Want to make money with display ads?
It’s a wise choice, as advertisers are planning to increase their global ad spend, and according to Statista, it’s projected to reach US$1.16 trillion in 2025.
Many publishers still assume ads are disturbing, but in reality, that’s not true. The emerging AI-driven programmatic platforms and ad networks are significant proof that display advertising is still a valuable and profitable source of income.
Placing ads on the website means you’re getting an extra opportunity to generate income alongside your other monetization methods, and that too without any investment.
Therefore, in this post, we’ll let you know what display ads are, how to make money with display ads, and the expert tips to increase ad profit. So, let’s dive into this money-making guide to help publishers unlock the true potential of display advertising.
What are Display Ads?
Display ads are the advertisements you often see on websites, apps, and social media. They have some text with visually appealing elements like images, videos, or graphics to attract users’ attention and make them perform a desired action, such as a simple sign-up or purchase.
Display ads are available in different ad formats. Some of the most popular online advertising formats are banner, native, interstitial, popunder, and in-page push. These ads are useful for both advertisers and publishers.
Advertisers can use display advertising to create targeted ad campaigns that promote their products and services to increase awareness about their offerings and build brand identity. It eventually helps them drive potential leads to their website and generate more revenue, the ultimate goal of most businesses.
On the other hand, display advertising enables publishers to sell their ad inventory and monetize website traffic effortlessly to earn ad revenue. It also keeps them motivated and lets them focus on their website goals.
Why is it Good to Invest in Display Ads?
Display ads for publishers are a profitable monetization method that can drive revenue in less time with almost no effort. Visual advertising is the future, and here are a few reasons to show that it’s good to invest in display ads.
- Publishers can tap into the growing market of online advertising. According to GlobeNewswire, the global digital advertising market, where display ads play a crucial role, is projected to reach $786.2 billion by 2026.
- Display advertising is scalable. Whether you have a website with multiple pages with lots and lots of content, or have just started a website with a few pages, display ads can be leveraged by any group of publishers.
- Ability to monetize website traffic without any investment. Being a publisher, you don’t have to create an ad campaign, place an ad bid, or make any kind of money investment.
- Ability to monetize website traffic. It helps publishers generate a passive income with their website or blogging site if it receives steady traffic, which isn’t possible with other monetization methods.
- Requires minimal effort from publishers. Implementing ad monetization on the website means you get plenty of time to focus on your business or blogging strategies.
According to online advertising trends, advertisers see display ads as a profitable source of income for their business and thus plan to increase their ad spending to boost brand awareness and draw more attention towards their offerings.
This eventually generates a monetization method for publishers that’s efficient and profitable, too.
They only need to develop a balanced ad monetization strategy that enhances ad quality and maintains a positive on-site user experience to meet advertisers’ demands.
So, it’s a good choice to make money with display ads. Now, let’s explore different display ad formats publishers can use for their websites.
Read our Ultimate Guide on Display Ads 2025
Different Ad Formats: Make Money With Display Ads
Choosing the right ad format when selling ad inventory is crucial for maximizing earnings with display ads.
The right display ad format feels more rewarding and less intrusive. For instance, native ads blend seamlessly within the content and design, while interstitial ads tend to be more rewarding for the users.
Different display ad formats for website owners and bloggers.
Native Ads
Use native ads if you want to show ads that naturally blend with your content and design, often titled as sponsored or promoted.
For instance, social media ads are a good example of native ads as they appear as a regular post rather than an advertisement, blending perfectly with the content and design.
Read Best Native Ads Platform for Publishers in 2025
Banner Ads
Banner ads are one of the most common and effective display ad formats.
It’s in a rectangular or square shape placed on top, bottom, or sidebar, either static or containing some animation.
For instance, most news sites place banner ads at the top of their pages, featuring interactive animation and eye-catching fonts to generate more ad revenue.
Also Read: How News Platforms Can Leverage Ad Networks for Sustainable Revenue
Popunder Ads
Popunders are a great alternative to pop-ups. Pop-ups appear instantly while scanning the content, often negatively impacting user experience. Whereas, popunder ads don’t interrupt users’ experience as they occur behind the main window and are viewable only when users close the active window.
In-Page Push Ads
In-Page Push ads appear as small notification-style messages in the corner of the screen, similar to mobile app push notifications, and don’t require user permission.
They are more interactive than other ad formats.
Interstitial Ads
The Interstitial display ad format is particularly effective for monetizing a game website.
These ads appear on the full screen when a content transition occurs (such as moving to the next level, page, or session) without disrupting the user’s current activity.
This ad format is more rewarding and accepted by users as they get several benefits from watching the ad.
Video Ads
Video ads are promotional ads used to promote business products and services through visually appealing content with pleasant sound effects and a storyline.
It generates up to 120% more user engagement compared to other display ad formats as they connect with the users’ emotions through engaging storytelling.
Each display ad format has its own benefits. Website owners and bloggers should consider their website goals, target audience, and content type before choosing any ad format.
Take the time to understand your audience’s behavior and preferences, and choose the right ad format to drive more ad revenue.
Read about Web Advertising: Meaning, Types, Importance & Examples
Pros and Cons of Display Ads
It’s good to know the cons along with the pros to effectively make money with display ads. Here are the pros and cons of display ads for publishers.
Pros of Display Ads for Publishers
- Yield high revenue for niche websites with a targeted audience.
- Low maintenance and an effortless monetization method for publishers.
- Access to multiple ad formats to fulfill each audience’s interests.
- Grants publishers full flexibility and control over ad placement.
Cons of Display Ads for Publishers
- Excessive advertising affects users’ experience.
- Half of the internet audience uses ad blockers to prevent websites from showing ads.
- Placing too many ads affects the page load time, which ultimately forces users to close the browsing window and look for alternatives.
- Digital ad fraud cases have increased over the past few years.
Publishers can still make money with display ads if they don’t do excessive and disturbing advertising and use privacy-first strategies to reduce ad fraud cases.
Display ads are effective and generate sustainable earnings if owners start to consider their niche goals and audience’s onsite experience.
Many popular websites like NYT and GoDaddy are leveraging display ads to make money. So, don’t be afraid to use online advertising for website traffic monetization.
How to Make Money with Display Ads in 2025
Monetizing a website using display ads is effective and brings a sustainable source of income. Go through the points to discover the 6 effective ways through which you can start monetizing site traffic using display ads.
1. Select the Ad Monetization Methods
There are several ways to implement display ads on a website. Go through the list to determine the best ad monetization method for your website.
1.1. Approach Advertisers Directly
Website owners and bloggers can choose to connect and pitch advertisers directly based on their content type and audience interest.
However, finding advertisers based on the website niche is too difficult and time-consuming. You are also restricted by their terms and policies, and you often have to wait to receive the payouts.
1.2 Connect With an Ad Network
An ad network connects advertisers and publishers without the hassle of interacting personally. It actually brings both under one umbrella, but in a unique way.
Suppose you’re a travel blogger curating content about the tourist spot, local market, culture, and food on your blogging website. You have plenty of space and are ready to place ads from other marketers to monetize your travel website.
However, you want to focus on your travel content and other promotional strategies instead of personally connecting and pitching advertisers. Here, you can use an ad network as it gives you flexibility and control over your ad space.
You don’t have to connect, pitch, or maintain a bond with advertisers. Make sure you’re creating genuine, high-quality, topic-driven content that satisfies user intent and SEO parameters based on your niche and audience interest. It helps to receive quality traffic and increase users’ trust in your content.
Also Read: Best Blogging Tips To Grow Your Blog
Connecting with the right ad network lets you easily make money with display ads while you focus on your content and website.
Follow the points mentioned below to earn with display ads using an ad network. These are the common steps used in almost all ad networks that are active online.
- Select and register on an ad network.
- Decide on your pricing model.
- Select the ad categories and ad unit.
- Verify KYC documents to start receiving payouts.
- Place the generated ad code on your website.
- Wait for a few hours to get your website verified.
- Once verified, start placing different types of display ad formats.
- That’s it. Time to make money with ads.
Once you’re done with the steps, you only have to keep optimizing your ad monetization strategy to generate more ad revenue and maintain your on-site users’ experience.
Also Read: Tips and Tricks to Increase Website Ad Revenue
Best Display Ad Networks for Publishers
7SearchPPC is a notable option for publishers to monetize their websites without a hitch. It features a clean, simple, and easy-to-use dashboard for managing, monitoring, and tracking ad performance and revenue.
It’s a useful ad management platform as it offers several out-of-the-box functionalities. Some of the benefits are listed below.
- Real-time analytics and reporting to track, monitor, and optimize ads based on performance.
- Bi-monthly payouts via multiple payment gateways.
- Flexibility to accept or ignore erotic ads.
- Supports multiple ad formats, including text ads, native ads, banner ads, in-page push, and popunder ads.
- 24/7 customer support from expert managers to help you get started, improve, and make money with ads.
- Support diverse website niches, including gambling, games, dating, and others.
- Provides clean and safe ad codes.
Google AdSense is also a popular ad network for publishers, but it has a lot of rules and restrictions for website owners and bloggers. Moreover, the support for all website niches isn’t available.
Also Read: Top 16 Google AdSense Alternatives to Monetize in 2025
1.3 Programmatic Advertising
In programmatic advertising, advertisers place real-time bidding to buy ad space through an ad exchange. (An ad exchange is a marketplace that connects DSPs and SSPs for real-time bidding.)
It’s a real-time auction that takes place on the publisher’s website to place the highest ad bid within milliseconds using automated methods to target a specific audience.
This ad monetization method is good for publishers who receive high-quality traffic and have a loyal user base. However, the risks of ad fraud and ineffective ad placement are too high with programmatic advertising.
1.4 Ad Mediation Platform
An ad mediation platform connects publishers with multiple ad networks to run an auction for the ad inventory simultaneously. Although publishers can select the highest bid value in real-time, it has several drawbacks.
For instance, publishers have to share a percentage of their display ad money with the platform, and it’s a little technical and time-consuming to set up the platform.
1.5 In-House Ad Tech
The in-house ad tech option is used by publishers when they want to build an ad platform for their business, rather than using a third-party ad network or tool to manage ad operations and sensitive data.
This method is not suitable for all website owners and bloggers, as it requires hiring a developer or an in-house tech team for ad network development — a process that is both expensive and time-consuming. The in-house ad tech is a complex ad monetization method and is mostly used by big firms like Facebook and Amazon.
2. Use High-Performing Ad Formats
To make money with display ads, you just can’t throw ads at your audience without identifying their behavior and preferences.
Each audience resonates differently with different ad formats. For instance, Gen Z prefers interactive and more personalized display ad formats like video and native ads, as these ad formats try to connect with the emotions and blend naturally within the content.
3. Audit Ad Placement
Don’t randomly place ads on your website if you want to generate more revenue via ads. You need to strategically decide where to place the ads to make them more viewable and capture users’ attention.
Placing ads above the first fold, at the bottom, within the content to blend naturally, and sticking to the sidebar to stay within the eyesight of the users are more profitable options. Keep experimenting to determine the best placement for your ads.
4. Choose the Pricing Model
Select your display advertising revenue model.
- Cost Per Click (CPC): Publishers earn money every time a user clicks on the ad. Best suited for niche blogging sites like tech and finance.
- Cost Per Action (CPA): Also known as Cost Per Acquisition. In this model, publishers earn money for a specific action, such as a sign-up, purchase, or download, specified by the advertiser. Ideal for websites with high traffic and a loyal reader base that trusts your recommendations and frequently makes purchases, such as a coupon or affiliate website.
- Revenue Per Mille (RPM): Publishers use RPM when they want to earn revenue per 1000 page views on the site. Ideal for blogging websites that produce high-quality SEO-friendly content, such as educational, lifestyle, and travel websites.
5. Monitor and Optimize
In intervals, monitor ad performance and make required changes to increase ad network earnings. Check which display ad formats are generating more revenue, which ad placement is attracting more users, and whether there is any ad that isn’t converting. This helps you decide where you need to optimize for better ad monetization.
6. Work on Enhancing Website Traffic
To make money with display ads, you need to be receiving a good amount of traffic, and for that, you need to consistently produce high-quality SEO-rich content for your audience. Display ads for publishers can generate sustainable income if they know how to provide real value through their content.
Use human-generated phrases, create a cluster of content, interlink them, and satisfy user intent and relevance to make money with ads.
Also Read: SEO Mistakes: Common SEO Issues & How to Fix Them
Tips to Enhance Display Ads Revenue
These are the expert tips for website owners and bloggers to improve their display ad revenue.
- Don’t rely on a single display ad format; instead, use a combination of formats to determine which one captures and converts the most users.
- Use your in-house data to understand your target audience’s demographics, behavior, and preferences.
- Adhere to legal terms and policies to maintain users’ trust and avoid penalties. Let your audience know what data you are collecting and for what purpose you are going to use that, and adopt privacy-first strategies.
- With the rise in mobile searches and mobile apps, it becomes necessary to optimize ads across different platforms.
- Show ads based on your niche and audience preference, as personalized ads convert more effectively than generic ones.
- Always place ads strategically and not randomly.
- Blend ads naturally into the content to make them more engaging and converting.
- Use festive ads for seasonal optimization.
Time to Make Money With Display Ads
After knowing how you can make money with display ads, it’s time to uncover the ad monetization platforms or to say the ad networks, using which you can sell your ad space and generate passive income. To help you get started, we’ve prepared a list of top-performing ad networks you can consider to monetize your website.
Read the post: 16 Best Ad Networks for Publishers: How to Maximize Earnings in 2025.
You can either review the list or choose to monetize your website with 7SearchPPC. The ad network has a simple and easy-to-use dashboard with robust functionalities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to combine other monetization models along with display ads?
Ans. Yes, website owners can combine other monetization methods, such as affiliate marketing, subscriptions, sponsorships, donations, and even sell digital and physical products and services, along with display ads.
I’ve just started my website. Can I make money with ads?
Ans. Whether you’ve been in the industry for years or just started your website, anyone can monetize using display ads. Ad networks like 7SearchPPC allow you to register as a publisher and monetize via ads without a minimum traffic requirement.
Do bloggers make money with display ads?
Ans. Yes, there are bloggers who’re generating a good amount of passive income by displaying niche and audience-specific ads, and some have even turned it into the main source of income.
What types of websites can make money with ads?
Irrespective of the type and size of the website, anyone can leverage display ads to generate passive income.
Does showing ads affect website speed and performance?
Ans. Yes, displaying too many aggressive ads can negatively impact website speed and performance. Strive to strike a balance that enables you to make money from ads while keeping users engaged on your website.
