad Channel?

Digital ad campaigns can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars per month. Whether you use Pay-Per-Click advertising, SEO, or Content Marketing, the costs will vary.

PPC

Pay-per-Click pricing depends on several factors. Different industries may have very different cost-per-click rates. For example, insurance and legal ads tend to be the most expensive. The average Cost-per-Click in Google Ads is between $1 and $2 on the search network. In the display network, the cost averages $1. The average CPM is $3.12 per 1000 impressions. 

SEO

SEO services are a cornerstone of digital marketing. After all, if people cannot find your company in search results, all your marketing efforts are useless. SEO services costs’ can vary according to the SEO plan and how the agency prices their services, if by the hour or by the project. The average SEO cost for US Companies is between $150 and $300 an hour. In 2022, most SEO projects will cost between $1500 and $5000. Many companies offer plans that include content creation/writing.

Content marketing

The cost of a content marketing campaign will vary depending on the type of plan, the industry, and the type of content. The rates can go from $2000 for small companies to over $60,000 monthly for enterprise businesses. The rates should include a comprehensive content marketing package comprising a content audit, an inventory of your existing content, analyzing your target audience, and creating a custom content plan and editorial calendar for your business. Agencies often offer these services with an SEO package.

Website Ad Rate per Channel 2021

Google Search Ads

Google Display Ads
Average CPC
$2.32
$0.67
Average CPM
$38
$3.1

The Average Cost of Website Advertising

As we mentioned above, some niches pay better than others for online advertising. Thus, if your site happens to be in the lucky industries, you have more chances of higher revenue.

Top 5 industries with the highest CPC ($)

Dating and personals
Consumer services
Finance and Insurance
B2B
Employment services
1.49
0.81
0.86
0.79
0.78
Also, some countries are more profitable for publishers than others. 

Top 5 industries with the highest CPC ($)

Country
USA
Australia
United Kingdom
Canada
New Zealand
CPC ($)
0.61
0.57
0.48
0.45
0.33

What Influences Your Website Ad Rates?

Before getting into pricing models, we should understand that there are features that impact how much can you charge for adverts on your site. Consider that ad rates can vary greatly, from $0.01 to $10 per click.

What makes a website ad-worthy? Well, there are benchmarks your site needs to meet in order to start selling ad space. Each ad network and platform has different requirements for publishers.

The golden rule is that the more value your ad placements bring to advertisers, the more they’ll pay. 

Traffic and reach are two of the most important factors to consider regarding how valuable can be advertising on your site. Here is a list of the most common:

1. Niche

Niche

Advertising on your site must make sense for potential clients. That means, they need to see ROI from advertising on your website. The amount you can charge for ads will also depend on your niche. The bidding rate varies greatly according to the industry.

The highest-paid niches are usually legal, finance, and insurance sites. Review and comparison websites are also among the ones with top advertising rates.

2. Traffic

Traffic

Image source

This is the characteristic ad networks look at first to evaluate a website for its advertising value. The more visits your site has, the more people see the ads placed on it, generating more leads and conversions for the advertiser.

Know your traffic and performance metrics. Check not only the number of visitors but also the number of page views. Track your site’s performance changes to identify hot spots where the activity peaks. But the most important traffic metric you should look for is monthly traffic, how many visitors view the site per month.

Remember that some pages on your website attract more visitors than others. So, a page may make a different number of impressions (thus, money) than another. If a page can contain 4 ads, will make more impressions per page view than another that can only have one ad. Take into account that too many ads can disturb the user experience.

Ad networks and platforms usually have traffic minimums you need to meet in order to qualify for advertising. Once you reach the required number of visitors per month, you can monetize through an ad network, monetization platform, affiliate marketing, or other options. How many visitors should you have? This will depend on your niche and audience. Some will need hundreds of unique daily visitors, and for other companies, the number needs to be close to several thousand.

Potential advertisers want to reach their target audience and expand their reach. So, if the amount of traffic on your website is too low, you should first grow your numbers to become attractive to advertisers.

3. Content

Content

Image source

The quality of the content on your website is the other big factor that influences your rates. Attracting visitors requires publishing quality content consistently. The content should be varied, relevant, and provide value to the user. The more your content is specific to your target, the more value the visitors can get from it, and the more valuable is your website.

Specific topics also increase your site ranking. If your users can find the answer to a specific question on your website, search engine algorithms will rank your site higher. You also have chances of getting a coveted featured snippet. The more unique your content, the more value you provide to users and potential advertisers.

When creating content for your website, consider the buyer journey. Create content that addresses the awareness, consideration, and decision stages. There are certain types of content that are more attractive to advertisers because they have high conversion rates. An example of that is a comparison or review site.

4. Performance

Performance

Image source

Your site performance is key for generating a good user experience. There are on-page factors that can affect negatively your site performance. Start by having a clean design and easy navigation. Take care of potential latency problems by ensuring your site and images load quickly. Finally, make sure the site responds to mobile devices.

5. Audience

Audience

Image source

Knowing about your audience is critical for a successful website. Pay attention to your audience demographics, interests, and behavior. Factors like age, location, gender, economic activity, or income can give you insights about who are your users and which type of advertisers you may attract. The more information you have about your audience, the better you can target it.

If your site targets your advertisers’ typical clients, chances are that your site will become attractive for companies. After all, your site is where their potential clients hang out or go for

answers.

Pricing Models

There are a few ways you can charge per advertising. The pricing model will depend on your type of website and audience. Does your site provide a lot of exposure? Review and informational sites are included in this category. Maybe your site encourages conversions? Examples of this are e-commerce sites.

Here are the most common pricing models:

CPM – Cost per Mille

You can charge the advertiser per impression. Every time a visitor views the ad, it counts as an impression and it adds to the total bill to the advertiser.

A more popular and simpler way is to charge per thousand impressions. Cost per Mille stands for cost per a thousand impressions. It means how much do you charge advertisers every thousand times an ad gets viewed.

How do you calculate CPM?

Cost per Mille = (Total ad spend) * 100
                          Total ad impressions

CPC – Cost per Click

In this model, the advertiser pays you every time a visitor clicks on their ad. This is a popular method of pricing since it is less risky for advertisers. Depending on the rate, it can be profitable for you as a publisher. The downside of this method is that it is unpredictable since you don’t know how many people will click on the ad.

How do you calculate CPC?

Cost per Click = (Total ad spend)
                           Total measured clicks

CPA – Cost per Action

This option involves charging advertisers a fee for each specific type of action, like leads or sales. Also called Cost per Acquisition, this method offers a higher reassurance to advertisers because they pay for more concrete results. In this model, you place the ad on your website and get paid only when someone clicks on it and completes the conversion on the advertiser’s website.

The conversion can be registering for an event, purchasing a product, or filling up a form. Usually, publishers get paid a percentage on each conversion that can range from 20% and up. Therefore CPA can be very profitable for publishers. The downside is that you depend on the advertiser making the conversions to get paid.

How do you calculate CPA? 

Cost per Acquisition =  (Total amount spend)
                                    Total Attributed Conversions

Flat rate

You can also charge a flat rate to advertisers, for instance, charge a monthly amount. This model can be very predictable since you charge a fixed fee regardless of how the ad performs. However, this pricing model can be risky for advertisers so they may look more into your website performance.

What Are the Most Popular Ad Formats

Besides choosing a pricing model, you should understand what type of ads are you going to place on your website. Tip: Mix different types of ads. Here are the most popular ads formats:

Banner Ads

Banner ads

These are the most popular ads, and you usually see them on top of pages but they can be on almost any place on a page. There can be different sizes too.

Banner ads

There are also vertical banners, called skyscrapers

Vertical Banner ads

Banners can also be square, like the ones you see on the side of a webpage.

Square Banner ads

Video Ads

Video ads are becoming more popular every day. According to a report from eMarketer, marketers will dedicate 28.8% of their budgets to digital video ads by 2024 from 24.9% in 2019.

Video Ads

Image source

Video ads engage and keep the attention of viewers, increasing the time-on-page. However, when videos are too big, they can cause the page to load slower, disrupting the user experience.

Native ads

Native ads are adverts that blend with the page. They are also called contextual ads since they integrate with the text, being similar to the site content. These types of adverts don’t disrupt the user experience but enhance it, by providing value to users.

There are three main types of native advertising:

  • In feed/In content – The ads are integrated into the content pieces or social feeds, trying to blend with the original content.

In content Banner ads

Image Source

  • Content recommendation ads – Usually displayed alongside editorial content, typically at the end of an article, they feature recommended ads or content.
  • Native content ads – Also called branded ads, they display unique content on a publisher’s website.

Interactive ads

Interactive ads encourage viewers’ participation. Interactive advertising can appear in social media, videos, web banners, or display windows. Examples of interactive advertising can be an interactive display, a gamified ad, a contest, or a poll.

Ad sizes according to format:

Choosing the right ad format can be the difference between catching visitors’ attention and missing it.

Most common display ad sizes and formats

Ad unit
Banner
Leaderboard Banner
Inline Rectangle
Large Rectangle
Skyscraper
Wide Skyscraper
Size in pixels
468x60
728x90
300x250
336x280
120x600
160x600

Keep These Metrics on Track to Attract High Paying Advertisers

Ad viewability

Placing ads on your site is not very useful if they aren’t easily visible. Ad viewability refers to how visible ads are on a website. An ad is considered visible when at least 50% of it shows on the screen for more than one second. This is the standard for measuring an impression.

Ads can lose viewability for several reasons:

  1. The site has ad blockers
  2. The site is getting bot traffic
  3. Poor ad placement
  4. The page takes too long to load
  5. The ad is below the fold

Also, the position, size, and layout of the ad also can prevent visitors from viewing the ads.

How do you measure viewability? 

Active views are the percentage of the ad’s total impressions that are viewable.

Viewable % = (Viewable Impressions) x 100
Measurable impressions

Reach

Reach is the number of people that are exposed to an ad during a specific time period. There is a difference between impressions and reach. Impressions measure the times a user saw your ad or content. The reach measures the number of unique people that see your ad.

CTR – Click-Through-Rate

This metric measures the number of clicks the ad receives divided by the times the ad is shown.

How do you measure click-through rate?

CTR = Total number of clicks
            Total impressions 

For example, if you have 100 clicks on 2000 impressions, then your CTR should be 5%.

Conversion rate

This metric is calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the number of interactions in the same time period.

For instance, if you had 60 conversions from 1000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 6%.

Conversion rate = total number of conversions
                                Total number of interactions

How Do You Price Advertising On Your Site?

Calculating how much you charge for advertising is the result of a combination of factors you should consider. You should determine a rate that helps meet your monetization goals and at the same time attract high-paying advertisers to your niche. Here is what you should take into account step by step.

1. Determine where are your page hot spots

Use a heatmap to understand where are your visitors looking when they are on your site. Identify the best-performing pages. Using this information, determine the ideal ad placement for your pages.

2. Find what is normal to your industry

As we explained above, the rate of ads can vary greatly for different industries. Check your industry benchmarks to know how much is the CTC/CPC. Then compare the rates on your niche. Some niches pay better than others.

3. Consider your website metrics

Check your CTR on your website. The revenue you’ll get from advertising will depend in great part on how many people click on the ads. Pageviews, CTR, Number of Clicks, and Cost per Conversion, affect the total revenue you can get from advertising. Considering that the average CTR for ads on Google display is $0.58, let’s see an example in the table below:

Tips to Price Advertising on Your Website

  • Not all visitors are the same. How much value a visitor is as a lead for your advertiser can influence your rates and pricing. If your site is geared to people buying cars, these potential customers are worth top dollars for your advertisers, therefore, they can spend more to capture them.
  • Focus on advertisers with the highest lead value. Your potential for revenue depends on providing quality leads to your advertisers.
  • Prevent “banner blindness”. Highly targeted ads can catch user’s attention.
  • Your site’s E.A.T also affects your ads. If your site has the expertise, is authoritative and trustworthy, the ad on the site are seeing as trustworthy too.

How much can you earn according to your metrics?

Case 1: Low CTR and low number of clicks

Pageviews per month CTR %  Number of Clicks  CPC ($) Earnings ($)
50.000 0.05 25 0.58 14.5
100.000 0.05 50 0.58 29
200.000 0.05 100 0.58 58
500.000 0.05 250 0.58 145

Case 2: High CTR and number of clicks

Pageviews per month CTR %  Number of Clicks  CPC ($) Earnings ($)
50.000 0.44 220 0.58 127.6
100.000 0.44 440 0.58 255.2
200.000 0.44 880 0.58 510.4
500.000 0.44 2200 0.58 1276

Here you can see that for the same number of page views when the number of times an ad gets clicked grows, the earning grows.

4. Test by Yourself How Much an Ad on Your Site Is Worth

Now is the time to check whether your online advertising strategy is correct. Once you know your metrics, your audience, defined your rates and type of ads, test your ideas. Start by adding a few advertisers and check the ad performance. This will help you get a more accurate picture of how much an ad on your site is worth to advertisers.

5. Project sales

Projecting how much you might sell from ads can help to get a better idea of how much you should charge. Try to calculate how many ad units you might sell from your site. Calculate how much available space for ads you have on your website.

A good starting point is to look at the ad placement and format. How many ads you can fit on your page without it being cluttered? What is their size and position on the page? Keep in mind to calculate how much of the ad space you will sell through a pay-per-click program and how much you will sell yourself.

6. Look at your competitors

Take a look at what your competitors are charging for advertising. Similar websites that attract the same audience are the obvious choice. Your audience can also give you insights. Check where your target clients are advertising, list the prices per ad size, placement, and frequency.

7. Calculate your CPM

CPM is the cost to reach a thousand views of an ad. As a publisher, you should calculate how much will cost for an advertiser to run an ad a thousand times on your site. Compare your CPM with those of your competitors to see if your need to adjust your rates.

8. Define your minimum rate

How much do you need to charge to make a profit? The first step should be defining what your minimum rate. Analyse your costs and what is the annual profit from advertising you need to make.

Let’s say your business expenses will be $100,000 this year, and you have projected to make $30,000 from sales and other non-advertising income sources. You’ll need to make $70,000 from selling advertising space.  Once you know your profit needs, your competition, and how much is your target audience you can set your own rates. Remember to include any discounts or promotions you will offer.

Why a Monetization Platform Can Be a Solution

A monetization platform gives you the opportunity to tap into the best pricing schemes without the hassle. CodeFuel is a complete monetization platform, where you can leverage search and display ads for your site. The platform bases the ads on high user intent, thus maximizing conversions and optimizing the user experience.Learn more about how to optimize your advertising monetization by contacting us.

FAQ’s About How Much to Charge for Advertising on Your Website

  • 1. How much should I charge for direct ads on my website?

    It depends on your website and audience. You can charge a flat fee amount per month or per ad. You can charge per number of impressions or per click or other action.

  • 2. How much do ads pay per click?

    The average cost per click in Google ads ranges from $1 and $2 for search ads and under $1 for display ads.

  • 3. How much money can you expect from banners?

    On average, you may expect to earn between 0.3 cents per impression and a CPM of $3.

  • 1. How much should I charge for direct ads on my website?

    It depends on your website and audience. You can charge a flat fee amount per month or per ad. You can charge per number of impressions or per click or other action.

  • 2. How much do ads pay per click?

    The average cost per click in Google ads ranges from $1 and $2 for search ads and under $1 for display ads.

  • 3. How much money can you expect from banners?

    On average, you may expect to earn between 0.3 cents per impression and a CPM of $3.

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