Adsense
What Is Adsense?
Adsense is an ad serving programme which is run by Google. Website owners can join Adsense FREE of charge and begin to earn money from their website. It works by Google sending text, graphic and video advertising to your website. The advertising that appears on your website will compliment the content of your own website or web pages.
For Example: If your website is about Gardening, Google will send advertisements that are related to Gardening. If your website is based on travel, Google will send advertisements that are travel related.
So, How Do I Get Paid?
Advertisers whom wish to have their adverts distributed by Google, join another program run by Google called 'Adwords'. Adwords allows advertisers to place adverts on Google search pages at a cost. Google charge the advertiser a set amount of money to place their adverts on Google search pages. The advertisers are then charged 'Per Click'. 'Per Click', simply means that Google will charge the advertiser a set amount of money every time somebody clicks on their advert. As well as placing adverts on Google pages, Google also places these adverts on websites that are registered with the Google 'Adsense' Program.
So, let's imagine Google charge the advertiser (of the adwords programme) £0.80 per click. Obviously, Google will receive £0.80 from the advertiser, every time somebody clicks on the advert. If you are registered with the 'Adsense' program and Google has placed adverts on your website, if a visitor to your website clicks on one of those ads, you will receive a share of the revenue that google charges the advertiser.
Using the exxample above, if Google charged £0.80 per click and a visitor to your website clicked on one of the adverts that Google had placed on your website, Google would pay you a percentage of that £0.80. This applies to any advert that Google displays on your website.
Google 'Adsense' is a great way for you to generate revenue from your web site and it is FREE. Set up your FREE account today just type 'Adsense' into the search box below.
Adsense Tips
1. When you are running an Ad Sense campaign, it is important to make sure that you are testing all of the different possibilities to make sure that you are getting the highest click through rate.
For instance: You could try placing the ads in different places on your site and using different colour combinations. Then run one ad format for a week, then run the second format and compare results. Better yet, test the formats simultaneously and start getting side by side results to compare. Just be sure to allow each test the same amount of time to work, to make sure that your results are equal.
2. Although testing is a necessity, there are certain areas for your ads that are thought to be more likely to encourage a greater click through rate than others.
It is a proven fact that, one place the visitors look first on the web site is the top left position but there are other places to consider depending on your sites design. For instance: Above the page footer and below the top navigation bar are thought to be very good. Near the middle with the main content wrapped around the ad block is thought to be great.
Take a look in the help files inside your Google Adsense account and you will find the latest research plus heat maps suggesting the best locations to place your ads.
3. Although it may seem to be a good idea, do not try to make your ads stand out from the other content on your page.
Keep in mind that the readers did not come to your site to click on ads but to read the content. You should take care to build your page around a specific topic. Choose your keywords carefully and keep them targeted.
This will ensure that the Adsense ads that are shown on your page are relevant and useful to your visitors. If the ads blend in with the content on your web site, you will be more likely to get a better click through rate on them.
4. Let's talk about how many web pages you should put ad units on.
Some people think that it is bad to put Adsense on too many pages but, if you are going for the Adsense revenue, then it is important to give your visitors as much chance to click on your ads as possible. Keep in mind, that not everyone will arrive at your home page. Especially if they have found you through the search engines.
If you don't want to put Adsense on all of your pages you can concentrate on placing the Adsense ads on high traffic pages to get the best results.
You can identify the most visited pages on your web site by looking at your site logs or even at your Google Analytics account, which will provide you with page by page details of the visitors that you receive.
If you don't have a Google Analytics account you can get a free one here: www.google.com/analytics
5. According to the Adsense terms (at the time of writing this article) you can place up to three ad units on each page, along with a maximum of two Google AdSense for search boxes, a single link unit may also be placed on each page.
You can also include two referral units from each referral product in addition to the ad units, search boxes and link units.
Be careful not to overload your page with more ads than content. Try to create a balance that allows you to blend your ad units in with the rest of the content. You will find that this will help increase your click through rate.
Please Note: Adsense ammend their 'Terms and Conditions' on a regular basis and the above were correct at the time of writing this article. It is recommended you check the new 'Terms and Conditions when you join the Adsense programme.
6. We are going to jump right into which type of ad units works better.
Google has run tests that show horizontal ads generally work better than vertical ones. The idea being that the eye is more used to reading horizontally, so it is more likely to be familiar with this layout.
It has also been suggested that the larger rectangular ads that read horizontally will receive a higher click through rate.
The best way for you to find out which ad format will work best on your site is by testing and comparing your results. You will receive much better results if your ad units blend in smoothly with the design of your page.
7. If you have three ad units on your page and you still have room for more, then according to the Adsense terms you can add one of the Adsense link units in addition to the other three units on your page.
The link units are small blocks of links that take the reader to a page of ads that are related to the topic of your web site in the same way that the usual text ads do.
The nice thing about link units is that they look a lot like navigation links and can easily blend in with your page design. This will give your visitors the impression that they are clicking through a link on your page rather than an ad.
8. Let's jump right in!
It is always good to get high quality ads on your pages but you don't necessarily want to show ads from your direct competitors.
If you are getting unwanted ads on your site, Google has a tool called the "Competitive Ad Filter " that allows you to choose which ads not to show on your site.
The competitive ad filter works by blocking ads that link to specific URLs. This way, you can easily block all ads that are linked to your competitors website. By entering a top level domain such as www.my-competition.com, you'll also block all ads that link to subdirectories below that domain.
This can come in very handy if your competition is selling the same product that you are promoting on your page.
9. I want to share with you another way that you can monopolize Google Adsense on your web site and help your visitors at the same time.
You can help your visitors and increase your Adsense earnings at the same time, just by adding a Google search box to your web pages. This works out great because when someone uses the search box on your site they will be shown ads on the exact term that they typed in. If they click on any of the ads that they see while searching then you get the commission.
When you place the search box on your site you will have the ability to choose weather you want your visitor to be able to search your website as well as the web. You can even have search results that are tailored specifically to the topics on your site.
10. If you are trying to target a particular type of Google ad on your site but it keeps putting up a different type of ad then you need to make sure that the keyword that is related to the ads you are targeting is repeated enough on the page. This way Adsense knows exactly what the page is about.
For the best results use different keywords or keyword phrases on each page of your website. Optimise each page with the keywords that are most relevant to the type of ad that you want to show on that particular page.
You can also put your keywords in your title tag, meta tag keywords and description. This will help you achieve more targeted ads on your page.
11. Let's talk about using graphics on your Adsense pages.
Putting pictures that are on the same subject as the ads that show on your page can improve your click through rates a great deal.
But, make sure that you do not put pictures of people looking at the ads or in any way indicating that people should click on the ads. According to the program policies you may not direct your visitors attention to the ads by using arrows or other graphical images.
This does not mean that you can not use graphics on your Adsense pages. It just means that you have to use them in a way that will complement the content of the page and not for the sole purpose of getting people to click on your ads.
12. There are many tools that can help you decide what keywords you should target to get the best results with your Adsense campaign.
A good free tool is the Yahoo Search bid tool (formerly Overture) (http://www.vretoolbar.com/keywords). There you can type in words related to the topic of the content on your page and see how many people are searching for them in Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL.
It will also tell you the estimated amount of Google Adwords traffic and cost per click that the keyword is receiving. This will help you choose which keywords will yield the best results from Adsense, so that you can build your pages around them.
Alternatively, you can also use: WordTracker
13. This tip is about learning everything you can about using Adsense.
A great way to learn how to get the most out of your Adsense efforts is by joining the Adsense forums. It is always a good idea to keep up with what is going on and you can get some really good tips and information on the best way to make more money from your Adsense campaign.
Once you join you will be able to search for help and ask questions. The forum has many members that make a full time living from Adsense, who can really give you good advice on how to improve your earnings.
14. Let's talk about the Adsense preview tool.
Google provides you with an excellent tool to help you preview the ads that appear on your page. This tool allows you to see sample ads and formats, preview colours on your page, check the destination of the ads and geographic location so you can see what visitors in other countries will see.
You should always take the time to experiment with your Adsense ads and try to improve your CTR (click through rate). So that you are sure to make the most from your Adsense efforts.
Try it today, i's FREE and could help boost your income through your existing web site.
Summary:
Adsense, is a FREE programme run by Google that any web site owner can join. It allows you to display adverts on your web site that are sent by Google and every time a visitor to your web site clicks on one of the adverts, you get paid.
Useful Links In This Article: