AdSense: Are Your AdSense Ads Making Sense?
AdSense sites are often used as mini income generators by a lot of part-time marketers. The general opinion about these sites ranges from “great income tool” to “utter rubbish.” It is clear that the opinions are divided. But let’s not worry about the usability of these sites for the moment, let’s look at how good the ads on your AdSense sites actually are…
Powered by Content
Whether you know this, or not, your AdSense ads are powered by the content that is on your pages. Mainly the stuff that precedes the ad, and then some of the stuff below it.
If your ads are untargeted they will not match the topic of your site, nor will they pay much per click. Chances are you will get smart priced too (when you get 3 cent clicks or less).
You can trigger the right ads with the right words, based on your keyword of course. Use h1, h2, and h3 tags near your ads, bold the keyword (once is enough) and make sure your content matches the actual URL. AdSense is much like a pair of shoes, if the size is right, it fits snug like a bug, if it ain’t, your content ads are all over the show, mis-matched, un-targeted and rubbish.
Shoot for the Top
When considering an AdSense site, you should aim for the biggest possible income you can make. Yes, the competition is ragging among these highly competitive keywords, but hey, if you do your SEO right, and build some quality links then it will pay out handsomely in the end. Some niches that come to mind are:
- Credit
- Debt
- Insurance
- Legal
- Loans
The list goes on and on actually. You can dig into any decent paying niche and discover lesser known, but often better-paying ads in the process. When I do my research I try and stick with keywords that pay at least $2 per click. Why?
Because generally you get paid about 25 percent of the CPC by Google, often even less, the rest goes to them and the AdWords advertiser who’s paying for the ad. Since it takes work to build these sites, even if they’re small in comparison to a larger authority site I’d like to get paid for my efforts. Choosing good-paying keywords is one of those insurances. In case you wonder, the others are SEO (on-page) and links.
Go Local
The best money can be had with local ads, think “Mesopotamia lawyer in Chicago,” or “dental surgeon in New York.” The competition for these keywords are no doubt huge, but who says you have to stick with the obvious? You don’t! Try to think outside the box when targeting AdSense sites and make sure your content is highly optimized.
The Importance of AdSense Ad Placement
Now you’ve got a highly optimize AdSense site it’s time to place the ad in the right position. Since most readers skim websites you only have a few seconds to get the click. Getting the click is key in driving AdSense revenue, but having said this, you also want to inform people with quality content.
In my humble opinion the best place for ads is underneath your title, but before the actual content. I usually wrap the content around the ad to make it more neat. The ad has got to be above the fold. For some niches, the left hand sidebar also works well, while for others a sub header with link ads do the trick.
In the end you can never say one size fits all. The success of your AdSense sites really lies in the combination of picking a good niche (keyword), optimizing the site for search engines (very important to get the top-paying clicks), and positioning your ads in the right spot.
The best way to find out is by split-testing your ads:
- Test for keyword in content
- Test for ad position
- Test for keyword itself
- Test for how many ads you show on one page (remember to stick within the legal allowance from Google’s terms.
You can use Google Website Optimizer to do your split testing for AdSense effectiveness
Have fun
Monika
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36 Responses to “AdSense: Are Your AdSense Ads Making Sense?”
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Great post! One of the most difficult things for me to learn when making adsense sites was keeping the content directed at one topic and one set of ads. I cannot stress the importance of this; if your content goes all over the place, your ppc earnings will plummet.
Great tips, Monika! I’m about to venture out into niche Adsense sites, so this post couldn’t be timed any better. I’ve been doing a great deal of research, and your tips will compliment what I’ve already found nicely. Thanks!
Alan Mater´s last blog ..How to Increase Fan Numbers on Your Facebook Fan Page
Glad to hear this Alan, good luck in your new venture. Remember to split-test your conversions.
Yes, there’s no single size that fits all, but as far as my experience, and those others who vouch about it, the ads under the title seem to work best for a majority of people.
As for targeting, I’ve had experience where all your tags are optimized, but sometimes google still draws some ads from some random word in the content that’s not very related to the topic.
Adsense ads are sometimes confusing, especially if you’re focused on monetizing your blog with other higher commissions (like affiliate marketing or paid ads). It’s just that google are paying you cents for valuable traffic leaving your site, which is odd if you’ve made a website designed for visitors to stay longer. I do think that it’s only profitable if your site has thousands of visits in a day, other than that I see it as pointless if placed to compete with your money links. Hope I’m making sense here
Hi Alex,
Great post as usual!
Google Adsense is not something I have concentrated much on over the last 12 months. I do have Adsense adds on my websites however from a making money point of view it has actually taken me nearly a year just to earn $100!
Although reading the niches you have mentioned such as credit, loans, insurance etc I can see where people can make decent money with adsense, especially if they have a collection of sites within a high paying niche.
I do believe you would need to do keyword research before hand, not just in finding out how much the keywords are worth but also for how many searches are being done for that particular niche and whether it is worth going to the effort to create the content site.
So much to learn!
Hope all is going well. See you back here soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..The 100 Blog Comment Challenge Is On!
I own a religious website and it is currently earning an average of $30-35 a month. Last month was the highest earning month where I earned $48. Not bad for a guy from the Philippines.
Vince´s last blog ..How To Set Up A Blogspot Blog
I agree Vince, its hard to make on AdSense alone if you have a single blog. But always remember about alternatives
You ain’t alone. After 1 year and 5 months online, I’m just breaching the 100 Euros line
. I’m trying to focus more on earning through affiliate sales and my own service offerings.
Udegbunam Chukwudi´s last blog ..EzBlogSetup Service Is Now LIVE & OPEN For Orders!
Adsense is great… but again, you need to have a good amount of traffic to have a good passive income. As for my experience, average adsense clicks per 200 unique visitors is 7-10 clicks.
Income varies depending on the cost of adsense being posted.
If you are for blogging, Adsense will not really make you rich, but it certainly gives a good deal of passive income.
Vince´s last blog ..How To Set Up A Blogspot Blog
Your analysis is so true
. I’m averaging 130 unique visits during weekdays and my best has been 10 clicks in a day. I’m also trying to earn via Adsense for Domains and depending on the country of origin of my traffic for the day, my Adsense for Domain could rake in as much as 2 Euros a day 
Udegbunam Chukwudi´s last blog ..How To Organize Your WordPress Posts In Categories
These are fantastic tips, thank you so much for sharing. In certain niches PPC can be worth as much as $30 (perhaps more in others) and with a right strategy at hand can really make you rich.
I think Niche finding is very important if one wants to earn a good amount of money from Adsense because not all niches are similr paying. If one can find good paying keyword and do good amount of SEO on it then the site can be a great money earner for him/her
Shiva´s last blog ..Rockable Press How to Build a Successful Blog Business Released Discount Coupon Code
I agree, I do the same thing.
CyberChimps´s last blog ..A guide to Video Sitemaps
To earn money from adsense you need to have huge traffic.A rectangular ad block below the post title gives better ctr.
Shabnam Sultan´s last blog ..RIM’s BlackPad rumored to be launched in November
Just what I’ve been saying exactly.
James Moralde´s last blog ..Prevalence Reporter Is Trying To Access The Internet
I have been always trying to focus on layout and design and trough I use ad sense I tend to pick the less optimal formats which look better on the sites and don`t annoy visitors. So far I am satisfies with the revenue generated with the program as it is sufficient to cover the basic expenses of running the site. Of course I have many ideas for growth and development and hope that adsense revenue will improve and become a valuable income stream when it comes to initial funding.
Hello monika,
The niche you mentioned are high paying, but the problem for me is that most of the people like me don’t know anything about Credit, Debt, Insurance, Legal, Loans. So we can’t write anything about it on our websites.
I never even think to write about some local stuffs of high paying global keywords. This is a wonderful idea since there is very less blog writers locally, but have high competition locally. More over this is nice idea for getting huge local traffic and provide useful contents to local visitors.
I have to mention one more think about adsense, the less adsense unit you have on your website, the more eCPM you will get.
pratish´s last blog ..BMS Results 2010
As my blog is fairly new, I am trying to get the content there first, and am not really optimising the ads very much yet. Once I have a good blog established, I think I will do it then. What are your thoughts on this, is this the right thing to do for me?
Thanks
Christopher Roberts´s last blog ..Bloodhound SSC
I tried visiting your website, and your adsense placement below your home tab is just an awesome place. It might do well.
Vince´s last blog ..7 Killer Tips To Improve Adsense Clicks
Thanks for sharing,Last month i’ve got my first check from adsense.But it take for so long i reach that.I will learning again about adsense.How about ads Marketplace?
tedifa´s last blog ..The beauty of Disneyland Park in Florida
After so much split testing, I’ve come to accept the fact that “Above The Fold” works better on my site. I do get a few “Below The Content” clicks but they ain’t as much as those above the content and below the title.
The Credit Cards/Loans niche has been overcrowded by spammers with their MFA sites and it’s quite difficult setting a reputation in those niche.
As Jason Acidre said, Adsense ads are only profitable with sites that receive tons of search engine traffic.
Udegbunam Chukwudi´s last blog ..How To Organize Your WordPress Posts In Categories
Thanks a lot for your Adsense sum-up. You may be interested to learn the exact revenue adsense shares with it publishers:
68% from AdSense for content
51% AdSense for search
Source: http://adsense.blogspot.com/20.....share.html
Mark´s last blog ..The Other Guys
I just made a new post about this adsense. Hope you’ll like it as well. Please refer to the link below.
Vince´s last blog ..7 Killer Tips To Improve Adsense Clicks
I am just getting ready to put Adsense on one of my sites…This really h=gives me a nice insight to how to place my ads…Thank you so much…
http://Hcg-does-it-work.com
Kenney´s last blog ..Aug 4- HCG Does it Work
Great article, Monica! Couple more tips for your readers…
1) Noted SEO expert Andy Williams pointed out recently that the company that created the original algorythm for AdSense was later bought by Google who use it to rank pages in the SERPs too. His testing showed the best rankings were for themed pages – i.e. those that had all the right related words and keyphrases, not just the main keyword, and that in the niches he used as examples, the top pages had 1,100 – 2,500 words per page.
2) Remember that search engines regard backlinks from the same sub-net mask as having lesser value, so if you’re creating 4 or 5 interlinked sub-niche blogs for AdSense, it’s best to spread them over 2 or more unrelated hosting companies. (That also keeps your earnings going when any one of them is down, or when you run into problems like Alex did recently.) Hosting all of your sites on one large account or server actually hurts your SEO efforts.
Doug Champigny´s last blog ..Online Marketing Tips For Small Offline Businesses
I hate seeing sites overloaded with Adsense ads, it just makes me want ot leave straight away. Does anyone actually make any money from Adsense nowadays, aren’t people just too savvy to click on the links now..?
David,
Properly placed ads still make money, assuming you get the traffic. Now overloading site with ads is part of the problem why people fail to succeed. Google does have quality score on your site – so if you have many ad units – you get lower CTR. It is better to have less but in right location
Great advice on AdSense. I’ve just started recently with my own blog so I haven’t had much success with AdSense yet but I will try to improve my placement. I think that will help. Thank you.
I agree that you should aim for the biggest possible income you can make. yes the competition will be huge among these very competitive keywords but if you do your home work right it will be worth it.
Aaron´s last blog ..Download WWE SmackDown! Vs RAW 2006 PSP Games At Full High Speed
This is a great topic. Almost what they had said are true. I also have a conclusion that, if your ads are is clicked by rich countries(probably European and American countries)the earnings are higher as compare to local people around your country who clicked your ads. Well, that’s just my conclusion and I also based it to the experience of my friend.
Regina´s last blog ..LCD TV- Great Addition for Home
Regina, ad click price is determined by what Advertisers are willing to pay for that ad, if a local targeting ad is lower cost to advertiser, stand to reason you will get less for the click on it.