It goes without saying that advertisements are the best way to monetize a website today. But when the website is developed on WordPress, managing ads can be a little challenging. Although WordPress is the most popular Content Management System in the world, still there is no default mechanism to manage advertisements on it. In fact, a majority of WordPress themes are also not in-built with dedicated spots for advertisement display complicating things further.
Here, an Ad Management Plugin acts as the magic wand performing all the functions required to display ads without any deep digging into the codes of the WordPress website. From inserting ads and editing them to tracking impressions and analyzing statistics, an ad management plugin efficiently takes care of everything related to ad management. Many plugins even offer a number of advanced features like geo-targeting, scheduling, filtering etc., to boost the power of advertisements. That said; here are the top 5 ad management plugins for WordPress that every website developer or owner must know.
AdRotate
With AdRotate as your WordPress ad management plugin, you can easily manage hosted ads as well as rotating banner ads or network ads. The free version of AdRotate allows you to manage all types of ads that you would want to display on your WWP website. Be it your own ads or third-party network ads like DoubleClick, Google AdSense, Chitika etc., AdRotate gives you the power to monitor several ad groups and keep a tab on the impressions or clicks received on each one of them.
In the free version, you can set-up basic schedules for ad posting, impression capping etc., but the premium or paid version, which starts at €29, lets you go for a detailed scheduling, mobile adverts, geo-targeting etc.
Advanced Ads
Advanced Ads is a freemium ad management plugin for WordPress that allows a plethora of basic stuff like adding, managing, and testing ads on the website for free along with premium add-ons. Self-hosted ads can be created along with the display of third-party ads like AdSense. The premium version, which ranges between €19 to €29, offer advanced functionalities like geo-targeting, tracking, selling ads, setting different display options.
With Advanced Ads, you can be as much picky as you like while displaying your ads. Whether you want to turn off ads for specific authors, toggle the ads off for specific user type/device, or simply don’t want the ads to be displayed on certain pages, categories or posts, this plugin would empower you to display ads as and where you like. In fact, time-sensitive ads can also be managed using this plugin.
AdSanity
AdSanity is one of the recommended WordPress ad management plugins for all the beginners out there. The ease with which it allows the users to insert ads on the website using various posting options like clicking on insert button, adding shortcodes or using custom widgets. It also allows users to post hosted ads as well as third-party ads like Google AdSense or DoubleClick.
Other important features of AdSanity include scheduling, ad grouping, monitoring ad statistics, and quick customization etc. You can easily optimize the ad performance without making any changes to these files of WordPress. There are various prices for this plugin like $29, $69, and $129 for blogger, publisher, and WordPress developers offering various services respectively.
Ads Pro
Over a quarter of desktop users have activated ad blocker for ad-free experience; Ads Pro Plugin allows you to bypass these blockages and reach out to every user. With more than 20 ways to display advertisements, 25+ ad templates, and 30+ advertising options, this plugin will spoil you with choices. There are various features offered by this plugin like ad scheduling, user-management, language translation or currency change for global usage, geo-targeting, and much more for efficient management of ads.
What’s more is that Ads Pro allows specific filtering of ads based on categories, pages, tags or devices and lets you perform A/B Testing on ads to analyze which ads bring higher CTR and revenue. This plugin costs $37 and comes with standard Envato licensing for better functioning.
Ad Inserter
Ad Inserter is a freemium WordPress plugin that offers the users a number of basic ad management services for free along with various premium add-ons. The user can insert ads at various locations within their website like before/after the post, before or after the site’s engaging comments, on the header or footer, etc. Customized block alignment, inserting ads on the Accelerated Mobile Pages and much more can be done manually by shortcodes, widgets or PHP function call.
The premium version of the Ad Inserter plugin starts from $20. It offers a number of advanced features like geo-targeting, A/B testing, IP blacklisting, selective posting etc. Moreover, the best part of Ad Inserter plugin is that it is endorsed by the giant Amazon, which makes it even more reliable.
Selling advertisement spaces on the website is the best way to monetize your website and amplify earnings. But to manage the advertisements posted on your website, an ad management plugin is the best bet. These ad management plugins not only help you insert and manage ads on your website but also perform other advanced functions like geo-targeting, A/B functioning, and scheduling etc. Analyze the complexity of your advertising campaign or program while keeping in mind the size of your WordPress website to choose from the top ad management plugins discussed above.
Author Bio:
Anurag Gupta is a budding entrepreneur with stakes in WeblinkIndia.net an acclaimed Web Designing & Development Company, headquartered in India. He also happens to be a keen writer, sharing insights, tips, and tutorials on subjects related to the ever evolving landscape of Web Designing and Development.