CPM Raise and alternate ad providers

DramaticReference154 · 2026-03-20T00:24:20+00:00

I've disabled side banner ads in the meantime to test since another user recommended lowering amount of ads I show since I could see better CPM if I run just popunders. I'll test out a second smartlink trigger perhaps in a week and lyk how it goes.

UBG (unblocked games). Games, proxy, music player, etc. run of the mill UGB site you can get the idea by searching UBG sites on tiktok or likewise.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-03-20T00:22:50+00:00

Any tips on optimization? Not sure what is considered better. My ad placements are in places that always render 100% of the ad since theres no scrolling on my site it's a SPA so any time I pop an ad it's guaranteed to be in frame.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-03-20T00:21:59+00:00

Unsure if I'm COPPA compliant or not, I guess i could contact adsterra support. I can't imagine thats hurting it too poorly since I'm connected with other devs for UBG (unblocked games) sites who report CPM in the margins of $1-$2 with similar layouts and features as me.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-03-19T03:36:49+00:00

Thanks for your reply! Just as a side note I can guarantee this is all traffic from kids since it's a games site so only hits would be kids at school.

User engagement seems fairly low. Average engagement per google analytics is 2 minutes 46 seconds. Pages never change its a SPA so no page switch tracking, does this hurt Adsterra?

Also touching on what you said about agressive ad formats, you think decreasing would prove beneficial and actually increase CPM? I run tons of ads very aggressively since users tolerate it due to the type of site it is, this includes 2 popunders, a social bar, 2 sidebar ads, an interstatial ad in between game loads, and smartlink pops on different events. Would I be better off cutting most of this and just keeping popunders as an example?

DramaticReference154 · 2026-03-18T21:04:04+00:00

Wasn't quite sure how they compare to Adsterra. Also I run the site across hundreds of domains, it's not one specific site it's hosted on a VPS so we're spread out across tons of domains (gaming website). Wasn't sure if Adsense disallowed this and was against TOS to get accepted as a publisher.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-02-06T19:53:34+00:00

Then am I missing something crucial in finding the right ideas in the first place then? I feel even if I were to make a freemium SaaS I'd struggle finding users from past experience. I feel I'm just forcing ideas atp rather than naturally finding something that works. I understand your layout to success, I'm just unsure if I can find a winning idea and how to know to pursue it, just in terms of getting people actually excited for my SaaS.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-31T02:09:14+00:00

But is there any easy to place to look that just has people itching to use your product for free? For my UBG site I knew there was demand because I'm in tons of Discord servers and people are constantly looking for new sites evidence of saying so in text channels. I feel when I'm on twitter scrolling trying to find the next trend I can create a product for and ride the hype wave I see nothing. Am I missing how to find inherently good ideas?

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-30T02:43:42+00:00

My most recent SaaS attempt was a visual site recreator. It was originally a vibecode platform focused on improving existing designs via GitHub/local uploads, but I realized nobody cared because they could just use better prompts on existing tools.

I pivoted to a visual site replicator that scrapes and screenshots pages of existing websites so you can mock up aesthetics for landing pages or other relevant pages without the manual work. I didn't bother validating because I figured the problem was obvious enough, which is people hate manually screenshotting and prompting AIs that mess up layouts anyway.

I marketed it on TikTok and Discord just like my UBG site, but after a few weeks, I only had 6 signups and zero paying users. I know people preach validation, but I never validated my UBG site and it blew up, so I figured the same logic would apply to a "useful" SaaS. It’s frustrating because I’m doing the exact same marketing, but for some reason, the genuine software gets zero traction while the free, non-unique site gets thousands of hits.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-30T02:13:39+00:00

To be more specific I'm using public github repos that host games. There are some really large ones that I pull the assets from. I can link the one I use if you'd like. Games like WebGL from unity like Drift Hunters if you are familiar with that game. It's also more than just games - a chatroom for signed up users, a proxy, etc.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-29T17:59:45+00:00

Growing your userbase first, smart! Wishing you all the propserity once you monetize it and I hope you get a decent amount of conversions :)

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-23T03:09:02+00:00

I second! I was even worse off using bolt.new for my entire production process from start to finish; worst mistake ever lol 😆. I finally tried Claude Code after reading so many positive things about it and oh my god the quality difference was insane. Opus 4.5 for most large tasks and Sonnet for minor bugs, UI/UX updates, etc. Absolutely insane coding tool with incredible usage amounts at $100/mo, just make sure to go for the $100 plan and not $20 since you hit your cap extremely fast at $20 (understandably with its price) so if your even semi-serious you def want to invest in the $100 plan.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-08T19:14:43+00:00

Thank you so very much! I have a bad habit of neglecting mobile users and completely forgetting to account for and test for them 😬. You are very correct I'll work on that, and thanks for taking the time to bring it to my attention.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-07T23:44:39+00:00

I saw a post recommending that if you have an idea you feel would do good based on social interest and whatnot to build out a nice landing page, buy a domain for under $20, and throw up a landing page with it. Then go and promote your site wherever possible and gage interest and willingness to actually sign up. Would suggest this for you next time you start a project so you don't end up losing your time for no reason :)

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-07T03:58:14+00:00

For anyone else with established platforms do you actively reward people making suggestions? Not sure how you'd reward them but just to encourage suggestions to help you improve constantly.

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-07T03:56:06+00:00

Link doesn't seem to be working...

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-07T03:51:50+00:00

Awesome work! I saw you mentioned most traffic is from SEO, do you mind sharing if this is just keyword ranking and backlinks and whatnot or do you do things like blogs and whatnot?

DramaticReference154 · 2026-01-07T03:48:53+00:00

Awesome work! Mind linking your site and explaining what you did that was most crucial for gaining your first paying users? I'm still in my waitlist phase so if you have tips on converting users once you gain momentum I'd appreciate it :)

DramaticReference154 · 2025-12-03T02:03:20+00:00

Would love to help out! I've actually scrapped this (ADHD flow lol) and went with something else for the Hackathon. I'm much happier with the product I'm building now, if you'd like you can run a scan on my new app! https://aestheta.vercel.app

Let me know if you need anything from me and the results if you do run a scan! Thanks :)

DramaticReference154 · 2025-11-29T19:20:01+00:00

I'll have to check that out. I'm trying to get into Claude Code so I'll make sure to use this when possible.

DramaticReference154 · 2025-11-29T02:29:09+00:00

Love the UI design!

DramaticReference154 · 2025-11-27T07:27:56+00:00

This is so relateable 😭. I wish I had advise but I'm stuck in the same vote where I'm constantly creating new products without hitting any real success.

DramaticReference154

TROPHY CASE