Monetizing a WordPress website is a crucial step for many bloggers and online entrepreneurs. One of the most common methods is through advertising.
However, managing multiple ads, tracking performance, and ensuring the right placement can be a complex task. This is where WordPress ad management plugins can come in handy.
We’ve tested thousands of plugins over the years. From our testing, the plugins you can choose today are WP Advanced Ads, WPCode, Ad Rotate, and AdSanity.
In this article, we will share the best ad management plugins and solutions for WordPress to optimize your advertising revenue.
Why Use an Ad Management Plugin in WordPress?
Many WordPress websites rely heavily on advertisements to make money online with their content. By default, WordPress does not come with an easy way to manage your ads.
Most WordPress themes don’t even have dedicated spots to display ads. This means you often have to edit theme files to insert ad code into your website.
A WordPress ad management plugin allows you to easily insert ads anywhere on your website. This lets you optimize ad placement and make the most out of your advertising real estate.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, we are a dedicated team of experts with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, design, and online marketing. Our team reviewed and tested each ad management tool in this list extensively. Based on our findings, we carefully created a list of the best solutions for our readers. You can see our editorial process for more details.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the top ad management WordPress plugins and how they can help you boost your earnings.
1. WP Advanced Ads
Advanced Ads is an easy-to-use ad manager plugin that lets you create, manage, and schedule as many ads as you like. Ads can be anchored to different positions on the page or placed in a grid, and you can have them match the language set in your visitor’s web browser.
From our testing, we found that Advanced Ads works with all ad types, including Google AdSense, Google Ad Manager, and Amazon Ads. While a free plugin is available, the premium version offers additional features.
For example, the premium version has click fraud protection built-in. This stops bots and spammers from making invalid clicks on your ads, which could potentially get your AdSense account suspended.
It also includes ad refresh, a feature that lets you rotate ads in the same location as visitors browse your website. This simple change can increase your total ad impressions and overall ad revenue.
2. WPCode
WPCode is the best custom code snippets plugin for WordPress. It lets you easily insert ad code and display ads anywhere on your WordPress site, without needing to edit your theme’s functions.php file.
When testing the plugin, we absolutely loved its Auto-Insert feature, which allows you to control exactly where your ads will be shown. You can automatically display ads within post content, between posts, before or after the WooCommerce cart, and more. There’s also a Scheduling feature that allows you to display your ads for a limited time period, like during a sale or promotion.
Plus, WPCode’s AI Snippet Generator lets you create custom code for ads, even if you’ve never written a line of code in your life. Want a unique banner ad that perfectly matches your website? Just describe what you want in plain English, and the AI will generate the code for you.
In addition, you can use WPCode to track your ad performance on other popular platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google Ads. The Conversion Pixels addon lets you add eCommerce tracking pixels in just a few clicks. Then, you can track events like product page view, add to cart, checkout, purchase, and more to help improve your return-on-ad-spend.
There is a free version of WPCode that comes with everything you need to display ads on your site. To unlock the AI snippet generator, scheduled snippets, conversion pixels, and other powerful features, you need to upgrade to the premium version.
3. AdRotate
AdRotate is another powerful WordPress ad management plugin suitable for beginners as well as advanced users. It supports both hosted ads with rotating banner ads and network ads.
It allows you to easily create ads and ad groups and insert them into your WordPress posts using shortcodes. You can also insert ads into sidebars using custom widgets.
AdRotate offers basic stats to monitor ad impressions, which is particularly helpful if you are directly selling advertisements on your website.
It is available as a free plugin, which works fine for most small blogs and websites. However, you will need the pro version if you want to use advanced features like scheduling, geo-targeting, adblock disguise, mobile adverts, media and asset management, and more.
For details, see our article on managing ads in WordPress with AdRotate.
4. AdSanity
AdSanity is a beginner-friendly WordPress ad management plugin. It allows you to easily insert ads anywhere on your website using widgets and an ad inserter button in the visual editor.
It supports both hosted ads (banner ads managed and sold directly by you) as well as external ad networks like Google AdSense. It also comes with powerful features like ad scheduling, ad groups, inserting a single ad or ad group, and monitoring views and stats.
You can create as many ads as you want and easily add them with custom widgets, shortcodes, or using the button on the post editor.
You can also insert ad blocks in specific posts in WordPress. This allows you to optimize ad performance without editing your WordPress theme files.
To learn more, see our article on how to manage ads in WordPress with AdSanity.
5. Ad Inserter
Ad Inserter is a WordPress ad management plugin that is available in free and paid versions. From our testing, we reckon that the free version is good enough to be used as your primary ad management tool, but for advanced features, you would want to upgrade to their paid version.
It allows you to create multiple ad blocks and choose how to automatically insert each block. For example, you can insert the ad block inside your post content, before and after the post content, between posts, before or after the post excerpt, and more.
You can also individually disable automatic ad insertion in posts and pages, home, categories, and archive pages. Ad Inserter is fairly easy to use and can be used for both hosted and third-party ad networks.
6. Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager is a web-based ad selling and serving platform for publishers. It combines the best of Google’s previous advertising products, DoubleClick and Ad Exchange, giving it an edge over other platforms in terms of reliability and cost-effectiveness.
Google Ad Manager is most suitable for larger websites. It lets Google AdSense and other advertising networks compete against each other on price, and automatically chooses the best paying ad to display on your website.
Google Ad Manager also includes great reporting tools that allow you to measure ad performance more accurately than other solutions. Despite its effectiveness, it’s a bit complicated to get started with.
We hope this article helped you find the best ad management plugins and solutions for WordPress. You may also want to see our list of the best affiliate marketing tools and plugins for WordPress, or check out our list of must have plugins to grow your site.
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Ahmed Omar
A comprehensive roundup of the best WordPress ad management plugins and solutions
Your analysis of features, including ad rotation and targeting, is incredibly helpful for optimizing revenue.
I suggest for those seeking a lightweight yet powerful option, Ad Insert has been a game-changer for me.
Thanks for simplifying the ad management landscape
WPBeginner Support
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Loren Helgeson
Insert Post Ads was a great plugin, but was last updated two years ago.
WPBeginner Support
Thank you for letting us know, we’ll be sure to look into this and update the article should it need to be replaced.
Admin
Rashid
Which one is the best for targeting devices and countries?
Thanks for the support.
WPBeginner Support
You may want to start by taking a look at the AdRotate plugin for geo targeting.
Admin
Jason Gregg
I’m looking for a plugin that will allow me to server ads from publishers to advertisers. I have 400 sites. Setting up an affiliate plugin on each site, and managing them independently is a daunting task. I’d basically like to set up one site that’s like a LinkShare of CJ clone and serve all my affiliate programs from one site.
Is there a plugin that sort of clones Commission Junction?
WPBeginner Support
Unless I hear otherwise, we do not have a plugin we would recommend for that at the moment.
Admin
Raakesh V
Hi, Can you explain why I can’t see any AdSense ads on your site?
As per your guidance, I get Adsense approval with just 5 months old domain. Thank you so much for your valuable help.
WPBeginner Support
We don’t have Adsense on our site at the moment. If you mean for your site then you would want to use Adsense’s can’t see ads troubleshooter for why your ads aren’t showing on your site.
Admin
donation iptv
Good day! I simply want to give an enormous thumbs up for the good info you might have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for extra soon.
WPBeginner Support
Thank you
Admin
Damian
Please I need a plugin to insert banner ads anywhere on my home page
WPBeginner Support
You may want to first go through the recommendations in this article for what you’re looking for.
Admin
Ab
what about propellerads
WPBeginner Support
We will certainly take a look for our opinion when we update this article.
Admin
Nee
I am using Insert Post Ads. While it’s easy to use, it does not offer much. Which plugins will enable me to create Advert A, Advert B and Advert C. Then I get to choose for each post, which or combination of Advert A,B,C shall be displayed?
Currently, Insert Post Ads allow me to create a few advert, eg; Advert 1 to be displayed after paragraph 3, the Advert 2 to be display after paragraph 10. But not all my articles have paragraph 10, so they will appear right at the bottom of the article (not what I want). I can only disable none or all adverts with Insert Post Ads.
Thanks.
malik irfan
i am adding google adsense in wordpress,
but not found option in word press widget,in appearance list have a widget but not have main widgest area….for coding adsense HTML….
AJ
Is there such a thing as a wp (.com, not org) theme (free) that will allow me to display sponsor logos on a left or right hand side column?
Getting a headache just trying to wrap my head around how to drive a wp blog, much less sorting out columns and sponsor logos…*groan*
Dan
I tried a lot of plugins. I tried adSanity, quick adsense and alot more.
My latest purchase was easier custom blocks.. Easier blocks by far the most user friendly and flexible plugin for ads. Weird that nobody know about it.
Oliviero
I wanted to use AdRotate in my blog to rotate some ads, and so I purchased the paid version, also because it allows you to mask the ads from adblockers.
Alas I discovered that Adrotate uses AJAX calls continously to rotate the ads (i.e. each new view of an ad makes a new call to our server).
This strained my allotted resources on the server, and soon my hosting provider had to block my blog because I was using too many resources. As soon I uninstalled the plugin the problem went away.
I have a SiteGround plan, the most expensive one for a shared hosting (not the cheapest one), but I do not have the money to invest in a single server hosting.
When I asked the developer of AdRotate if he planned to resolve the issue, his response was that it was my problem and he didn’t plan to do anything (not the best customer service answer to give to someone who paid for your product, IMHO). Between the lines I understood that it’s not his fault if I’m too poor to afford my own server…
So I had to uninstall AdRotate.
It’s a shame because it was a good plugin. My advice is to use the free version and to verify your hosting plan before parting from your hard earned cash!
nick gibbs
you are not alone. i have sitegrounds cloud vps, but i have had to turn off much of the functionality in adrotate as it is just too resource heavy.
i am reading this for an alternative – i like the look of wp-pro advertising manager. it doesn’t have a direct selling option (though the one in ad-rotate is pretty basic anyway), but it does have an inbuilt html5 animated ad creator.
note to reviewer – it would be great if plug in reviews included info on their resource load, and other important considerations like how well they clean up after themselves on removal. I am sure many of us running blogs would rate these factors at least equally to the actual functionality of the plug in itself.
malik
I have a website and upload movies to a lot of servers and I am aware of the pop-up ads from the video playback Is there any way to prevent these ads on my site. These ads come from other sites
Bablu Prodhan
I have a 6-month aged blog in blogger.com, can I transfer it to wordpress costom domain. If can, Have I get paid ads automatically and I earn?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Bablu,
Yes, you can transfer your website to self hosted WordPress.org.
No. Ads will not automatically start appearing on your website. You will have to join an advertising program that works for you and then insert their ads into your website.
Admin
Brent Bergherm
Is there an ad solution that will insert ads (with tracking) into a photo gallery. So after the 7th image, for example, an ad would be shown. Thanks.
Ali
I want to use wordpress plugin that allow me to insert two different Ad sizes e.g 336*280 with responsive ad unit, and I want the plugin to show 336*280 only on desktop and show the responsive ad unit for mobile visitors.
Is that possible ??
Souvik Mallick
Thanks for post. Ad rotate is the one I was looking for. Thank again
Nick James
That’s not accurate. The plugins above are well coded and are being updated constantly except for WP125 and Simple Ads Manager being partially deprecated. Labeling this post as a disappointment is not good.
Jami Kling
What program can accommodate 50 ads in rotation at one time? 700 x 100 plus 240 x 140 combinations. Of course that you are aware of.
Thank you.
Great article.
Allabakash
I have a site. Is there a way that we can manage these ads page wise. I want to display only specific ads for a given page. Please let me know.
Dev
Heyy there, I have signed up for dfp some days ago.
I have not created any ad unit there, But from 2 to 3 days my site is showing blank ads only on the homepage or landing page.. If i browse my site with any backstring than it will show the ads..
for example .
http://www.example.com/ is showing blank ads on homepage..
and http://example.com/page/2 is showing adsense ads..
please help me to sort this out.. and I am using Adsense WP plugin by google for ad placement
Susan Cottenden
I have a blog on wordpress.com and I understood from them that I couldn’t post a sponsor’s ad on my blog. Is that correct? Do I need to have my blog on wordpress.org to include ads of my choosing?
WPBeginner Support
Yes, you are right. Third party advertising programs are not allowed on WordPress.com. On the other hand, using a self hosted WordPress.org website you can display any advertisement on your website. Please see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
Admin
Luke
Can I place my own sourced ads or banners on my WordPress site?
WPBeginner Support
Yes you can.
Admin
Harsha
We have a Google DFP for Small Business Account. I am not comfortable because of its complexity. We are looking at a plugin that can integrate Google DFP or for some one who can help us do that. Can you help me with this,
Mike
Thanks for the fast response! I will look into both; however, I don’t want to have AdSense related ads, I want to only have/accept “Sponsorship” type advertisements, not competition or relevant keyword-based ads.
David
Do you still use it ? Does it slow down the site ? What about the database growth (with the plugin we use right now, database often crashes due to the plugin). How does it manage the cache server ? Thanks for your feedback !
Sudh
I relly wanted an advertisement plugin for my blog and now I got one!! Thanks…!!
Corine
Hello. We bought ad sanity but it does not let the banners rotate on their own. We are looking for a program that rotates all banners on their own so you can see the banners move. Any advice. GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Schalk
Hi,
I use Adrotae Pro, and am very happy with it.
I am at the point where I will redesign the site I’m using it on, and need to decide whether I will continue.
ONE feature I need is: To display adds which is on the main site on another site ( complete separate Wordpress install ) like a rss feed.
Is there a plugin that can do that?
Thank you,
Schalk
Ajuda em Informática
hello. Good review. However i’m looking for some plugin that insert banner ads between posts on blog page. Do you recommend any?
WPBeginner Staff
No sitemap_index.xml has links to posts and category xml files as well so you don’t need to resubmit them individually. Adding a sitemap doesn’t mean that Google will immediately index all your pages in their search results.
Bharat
Hi,
I want to set some ads with WP125, at the bottom of the wp website I making. However I am unable to do this …. any ideas or help pls.
Amy
Be careful with AdRotate: the IP-based feature only works if your visitor has an IPv4 address, not IPv6.
Chris
Amy, I’m considering AdRotate for my multi-site. Could you explain the above restriction in layman terms? Thanks. Any other opines you’d like to share about AdRotate that might be helpful?
Dance
Is there a wp ad manager plugin which is geo compatible. Adrotate gives the ability to target ads via cities and countries. Any one which can target counties and states? Appreciate a reply.
Sudip Majhi
Is there any WordPress plugin that shows advertisements/ad banner based on category. For example, if the category is dog then I would like to show a banner related to dog food. If the category is cat then I would like to show a banner related to cat food etc. Is there any plugin that could do the same?
GFerrell
Great overview! AdSanity looks especially fascinating for our application — which is to serve banner ads only. Although, we would have to add some code to drive some of these based on cookies.
My immediate concern would be that AdSanity’s forum seems to be filled with spam and their latest blog post is over a year old. Is this product still supported ?
Madni Nadeem
Is there a way to deploy more than 1 set of four ad blocks using wp125?
like one in right sidebar and the second in the left?
http://www.howtech.ga
The Event Chronicle
I’m new to Wordpress, and every time I need to know how to do something WP Beginner steers me in the right direction. I’ve learned a lot from your articles. This site has been very helpful for me and I really appreciate it!
aathi
Hi,
Can you help me to find an Ad plugin for wordpress Multi site.
Ralph Warom
Thanks for the guide. I had gotten lost in all the options. I think I will go with Simple Ads manager for a start.
Hazza Jay
Love your honest review. Thank you.
David
Thanks for the timely article, I look forward to your updates everyday. Any experience with Max Banner Ads? I’m just starting to use the free version for a couple of ads on a new site. I wanted a simple ad rotator for ads I sell to some sponsors of our non-profit car club and didn’t find many options. I see a couple here that I should look at and evaluate if they might be a better fit than Max Banner Ads. Thanks again for your site, you’re helping out this noob.
Editorial Staff
There are a lot of ad plugins out there. We only wrote about the ones we have tried in the past.
Admin
jeery
Very useful post. I need a plugin for banner ads management site. I want my entire website categories to be filled with ads spaces for e-commerce and internet marketers to advertise. Can you recomment and plugin or theme that can do the work for me?