Use advertising features in the WordPress theme

There are many ways to insert adverts into a web page and one possibility is to use the features built into the WordPress theme. Does your theme have ad insertion features? use them if it does.

Some WordPress themes, but not all of them, have the ability to insert adverts into the pages on your site. It can be a very easy way to display adverts that requires no plugins, no widgets and no coding.

The theme designer has to put the feature in the theme template and not all designers do this, but it is worth checking to see if the theme you are currently using includes advertising support.

If you are searching for a new WordPress theme for your website, then it might be a feature you want to look for. See if it is mentioned in the theme description, or email the author and ask them.

This is not an essential feature and although this site’s theme has ad insertion capabilities, they are not used. Other methods are used instead, but it is good to have the option.

1 Customize the theme

Go to the sidebar in WordPress, move the mouse over Appearance and then click Customize in the menu. You can also click Appearance followed by Customize too.

2 Advertising support in the theme

Look down the list of customisation options for Advertising or something similar. The list of options displayed here depend entirely on the theme. Your theme may have similar or different items to those shown here.

3 Insert the ad code

Customise the WordPress theme with advertising

1. Copy the advertising code from Google AdSense as we saw earlier, then click in this box and press Ctrl+V (or Command+V) to paste it in. This box inserts the ad code into the second paragraph of every WordPress post.
2. This theme provides an Archive page that lists every post on the site. Paste code into this box to insert an advert into the Archive page. It can be the same advert as before or a different one.
3. This number determines how often the ad is inserted into the Archive page. It can be every 1, 2… 10 or more posts. This site doesn’t use this feature, but it can be a useful option for some people.
4. The preview area on the right side of the page shows what the ad will look like. Here you can see the result of pasting in ad code in the box on the left. It can be a Google AdSense ad or some other ad network. This is actually an affiliate ad.

Disadvantages of theme-based ads

Adverts inserted using the theme’s Customize feature can be useful to some people. It depends on the theme and how it handles adverts. This ad in this theme on this page looks great because it is surrounded by text, but not every page has text at this point.

The ad might not suit some pages, there might not be space for it, or it might mess up the layout of some pages by appearing in the middle of a series of bullet points or collection of images. You might want the ad further up or further down the page, and this isn’t an option.

Can you choose which ads appear on which pages? Yes, at the foot of the post editor is a checkbox to show or hide the ad or to provide alternative ad code. This theme therefore provides a certain degree of control over which pages show ads. However, not all themes will have this feature.

It is a feature to try and see if it fits your content.

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