12 Ways To Increase Ezoic Ad Revenue

Online ad rates have been trending upwards for almost a decade. Whilst there’s little you can do to control the ad market, you do have a lot of control over the actual take home revenue that you’ll earn at the end of the day.

If you’re new to the ad network, Ezoic, I’d highly recommend these guides first. How to Get Ezoic Running on Your Website and Ezoic vs AdSense: How I Increased Ad Revenue by 262%. If you’re already an Ezoic user, here are 11 ways to increase your Ezoic ad revenue.

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Contents

• 1. Turn On Native Ad Units
• 2. Wrap Your Ezoic Ads
• 3. Optimise Ezoic Placeholders
• 4. Use Mediation To Link Google AdSense
• 5. Turn On The Ezoic Cache
• 6. Experiment With User Vs Revenue Focus
• 7. Focus on User Engagement
• 8. Write And Update Regularly
• 9. Write Mixed Length Content
• 10. Optimise For Mobile
• 11. Optimise Payment Settings
• 12. Make an ads.txt File

1. Turn On Native Ad Units

This is a really simple change you can make. Native ads, which promote editorial or sponsored stories, will appear at the bottom of your site page or in the sidebar.

On your Ezoic dashboard > Monetization > Scroll to Native Ad Units > Turn on

If it’s appropriate to your content, select PG-13 instead of PG. PG-13 content pays more.

2. Wrap Your Ezoic Ads

This will only apply if you used another ad network before Ezoic, like Google AdSense.

If you don’t wrap your ads in Ezoic code, Ezoic can’t see them and those ads will appear alongside your Ezoic ads. This will dilute the value of your ads (they won’t be competition through mediation etc.) and it could harm the user experience (affecting the display and page loading times).

You can find a detailed guide to ad wrapping in the support section of the Ezoic website.

3. Optimise Ezoic Placeholders

You’ll add placeholders, positions where you’re allowing ads to appear, when you first setup Ezoic.

The more placeholders you have, with a variety of size options enabled, the more competition for ad space. The more competition for ad space, the more the ad auction can drive up ad prices, hence, the more revenue you can generate.

That being said, you don’t want to overload your website with too many ads. Too many ads can decrease your user experience and negatively impact your SEO. Anything that hurts your SEO can decrease your page views. I think it’s better to have more eyes on your page than more revenue per view over the long term.

There are a few ways to add Ezoic Placeholders. I would recommend the free Google Chrome extension.

Below, you can see the placeholder size options that I’ve allowed on a range of devices. On my whole blog, there are 3 basic placeholder types (Top of Page, In Content and Sidebar).

For example, for the placeholder I put in the sidebar, I allow all of the size options with a red dot (below). In all cases, adaptive sizing is on, I allow Ezoic to ‘auto-detect similar pages’ and I select to keep the ad on its own row.

4. Use Mediation To Link Ezoic To Google AdSense

Mediation allows you to link other ad networks to Ezoic. Ezoic ads will then compete with ads from your other network. The winning bid will have beaten all of that competition. This competition increases the value of the ads shown on your site.

On your Ezoic dashboard > Monetisation > Scroll to Mediation (Pic Below) > Link your Google AdSense account.

It’s important to note here, if a Google AdSense ad wins the bid, then any earnings will go to your existing AdSense account (not your Ezoic account). You’ll be able to see your mediation earnings under ‘Estimated' Earnings’ on your Ezoic dashboard.

5. Turn On The Ezoic Cache

Turning on the Ezoic cache will increase your site speed. Increasing your site speed will boost SEO and in turn, your revenue.

You must be Cloudfare or Nameserver integrated to use Ezoic caching

Ezoic dashboard > Site Speed > Cache App > Turn on

You should wait 24 hours and then check your analytics to see if there’s been an increase in your site speed. How do you check that you’re caching properly?

Ezoic Dashboard > Analytics > Site Speed > Caching > Ezoic Caching

There are 3 data types you’ll see tracked here:

• Cache Hit - Ezoic is caching properly

• Cache Off - The Ezoic cache app is turned off

• Cache Miss - Ezoic is being prevented from caching

What to do if you’re seeing a 0% Ezoic Cache Hit Rate or if you’re seeing too many Cache misses:

• Cache App > Update Cache Setting Values

• Set ‘Override Cache Control Headers’ to TRUE

• Set ‘Force Caching by Device Type’ to TRUE

• Set ‘Enable Caching for Cookies’ to TRUE

• Give it 24-48 hours and then check again

6. Experiment With User Focus Vs Revenue Focus

One of the nice customisation options with Ezoic is that you have the ability to alter your focus between revenue and the user.

On your Ezoic dashboard, go to Settings and scroll down to Optimisation Goals.

• User Focused - Ezoic will try to optimise your bounce rate, page views per visit etc. The aim being to optimise the user experience.

• Revenue Focused - Ezoic will try to optimise your earnings per page view.

• Balanced - Somewhere in between revenue and user-focused.

Whilst you might assume that ‘Revenue Focus’ would lead to greater revenue, that’s not always the case. A lower bounce rate, higher engagement rate, higher user return rate will improve your SEO and, in turn, increase your search engine ranking, your page views, engagement rate and your revenue.

Personally, I use ‘User Focused’ but I have used ‘Balanced’ in the past. I wouldn’t opt for ‘Revenue Focused’ as that would likely burder my viewer with too many on-screen ads.

7. Focus On User Engagement and NAV Bounces

If you want to increase your ad revenue, it’s good practice to take into account the actual metrics that affect ad bids. Two I’ll focus on here are NAV Bounce and Engaged Page Views Per Visit.

• NAV Bounce = When somebody quickly exits your page on entry (usually due to accidental clicks or slow loading times)

• Engaged Page Views Per Visit = Page views which meet a minimum time threshold (removes page views with NAV Bounces)

NAV Bounce is the better-known metric. A high bounce rate decreases viewability and ad bids take viewability into account. Put simply, the fewer NAV Bounces, the better your revenue is likely to be.

On the Ezoic Dashboard > Analytics > Behaviour > Navigation Bounces

Engaged Page Views Per Visit is becoming a more important metric than ‘Page Views’. An engaged page view (which has passed a minimum threshold of engagement time) is a high quality page view. A high quality page view increases ad viewability and ad rates as a result.

On the Ezoic Dashboard > Analytics > User Experience > Overview

The higher the bounce rate, the fewer (in general) the ad views. A higher bounce rate will likely decrease your EPMV. Of course, a higher quantity of clicks can compensate for that but aiming for frequent and engaged traffic is key.

8. Keep Writing and Updating

The gold mine for a content creator is ever-green content. That’s content that will be relevant not just weeks, but months or even years from now. Think of each post as a new investment that you’re adding to your portfolio. You’re investing your time/effort and, in return, you’re generating long term passive income, in this case, in the form of Ezoic ad revenue.

However, ever-green content, whilst the pinnacle for long term passive income generation, is not always appropriate. This greatly depends on the website niche.

The more time-limited the relevance of your content, the more important it is to keep writing and keep updating.

If you’re prepared to put in the time, if you’re prepared to keep writing and keep updating your site or blog, your bank balance will thank you in the long run. If you’re already earning a good amount, don’t stop, let that be a motivation to keep writing, keep updating and keep growing.

9. Write Mixed Length Content

83.6% of my page views are on articles with 1000-2500 page length. Articles with less than 1000 words obtain 10.1% of my page views. Articles with more than 2500 words obtain 6.2% of my page views.

You can check out your analytics by going to Ezoic > Analytics > Content > Page Details

You might read the above and think “Great, so I should aim for 1000-2500 word articles?” The answer? Like everything, it’s not as clear cut as that.

There are 3 basic blog post types:

• Response Post - <1000 words, ranks easily, answers a specific question

• Staple Post - 1000-2500 words, shareable content, this post is an example of a staple post

• Pillar Post - 2500+ words, high authority content, detailed, links to other posts

Whilst staple posts obtain the highest number of page views, they take longer to write. Response posts tend to obtain less page views but you can write a good response post in a few hours. I can write a short response post in about 30 minutes (from first word to published).

Each blog post type serves its function. Don’t neglect one type for the other. All will help grow your audience and therefore your ad revenue.

10. Optimise For Mobile

There’s no doubt about it, optimising your content for mobile is more crucial now than ever. According to Broadband Search, from 2013 to 2023, mobile content grew from 16% of global traffic to 75%.

In early 2018, Google switched to mobile-first indexing. That means Google prioritises the mobile version of your blog when it comes to indexing and ranking.

Simply put, if your blog isn’t optimised for mobile, Google is likely to penalise your blog. Your search engine rankings, page views and ad revenue will all take a hit.

Here’s how to optimise your blog for mobile:

1. Check It Out Yourself - Scroll through your blog on mobile and see if there are any obvious issues with the UI

2. Optimise Ezoic Ad Placeholders - What placeholders will your audience see when they land on your blog on mobile?

3. User Friendly Navigation - How do you access your blog’s navigation on mobile? Make sure it’s obvious and easy to use

4. Short, Snappy, Spaced Sentences - Maximum 1-3 sentences per paragraph. Your content will be easier to scan and scroll

5. Optimise Images - Dimensions, for viewability, and file size. Use TinyJPG to compress images whilst minimising quality loss.

11. Optimise Your Ezoic Payment Settings

Once you’ve earned revenue with Ezoic, you’re going to want to optimise how you’re paid. You’ll want to keep any currency conversion or payment fees as close to $0 as possible.

Go to Profile (Top Right) > Payment Settings

Ezoic have a minimum payment threshold of $20. If you reach that during the month, you’ll usually be paid at the end of the following month (45 days maximum).

They offer a range of payment methods (PayPal, Direct Deposit, Cheque, International Wire Transfer via Payoneer). I’ve made a handy guide below to the best option for your country/region.

Note: When Ezoic sends the money to your Payoneer account, it’ll be added to a USD account (there’s no fee for this). The fees above are paid when you withdraw from your USD Payoneer account to the bank in your local currency.

Also, If you sign up to Payoneer with my referral link, you’ll get a bonus $25 once you’ve earned your 1st $1000!

12. Turn on ads.txt

An ads.txt File is a simple text file on your website that lists authorised channels for your ad inventory (eg. Ezoic, AdSense). This protects advertisers and might be necessary for some (the list is growing too).

This only takes 15 minutes and can significantly improve your EPMV. Some users reported a doubling of their EPMV in days. But even if you only see a 10% increase in revenue, that's a great return on the 15 minute time investment it'll take you to setup the file.

How To Check For An Active ads.txt File:

Simple, type in your site URL, add /ads.txt at the end and hit enter. If you see a long list, it's active. If you get a 404 error or nothing loads, it's not active.

How To Setup The File:

For this, I’d recommend going straight to Ezoic’s video tutorial. If you're stuck at any point in the process, you can contact Ezoic or ask me for help.

Let me know how you get on with Ezoic. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or you can contact me directly and I’ll help you out.

If you received value from this article, please consider signing up to Ezoic with my referral link (it’s free for you and helps support more content like this). Thank you!