Google Adwords

Google Adsense works in conjunction with another Google program called Adwords. Google Adwords is a network of advertisers that buy ad placement on Google search and also on Google’s site partner network (Adsense).

Adwords advertisers buy ad space on the content network by bidding on keywords. If their bid is high enough, they get placement on sites with that particular keyword.

Because the advertisements only show up when the keywords are present on your site, you’ll get highly targeted ads that are relevant to your site and add value to your readers. Having ads that are related to your content also means your readers are more likely to click on the ad and earn you money.

Making money

How much you get paid by Adsense per click is dependent on how much the advertisers are bidding on that keyword. Usually, companies with high dollar value or high margin products and services will pay more per click. Common products in this area include web hosting, travel, car loans and bank loans.

If your goal is to earn money online, take into account which keywords have high competition and design your site around them. To learn which keywords have high competition, visit Google’s free keyword tool.

Different types of Adsense Programs

In addition to providing ads for content, Adsense has some other programs available for publishers including:

• Adsense for domains – with this program, you can take a website address that you own and have it set up to just run ads without other content. This program will work best if you have a website URL that people are likely to type into their address bar without a search (this is called direct type). If it is a simple name it’s more likely to get a high number of direct types. Domainers (people who buy domains strictly to place ads on) also sometimes buy commonly misspelled company names in the hopes that someone will go there by mistake.
• Adsense For RSS – this program allows you to add Adsense ads to your RSS feed so that when readers look at your content in their RSS reader, they’ll also get ads by Google. Adsense for RSS works well in conjunction with placing ads on your blog.
• Adsense for Mobile – just like it says, with this program, you can add Adsense to a mobile website. You can actually create your own mobile site with a WordPress plug-in, but we’ll talk more about that in future posts.
• Adsense for Search – with this program, you can embed Google’s search engine on your site. When someone uses search on your site and clicks through to a paid ad, you get paid.

Before you start using Adsense, make sure you review their terms of service closely, as you don’t want to get banned from the program and miss out on the opportunity to make money.

Adsense Guidelines:

• Click Fraud – don’t click on your own ads or ask friends to click them for you
• Don’t tell users to click on your ads in any way
• Never alter the Adsense code in any way
• Don’t run automated programs to click on your website’s ads
• Never divulge your Adsense earnings publicly
• Don’t place AdSense on sites that promote violence, drugs or any other illegal activity.

To find out more about Adsense policy, visit Google’s Terms and Conditions.

Earning revenue using Google AdSense really is about trial and error. Every site performs differently and while there are best practices, you’ll need to experiment in order to get the most from your placements. I’ve found the reports in Analytics extremely useful for testing ads on the sites that I monetize with AdSense.

Here are the three AdSense reports available in Analytics and some suggestions on how to use them to earn more money:

• AdSense Content- Provides details on how various ads perform on your site and which pages perform best.
  • Use this report to:
    1. Optimize underperforming pages. If you see that a certain page has many pageviews with a low click-through rate, you might want to test different ad sizes, fonts and placements within your template. Subtle changes to your ads can have a significant impact on earnings.
    2. Analyze what content has a high conversion rate and produce more of it.

• AdSense Referrers- This report specifies where the traffic that generates revenue is coming from.
  • Use this report to:
    1. Optimize or discontinue underperforming ad campaigns and invest more in the ones that are working.
    2. Analyze your free organic traffic and build an SEO strategy around the data provided on high performing keywords.
    3. Overall, focus on the strategies that work based on the data from your report.

• AdSense Trending- Specifies the revenue generation during different hours in a day and during different days in a week.
  • Use this report to:
    1. Schedule the posting of new content to coincide with peak times for Adsense earnings.
    2. Time when you submit articles to your social networks.
    3. Send out newsletters or marketing material during those peak times.

AdSense overview report screen-shot:

Linking AdSense with Google Analytics is quite simple. Here’s how:

• Sign in to your AdSense account
• Click on the link titled “Integrate your AdSense account with Google Analytics”.
• Once linked, you will find an AdSense menu on the left hand side of the navigation bar in your Analytics home page.

Once you integrate your account, you`ll be on your way to earning more revenue by using the data to your advantage. Good Luck!

1. Log into your Blogger account.
2. Click on the Layout tab and click on the Page Elements link.
3. Choose the Edit link in the Blog Posts section.
4. Tic the box beside Show Ads Between Posts. Once this is done, select how often you would like your ads to show up: once after every post, once after every other post…
5. Choose the ad size and colours, then click on Save Changes.

That’s all there is to it. Good luck earning more revenue on your blog with inline Google Adsense ads!