Working to optimize your site and increase revenue and RPM is an ongoing activity. It's never one and done! Use this article anytime you are looking for ways to improve your site's performance.
First things first - check your settings.
You can find Mediavine's Recommended Settings Quick Start Guide here.
Take a few minutes to quickly run through your settings and check them against the provided charts. Adjust as needed.
Note: if you are a publisher in the Pro, Premiere, or PubNation programs, it's best to reach out to your Account Management Team so they can assist with changes.
Take a look at Site Health and pay attention to the Ad Unit Metrics.
Is there room for improvement?
Mobile In-Content, Desktop In-Content, and Sticky Sidebar Health Check scores are measuring the average number of impressions per session for each of those ad units.
🎖The goal for Mobile In-Content Ads is 8
🎖The goal for Desktop In-Content Ads is 4
🎖The goal for Sticky Sidebar Ads is 2
Impressions per session are important because your ad revenue increases when [viewable] impressions increase. If one or more of these Ad Unit Health Checks are below these goals, below are the steps you can take to improve things.
Identify ways to increase Site Health metrics
Click on the metric that needs improvement.
That will open up a page with details about what is influencing your site health score for that specific ad unit. Click See Teal Tips for how to improve.
Make note of those tips, or revisit them as you work. Close out the tips and scroll down. The date range is set to the last 3 days because Site Health is measured based on the last 3 days of trending content.
If you are solving for in-content ads on desktop or mobile then, excluding your home page, start by opening up the posts you notice with the lowest number of impressions per session.
Follow the teal tips to optimize your content. Most tips can be found in this guide on site health and this guide for optimizing content for SEO and ad performance.
If you are working on Mobile In-Content Ads, be sure you are looking at your site ON MOBILE, or are using dev tools to mimic a mobile device.
If you are solving for sticky sidebar ads, first evaluate the content in your sidebar.
Eliminate anything unnecessary in your sidebar. Increasing Sticky Sidebar Site Health is all about increasing Sticky Sidebar impressions, and with this ad unit, that means that you want it to appear sooner as a desktop reader scrolls so that the unit can refresh.
Think about the items you are offering in the sidebar.
Too many choices means that readers probably won't make any at all, so be deliberate about what you are offering and make sure there is clear intention in the journey you are taking your reader on.
Note: Optimize for Desktop Pagespeed will defer sidebar ads from loading in the first screenview. For this reason, having at least 1-2 items in the sidebar can matter so that the Sticky Sidebar appears once the reader begins to scroll.
Reminder: If you make changes to your sidebar you will need to email publishers@mediavine.com to have sidebar ads retargeted.