Did you know Google AdSense will pay you for pageviews, no matter how many (or how little) pageviews you get a month? Yes, they will, and now's the time to take advantage of this opportunity and monetize your blog using Google's ad network (and more!) along with Google DFP to get paid for EVERY pageview, because it's all about working smarter not harder.
See also: Popular Affiliate Programs for Bloggers, 4 Ways to Monetize Your Blog without Google Ads
How to Get Paid for Every Pageview with DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP)
Ad Basics
First off, what is passive income? Simply put, passive income is income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it. This is also called unearned income and it's the perfect way to work smarter not harder.
Ad networks fall under the category of passive income because they generally require little or no effort on your part. Once you add the tags to your website, you don't need to touch them again unless you're redesigning your site or changing ad networks.
An ad network is an online advertising network, a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is
Some popular ad networks include:
- BlogHer Publishing Network
- Google AdSense
- Mediavine
- Sovrn/Lijit
- Federate Media
Ads come in a variety of sizes to fit your site including:
- Leaderboard ~ 728 x 90
- Banner ~ 468 x 60
- Medium Rectangle ~ 300 x 250
- Button ~ 125 x 125
- Wide Skyscraper ~ 160 x 600
To maximize ad revenue, we suggest having two ads above the fold (any portion of your site visible without scrolling down), one leaderboard 728×90 in the header and one medium rectangle 300×250 in the sidebar.
Setting Up DoubleClick for Publishers
Now that we've covered ad basics to get paid for every pageview, let's add all of your ad networks into Google's DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) which will serve your ads automatically in the most efficient way.
Why do this? Because many ad networks use what is called backfill ads and that's not the best way to get paid for every page view. Backfill ads are the ads served by ad networks when they are not serving their premium, high-paying inventory ads. The problem with this is that back-fill ads pay just pennies, or worse yet, display nothing more than a blank white screen costing valuable ad revenue.
By using DFP, you can request to serve backfill ads through Google Adsense, which are usually higher-paying than many back-fill ads, earning you more money. Also, by setting up DFP with all of your ad networks you can rotate many different ads in one location instead of filling up your sidebar with the ad on top of the ad, keeping your site visually clean.
Now let's get DFP set up for you! To begin, go to DoubleClick for Publishers and log into your Google account.
(Note: For this tutorial, we are going to complete the minimum amount of steps to get you going. Unless you manage multiple websites, there is no need to complete the optional fields. Unless you really want to.)
Create and Ad Unit
First, we'll create an ad unit. This unit can be used for multiple ad networks.
To get started, select the ‘Inventory' tab at the top. Next select ‘Ad units' under the side menu. Click ‘New Ad Unit' when you see the button. You should see the screen below.
Under Code: You will want to name this ad unit. When you create a name, include the following three items in the name:
- Which website the ad is connected to (if you manage multiple websites)?
- The size of the ad (728×9, 300×250, etc.).
- Where the ad is located (header, right/left sidebar, footer, in-post, etc.).
For this site, I would use a name like FS_300x250_RSB. (FancyShanty_300x250_RightSideBar)
Name: You can leave this name the same as the code, or expand on the details if you desire.
Size: Select fixed size if the size of your ad will not be changing. (common) Select the size of the ad for this unit.
Target Window: It is better to select _blank to open the ad in a new page. You don't want to choose _top and have an ad catch your readers eyes enticing your readers to click away from your site increasing your bounce rate.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click save. You have now created the spot for the ad and are almost ready to get paid for every page view. Repeat the above steps to create as many ad units for your site as needed.
Ad Placement
Next, we'll create a place to put the ad unit on your blog. Stay on the ‘Inventory' tab and select ‘Placements' (under Ad Units). Click ‘New Ad Placement' when you see the button. You should now be on the screen below.
We're going to start by naming this ad placement.
Name: Similar to the above step, we're going to name this placement with the site name, ad size, and location. Once finished, scroll to the bottom of the page and save.
Create and Order (Creatives)
This is where you put the ad network's information. (Just a note: Google AdSense will not allow you to run more than three ads on one page. If you try to run more than three ads, you will see a blank white box where the ad goes on ad numbers 4+ reducing the amount of ad revenue you earn. Keep this in mind when assigning ads.)
Finally, we need to create an order (or creatives) for the ads. To do this, select ‘Order” at the top, and select ‘New Order'.
Name: Network name or ad size from the previous step.
Advertiser: Choose the correct name from the drop-down selection, or add your own (i.e. Google Adsense, Lijit, Commission Junction, etc.)
New Line Item – Name: Ad unit name.
Inventory Sizes: Select the correct ad size.
Type: Select ‘Network' if you are creating this for an ad network.
Start Time: Immediately (or any time desired.)
End Time: Unlimited (unless you want the ad to end sooner.)
The rest of the settings you can leave as-is for a typical ad network.
Add Targeting: Now we need to select our inventory from the ad units we created in the above step. Select ‘Ad Units' in the box below, and it will show you how many units you have available for this size ad. Click include selecting as many locations you want this advertiser to show.
You can specify additional demographic as needed if you want specific ads to show to a select audience. If you're done, click ‘Save and Upload Creatives'.
Uploading Creatives
On the next screen, you'll see a series of options to
Name: Use the size of the ad and the advertiser.
Google Tag: Your customer tracking code from your advertiser.
Manually Insert Macros: On the gray left sidebar, select Click Macros to add a code to track clicks.
Finally, click save and approve your order on the next page.
Generating Tags
Now it's time to generate your tags (code) to add to your website. Click ‘Generate Tags' on the side menu to get started.
Select ad units: You can select all the ad units you want at one time. A separate tag will be generated for each ad unit on the next page.
On the ‘Generated Tags' page, you will see one tag that will need to be added to the <head></head> section of your site, and the other tags will need to be placed where you want the ads to show on your site. This is commonly in a sidebar widget.
That's it! Easy-peasy right? You're now set up to get paid for every pageview with DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP). Happy monetizing!
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