What Is Google Adsense
Basically, it is a free platform built by Google, which gives the opportunity to implement a small piece of HTML (ad code) on your site and display various types of ads. The code monitors your content and picks targeted and relevant ads – this is called “contextual advertising”. How does it work? The advertisers collect a set of keywords they’re going to bid on. The bots match them with your semantic core and deliver the ad that includes the same or similar keywords.
The next thing you might wonder about Google AdSense is how much does it pay. A publisher can get up to 68% of the revenue from one ad. For example, the average bid for a keyword is $1, so 68 cents will be sent to the webmaster account, and the rest will go to Google. To start monetizing, you should become an AdSense partner. For this purpose, fill in the application form, send it and wait for its approval. Note that your site should correspond to the Google AdSense requirements regarding traffic, quality metrics and other parameters to ensure approval.
Ways to Measure the Revenue
Let’s dive deeper into Google AdSense: how it works and what payout models it features. There are three ways of measuring the income: CPC, CTR and RPM. Each features a specific calculation model to evaluate profit by the corresponding formulas. The reporting system is onboard to let you know the bulk of each kind of income.
CPC
This model calculates the number of clicks you get in total. The average CPC can reach the $0.25 mark if collected keywords lack advertiser competition. For example, if your goal is to earn $100 a day, with the average CPC $0.25, you should get 400 clicks a day (100/0.25) to succeed.
Ctr
CTR is the percentage of clicks divided by the Page Views quantity, which is the number of people having clicked on the ad. For example, if 1,000 page views have entailed 50 clicks, your click-through rate is 5%. Also, this metric is helpful for seeing the quality of imagery, positioning and keywords.
A decent CTR rate should reach 2%. The average CTR depends on the niche. The most profitable ones from this perspective are e-commerce, dating, techs, advocacy and travel/hospitality industries.
RPM
Let’s see how much money Google AdSense brings in the context of RPM, meaning the page revenue per 1,000 impressions. The calculations are based on the following formula:
Divide the estimated earnings by the number of page views you’ve got and then multiply the result by 1,000. For example, if you’ve earned $0.10 from 20 page views, your page RPM is ($0.10 / 20) x 1,000 = 500 cents ($5.00).
Note that if each of the 1,000 visitors views two pages, it equals 2,000 pageviews if every page has an ad. Otherwise, AdSense will calculate 1,000 impressions.
Ad Types
What about ad formats and the way they are utilized by Google AdSense? The network is remarkable for its flexibility and offers various types of ads so that you can choose the most relevant ones (the ad should be blended with the content and page layout).The following ad formats can be used on your website to generate income.
- Text Ads
These ads don’t display rich media content, but feature text advertisements only. For example, 160×600 ad constitutes a set of three or four ads. A separate unit is envisaged for each of them.
- Display Ads
Display Ads look like a common image banner that can be presented in the diversity of sizes from a full-page leaderboard (728×90) to a tiny button (125×125).
- Rich media
This category includes a set of various ads that feature HTML, Flash, video and other advanced digital elements. They’re rather effective to make visitors interact with the ads because they can float, expand and do many other tricks to ensure an impressive user response. Some of them even boast tracking metrics on visitor’s activity.
- Animated image
This type deals with graphical dynamic pictures that are displayed within the ad. Keep in mind that animation could not last for more than 30 seconds. All the images should be relevant, boast high quality and meet other Google standards.
- Link units
Link ads stand on their own because a link unit itself isn’t actually an ad in the accepted sense. When clicking on it, a visitor will be directed to the advertiser’s page with the ads on it. The links are available both in vertical and horizontal formats. Some publishers may worry about the impossibility to display horizontal link ads on mobile devices. To optimize AdSense for mobile, the responsive link ad is developed that can adjust itself according to the device requirements.
Best Strategies to Make Your Ads Work
So, how should you use Google AdSense to see such numbers in your account:
It may be concluded that each type of ad has its own specs and advantages. However, to make the most out of them, you should develop an effective strategy. Follow the recommendations below to earn the highest income possible.
Choosing the Right Placement
To tell you the truth, visitors don’t need to see the ads as much as you need their clicks, so it’s crucial to make ads appear right before their eyes. In general, you should organize content in order to provide convenient navigation and make it easy to interact with the ads.
Focus on Colors
Google AdSense optimization includes creating color schemes. First of all, the colors on your niche website should be relevant to the content. For example, in the travel niche, black, red and other “pure” colors would be out of place. The colors may be similar or contrasting, but they should always harmonize with each other and with the website’s elements. The common rule is to choose dominant and complementary colors to build a scheme, as well as to pick a background and to use colors in the right places on the site.
Work With CTA
If you want to optimize AdSense fast, a powerful CTA provokes a better user response and has enough strength to boost conversions. Users are ready to act after they’ve read a good call-to-action. However, they’re not ready to look for the opportunity to act for a long time. That’s why to place the ad beneath the CTA is a wise solution.
Check the Interim Results
After you’ve placed the add, you should track the results to see how it works with Google Adsense and whether it’s productive at all in order to optimize AdSense revenue. If you just sit back, the golden rain won’t fall. Even the finest setting can’t ensure the ad high conversion, because predicting user needs can be a tricky game. Consequently, it is possible that you’ll have to enhance offers, CTAs, design and other ad components.
Pick the Best WordPress Theme
One of key moment is to optimize WordPress for AdSense, which means choosing the correct WP theme (as a rule, those themes include all the necessary plugins to boost your CTR). The best WordPress plugins are created for AdSense ad management and get rid of special changes to the theme in order to increase AdSense revenue.
Make Sure Users Do Not Block Your Ads
Be aware that your readers might like to block your ads. The rise of ad blocking software instigates revenue losses. However, 77% of users would prefer not to block all ads, but instead filter them. That’s why your task is to narrow down the percentage of blocks.
Here are a couple of simple rules to deter users from blocking your ads. First of all, the ads are not allowed to dominate the content. Secondly, they should correspond to users needs and pain points. Finally, you can use anti-adblock platforms for adblock analytics that offers multiple options and is able to provide a drop in user adblocking software and maximize AdSense earnings.
Split Your Content Into Pages
Plenty of users don’t go beyond the first page of a new website. When the content runs from one to several pages, there is no problem loading long-reads in full to respect the reader’s wish to stop on the first page. It’s one of the Google AdSense best practices to drive more Page Views, implying much more ad impressions and enhancing traffic statistics.
Use SEO Strategies
Why do you need SEO to increase CTR and CPC? SEO is based on the keywords that help Google filter the ads on the blog. Keywords reflect reader inquiries, which is why they bring the most targeted traffic and the most interested users who are more likely to click on your ad.
Learn About Ad Placement Policies
There are some valid reasons to pay attention to the platform’s placement policy and AdSense rules. It will help escape accidental clicks, provide the perfect placement and avoid unacceptable implementations. You will get natural clicks and see the true picture of your website attendance.
Avoiding Accidental Clicks
What are the accidental clicks and why it’s crucial to minimize them? If you choose the wrong placement, it might lead to invalid clicks. Google has its own algorithms to remove such clicks, so making money on AdSense wouldn’t become too easy.
Irrelevant clicks are also possible if the ad is placed too close to the edge of the image. In this case, users can click unintentionally when trying to navigate on a web page. That’s why it’s required to design click buttons in the middle of the image. Hidden click buttons can bring no good, so Google sets a time frame indicating that an ad should be displayed on the screen for a certain period and it can be opened only after some time.
Some publishers click on their own ads, and this method is prohibited. Doing it only a few times won’t get your account banned, but if there are constant intentional clicks, you’ll definitely have problems. If this unnatural increase in activity is brought by actual visitors, we recommend you analyzing traffic keep your account in good standing.
Ensuring Proper Ad Placement
Content should be noticeable in order not to get tangled up with ads. You’re not allowed to place ads after such misleading hints as “Read to Know More,” “Useful Tips,” etc. The ad is not advice or a recommendation, but pure promotion, per se. If there’re flash games on your website, watch the distance between them and ads: It shouldn’t exceed 150 pixels. Some requirements are dependable on the type of the game that’s why Google AdSense introduced a specially developed guide.
Wrong ad placement also means content-free pages that include promotional materials only. The ads cannot also exceed the content. If you want to know more about how to measure proportions, here is a special inventory policy.
Types of Websites That Will Generate a Decent Income With Google Adsense
Even the best practices in Google AdSense are not versatile, and the platform is not able to meet the needs of all businesses. There are some niches that are really profitable in terms of displaying promotional materials. Let’s take a look at the most lucrative ones.
A Blog Site
Blogs can bring good income due to frequent content updates. New unique articles, videos and other types of content attract readers and are more likely to get numerous natural clicks. The majority of blogs offer solutions to get the readers rid of their issues and problems. The users will perceive valid ads as a part of those solutions and will click on them. Also, the most successful blogs feature good SEO rankings that imply tons of traffic. As a result, more users will see ads and click on them, significantly increasing your income.
A Forum Site
Forums are profitable as well. They give answers, tips, guides, etc. for free. It is the perfect way of showing ads to free subscribers. Those who buy paid plans do not expect to view ads because they used to get ad-free content as a part of their privacy, and as a reward for the money that they’ve spent on the subscription.
To make your forum attractive for both readers and advertisers, drive a lot of high-quality traffic to your site and become an influencer. In other words, it’s crucial to build a brand and increase your awareness to gather users together in order to discuss a wide range of topics. For example, FlyerTalk Forums managed to post 168 posts per week and drive near 500,000 visitors for a month.
A Free Online Tool Site
Platforms that offer free tools for internet activities are very popular. They boast no paid plans, contracts or credit card payments. Certainly, such websites will be successful, subject to valuable offers and solutions. For example, Marketing for Travel Agents offers free downloads, workshops, reports and many other useful tools
Plenty of people visit those resources every day to find out and get the most effective tools for free. The majority of them click on the ads that would make your income grow fast.
How to Earn Money With Google Adsense
In the world of advertisement, Google Adsense is one of the most popular platforms for generating money online. As easy as it seems at first, there are still some rules you need to follow for a long and fruitful cooperation with the platform. And on top of that, remember to properly place the ads on your website. So, to increase Google AdSense revenue and ensure stable income, make every step of your practice coherent with the content on the website and its design. Kindly take into account that the most popular and well-known platforms earning thousands of dollars on ads still care about their readers. So, you might like to think in advance about how to provide your audience with easy-to-read materials and make ads that won’t create irritation.