Introduction

In our previous tutorials, we reviewed how to create placeholder ads in Ezoic and the different types of ad placeholders that Ezoic offers. In this tutorial, we will look at some ad configurations that aim to increase your ad revenue while ensuring a smooth user experience. 

Luckily Ezoic have thought of this, and they implemented a myriad of settings inside their dashboard that allows fine-tuning options for ads and gives the user great control over their ad settings.

Without further delays, let's get into it!

Getting Started

This tutorial assumes that you have already registered with Ezoic, integrated your website, and deployed ad placements. If you still need to do that, please review our tutorial series covering all the processes above and explain everything you need to know about Ezoic's services.

If you are a happy user of Ezoic, have everything set up, and would like to optimize your ad settings to maximize your revenue, then please follow this tutorial to the end.

To begin your ad settings configuration, please log inside your Ezoic dashboard.

Once you log in, please click on the "EzoicAd" icon located at the Ezoic dashboard top menu.

Please point your attention to the left-side menu, where you will see many settings. Let's begin from bottom to top with the relevant ones for this tutorial.

Split Testing

The settings that fall under the "Split Testing" category will allow you to control what percent(%) of your ad traffic is displayed on each of the devices (mobile, tablet, and desktop). 

To maximize your ad revenue, we recommend setting 100% for everything, as otherwise, you will be missing out on income if part of your ad traffic is not reaching some devices 100% of the time.

Optimization Goals

The settings falling under this category will allow you to set your ad optimization goals. Let's review the options here and give some information about which one you should pick.

• Balanced - Please select the "Balanced" option using the radio button to enable Ezoic to choose the most optimal balanced setting that will net you a good amount of ad revenue while also not affecting your user's experience that much. We recommend sticking to this option most of the time.
• Revenue Focused - Please select the "Revenue Focused" option using the radio button to let Ezoic prioritize revenue over user experience and net you more income. However, you may notice reduced traffic or a higher bounce rate due to the number of ads it needs to display to generate this income. You can use this setting during a big holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter) to maximize holiday ad revenue, and then you can change it.
• User Experience Focused - Please select the "User Experience Focused" option using the radio button to allow Ezoic to prioritize user experience over revenue and show fewer ads on your pages. We do not recommend this setting, as it will result in the lowest ad revenue. However, it will positively affect your user's browsing experience, and you may see a traffic increase and a reduced bounce rate.
• Custom - Please select the "Custom" option using the radio button to fine-tune the "revenue" and "user-experience" aspects manually. We recommend using this setting initially when you are seasoned enough with Ezoic to create a custom configuration that outshines the previous option!

To summarize the above - we recommend using the "Balanced" options 90% of the time while switching to the revenue-focused over one during a specific holiday when you expect more traffic towards your website.

Ad Restrictions

The settings under this category will allow you to enforce certain ad restrictions if you believe they are detrimental to your user experience or traffic. Let's go over all the tabs in this category and explain what you can manipulate when it comes to ad restrictions.

• Max Ads Per Page - The settings under this tab will allow you to activate/deactivate the maximum number of ads Ezoic shows on your pages. It could have a positive effect on user experience but will likely affect revenue. It could be useful if you have shorter pages because it won't bloat up pages, but if you have longer pages, you definitely want to activate this.

• Ad Categories - The toggle switches under this tab will allow you to turn off specific ad categories on your pages that you do not feel comfortable showing or contradicting your content. You can activate all ad categories for maximum income if you only care about revenue.

• Disable Ads per Page - The options under this tab will allow you to turn off ads on certain pages. Doing so can be very useful if you have a website promoting products or are doing buyer guides for certain services. To add a rule preventing ads on certain pages, click on the "New Rule" button located in the far top corner, above the table section, and include the page where you are doing buyer guides or have affiliate links.

• Ad Restrictions - The options under this tab will allow you to limit the number and type of ads shown on a landing page or user session based. We recommend not enabling this option as it will hinder your ad revenue.

• Advertiser Blocker - The options under this tab allows you to block specific advertisers from showing ads on your site. Do this if there is a particular advertisement you do not like or if you want to avoid showing your competitor's ads on your pages.

• Google Violations - Under this tab, you will see a table section that will fill up with Google violations if there are any. If you find something under this, please immediately act on them because if you do not do this, Google may stop showing ads on your domain.

• Objectionable Content - Under this tab, you will notice a table section that Ezoic will fill with specific words that may be saying something advertisers do to like and may not want to show their ads on your pages. If that happens, remove/change these words to avoid revenue loss.

Most of the things we talked about are set by default from Ezoic. However, you should ensure this is the case by reviewing them from your dashboard and change, especially when it comes to ad categories.

Revenue Issues

The "Revenue Issues" tool will allow Ezoic to scan your settings and detect potential configurations that affect your revenue. Please note that not all recommendations should be "fixed", as while it aims to maximize revenue for your sites, it may severely hinder user experience, which will create other problems on its own. Our advice is to use it and carefully cross-reference the suggestions in the tool with our recommendations and allow it to fix them if they coincide.

In the example shown in our screenshot, as you can see, Ezoic notices that we have disabled Vignette and Floating Video Ads and recommends turning them off. However, if you check our ad type and ad placeholders available in Ezoic, you will see that these ad types are harmful to user experience and should be disabled, despite the increased ad revenue.

Mediation

Last but certainly not least is the Mediation option. It will let you link your Google Adsense account with Ezoic, and more importantly, it will allow other ad networks to compete with Ezoic, and whichever pays more will get to display the ad on your website. 

This means that you will get paid by both Google and Ezoic, especially if ad networks are bidding against each other for a specific ad or if Google decides to start paying more in general for these ads.

We recommend enabling this setting, as sometimes, advertisers tend to target your website's niche, which could result in a snowball effect, causing Google, Ezoic, and the other competing ad networks to pay a lot more for ads.

Conclusion

There you have it! An overview of Ezoic's ad settings and our recommendations for them. We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and hope our suggestions help you optimize your configurations in Ezoic and boost your ad revenue.

If your results are unsatisfactory despite having the most optimal settings, and you are not using HostArmada, you should contact our sales team over the live chat and learn more about our plans. 

HostArmada is an Ezoic Certified Hosting Provider. This means that our servers have been tested by Ezoic staff, who have deemed us one of the providers offering the most smooth performance, especially when integrated with their ad network.