On September 9th, 2022, we decided to place Google Ads into three places: this blog site you're currently reading, BINUS Today, as well as our recently-launched Reinhart Maps (formerly Open in Maps...).
So, it's almost been 2 months since we've placed these ads. And the truth is, we only earned $0.5 (USD) for running ads last month.
Well, that's still great compared to just around 3 cents from the previous month. This is way below the monthly, operational costs of our servers. And it can't even beat my Niagahoster's $7.5-a-mo shared hosting and DigitalOcean's $12-a-mo VPS bills to run our websites. Or a whopping $99-a-year Apple Developer Program subscription, which I've already paid mid-2022.
And of course, after some consideration (especially for user experience reasons), today, we decided to limit how ads will be served our website. TL;DR:
- We decided to disable Auto Ads for all of our websites
- We decided to only serve ads manually, like this👇
We decided to serve these ads manually, and all thanks to WordPress' Reusable Blocks feature. Even though that now we have to painstakingly place these ads (usually before headlines), we now have the freedom to place ads more strategically, and even disabling ads on certain pages (such as the home page)!
Questions
Oh, I heard you love asking questions. Well...
1. Why choose Google Ads over existing platforms?
First thing first, we already have a blocklist consisting four advertising platforms: MGID, Mintegral, Outbrain, and Taboola. Because, from the perspective of Indonesian audience, many advertisers choose these platforms to show ads which I consider as clickbait and misleading content.
Like, check out Kompas.com, an Indonesian news portal, and some MGID ads.
They're putting a disclaimer that they don't own these fake headlines, like "The price of this sofa may surprise you"? What's wrong with the ad platform if, well, they don't put this kind of notice in Google Ads, for example.
2. How do you feel about online ads, as now you're placing them as well?
Online ads is all about marketing and greed. You have to increase the number of your active users/viewers where the tasty ads are served, because more active users means more ad impressions, and that also means more chances of (accidental) clicks and of course, money 🤑🤑🤑.
This is why websites and apps today have implemented "dark patterns" across their product, like intentionally make their content longer so Auto Ads can place even more ads for you. Or figuring out how to make users accidentally click the ads, so we can get higher CTR (click-through rate) and again, more money!!!
This is why, in order to be successful in terms of ad revenue, being greedy is a must. Maybe because advertising is already part of corporate greed, just like the Spam's spammy case of Spam spams, with "Spam, Spam, Spam" spams the Spam spam, hence the word "spam" as we know today.
And this is also why some hypercasual game developers, including Voodoo, intentionally blocks players with no internet connection who just want to play a game of a cup and balls. Yeah, I mean, this one.
And also, this one.
The good news is, I won't waste my life in increasing ad revenue. Either by placing ads everywhere,
3. Will you do "ad transfers" as well?
Well, for those who don't know what is an ad transfer, here's a short note about it:
Have you ever downloaded a mobile game, let's say, War of the Balls, then hooked up on an ad at War of the Balls promoting Candy Mania?
Then you decided to download Candy Mania only to find out that they do contain ads, too, referencing War of the Balls and the many other apps?
Well, it is already clear that today's mobile games are made with intentions of money, not pure entertainment. But what makes these games really interesting is, well, they seem to profit from ads only to spend for ads. (They only win through expensive, often weekly Pro or Premium subscriptions).
This isn't just the case for one or two games, or one or two game developers. But everyone is literally doing it. From the cult classic Voodoo games to innocent ones like Tetris, games are seem to made out of ads, for ads.
And this is something I personally wanted to avoid in my games. Yeah, Jackpot GBK, only if some of you really played the video game already, I'm planning to bring the game back to life with online multiplayer and so.
This "ad cycle" could be toxic for the app economy, and I have to declare for that. And this is why I wanted to be different when it comes to monetization. And sometimes, quality marketing is worth more than just throwing out bucks for online ads. After all, everyone are starting to subscribe to Premium right now?
4. Will there be "Reinhart Premium"?
No, at least for now. Even though I've opened up ways for you to support and donate through these links:
When it comes to subscriptions, I'd rather like to sell it for my high-quality products, just like those people at Todoist and WPKilat. This could be an exciting moment for everyone, so stay tuned!
