Best Types of Digital Ads for Bloggers and Business Site Owners

 

Different Types of Ads on a Website

I always wanted to write a piece on the types of Ads that can be displayed on a blog or a website. Any blogger or website owner who is interested to run ads in his/her site or a business owner should be aware of the types of Advertisements that get to be displayed on the digital platforms. It's very crucial to the success of a goal in advertising.

Before I monetized my blog, I did a comprehensive study on the kinds of Ads that can be displayed in it. My research was essentially for 2 reasons. 

1. I didn't want to ruin my blog bombarded with hundreds of Ads as I greatly value my writing with the effort that I put in and the kind of information that I like to share with my readers. Also, I don't want my reader to get distracted, cheesed off with unnecessary, unmeaningful advertisements popping up or gets displayed like crazy at all odd annoying places. It not only ruins the engagement between the read and the reader, but it can actually destroy the whole purpose. 

2. The other reason being I wanted to place the ads at the best possible places where it matters. Where it can be most profitable, both for the advertiser as well as myself. There is no point in running ads when the goals are badly defeated. It's a loss for the author as well as the advertisers in such instances.

So let's get started in understanding these best ads one by one. 

Banner Advertisements (In short Banner Ads)

This is a form of online advertisement that is displayed on your website. They are delivered by an ad server and are embedded in your web page. The goal of such a type of advertisement is to attract the traffic of your website/blog to the advertisers' website to showcase what they have to offer. This happens when viewers on your website click on these banner ads. 

Web Banners work the same way as traditional advertisements, showing people of the product or service, and presenting reasons why they should choose the product displayed. 

The good thing about banner ads is usually the positioning of these ads on a web page and their effectiveness in achieving their goals. They usually create fewer disturbances to your audience and hence less annoying. However, selecting the placement of ads and their sizes are equally important. 

Below are the standard sizes of Banners Ads in the digital world.

Name	Width / px	Height / px	Aspect ratio
Rectangles and Pop-Ups
Medium Rectangle	300	250	6∶5
Square Pop-Up	250	250	1∶1
Vertical Rectangle	240	400	3∶5
Large Rectangle	336	280	6∶5
Rectangle	180	150	6∶5
3:1 Rectangle	300	100	3∶1
Pop-Under	720	300	2.35∶1
Banners and Buttons
Full banner	468	60	78∶10
Half banner	234	60	39∶10
Microbar	88	31	88∶31
Button 1	120	90	4∶3
Button 2	120	60	2∶1
Vertical banner	120	240	1∶2
Square button	125	125	1∶1
Leaderboard	728	90	728∶90
Skyscrapers
Wide skyscraper	160	600	1∶3.75
Skyscraper	120	600	1∶5
Half-page ad	300	600	1∶2

Native Ads

These ads when they appear on a webpage give a similar look, feel, and function of a media format. These advertisements are usually quite appealing, tag lines are interesting and look like regular content on a page. In fact, it's very hard to say sometimes if they are advertisements or editorial content on a page. It's a plus point I feel. One of the best types I personally recommend essentially because they look appealing and non-disruptive in nature.

Native Ads are quite popular in social media feeds too. 

Text Link Ads

These are hyperlinks with brief descriptive promotional texts of products or services placed on the publisher's web page. On clicking the hyperlinks, it will take you directly to the advertiser's product or services page. Text Links Ads are mostly used as a recommendation to viewers on a page by the publisher. A kind of 'must check out' or 'a great thing to buy' textual innuendo.

Network Ad Scripts

This is a bit of code that you place on your site. This content code holds a spot on your site that will be populated with promotions served up from the networks.

Subscribing to Google Adsense is probably the best Network that you can use to monetize your website. 

They have an interesting chart recommending the best way to place your ads on your website. I usually take their advice given they hold their presence in the digital world. I mean what's bigger than Google? 😁

Here in the chart on the left, they depicted the effectiveness of ad placements with colors. White is denoted as the worst placement of all. Pink and Red could be a reasonable space to capture, however, Orange is told to be the best place to list your ads. 

Personally, I'll definitely avoid those areas mentioned in white, however, I also don't quite like too many ads around the content section. Maybe, because I don't want my readers to lose focus on my content as content is the main criteria why traffic generates on your site.

Below is my recommendation for getting the best possible results both from your site as well as from the advertiser's point of benefit.

1.  I love the leaderboard banner ad right at the top. I feel it gives a kind of fullness to my site and a professional look. 
2. One skyscraper banner ad is good too when it comes at the sidebar (I always prefer a single sidebar at the left)
3. Or couple of 300 x 250 image ads at the sidebar
4. Few text links within my post and at the end. 
5. I like to place my native ads just under any video contents that I may have
6. A horizontal banner ad just over my footer.
7. Also, I like sometimes an Ad in the footer area too (if space looks a little empty-ish)
8. I generally avoid pop-up ads. I find them very annoying especially in my page
9. Also, avoid two sidebar templates. I have usually noticed a bad result when viewing your site on a mobile phone.

The best way to evaluate your site and playing around placing these ads is entirely to the objective of your site. I have come to form an opinion as a serious blog writer that contents are equally important to the success of your site besides monetizing it.

Thanks for reading! I hope I have been able to share some useful information with you.

Deep