Ezoic Univeral Player: What Is It & How It Works

This guide explains everything you need to know about the Ezoic Universal Player.

Below, you’ll find out what Universal Player is, how it works, the earning potential for video ad revenue, and available customization settings to suit the needs of your website. By the end of this page, you’ll understand the purpose and capabilities of Ezoic’s Universal Player and how it can be a great asset for monetizing your website content.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by Ezoic. All information, reviews, and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal experience using the Universal Player.

What Is Universal Player?

Universal Player is a feature that allows Ezoic users to earn money from video ads with one-click activation. You can use Universal Player whether you have your own video content or not. Once activated, Ezoic technology determines the best location on each page to insert engaging videos with floating outstream and instream ads to earn you additional revenue.

Floating Outstream Video Ads

The Universal Player’s floating outstream video ads are a type of video ad format that plays in a small window that stays on the screen as the user scrolls through the content; typically in the bottom right or left corner. Floating oustream video ads are different from other video ads, such as instream video ads, because they do not require any video content to be shown before or after the ad.

Instream Video Ads

The Universal Player’s instream video ads are a type of video ad format that plays ads before, during, or after video content. Instream video ads are designed to be displayed to users who are actively watching the video content embedded on a web page or scrolling past the video player within the content which automatically plays.

There are different types of instream video ads, such as:

• Pre-Roll Ads: These ads play before the video content starts and often include a “Skip Ad” button that appears after 5 seconds of viewing the ad.
• Mid-Roll Ads: These ads play during the video content, usually at natural breakpoints, and may or may not be skippable.
• Post-Roll Ads: These ads play after the video content ends.

Ezoic Universal Player Examples

Below is an example of the Univeral Player in action on a website with both instream and outstream ads playing. You can see how the Universal Player has automatically inserted a video player into the main content of the page while also placing a floating video ad in the bottom right corner of the browser.

As you can see, the Universal Player has 3 placeholders (or boxes) for video content: 2 on the top and 1 on the bottom. Here’s what those placements mean:

• Top Left Box: This is where video content with an instream video ad will autoplay. When a user scrolls past the player, the instream ad and video will float in the bottom right corner and continue auto-playing.
• Top Right Box: This is where a scrollable playlist of additional video content will be accessible via a play button.
• Bottom Large Box: This is where video content will play only if the user clicks on it, with no ads. If a user clicks to play the video and then scrolls down the page, the video will then jump to float in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Here is another example of the Universal Player showing how the video content inside the player moves to the bottom right floating position in the browser. This allows the site to continue earning with instream ads as the user scrolls through the rest of the content.

Earning Potential of Ezoic’s Universal Player

The earning potential of Ezoic’s Universal Player is very high, as it allows you to monetize your website with video ads from multiple sources. According to Ezoic, the latest update to the Universal Player can bring a conservative increase in earnings from video content by at least 10% for a majority of website publishers.

The primary reason why you can experience a 10% lift in earnings is because one instream video view equals four to five display ad views.

Below, are some specific use cases published by Ezoic that show the tremendous potential in earnings that go above and beyond the average 10% boost. However, keep in mind that results will vary for all users of Universal Player. Each website is different, attracts various types of users, and has multiple types of content, which impacts the total earning potential.

Recipe Site Earnings

A recipe site that had no video content of its own enabled Universal Player to match relevant video content from the Ezoic Humix network. As a result, the site experienced nearly an 84% increase in EPMV, going from $12.65 to $23.26 within 6 days.

Tool-Type Site Earnings

A tool-type site that also had no video content of its own enabled Universal Player to match relevant video content from Ezoic’s Humix network. As a result, the site experienced around a 41% increase in EPMV instantly, going from $5.16 to $7.10 on average.

Game Site Earnings

A game site turned on the Universal Player in Ezoic Ads using the recommended settings and experienced nearly a 55% increase in EPMV within 3 days, going from $18.37 to $28.45.

How to Use Universal Player On Your Site

There are three ways to use Ezoic’s Universal Player to show video content and ads on your site:

1. Your Video Content + Ads

Go to the Humix monetization settings and turn on Universal Player. Your own videos in Humix + video ads will automatically be inserted on all web pages, allowing you to take advantage of both instream and outstream ads.

2. Humix Network Video Content + Ads

If you don’t have any videos uploaded to Humix, you can show other publishers videos on your site to take advantage of instream ads in addition to outstream ads. Just follow the same step as mentioned in the previous option. Go to the Humix monetization settings and turn on Universal Player. Humix network videos + video ads will automatically be displayed on your site without any extra steps required.

Note: If you want to create your own video content quickly and easily, consider using Ezoic Flickify. Ezoic Flickify is an online tool that turns written content into videos using text-to-speech technology and visual animations.

3. Ads Only

Go to the Ezoic Ads floating video setting under Ad Positions > Ad Types and turn on Universal Player. Only floating video ads will be displayed on your site, allowing you to take advantage of outstream ads.

Additional Universal Player Settings

As with all aspects of Ezoic’s technology, you can adjust the settings beyond automatic placements if you want further control over how video ads appear on your site.

Optional Humix Universal Settings

On the Humix monetization settings page, you have these additional options:

Companion Ads: Companion display ads serve at the same time as video ads and appear underneath the video player. The display ad and video ad may or may not be related to one another. This setting can be toggled on or off.

Ad Settings > Custom Video Ad Settings: If you toggle off “Let Humix Optimized Video Ads”, then you can adjust the following settings:

• Ad Length: Adjust the maximum and minimum video ad length allowed on your site and whether visitors can skip them. Choose between 5 to 240 seconds.
• Maximum Ads Per Video: Set the maximum number of ads shown per video.
• Aggressive Playlist Monetization: Auto-play the next video in the playlist after a small period of time (~15 seconds) prompting the visitor whether they would like to view the next video. A pre-roll ad plays at the beginning of each video.
• Optimization Goals: Adjust the focus you want Humix to have when optimizing the layout and video ad configuration based on revenue, view count, video UX, and site UX.

Universal Player Page Exclusions: View and modify any page paths that should be excluded from having the Universal Player.

Universal Player CSS Exclusions: Add CSS selector rules to prevent the Universal Player from being inserted into HTML elements that match the rule.

Advanced Settings: Adjust the location of the Universal Player on your site based on the viewport for desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Choose between 2nd viewport to 5+. Note: If your player requires more viewports than users typically scroll through, it significantly decreases your revenue.

Optional Ezoic Ads Universal Settings

Float Settings: Choose which devices will display the floating video ad: desktop, mobile, and tablet.

Advanced Settings: This gives you access to a few similar settings as the Humix monetization settings page:

• Universal Player Page Exclusions
• Universal Player CSS Exclusions
• Universal Player Location Based On Viewport for Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet Devices

Summary of Ezoic’s Universal Player

Ezoic’s Universal Player is a great one-click solution to insert videos + ads into every article on your site to earn additional revenue. As you discovered throughout this guide, there are multiple ways to use the Universal Player and customize it for your specific website.

Here’s a quick recap of the top benefits of Ezoic’s Universal Player and why you should consider using it today:

• It allows you to insert videos in every article with one click, without any coding or editing required. Simply turn the Universal Player feature on in your Ezoic dashboard and videos with ads will appear on your site.
• It optimizes video display and user experience, by intelligently identifying the best location on each page to insert engaging videos; similar to the way Ezoic’s AI display ad technology works.
• You can use your own videos or let Ezoic’s technology select relevant and high-quality video content for you.
• It enables you to earn revenue from multiple sources on a single page, by serving a floating outstream video ad until your users engage with the in-content video or scroll past it. If a user doesn’t interact with your in-content video, a new instream video will transition to a floating position and play automatically.
• The Universal Player can bring a conservative increase in earnings from video content by at least 10% for a majority of website publishers. Some publishers have experienced between a 41% to 84% lift in EPMVs. (Results will vary.)