Except for e-commerce sites, the vast majority of existing websites on the web rely on ads to generate money. Some display ads from third-party networks such as Google Ads and BuySellAds. Some prefer to sell ad spots. Whichever the model you adopt, you can install an ad management plugin if your website is built with WordPress.
A WordPress ad management plugin will make it easy for you to manage ads on your website. You can, for instance, set a certain ad unit to appear only in a certain region or based on user role.
Some WordPress themes such as Divi and Newspaper come with a built-in ad management feature. However, the offered features are not as advanced as the ones offered by an ad management plugin. Ad management plugin is the best solution if you want to have the flexibility to set your ads’ behavior.
Best WordPress Ad Management Plugins
1. Advanced Ads
Looking for a free WordPress ad management plugin? If yes, then Advanced Ads is one of the best options you can choose. Advanced Ads is a feature-rich ad management plugin that you can use to display ads from third-party advertising networks such as Google Ads, BuySellAds, or other networks where you join. You can simply set up the ad units and then set the position. Advanced Ads supports ads in a wide range of formats. From JavaScript, PHP, or HTML. About the location, you can set your ads to be displayed on the single post or page, sidebar, header, anywhere.
The core of Advanced Ads is available for free. Meaning that you don’t need to spend a dime to use it. You only need to spend money to buy Advanced Ads add-ons. With Advanced Ads add-ons (available in a bundle), you will get the following advanced features:
- Cache Busting
- 7 Additional Placements
- Display Conditions
- Visitor Conditions
If you use WP Bakery page builder, you can also display ads on your WPBakery-powered page using Advanced Ads as the plugin supports integration with WPBakery (via an extension).
2. AdSanity
AdSanity is a paid WordPress ad management plugin. There is no option to use it for free. Being a paid plugin, AdSanity offers plenty enough of features which you can use to manage how ads to appear on your website.
You can use AdSanity to display ads from third-party ad networks like Google Ads or BuySellAds. You can also use AdSanity to manage hosted ads. AdSanity has one thing in common with Advanced Ads. It’s also extensible by installing add-ons.
3. AdRotate
You can use AdRotate to display and manage ad units from ad networks like Google Ads, Chitika, BuySellAds, and so on. Basically, AdRotate can be used to manage ads from any ad network that uses JavaScript files to display ad units. AdRorate uses both WordPress widget and shortcode to display ads. If you want to display an ad unit on the sidebar footer, you can simply drag the AdRotate widget. If you want to display an ad unit on a blog posts or page, you can use a shortcode.
Same as Advanced Ads, AdRotate is also released as a freemium plugin. However, AdRotate has no feature to inject ads into posts or pages automatically like Advanced Ads. One of the interesting features offered by AdRotate is the ability to track the ad units with its built-in analytics feature. AdRotate also comes with a geo-targeting feature. However, this feature is only available on the pro version.
4. Ad Inserter
If you are looking for a WordPress ad management plugin with the capability to automatically inject ad units into blog posts or pages, Ad Inserter is one of the plugins you can use. You can set the position of the ads within the articles or pages. Whether before the content, after the content, after a certain paragraph, before a certain paragraph, before the comment section, after the comment section, and so on. In addition to blog posts and pages, you can also insert ads in the search pages, category pages, and tag pages.
You can use Ad Inserter to display ad units from Google Ads, Amazon Affiliate program, and other ad networks. All features we mentioned above are available for free. If you need features like geo location, click fraud protection and sticky sidebar ads, the pro version is also available for these features.
5. AdContent
AdContent is a paid WordPress ad management plugin that offers lots of features. You can use it to display ads on certain posts or pages, posts on certain categories or tags, and so on. Features like geolocation, the ability to display ads based on the user role are also available. AdContent also offers manual ad placement via shortcode and widgets.
6. Adning Advertising
Adning Advertising was formerly known as WP PRO Advertising System. The plugin is designed specifically to manage banner ads, making it an ideal option if you rely on Google AdSense or other platforms that mainly provide ad units in the form of banners. You can use Adning Advertising to display as many ads as you want. Here are the key features offered by Adning Advertising:
- Ad rotation with modern transition effects
- Ability to create floating content, popups, and notification bars
- Auto positioning and display filters
7. WPQuads
WPQuads is an ad management plugin that comes with native integration with some ad networks (there are about 8 ad networks supported by WPQuads). For instance, if you use Google AdSense, you can integrate your account with WPQuads by entering the Data Client ID and Data Slot ID. You can then select the ad type and size and the ads will be automatically displayed to the location you set. WPQuads displays your ads on your site content. Be it blog posts, pages, or custom post types. You can set the ads to be displayed before the content, after the content, after a certain paragraph, and so on.
In addition to displaying ads from ad networks like Google Ads, Taboola, and Outbrain, you can also display your own image banner (from an image file), or ads from an HTML script. WPQuads also allows you to hide ads for logged users, users with a certain role, and so on. There is also an option to display ads on certain region (geolocation). However, this option is only available on the pro version.
8. Wp-Insert
If you are looking for a free ad manager plugin that allows you to display ads on certain regions using the geolocation feature, Wp-Insert is one of the plugins you can use. Wp-Insert is designed for Google AdSense, but you should also be able to use it to display ads from other networks as the installation process ask you to enter the ad code. In addition to displaying ads in certain regions, you can also set the ads to be hidden from the logged users.
You can use Wp-Insert to display ads on the content (posts, pages) or any area on your WordPress using shortcodes or widgets.
9. Ads Pro Plugin
Ads Pro Plugin is a feature-rich ad management plugin. It is probably the best option if you have a large website and want to sell ad spaces to clients. The plugin has something like e-commerce functionality where your clients can order ad space. To convince your aspiring clients, you can tell them that they can monitor the ads performance as Ads Pro Plugin comes with a statistic feature. After purchasing an ad space, your clients will get an email with URL to full statistics of their ads.
Ads Pro Plugins offers about 20 different ways to display your ads. You can display them in the sidebar, floating, video, in the background, corner peel, grid, hover, and so on. The plugin also offers more than 25 ready to use responsive and user-friendly ad templates. Here are other key features offered by Ads Pro Plugin.
- Geographical targeting
- Ability to schedule your ads and control their delay
- Option to show ads in specific devices
- Filters on categories and tags
- Options to show / close ads after X seconds
Another feature you will love so much is that Ads Pro Plugin is free from ad blocker.
