Most bloggers are familiar with placing 125×125 ads in their sidebar, and may even sprinkle a few ads within a post or above the header. Placing them all can sometimes become an unmanageable mess, especially when some of the ads use javascript code, some use flash, and some are straight HTML.
Want to display a different type of ad in the same spot, randomly, with each page load? The mess intensifies at that point.
The Big Ad Management Possibilities
I’ve tried some of the bigger ad management programs such as OpenX and even Google’s Ad Manager, but I’ll be honest with you – they were too confusing for me to manage. Those types of programs are probably necessary for the hugely popular blogs, but I think they might be overkill for the average blogger.
The One-Note, Too Simple Ad Plugins
Many other plugins I tried were too simple, on the other hand. Most work pretty well for just plain old 125×125 ad blocks, where all you need is a url to link to, and a url for the ad image. But that leaves out all the other possible ads you might want to place there, such as Adsense or other javascript or flash-based ads. On the flip side, there are lots of Adsense plugins, but they often don’t allow for non-Adsense ads to rotate in the same ad spot as well.
The Ad Plugin That’s Just Right For The Average Blogger
The best one I’ve found for my needs is Datafeedr Random Ads v2. It’s completely free, and it works really well. You can set it up so that various ads can show in 1 ad group. So the first time a page loads, maybe an Adsense ad of 125×125 will appear; the next time the page loads, a flash-based 125×125 ad might appear; the next time, a straight HTML ad may appear, etc. It’s super simple to manage. You just define a placement (like sidebartop, for example), and then copy/paste the code for each ad you want to randomly rotate within that spot. It doesn’t matter if the code is javascript, or flash, or HTML.
For one of my blogs, I have 5 spots defined. Three are 125×125 spots in my sidebar. Each of those spots rotates through 5 different ads (so that’s a total of 15 ads that will display in those 3 spots over time). I also have a 468×60 banner ad spot that displays after each single post, and I have 3 different ads rotating within that spot. Finally, I have 1 300px square ad block that displays within certain categories, with 2 different ad codes rotating within that spot.
If you’d like to be able to display a mix of ads randomly, with each ad using a different type of code, then the free Datafeedr Random Ads v2 WordPress plugin might be just right for you.
Am I missing out on a better plugin? If so, be sure to let me know.