A practical guide targeting publishers to help them in selecting the right ad formats, discovering which site verticals give the highest returns, and revealing the steps that genuinely enhance CPM, based on firsthand experiences of the HilltopAds team.
Generally, publishers install their ad codes and cross their fingers. Those who manage to earn steadily do a couple of things differently: intentionally conduct tests, analyze their statistics, and contact their personal manager as a resource rather than a last resort.
In this guide, we answer the questions our team gets asked most. The answers are practical, backed by experience, and frankly describe what works and what doesn’t.
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Which ad format earns the most?
Popunder is the clear winner here: it consistently delivers the highest CPM on HilltopAds and is the format most publishers should start with.
Popunder is triggered by a click, leaves no visual mark on your page, and has strong advertiser demand in almost all GEOs. Since it does not compete with your page layout, revenue is generated without sacrificing the user experience, which is an important factor for retention and long-term traffic.
Nicolas
Publisher Manager at HilltopAds
Though ‘the highest paying format’ doesn’t imply that it is automatically the right setup for every site or that results will be the same across all publishers. CPM is also affected by GEO, traffic quality, and demand at any given time. The most effective way to determine what is working for you is to go to your Statistics tab, filter by ad format and zone, and compare actual performance on your own traffic.
Getting more from Popunder
Most publishers don’t realize this, but popunder code is even more customizable than a standard implementation assumes. A default setup usually serves as a base and shows only one way to use Popunder. Still, the reality is that there are at least a couple of possible ways to configure the behaviour of the one that could have a much greater impact on the author’s revenue.
It is good for a site that is currently making, for example, $800/month on 1.5-2 million monthly visits, which might be a reasonable baseline. But it is also a setup that one can look at more closely with the intention of changing and improving it.
Nicolas
Publisher Manager at HilltopAds
Different sites require different configurations based on their mixes, geographic distributions, traffic quality, etc.
That is why this kind of optimization is best directly handled with a personal manager rather than through trial and error.
If your popunder isn’t making you money, a quick format switch isn’t the solution. The main problem is usually implementation, and not the format itself.
Read the guide on how to monetize a website with video uploads:
What if you are not using Popunder?
Not every publisher uses Popunder, which means that if you are not using it, you might be missing out on a lot of additional revenue gain. If most of your revenue comes from banners or other display formats, it is worth giving Multitag a try.
Multitag is a complete integration that lets you include banners, Push, and other formats that fit the specific characteristics of your site. The main idea is not to add another ad, but to find the combination that best fits your traffic. We never simply connect a standard format and leave it running. The setup can be elaborated, in particular for your project.
Nicolas
Publisher Manager at HilltopAds
One note of honesty: Multitag is not something that can help a small site. On the contrary, it works best for mid-to-large sites that have a solid GEOs and consistent traffic volume.
For smaller sites or sites with audiences coming from regions that do not perform well on our network, the results may be limited. Before you spend time on the setup, your personal manager can provide you with realistic expectations.
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The format stacking trap
There is a pattern we at HilltopAds see all the time. A publisher adds every available format to his site, runs them all at the same time, and then comes back to us complaining about weak monetization. More formats are not the same as more money.
Here is the reason: HilltopAds counts unique impressions, not just impressions. So if you put several ad codes on the same page, they don’t each generate independent impressions; instead, they compete for impressions. Sometimes, codes may even interfere with one another and as a result, overall performance declines below what a single format would have delivered.
Of course, experienced webmasters can sometimes successfully run complex multi-format setups. Yet, for most publishers, it is the better way:
- begin with one format. The natural first choice is Popunder.
- get a stable baseline over at least 30 days.
- add another format (banner placement is a rational next step).
- measure the combined result before adding anything else.
- simple, sequential, and data-driven always wins against ambitious and chaotic.
Which website categories will generate the most revenue?
Certain web categories lend themselves better to display advertising, not necessarily because their content is of higher quality, but because user behaviour on these sites is more favourable for advertising. Repeat visits, longer session durations, and users who are accustomed to ads being part of the experience all contribute to the potential for bigger monetization.
Best-performing website verticals by traffic:
- Streaming and movie services
- News websites
- File sharing portals
- Sites for anime, manga, and comics
Fans of this type of content have a lot in common: they keep coming back regularly and spend a lot of time on the site. It’s this combination of prolonged user presence and returning visits that produce the largest number of ad impressions and the highest rates of advertiser targeting.
Read also about alternatives to AdSense:
Comprehensive perspective
HilltopAds partners with nearly every category of sites and has cumulatively gained expertise in monetizing different traffic types. The strategy is always personalized; there is no one-size-fits-all setup that can be applied to all niches.
In practice, if you operate a manga site, it would be wise to try both Multitag and Popunder ad formats, see which performs better, and gather user feedback to interpret raw revenue figures.
Nicolas
Publisher Manager at HilltopAds
Something else you should be aware of: if the ad format is causing some annoyance among your visitors, it does not necessarily mean you should discard it right away. In most scenarios, the annoyance can be minimized through settings by limiting the number of impressions a user sees, by modifying the conditions under which the ad is triggered, by striking the right balance between revenue and user experience. This is a discussion that you should have with your account manager rather than deciding to switch on your own.
What you can take away from this: don’t rule out your category working simply based on assumptions. The right answer is nearly always “let’s test” rather than “this won’t work.”
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How do I increase my CPM?
CPM isn’t a one-time setting you can configure once and forget about. It reacts to certain inputs – and most of them are yours.
The main levers:
Let the system learn
Experiment with your ads for at least 3 days before making a decision. CPM changes not only by the hour and day, but also by the type/quality of your incoming traffic. One of the most common and costly publisher mistakes is to abort a campaign after 24 hours.
Switch to JS code for Popunder and Popup
If you are currently using image or iframe ads, switching to JS code can increase your earnings by as much as 30%. It also gives our system more signal to work with and better access to your traffic.
If on multiple networks, place HilltopAds code first
When you are deciding which network will be the first one to have the impression, code order matters. First position means that HilltopAds can place their bids before other networks even know that inventory is available for them. So, if you are doing header bidding or a waterfall setup, this is the point where it is vital.
Focus on Tier-1 GEOs
CPM depends heavily on geography. Usually, traffic from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Australia outperforms traffic from lower-tier regions on a single-visit basis for CPM purposes. But if your GEO is leaning toward lower-value regions, your CPM will decrease. Understanding the reason for this without immediately blaming a technical issue is well worth doing.
Ensure your traffic is high-quality
Suspicious traffic, faucet traffic, incentivized traffic, and those coming from other ad networks can all cause CPM to go down. Our system continuously evaluates traffic quality, and when it receives low-quality signals, it will push your traffic into lower-activity tiers. It is the quality that counts more than the raw volume.
Why is my traffic receiving low bids?
Low bids are often the first issue publishers complain about with their managers. But usually, a low bid might indicate a problem with traffic and is worth investigating rather than just ignoring.
If our system determines that the traffic is low-quality or less responsive to ads, it is moved to a lower-activity channel. The system works on three levels: High, Medium, and Low Activity. Your traffic’s place in that hierarchy determines the bids it gets.
Some reasons for low bids:
Your traffic from GEO has shifted away from Tier 1
Most often, this causes a change. The country is a big factor for CPM. If your audience has gradually changed to lower-value GEOs, the average bid will drop as well. Check your Statistics by GEO and see the differences between recent periods.
Traffic quality has been lowered
Our system considers motivated faucet incentivized or network-sourced traffic to be of a lower quality. If you recently changed a traffic source or started running promotions to attract lower-intent users, you will see it reflected in your bid levels.
Fraud or bot-like activity has been detected
Traffic that is not completely blocked might still get flagged and sent to a lower priority. This can happen even if there are no obvious signs on your end. If you have already excluded GEO and quality issues and still see that bids are lower than expected, it is time to bring that point to your personal manager’s attention for a thorough inspection.
What to do:
Give your ads a 3 days run when you make changes
That will allow our system to re-analyze and re-optimize the traffic. First results after a change can be very misleading.
Get real, pure, and exclusive traffic
Do not even think about approaching prohibited traffic types. To make sure a source is good, check before using it, not after.
Get in touch with your personal manager
If you are done with all of the items on the list and bids are still low, there might be something unique and specific to your setup that needs a direct look. Low bids that persist after clean traffic and adequate runtime are worth being escalated.
We also recommend reading the successful cases of our publishers on monetization through HilltopAds:
Closing: the one thing that makes the biggest difference
Everything in the guide points to one fundamental truth: there is no universal setup that suits all sites equally.
The defining factors are GEO, traffic quality, site category, and user behaviour that determine what one can do. So, the top-earning publishers are not the ones with the highest traffic; in fact, they are the ones who systematically test, honestly analyze their statistics, and maintain communication with their personal manager rather than trying to troubleshoot alone.
Your personal manager is a valuable resource. They work with many publishers and see patterns that are not visible from a single account. They know which GEOs are trending, which setups are working for similar sites, and where to find optimization opportunities. That kind of hands-on, daily experience doesn’t show up in any guide.
Start a conversation with your manager if a feature is not performing as expected. Not on HilltopAds yet? Sign up as a publisher and your personal manager will reach out to help you get started.