Bidvertiser Secrets – Optimize your Bidvertiser ads for better CPC and CTR
Ajith | Jul 2008 | About Online Ads, Product Reviews
Bidvertiser has been the main PPC ad program on this blog ever since my Google account started misbehaving. Initially, my Bidvertiser ads were giving only 7 or 8 cents per click and the click through rate (CTR) was very poor as well when compared to my Google AdSense experience. 
With a couple month long experiments, though, now I have reached a point where the average CPC is as high as 21 (individual clicks up to $0.48 so far). In this post, I would like to share some tips based on what I did to optimize my Bidvertiser ads.
Improving the CTR (Click-Through-Rate)
It is true that the bidvertiser ads do not look as elegant as their AdSense counter parts. I always thought that the Google AdSense ads somehow entice the readers to click on them where as Bidvertiser stock templates are a little bit repulsive. So our first aim is to fix this problem.
Fortunately, Bidvertiser ads can be customized in terms of font face and size and not just colors as in the case of AdSense. For the best results, you need to make sure that your Bidvertiser ads blend so nicely with your content by picking the right fonts and sizes [
].
The next step is to select the right ad size. The beauty with Bidvertiser, again, is that they allow ad blocks or random sizes to make them fit the best possible way. So always choose the Free Design template option [] and specify the ad block’s width and height in a way that it just fits your ad requirements and available space. Even if you want to choose stock sizes, designing them in the Free Design mode may give you better fitting ads. The dimension I have chosen for my square ad block is 200×180 and that for the mini-tower being 160×300.
The popular wide skyscraper block (160×600) – at least for me – has not yielded the same results for me as my 160×300 custom block. Remember, this is one of the highest yielding ad block size for Google AdSense. Another reason not to go for a wide skyscraper for Bidvertiser [] ads is that, sometimes when the fill-rate is low, it shows a bunch of “Your Ad Here For Free” blocks which is really ugly looking.
Improving the earnings per click (CPC)
One of the campaigns against Bidvertiser is that the earnings per click or CPC rate is very low. This is a definite issue as long as you are not properly customizing your ads. Let me explain to you what I did in this regard which boosted my average CPC from 7, in the initial stages, to 21 cents per click as of today.
Choosing the right categories: When you add a domain under your Bidvertiser publisher account choosing the right main and sub categories is a very important step []. For example, under the Computer & Internet main category, there are subcategories such as Home Business & Get Paid To Surf/Read, Advertising, Marketing & SEO, Webmasters & Blogging Resources etc. Unfortunately, you can only pick one of those sub-categories although your blog must be dealing with a mix of all. In my case, I chose Home Business & Get Paid To Surf/Read which is working well as far as the ads go, though, I deal with other sub topics as well in this blog. Once the main category and subcategory are selected, there is no way a publisher can change this without deleting the domain and getting it approved again. So as a publisher you have to be careful here.
Ad filtering mode: Using the Preferences option there is a possibility to manually approve ads. For the best results, you should choose the manual approval option []. This option comes with the additional burden of having to approve new ads manually, but it’s worth that effort.
How to manually select the best paying ads?
Once you have set up your Bidvertiser for a new domain and manual approval option selected, you 
could go to the Ad Status tab and manually approve all the ads there that are above a particular Max bid value, say $0.25. This one time effort can take as long as 5-6 minutes. Subsequently, on a regular basis (say once in two days or so) you need to log on to your Bidvertiser account and approve any new ads [] that are available based on your criteria.
The following is the strategy that I use to approve ads:
- All ads with the highest bid of a minimum $0.25 is approved blindly regardless of the geographic regions
- If there are ads specifically geo-targeting countries like India, Pakistan, China and certain East European or African nations, I approve them even if the highest bid is only $0.05. If you do not do this, the fill rate is going to be low for those regions []
- However, if there are higher bids (than $0.05 covering the above geographic regions) then you don’t need to necessarily choose ads with such low bids. Please note that, despite all these optimizations you might still fill-rate issues at times
- Understand (from your Google Analytics or Alexa statistics) which all countries you get more traffic from and select the ads with best bids for those locations
It is only a matter of time, before you get used to this approval process and learn on the fly how CPC can be improved. Depending on the fill rate, you may choose not to approve ads on a daily basis but move towards a weekly cycle or so.
Other tips
- Referral program: Bidvertiser has one of the best publisher & advertiser referral schemes among the CPC ad networks. Basically you will earn $5 when your referred publisher earns $10 and an additional $40 when he earns $50. The click through rate for their banners is pretty high as well and hence use referral banners for maximum returns []
- Avoid putting more than one Bidvertiser ad block per page as there is a very high chance of repeated ads being displayed.
- Avoid Bidvertiser for feed ads as my initial experiments did not yield much from the feed ads despite having a decent number of feed subscriptions
If you are not yet a Bidvertiser publisher, you might want to sign up now! Also consider the Bidvertiser FREE advertising options for your blog or website as mentioned in one of my older posts.
Hope these tips are useful to you to optimize your Bidvertiser returns. Please provide your comments on this post and feel free to bookmark the same so that it can be useful for others as well.
Happy money making with Bidvertiser!
Hey, I was using bidvertiser for one of my blog around one & half years ago. I had a really bad experiance with it interms of CPC. So, after that I never thought of experimenting it for other blogs. They might have done some improvements over time. But, Currently as I am running Adsense ads on my blog, It won’t be possible for me to test other content based ad networks as it will be a violation of the adsense publisher policy. This is the only bad thing about Adsense which I dont like.
Pras, you can use Bidvertiser along with AdSense on the same page provided you are demarcating them clearly and use slightly different color scheme!
So go ahead, use both
Still its highly risky. Adsense is bit strict on their policies. They suspended one of my friends account for using adsense with some other content based ad network.
Ajith.. Please clear it out, is that true, If we are using bitvertiser and adsense in same page will adsense suspend our account
Nav, this is what experts from AdSense help forums say:
AdSense help link 1
AdSense help link 2
Basically, AdSense and Bidvertiser ads can appear on the same page but they must not look similar! Another thing, Google Adsense is a pure contextual network – which means that the contents of your page is crawled and according to that the ads are rendered. Bidvertiser is not purely contextual. They serve ads based on your category selection. So it’s completely safe to use both together as long as they are demarcated and look different.
Cheers,
Ajith
thanks for the tips, i am thinking to put bidvertiser on my blog. but i wonder will i make any with blogs such as mine
Hey you should try Bidvertiser though it’s definitely not as appealing as AdSense. I am also planning to do an Adbrite experiment for a month and then AdSense once again to make a comparison of all these CPC programs for a 1 month period.
Cheers,
Ajith
Hahaha, I tried to deny all the ads under $.20 and apparently they have no other ads that fit my category because all i get now is the ugly, “You’re ad here free”
Still, great guide, I’ll keep playing around with bidvertiser, its my only hope since being Adsense banned and YPN terminated
@Andrew, it’s a trial and error thing. The following should be the aim.
- For ads with only US, CANADA, UK, AUSTRALIA targetted, choose your cut-off as something like $0.25
- If nothing is mentioned as geographic target, you may even opt for a higher cut off like $0.50 or more as these ads will be more or less displayed everywhere
- If you are not seeing enough ads from your access location, reduce your cut-off rate
- Connect via a proxy server or WTS and check whether visit from different countries (as the proxy) are getting good fill rate. This check is required for many ad program to be successful
- One problem with Bidvertiser is that even when ads are available to display, they show their stupid ad – that too not just in one ad line, but probably all lines in the particular slot
Hope this helps. I am taking a break from bidvertiser this month and put back Google AdSense. More than the immediate revenue, I am interested in comparing CPC programs with all optimizations done
In another month, I would try Adbrite.
Cheers,
Ajith
Hey, thanks for the reply.
I had forgotten that when I clicked “Manually approve all ads” it reset my settings, and that’s what caused them all to reset.
Let me know how your research with other CPC companies goes. I’ve only had experience with Adsense, YPN, Chitika (hated it), and Bidvertiser (still bleh so far).
I’ll post any updates here as I’ve subscribed for followup comments to be sent to my email
bidvertiser is a scam
@Gabriel, Bidvertiser is not a scam – It’s one of the top three CPC networks after Google AdSense. Their auditing is strict but transparent. For example, Google bans you rightaway in case of fraud clicks/click bombing while Bidvertiser first sends you warning mail and only if issues persist they ban you. Also, there is a month end auditing of your clicks before approving them and to arrive at the final payment.
Though AdSense still have the best CTR and earnings per click, Bidvertiser is not too bad either. I ran Bidvertiser for a couple of weeks July (at the time of this post) but got on an average of ~20 cents per click. I am attaching the payment proof for the same here. It’s not scam!
Hi Ajith! thanks for this nice post. sometimes google adsense displays the public service ads, and that is very annoying when they are not matching to your contents, however, bidvertiser ads give you the full control over the ads which are displayed on your blog or site. thanks again, and keep posting such stuff. I’ve subscribed your RSS feeds.
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@Akhil, thanks for your visit and subscription. As you said, Bidvertiser provides greater control on what to display, but definitely AdSense CTR and earnings is a dash better. I keep switching between the two to continuously compare.
As for the public service ads, sometimes if your content length (per post) is too high or the number of posts on the ad page is high, they display public service ads. Sometimes it is even due to a post with potentially foul language (one or two words may be). If the problem persists you could hide the posts one by one and verify that the public service ads go away.
Cheers,
Ajith
They didnt warn me but banned me immediatly, very unfriendly. I only ran bidvertiser for two days, 1million+ impressions. I am pretty sure I didnt do anything wrong, I do this for a living.
Very unfriendly how they handle big publishers like they are nothing. I wouldnt recommend them at all, their CPC was very bad anyways. I wonder if I get paid…
I still get the ad like “Your ad here for free”
@LP, that’s strange… usually one should get the warning mails first and only if you continue doing mischief
they will ban you…
@Downloadic, it keeps happening with Bidvertiser. However, if you optimize the way I mentioned, the low fill rate can be still compensated with high rate clicks
i want traffic to my site, please help me
http://www.pagerankplace.com
bidvertiser never worked for me but i gotta say after reading this post im going to try it again
thanks alot
@spidro, you are welcome and good luck… You can make more money from bidvertiser by signing up a few subscribers or advertisers under your account. Their affiliate program is decent as well
Hi. Tnx for the info. I just signed up for Bidvertiser…gona find out what’s gona happen soon.
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Hey there, I cannot figure out how to get more ad code into the area “Get Ad Code”? How can I get more code in there, instead of just the 1 bit of code that Bidvertiser gives you at the start?
@Pat, What did you mean by ‘getting more ad code’? Did you mean one more block of ads for your site? If so you have to use ‘Add new BidVertiser’ option under the tab PUBLISHER CENTER -> Manage BidVertisers. You have to select your domain and then add the block.
Hope this helps
Thanks for the tips.. I just now registered with bidvertiser.. let me give it a try.
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Thanks It s great info for my website fashionhub.co.nr I am using both the ads but on different pages. I hope thats ok.
My experience with :
- Adsense : got banned (invalid clicks),too strict
- Adbrite : less than $ 1 after 1 year
- Bidvertiser : problem with fill rate.All websites approved
- Clicksor : they have pop up ads,but they filter the websites.
Please visit My Website, anjinghybrid that tell about dogs, i put bidvertiser ads on it and removed another ads
I hope the informations may help.
@temmy, well good summary
As I maintained, the best option is always AdSense and the second best Bidvertiser, considering referral income as well, if you use it judiciously.
SCAM WARNING!!!!! Do not give Bidvertiser your bank account details, they have taken large amounts of money from my bank without notice or permission. Their phone support goes unanswered and no e-mail response. If you have given Bidvertiser your bank card details then I strongly suggest that you cancel that card immediately! Bidvertiser are nothing more than a common thief!!!!
@voodoo, if you have opted for PPC advertising with Bidvertiser and if you don’t fix and follow up on your daily spending, they will definitely keep charging for the service. But nobody will withdraw money from your bank account or card or PayPal if you are having only a publisher account.
It would have been great if you provided your contact details (URL) etc where you used Bidvertiser and lost money. Defaming a service or person publicly without having any grounds will not do any good to anybody. On the other hand it can only adversely affect you, if you are a competitor
Thanks for the information, I have just started using bidvertiser, i will try the tricks the suggested above.
Nice Information, Will give it a shot, However highest for a click 0.48 is not impressive as Adsesne Pays a $ Generally Many a times, have heard some Guys getting 40 $ for a click too (In Adsense) , still i’ll give it a shot
@Priyank, definitely AdSense pays a lot more
These days their approval process is very strict and the earnings per click has gone down drastically as well.
hello,
This comment to all let you know, if your beginner eager to earn money online, I recommend only adsense & adbrite.
Never bidvertiser at all.They are cheating & fraud. Here is my experience.
I open bidvertiser publisher acccount, the ads doesn’t show at all expect few days.There is no good clicks.
They have given me 20$ free credit in advertiser account. So I used that free credit, after started using advertiser account, ads were showing up in my website. So I thought I will get good click through rate in publisher account.
When it reached around $10,I paused my ads in advertiser account.After that I got automated mails from them everyday,that you paused your ads .So I once again activated my ads in advertiser account.
But they never send me any single mail, that my free credit in advertiser account is finished and I will be charged.So they charged me around $187 without my knowledge. They charged me $42 every week. If you dont look at the advertiser account very detail, you cannot able find out, because you may think it is free credit still there.
So in summary, no single mail from them when your are charged. But they send mail, when you pause or delete ad.
Bidvertiser is really big scam company!!!!
@Suresh, any advertiser accounts (even Google AdWords) will rip you off if you are not careful and monitor the daily outflow. And you are right about the automdated mail that shows that your ads are on pause.
However, I disagree with you on the statement that it’s a scam company. It’s a properly run online ad company and is placed next to AdSense – not in size and business volume. As for AdBrite, I have used it and haven’t seen it to be more effective than Bidvertiser…moreover, you never know what kind of rated ads they will push to your blog.
During recession times, what I have noticed is that even AdSense clicks are not earning as much as they used to. However, I must emphasize on my previous statement that AdSense is still the leader and the automatic first choice…
gud post dude!!
not working gud for me……always showing me “Your ad here” ..i experienced a day gud for me. got some ads on that day ..after that same problem repeating….can anybody suggest me ..??
Hey.. i am using bidvertiser & adbrite both but on both of them ads are not showing here in india.. what should i do.. Please help me its very urgent
@Jayz, @Pushkar, with the recession on almost everyone is seeing more and more of those ‘Your Ad Here’ stuff…especially countries other than US/Canada. Hope things will improve soon.
[...] is one of the things that Bidvertiser supports whereby the publishers have the option of designing a custom ad block (you get to choose [...]
can I monitize my blog with both adbrite and bidvertiser…..?
You can… as long as the ad blocks look slightly different frome each other in terms of font, color etc. Most ad network ToS only talk about how can they be used with other networks via change in appearance.
First I use adbrite but after 3rd and 4th days same msg display Your ad here….I did contant to support but no solution and after that I use Bidvertiser but in my home page I use three block which is totally different in view means a vertical, a horizental, and a free design by 240*190 the problem is that are all show same adds. Is this by same colour…or if u have any sol. then please reply me? chek it…..
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Bidvertiser shows ads on my site occasionally! what to do!
I am currently experimenting with Bidvertiser, because adsense stopped working. I have a rather large number of visitors a day, but CPC and CTR is extremely low.
Dear All\
Please help me. I am new to bitvertiser… I have many visitors and conatcts who dies impressions and clicks for my ads and the click do not update. Impressions are updated… When they click on the ads I am not paid? Can anyone help me please
hey i have added.. bidvertiser on my blog…
but now its not showing adds…
please help….
it always shows your add here for free
but last week it was fine showing propper adds
now i am screwed
plx help
thanx
My experience with bidvertiser too has been a bad one…..using them from around 1 mnth nw……will try modifying the way you mentioned……
thnks a lot…..:)….
hello
I use bigvertiser on my blog but i didnt get clicks as per my expectation .so can i use trffic exchange to increase the traffic.kindly guide us
@Folks, many times the ad fill rate in countries like India will be low due to low targetted bidding and hence ‘Your Ad Here’. Even otherwise, probably bidvertiser may not be doing all that great at the moment as compared to the time of writing this post.
@m, traffic exchange is not anything good to increase your earnings. You need to get search engine traffic for any kind of conversions.