Too many ads, earning too little
Muhammad Ali builds mods for the games he plays and publishes them on his own site. Taking this into account, we have to understand why visitors arrive on this site: they want to find the mod they're interested in, read enough about it to gain trust, and then download it.
The site ran AdSense Auto Ads at the highest intensity. That meant 11 to 14 ad slots on every page, placed by an algorithm that knew nothing about why anyone was there. The layout was cluttered, pages were heavier than they needed to be, and the download itself, the moment that mattered most, earned nothing. Sites like this usually end up pushing downloads through monetised link shorteners, which pay little and send readers somewhere else.
Over a 30-day window before the switch, the site made $1,173.
Start from the reader, not (just) the page
Ali's first step with Lkz was a call with Shahzaman Bin Aziz, our head of Ad Ops. They went through how the integration works, the difference between AdSense and Ad Exchange. We are always focused on making sure the publisher will understand the approach we take and our thought process behind the ad setup. In this case, we also wanted to share more about what additional demand will and will not do, and our methodology for making sure only safe ads will be displayed.
The rebuilt stack
11 to 14 slots became 6 units, and only 3 of them sit inside the content.
- 2 banners above the fold on desktop, 1 on mobile. Seen by everyone, in the space the reader is already looking at.
- 1 lazy-loaded slot after the first scroll on desktop, 2 on mobile. They load only when the reader gets there, so the page stays light.
- 1 floating anchor at the top, with its space reserved so the layout never jumps.
- Interstitials on 4 triggers, matched to how people move through the site: opening another page, or leaving for an external link.
- A rewarded content locker on the download. Instead of a link shortener, the reader chooses to watch a short video ad and the download unlocks. It is a single Yield rule action.
Before
Auto Ads, 11 to 14 slots
After
3 in-page slots, anchor, locker
Demand for all of it runs through Ad Exchange via our MCM connection, with backfill from our in-house header bidding.
The locker
Of the readers who reached the locker, 80% chose to interact with it.
Part of that is the offer. A short video in exchange for the thing you came for is a fair trade, and a better one than a redirect chain. Part of it is the design. The locker was built in Yield's visual editor to match the site's own style, its colours, corners and type, so it reads as a natural step in the download, and one that belongs to the developer's own site. Kaz can propose and adjust a design like this in conversation, with a live preview, before it goes live.
What Ali got beyond the numbers
The stack is the visible part. The rest of the work is what lets a one-person site run it.
- Ad ops as a given. The layout, the rules, the demand setup and the locker were built and tuned by our team. Ali did not have to learn Google Ad Manager to get Ad Exchange rates. We don't (and won't) charge anything to get started or help you in going live, so there is no cost to giving it a shot.
- Support 7 days a week. Active accounts reach people who know the setup, on weekends too, which is when a mod site gets much of its traffic.
- One place for everything. Revenue, viewability and fill by unit in Yield reporting, and payouts from the same platform.
- Room to keep improving. Every change can be tested as an experiment before it rolls out, so the next idea does not put the current revenue at risk.
- No exclusivity. We don't have lock-ins or exclusivity deals, which made trying our services low-risk and easy.
The result
30 days after the switch, the site made $3,062. It has held around $3,000 a month since.
Before
After
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue | $1,173 | $3,062 |
| In-page ad slots | 11 to 14 | 3 |
| PageSpeed score, mobile | 91 | 98 |
| Download monetisation | None | 80% opt-in locker |
Fewer ads, a lighter page, and more than two and a half times the revenue.
lkzAi was able to fulfill the two main goals of a site owner, to show less ads and earn more money. I'm very pleased with their support and effectiveness of their product offering.
If this sounds like your site
Many sites on Auto Ads are in the position Ali was in: more ads than the page needs, and the moment readers actually care about left unmonetised (because generic insertion code doesn't understand visitors' wants). We make sure to never neglect the goals of the end user and combine human & artificial intelligence to construct a layout built around why people visit, on top of Ad Exchange rates.
If your site has readers, we can look at your current setup and tell you what we would change. Give it a shot, it's just a call (or text, or email – we adapt)!