A sports prediction site loses revenue when users are confronted with pages overloaded with ads. The solution was simple: an exclusive partnership with HilltopAds and a single, well-placed MultiTag Banner generated $1,600 in just two weeks without cluttering the interface. The article dives into how minimalist advertising, strategic banner placement, and GEO-based optimization can turn traffic into steady revenue while maintaining audience loyalty.
Sports prediction audiences are loyal but impatient: they open the page for numbers, not eight blinking banners.
If you’ve visited enough betting and prediction sites, you know the pattern – autoplay videos, overlapping popups, page jumps every time a new banner loads – and while users hate it, many publishers still think that’s the only way to earn.
This site refused to play that game: in September 2025 the owner connected HilltopAds’ MultiTag Banner, kept only a few discreet placements and stayed exclusive with HilltopAds – one lightweight tag, low ad pressure and clear, transparent stats that turned into $1,600 in just 2 weeks. Interested? 😉
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About the Publisher & Site
This publisher runs a sports betting forecasts website, offering daily predictions and results for its audience. According to Similarweb (August 2025), the site gets around 1.7M monthly visits, with users viewing an average of 3.38 pages per visit and staying for almost five minutes per session (00:04:59).
The 44.76% bounce rate shows that visitors don’t just bounce after one page – they stick around to explore multiple predictions. Most of the traffic comes from South Asia and beyond, with India accounting for more than half of all visits and meaningful volumes from Pakistan, the United States, the UAE and the United Kingdom.
The Challenge
Monetization vs. user experience – that was the balancing act. The publisher wanted to earn from the site’s traffic without overwhelming users with ads.
Given the predictive content, users often visit daily; too many ads or intrusive formats could drive them away. The publisher also made a strategic choice to work exclusively with a single ad network (HilltopAds) rather than juggle multiple platforms.
The goal was simplicity and performance: one reliable partner to optimize fill rates and eCPMs, and a lean ad layout that wouldn’t clutter the site.
Past experience and industry wisdom suggested that plastering pages with ads can backfire – e.g., stuffing 20 banners on one page only creates clutter and frustrates visitors. The challenge was clear: monetize effectively while maintaining a clean, user-friendly site.
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Solution – Multitag banner from HilltopAds
After reviewing different monetization options together, the publisher chose to rely on our MultiTag Banner and a very clear strategy: one ad network, one main format, low ad density.
Here’s what we did:
Connected MultiTag Banner under the mainstream traffic category
The site’s content is mainstream sports predictions, so we configured MultiTag specifically for mainstream traffic to match campaigns and bids to the audience.
Kept the ad load deliberately low
In practice, that meant one banner slot per page plus a gently capped Popunder. The Popunder runs with strict frequency limits, so a large part of the audience never sees it at all.
Went fully exclusive with HilltopAds
The publisher turned off all other networks and gave us 100% of their inventory, which let our optimization work across every impression instead of fighting with other tags on the page.
Used one universal JavaScript tag for everything
Our MultiTag Banner provides a single JS snippet that automatically adapts to all devices, OS and languages. For a site with a wide GEO mix this is critical: the same tag serves correctly on Android in India and on desktop in the UK, with no extra setup.
Natali
HilltopAds Senior Publisher Manager
Our MultiTag formats are adapted for all device types, operating systems, and languages. Modern ads shouldn’t feel like something foreign on a website – and MultiTag lets them become a natural part of the experience without sacrificing revenue.
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Because MultiTag is designed to be clean and non-intrusive, the banners sit naturally inside the layout, and the tightly limited Popunder doesn’t disrupt reading.
Users can choose to interact with ads or simply ignore them and continue with the content. For this publisher, that was exactly the balance they were looking for: effective website monetization with HilltopAds, without turning the site into an ad jungle.
SetUp & Tactics
After joining HilltopAds in September 2025, the publisher swiftly set up MultiTag Banner on the site. The integration was straightforward: a small JavaScript snippet placed in the site’s header. Key configuration tactics included:
Global coverage with smart targeting
The site drew visitors from around the world (with a focus on India and other South Asian countries), so they did not exclude any GEOs. HilltopAds optimized the bids automatically per region, taking advantage of higher CPMs in certain countries.
Placement & visibility
The MultiTag Banner was placed in a high-visibility spot on pages where users spend the most time (e.g. near the top of prediction result pages). This ensured strong viewability for the banner ads without needing multiple ad units.
Natali
HilltopAds Senior Publisher Manager
To make ads feel like part of the content, you need to think in advance about where and what exactly you will place. It’s always better to have a clear plan for ad formats and sizes already at the layout stage of the site.
Frequency capping for pops
To boost revenue, a Popunder was enabled via MultiTag, but capped at 1 per user per hour (or less).
This tactic, recommended by HilltopAds, prevents annoyance while still capturing extra earnings from users who don’t mind an occasional pop. Many users might never see a pop at all, but those who do won’t see another for a long while.
Natali
HilltopAds Senior Publisher Manager
Through their account manager, a webmaster can set limits and define how many times a user should interact with ads. That’s how you keep ad pressure under control.
Bid strategy
Rather than manual bidding, the publisher relied on HilltopAds’ auto-optimization. With an exclusive partnership, the network’s algorithm optimizes eCPM in real time, leveraging the site’s steady organic traffic. This hands-off approach meant less micromanagement and more time focusing on content.
Ad content alignment
Because the site’s theme is sports predictions (which overlaps with lottery and iGaming audiences), the ads served were largely from relevant verticals – think sports betting offers, lottery games, finance apps, etc., matching what visitors are likely to expect or find interesting. This relevance likely improved the click-through rate and ensured the ads felt more like useful offers than distractions.
Natali
HilltopAds Senior Publisher Manager
For reading-focused sites like one offering forecasts, Banner MultiTag is the calmest, most non-intrusive option.
It fits the content and doesn’t disturb the user while they’re reading. For movie sites I’d rather recommend In-Page or Slider MultiTag – they’re bright and very clickable.
Notably, the publisher started small, monitoring performance closely in the first days, and saw no need to increase ad density or add other networks, as the MultiTag Banner alone was performing well out of the gate.
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Performance & Key metrics
The results speak for themselves. In the first 2 weeks of running HilltopAds MultiTag Banner, the site earned approximately $1,600 in revenue. This came from a huge volume of impressions and solid engagement:
Impressions
Roughly 12.6 million ad impressions were served over the two-week period (about 6.3M per week on average). The lion’s share of these came from the site’s massive Indian user base – for instance, in one representative week, India contributed 6.1 million impressions on its own, with smaller but significant volumes from other countries.
Clicks & CTR
The ads garnered on the order of 120,000 clicks in 2 weeks, translating to a healthy CTR around 0.9% overall. Users were clearly responsive to the well-placed, relevant ads.
India alone saw about 58,000 ad clicks in a week, reflecting how a non-intrusive banner can still attract attention from an interested audience.
Many secondary GEOs had lower impression counts but higher click propensity – e.g. the UK yielded a 0.58% CTR (60 clicks on 10.4k impressions) and other smaller markets showed similar engagement rates.
CPM and revenue per country
The average eCPM (earnings per thousand impressions) across all traffic came out to roughly $0.13.
Some regions performed above this average – for example, the United Kingdom saw about $0.61 CPM on its impressions, and the United Arab Emirates about $0.058 CPM – reflecting higher advertiser payouts for those geos.
Meanwhile, India’s huge volume brought in a sizeable portion of revenue at a lower CPM (~$0.11).
eCPC
In our HilltopAds dashboard we also show earnings per 1,000 clicks, which gives a clear view of the average CPC. In this case, the overall Click CPM hovered around $13-14, so the site was earning roughly $0.013 per ad click on average.
Clicks from premium GEOs were worth significantly more – for example, the UK reached a Click CPM of $106+ (each click bringing in about $0.10+), while India showed a Click CPM of around $11.44 (about $0.011 per click).
These insights in our stats helped the publisher see the real value of each click by country and confirmed the decision to keep the traffic open to a worldwide audience.
Total earnings
In just 14 days, the site generated around $1.6k with HilltopAds – a substantial boost to the publisher’s bottom line.
By the end of the second week, we already had these earnings accumulated and ready for payout, as we process payments on a weekly basis.
In the first payout cycles, the publisher withdrew $870+ covering part of that period, with the remaining ~$800 sent in the next weekly payout – a clear sign of how quickly their traffic with us turned into real, withdrawable income.
Overall, these metrics highlight a successful start: strong fill rates, decent CPM for a mainstream content site, and a very engaged audience.
The MultiTag Banner delivered both volume and quality – millions of ad impressions at a user-friendly CPM, and tens of thousands of clicks without resorting to aggressive advertising.
It’s also worth noting that there were no reports of site slowdowns or user complaints during this period. The MultiTag script is lightweight and runs asynchronously, so site speed remained unaffected (as Natali points out, being JavaScript-based means it doesn’t bog down load times).
The publisher could thus monetize website freely without worrying about harming the user experience that made the site popular in the first place.
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Why this worked – Analysis
Why did this monetization setup perform so well? From our side at HilltopAds, there are a few key reasons any publisher can learn from:
Exclusive partnership & focus
Because this site chose to work exclusively with HilltopAds, we could optimize all of their impressions in one place. We didn’t have to compete with other networks’ scripts or split traffic, which often hurts both fill rate and eCPM.
With 100% of the inventory, our demand and algorithms had room to fully scale, and the results showed it – higher revenue and much simpler management for the publisher.
Natali
HilltopAds Senior Publisher Manager
It’s always better to work with one ad network. It simplifies integration, makes optimization much easier and, in the end, usually leads to higher overall revenue.
Thoughtful ad placement (user-first design)
Together with the publisher, we kept ad density minimal and strategic. Ad slots were planned into the site layout from the start, so units appeared where users naturally pay attention, but never in a way that overwhelms them.
One MultiTag Banner per page meant the content stayed in the spotlight, and users weren’t bombarded with creatives. That balance kept trust and engagement high – users didn’t rush to install ad blockers or abandon the site.
Format aligned with content type
We deliberately focused on Banner MultiTag for this project because it fits a prediction/news-style site perfectly. It’s a calm, non-intrusive format that serves relevant banner ads in-line, with only a polite, tightly capped Popunder in the background.
Since the offers matched what the audience cares about (sports betting, gaming, finance, etc.), ads felt more like relevant options than spam – which translated into a strong CTR without annoying readers.
High traffic + our optimization
The site already had strong, mostly organic traffic – that was half the job done. Our role was to turn that traffic into predictable revenue.
With our optimization and diverse advertiser pool, even the massive Indian volume was monetized at a solid CPM, while smaller pockets of Tier 1 traffic (US, UK, etc.) delivered premium rates.
Our system automatically adjusted bids by GEO and format, so the publisher squeezed maximum value out of every visit without manual tweaking.
Fast, seamless ad experience
On the technical side, MultiTag is built not to get in the user’s way. Ads load asynchronously and are cached, and we enforce a strict one Popunder per user per hour rule to keep the experience smooth.
Session lengths of around five minutes showed that monetization did not scare users off. In practice, that’s the virtuous cycle we aim for: good UX supports traffic growth, and growing traffic amplifies revenue.
Read our recently published article on CPA marketing.
What Publishers can take Away – and How to Start
This case shows that you don’t need a noisy, over-complicated setup to make real money from traffic. A few practical lessons any publisher can apply:
Keep your setup simple and light
A small number of well-placed units will usually beat a cluttered page – both in revenue and user satisfaction.
Match the format to your content
If your site is reading-focused (articles, predictions, news), Banner MultiTag is a calm, non-intrusive option that doesn’t break the user’s flow.
Control ad pressure
Plan placements early and use frequency caps so users see ads, not aggression.
Watch performance by GEO
Use HilltopAds stats (CPM and Click CPM by country) to see where your traffic is most valuable and adjust your content or promotion strategy accordingly.
If you run a website – whether it’s sports predictions or any other mainstream content – and want similar results, it’s a good moment to try MultiTag with us.
Our team can help you choose the right formats, set sensible limits and get your first revenue insights quickly.
Ready to see what MultiTag can do for your site?
Request a demo with our team, or sign up as a HilltopAds publisher and plug in MultiTag in just a few minutes. We’ll be there to help you turn your traffic into predictable, long-term revenue.