Key Takeaways

  • There's more than one business model for monetizing your website or app with advertising.
  • You can combine multiple monetization models or go all-in with the one that works best for your platform and audience.
  • Playwire is a comprehensive ad monetization solution that incorporates elements of all of the most effective advertising monetization models.

Many publishers and players in the ad tech world have a problematic way of thinking about advertising. They see ads as a single monetization method when, really, advertising is a broad category. In other words, there are multiple advertising monetization models.

Each model has strengths and weaknesses in certain contexts, on certain platforms, and with certain audiences. Testing the models to see which ones perform best for you is key to maximizing your advertising revenue over the long term.

We're here to help with that. To start, we have compiled this look at five of the most important advertising monetization models in the market today. Read on to learn more.

Monetization through advertising is what Playwire does best for publishers. We take advertising monetization to breathtaking heights for our publishers using industry-transforming technology and the best minds in ad tech. Contact us to learn more.

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The Complete Guide to Ad Monetization

What Is an Advertising Monetization Model?

Let's begin by making sure we're on the same page: An advertising monetization model is simply a strategy for deploying ads on your website or app in order to generate ad revenue. That's a broad definition, but you can get pretty granular with the concept. That's why we have broken the rest of this article out into the individual models that tend to work well.

5 Ad Monetization Models to Consider for Your Site or App

There are more than five advertising monetization models, but these are the half dozen that tend to perform best for publishers:

1. Pure Ad Monetization

This is the starter pack of ad monetization. You simply delineate some ad space and start filling it with banner ads and other display ads. This model works especially well in the early days when you have a decent but growing audience and very little time or resources to devote to the more "premium" approaches to a website or mobile app monetization strategy.

The reason this model works well for early-stage publishers is that so many turnkey platforms can help you serve these kinds of ads on your website or app. Google Ads, of course, is the most popular starting point for most publishers. 

That isn't to say, of course, that you only want to do basic display advertising when you're just starting out. On the contrary, this is an important arm of any long-term ad monetization strategy - it's just that you'll want to incorporate some of the more advanced ad units and strategies later on.

2. Premium Ad Monetization

Premium ad units, such as native ads, interstitial ads, skinned pre-roll, etc., are the next phase in any advertising monetization strategy. You'll want to consider this approach once you've seen your success with basic ad units level off. That's because premium ad units command higher CPMs.

Premium ad monetization can, for the most part, be done programmatically, but it will also need a component of direct sales. For example, if you want to run skinned pre-roll ad units - in which a branded skin surrounds your video player while video ads from the same brand play - you will likely need to have some discussions with the brand beforehand.

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The Complete Ad Monetization Resource Center

3. Hybrid Ad and Subscription Monetization

The subscription model is its own monetization model completely separate from advertising monetization models. But it can also be combined with advertising to improve the effectiveness of both approaches. 

How? By offering your content or mobile app without a subscription on the condition that users be served ads. On the flip side of that, paying subscribers don't have to see any ads. It's a win-win because users can view your content no matter what so you don't miss the chance to make some ad revenue on them, but those with preferences about website ads or in app advertising can pay even more to subscribe. User experience is ultimately uninterrupted as it is whatever the user chooses.

4. Pay-to-Remove Ad Monetization

This model bears some similarities to the hybrid model described above, but it falls short of a full-blown subscription component. Instead, you simply offer users a way to pay a one-time or recurring fee to not have to see any ads while they engage with your content.

By setting the fee at the right amount, you can attract users to pay an amount that you might never actually make on their impressions through ads while still allowing those who are unwilling to pay outright to see your content.

5. Rewarded Ad Monetization

Rewarded video ads are a type of ad unit or ad format, but there's also a strategy component. That's because you pick the "reward," and your choice can have an impact on your success. 

Here's how rewarded ads work: You offer users some kind of reward in exchange for viewing an ad (usually a video ad). This can be an in-game reward if you operate a game, or it could be a free piece of premium content or, really, anything else that makes sense for your platform and user experience.

This strategy can be extremely effective because users feel like they're getting something for watching ads, and advertisers get high viewability and other impressive ad performance metrics. That means you get happy users and high CPMs.

The Complete Ad Monetization Model for Publishers: Playwire

With so many advertising monetization models to choose from, there's no shortage of ways to drive your revenue higher - and your revenue can always be higher. At least, that's what the team at Playwire believes.

That's why we work hard every day to be the complete ad monetization resource for website publishers and appdevelopers. We help our partners find the best monetization model for their unique platforms, and then we set our brilliant tech, strategy, and yield ops teams loose to make sure revenue stays at the absolute maximum.

That's how we've gained our reputation as a true partner to publishers. And we're not going to let up any time soon. Want to be a part of this? You can be. Contact Playwire to learn more about working with us.

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