Your association website already does a lot of heavy lifting. It’s where members connect, access resources, and stay engaged with the industry. Increasingly, it’s also expected to support non-dues revenue goals.
For many associations, the opportunity isn’t the issue — it’s capacity. You may already be monetizing your site in some way, but refining that approach to be more intentional, scalable, and efficient is where the real payoff lives.
Here are a few ways associations can strengthen website monetization without compromising the member experience.
Take advantage of display advertising
Your website is the first thing people see when they're looking for your association. It's your chance to make a great first impression and show off what makes you stand out from your competitors.
Display ads allow both your association and industry suppliers to reach new audiences — member prospects for your association and customers for your suppliers. Not only that, but these ads can help bring in extra revenue for your association whether its via the sale of an ad to a supplier or through a conference registration that you’re promoting.
They also allow you to target specific demographics (like age, gender, or location) and even specific interests (like "traveling" or "family"). Display ads can also help boost sales for your website by placing relevant products in front of customers who are already interested in them — both for your association and industry vendors. This ensures that they're not only finding what they need, but also seeing how those products can improve their professional lives.
Make your data work for you
If you’re not paying attention to what’s happening behind the scenes — your website analytics — then you need to start.
Understanding who visits your site and how they engage allows you to:
- Price advertising inventory more competitively
- Match advertisers with the most relevant audiences
- Demonstrate performance and ROI more clearly
For example, you can use data analytics to identify the most effective ads for each visitor to your site. Let’s say that someone visits your website after researching a topic related to "clinical trials." From there, you know that they might be more interested in ads related to the latest work within the pharmaceutical space — like journal articles — than ads related to events and networking. If a pharma company (for this example) knows that many individuals are looking for clinical trials, it allows them to really home in on the targeted approach in their display advertising.
That’s not all. You can also use analytics to see which ad campaigns are working best for different types of visitors like those who come from search engines versus those who come from social media sites like Facebook. This will allow you and your suppliers to allocate more resources toward those campaigns that produce the highest ROI.
Stay top of mind with visitors
Website retargeting is one of the most effective methods for bringing back visitors who have previously visited your website but did not complete an action and to keep your website top-of-mind.
Retargeting works by using cookies, small bits of text that are stored in the browser when someone visits a website. When this person visits other websites, the cookie will be read and used to display ads for your association and/or suppliers.
This strategy is beneficial especially if you are selling something that requires a longer buying cycle. For example, if you're trying to get a prospect to join your association, or if your supplier has a product that people may only buy every few months or years.
The goal of retargeting is to convince visitors who didn’t convert on their previous visit that they should come back again!
Making website monetization easier
Managing website advertising takes time — from packaging inventory to selling placements and handling ongoing campaign management. If your team would rather stay focused on serving members, we help associations manage the advertising and sales side of website monetization, making it easier to generate non-dues revenue without adding operational strain.
