Q4 is a crucial period for any industry but more so for publishers looking to maximize revenue, as it’s often the most lucrative time of the year due to increased consumer spending and the holiday shopping season right around the corner. To make the most of this opportunity, publishers must adopt a strategic approach to their ad monetization efforts. Here is part 1 of some key areas to focus on:

1. Reviewing Inventory with a key focus on user experience

• Identify High-Performing Content – Analyze your website’s traffic data to identify content that consistently attracts high engagement. Looking at both existing and legacy data sets/trends over the course of years will help gauge a pattern. Prioritize these pages for ad placement, as they are more likely to deliver better results and a superior user experience.
• Optimize Page Layout – Ensure that your ad placements are not intrusive and do not negatively impact the user experience. Experiment with different ad sizes and positions to find the optimal configuration for your audience. Run a lot of A/B tests to get to an optimal website architecture.
• Monitor Ad Quality – Regularly review the quality of ads appearing on your site. Remove any ads that are inappropriate, low-quality, or negatively impact user experience.

2. Formats and Sizes of Ads

• Experiment with Different Formats – Explore various ad formats, such as display, video, and native ads, to see which ones resonate best with your audience. Consider the relevance of each format to your content and the goals of your advertisers along with their objectives of revenue optimizations.
• Optimize Ad Sizes – Ensure that your ad sizes are compatible with different devices, platforms, and screen sizes. Test various ad sizes to determine which ones perform best work on your website.
• Leverage Interactive Ads – Consider incorporating interactive ads to capture more attention and drive engagement. Interactive elements, such as quizzes, games, or calculators, can make your ads more effective and increase users’ engagement on the site.

3. Reviewing Your ads.txt Files

• Ensure Accuracy – Verify that your ads.txt file is up-to-date and accurately lists all authorized sellers of your ad inventory. An incorrect or outdated ads.txt file can lead to lost revenue and potential ad fraud.
• Regularly Update – As your advertising partnerships evolve, update your ads.txt file accordingly to reflect any changes in authorized sellers.

4. Revisiting Rules or Blocking

• Evaluate Ad Quality – Review your ad quality rules and blocking settings to ensure they are aligned with your brand standards and goals. Consider adjusting these settings to optimize ad performance and revenue especially around this holiday season coming up.
• Balance Revenue and Quality – Find the right balance between maximizing revenue and maintaining a high-quality user experience. Avoid blocking too many ad types or sellers, as this can limit your earning potential, but keeping in mind the brand safety and brand voice.

5. Working with New Demand Partners

• Expand Your Reach – Partner with new demand partners to access a wider range of advertisers and increase your revenue opportunities. Research potential partners and evaluate their reputation, technology, and ability to deliver high-quality ads.
• Negotiate Favorable Terms – When entering into new partnerships, negotiate favorable terms, such as higher CPMs or more flexible ad formats.

How can Freestar help?

Freestar can be a valuable tool and resources for publishers looking to maximize Q4 revenue. With our advanced header bidding technology and access to a vast network of demand partners, Freestar can help you:

• Increase Ad Yield – Maximize your ad revenue by capturing the highest possible CPMs for your inventory.
• Improve Ad Quality – Ensure that only high-quality ads are served on your site, enhancing the user experience and driving higher engagement.
• Simplify Ad Management – Streamline your ad operations with Freestar’s intuitive platform, saving you time and effort and work with our dedicated teams to help and support you all along the way.

To learn more about how Freestar can help you optimize your Q4 revenue, look out for part 2 on the key areas of optimization and be sure to register for our upcoming webinar.

As the summer rolls on, August content trends are consumed by back-to-school, last-minute trips, and outdoor activities. One step closer to Fall, August gives us the last few weeks before vacations end, and out in the not-so-far distance, we can see Q4 around the corner.

Depending on what part of the world you’re in, August still falls squarely in the Summer, resulting in summer food, fashion, sales, activities, and outdoor decor.

Let’s jump in!

CPM Trends

We’ve been transparent with our publishers that what’s currently happening industry-wide — both CPM and traffic-related — haven’t followed past trends. Traffic loss is one of the most significant challenges publishers are now facing. Drastic changes to the way Facebook, Twitter, and Google operate have left publishers and creators uncertain about where to put content efforts. Cookie deprecation in Safari and Firefox matched an even greater shift of desktop users to mobile, and unfortunate economic factors have led to lower numbers than expected.

In any other year, August is historically slightly better than July, and the start of a consistent rise into the peak of November and December, each week a little higher than the previous.

Consider your target audience when writing trending content and align the headlines with their interests and needs. Because regardless of what is trending, if it doesn’t make sense for your audience, it won’t perform. Google Trends and Pinterest Trends are helpful tools for this type of insight.

Hot August Topics

Consider your target audience when writing trending content and align the headlines with their interests and needs. Because regardless of what is trending, if it doesn’t make sense for your audience, it won’t perform. Google Trends and Pinterest Trends are helpful tools for this type of insight.

While no major U.S. holidays are celebrated in the month of August, there are other observances like Summer Safety Month, Homemade Pie Day (Aug 1), and National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (Aug 4). Several other seasonal content trends to work story angles for are —

• back to school shopping
• school organization tips
• tips to stay cool
• back to school lunch ideas
• dorm room decor
• summer wine cocktails
• summer to fall transition wardrobes
• end of summer self-care
• back to school clothes and hairstyle trends
• fall decor
• fall clothes
• outdoor activities for kids
• homework tips
• outdoor entertainment
• bbq and grilling
• music festivals
• last minute road trips

Use keyword research tools like keysearch.co, topically and answer the public to understand how to make seasonal content topics relevant to your niche.

Content Considerations

Updating August’s past performers from last year is a great place to start. In GA, narrow the dates down to August 2022 and grab the URLs you don’t see performing as well the rest of the year. This indicates that seasonality is a factor, and it’s time to go in and improve the page quality in whatever way possible. Don’t update the URL, but add new helpful content, improve images, add video, and edit the date at the end.

 

At Freestar, we put a lot of effort into Q4 preparation. Getting seasonal content updated, creating new shoppable moments on the website, and capitalizing on the revenue potential of those months can make or break a publisher’s year.

 

That’s why our next traffic session is all about prepping now to maximize revenue for Q4. Registration is free (sign up here!), and we’d love to meet you!

July kicks off the start of Q3, hard to believe! Summer months can be a bit of a roller coaster when it comes to both website traffic and advertising budgets, making it hard to know exactly what to expect.

July falls smack in the middle of what certain publishers consider the “summer slump.” For verticals like entertainment, the summer is when shows stop filming; for education sites, school is out. However, summer can be steady for travel sites, wedding content, and fashion sites.

Regarding advertising budgets, the summer can vary depending on several factors, including the industry, target audience, geographic location, and specific marketing objectives. Let’s jump in!

CPM Trends

July is historically slower for publishers than June, but still one of the better months of the first half of the year for CPMs. June tends to be a good month since, for many businesses, the end of June is the end of their fiscal year. Naturally, any remaining budgets allotted to that year need to be spent in the final weeks of June.

The rise of digital advertising and e-commerce has brought a level of flexibility and consistency in advertising budgets. Brands can quickly adapt their spending based on real-time data and consumer behavior during the summer, allowing for more agility in allocating advertising funds. Even without key holidays or events driving shopper spending, there are still many seasonal ways to provide shoppable moments throughout editorial content.

Hot July Topics

Consider your target audience when writing trending content and align the headlines with their interests and needs. Because regardless of what is trending, if it doesn’t make sense for your audience, it won’t perform. Google Trends and Pinterest Trends are helpful tools for this type of insight.

This month, the Fourth of July is the primarily observed holiday in the United States. Several other seasonal content trends to work story angles for are —

• family travel
• road trips
• beach holidays, best beaches and sunscreen facts
• outdoor activities for kids
• summer learning activities, like word games and piano
• camping
• hiking
• music festivals
• outdoor home decor
• outdoor lighting

Use keyword research tools like keysearch.co, topically and answer the public to understand how to make seasonal content topics relevant to your niche.

How to Maximize Ad Revenue in July

1. Update historical top performing content

With Google’s upcoming Search Generative Experience, ranking at the top of organic search results will be more challenging than ever. Instead of churning out more new content, update top performers from last July.

When you’re refreshing content, google the post topic and see who ranks in spots #1-4. What commonalities from those posts is yours lacking? Improve quality with more helpful content, new images, internal links, video, and fresh FAQs.

2. Expand topic coverage with content clusters

Content clusters represent a tree-with-branches approach to sufficiently covering a topic that is relevant to your expertise. Think of the tree trunk as the central theme and the branches as all the individual article angles that should also be published to thoroughly cover the central theme.

Here are several examples of how to make this content strategy relevant to July. Make sure to interlink the related articles within the content cluster.

• Summer travel destinations: packing tips, suggested itineraries, location recommendations, activities, travel essentials, expected weather
• Outdoor summer activities: best hiking trails, family-friendly camping tips, water sports for kids
• BBQ and grilling recipes: dedicated summer recipes, cooking tips, best products and techniques for grilling
• Summer style: summer fashion trends, outfit ideas, and tips for staying stylish in the hot weather
• Gardening and landscaping: summer gardening advice, plant care, landscaping tips, outdoor spaces
• Summer fitness and wellness: Provide workout routines, healthy eating tips, self-care practice
• Beach tips: cool beach essentials, packing tips, and beach vacation ideas

First, use GA to identify the main themes that perform well for your site each July. Next, update historical top performers and write 3-5 new articles for each content cluster and link to the new content.

Q3 is here, which means Q4 is a mere three months away. Before you know it, seasonal content will be all we’re talking about. Start slowly by updating July’s past performers and fleshing out your content clusters, and then do what you can to make lemonade out of lemons this summer.

As AI and machine learning evolve, language models such as ChatGPT are gaining popularity among content creators. ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can generate high-quality text content quickly and efficiently. However, as with any technology, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using ChatGPT for content creation.

In this blog post, we will examine the potential downsides of using ChatGPT, including its lack of creativity and the risk of bias in its generated content. We will also provide some best practices for using ChatGPT effectively in content creation, such as combining it with human-written content and fact-checking the information it generates. 

By the end of this post, you will better understand the advantages and disadvantages of using ChatGPT for content creation and how to leverage its strengths effectively.

What are the downsides of using ChatGPT for content? 

As an AI language model, ChatGPT has many strengths, such as generating high-quality text content, providing quick responses, and learning from a vast amount of data. However, there are also several downsides to using ChatGPT for content creation:

1. Lack of Creativity: While ChatGPT can generate high-quality text, it needs creativity and intuition. It can only generate content based on what it has learned from the training data, and it cannot generate original ideas or think outside the box.
2. Limited Domain Knowledge: ChatGPT is a general-purpose language model trained on a vast amount of text data. However, it may not have the domain knowledge required to generate accurate and relevant content for specific industries or niches.
3. Risk of Bias: ChatGPT is trained on a massive amount of data from the internet, which means that it can reflect the biases and stereotypes present in the data. This can lead to creating content that may contain implicit biases or promote harmful stereotypes.
4. Inability to Fact-Check: ChatGPT generates text based on patterns it has learned from the training data. It needs to be able to fact-check the information it is developing, which can lead to the creation of inaccurate or misleading content.
5. Limited Interactivity: ChatGPT is designed to generate text based on the input it receives. However, it cannot interact with users in the same way that a human can. This can limit its usefulness for content creation in situations where user interaction is essential.

How can a website publisher effectively use ChatGPT?

We understand the importance of adopting new technologies, but when it comes to content, it is crucial to keep the human element of it. Like chatbots on websites, users prefer to talk to a human; the same goes for content. A website publisher can effectively use ChatGPT for content creation by following these best practices:

1.  To generate ideas: ChatGPT can help website publishers create ideas for content creation. ChatGPT can generate a list of related ideas or themes to inspire new content by providing a topic or keyword.
2. Train the chatbot on specific content: Website publishers can train ChatGPT on explicit content to improve its performance and accuracy. By providing ChatGPT with examples of high-quality content, it can learn to generate similar content in the future.
3. Edit and fact-check content generated by ChatGPT: ChatGPT can render text quickly, but it may not always be accurate or relevant. Website publishers should review the content generated by ChatGPT and edit it as necessary. Additionally, they should fact-check the information provided to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date.
4. For repetitive tasks: ChatGPT can be used to generate content for repetitive tasks, such as meta and product descriptions, meta tags, and social media captions and blurbs. This can save time and improve productivity.
5. To combine with human-written content: While ChatGPT can generate high-quality content, it should not be used as a substitute. Instead, website publishers should use ChatGPT to supplement and enhance human-written content. This helps create a more diverse and engaging website that appeals to a broader audience.

Overall, website publishers should use ChatGPT as a tool to enhance their content creation process rather than as a replacement for human creativity and expertise. By following these best practices, website publishers can leverage the strengths of ChatGPT to improve their content and create a more engaging website for their audience.

If you’re looking to improve productivity across your business, here’s a list of other AI-powered tools that website publishers can utilize:

1. Canva: Canva is an AI-powered graphic design tool enabling website publishers to quickly create stunning graphics and visual content. It offers a range of templates, images, and design elements that can be customized to suit a website’s branding and style.
2. Stockimg: Stockimg helps you generate the perfect stock photo you need every time.
3. Writer.ai: Writer is the only enterprise AI platform that builds off of LLM “clay” and adds layers of intelligence that include excellent writing, business context, your content, and your company facts. And we’re the only one that detects and fact-check output for you.
4. Illustroke: With Illustroke, you can create vector images from text prompts. 
5. Vidyo: Vidyo.ai is a cloud-based software that helps global video creators expand their reach with minimum effort. Their platform lets you make short-form vids from long-form content in just a few clicks.
6. Inkforall: The INK Company, Inc. is ushering in a new era of content optimization systems. Their innovative solutions include AI-generated long-form content, SEO optimization, AI detection protection, and more!

By choosing the right AI tools and using them effectively, website publishers can achieve their goals and create a better user experience for their audience.

April is here and we’re excited to officially enter warmer temps, higher CPMs and Q2. Looking at the 12 months of the year, Q2 indicates the time period of April, May and June. January tends to be the slowest month of the year for ad revenue, coming off some of the highest months of the year, November and December.

Q2 typically shows higher advertiser CPMs compared to Q1 as a whole, but let’s dig into what we can expect in the month of April.

CPM Trends

Not much lately has followed historical trends when it comes to CPMs and ad revenue, but we’re hoping the current economic conditions improve and that trends realign with previous years in the near future.

April is the start of a new quarter, and the first few weeks of the month may dip. Mid month, CPMs warm slightly, with the last week of the month being the strongest.

If you’re monetizing with Freestar, 2023 is our strongest year of PMP revenue yet. This alone has kept our CPMs on the rise for many publishers and we look forward to the coming months.

Hot April Topics

Seasonal content should always be a part of a publisher’s editorial strategy, but it must also be relevant to the website niche. The core themes of April with the highest advertising spend are Easter, Earth Day and Spring/warmer temps. Several other seasonal content trends to work story angles for are —

• taxes
• spring break
• outdoor festivals
• sporting events
• spring fashion
• camping
• 420
• outdoor decor

Several other April observances are Ramadan, Passover, April Fool’s Day, World Autism Awareness Day, and National Garden Month.

Use keyword research tools like keysearch.co, topically and answer the public to better understand how seasonal content topics can be made relevant for your niche.

How to Maximize Ad Revenue in April

1. Update seasonal content.

The topics listed above see increased search interest in April. This means advertisers spend more to appear on those pages and more traffic goes to the post because of seasonal volume. Step one is to go back to last year’s traffic and see what posts and topics performed well for you last year.

Next, update the post by improving quality, freshening up paragraphs and adding new information that users would find helpful. Make sure content includes internal links to other seasonal posts.

2. Try high impact ad formats.

Not all ad formats are created equal. For example, publishers running a video unit ofter see 20-25% of their overall ad revenue come from this one placement. If you aren’t running video advertising on your site, money is being left on the table. Another premium placement is the mobile interscroller.

3. Push the limits on ad capacity per page.

Did you know, the average first page ranking in Google has over 7 ad units on the page? At Freestar, we always prioritize quality, but we also encourage our publishers to find the tipping point between revenue and user experience. Being hyper-conservative on ad layout not only lessens revenue but there is no direct correlation between SEO performance and ads per page.

Make sure your most important pages are monetized effectively.

4. Focus on viewability.

RPMs will be higher when viewability is higher. Do a quick audit for viewability best practices. Several ways to improve viewability include shortening the sidebar on desktop, enabling sticky unit capabilities whenever possible and moving ad units higher up on the page.