AdSense optimization: make more money from Google AdSense with safety
By John Pospisil
Want to improve the performance of the AdSense advertising on your Web site? Or perhaps you’re setting up AdSense for the first time? Here are some tried and true tips that have worked for me. They will help ensure that the AdSense units on your Web site work as effectively as possible.
When I initially started running AdSense advertising on BLORGE.com in October 2006 I thought it would be a temporary arrangement until I signed up with a cost-per-thousand (CPM) advertising banner network, which I was certain would be much more lucrative.
However, I’ve found that AdAense achieves much better revenue than the rates recently offered to me by a number of CPM networks. Of course, this is just my experience, and what will work best depends on the nature of your website, its subject area, and the kind of traffic you’re attracting.
The other good news for AdSense publishers is that contextual advertising is tipped to do better than traditional advertising (like newspapers, radio, and television) during the economic slow down.
While you may have seen some of these tips elsewhere, I’ve tried to pull together the optimization tips that in my experience can make the most difference. Hopefully you’ll find them as useful as I did.
Prominent ads above the fold
People won’t click on your ad if they don’t see it. Of course you don’t want your ads to be too intrusive, but if they’re not immediately and easily seen, no one’s going to click on them. These days most people realize that advertising is needed to fund Web sites.
In the days when people read newspapers “above the fold” referred to the top half of the newspaper page – the part above the fold. In the online world, it refers to the part of a Web page that appears in the browser without needing for the user to scroll down.
People tend to scan a page from top left to bottom right, so I have Skyscraper in left column, and are Large Rectangle between the headline and body copy of a story.
This way, people arriving at the Web site will scan at least two Adsense units. I’ve put a third Large Rectangle below the story, which people see once they’ve finished reading the story. Sure, this ad doesn’t get clicked as much, but as I said, we don’t want the advertising to be too intrusive. Balance is important.
I have also heard that placing a Large Rectange within the body copy, so that the text flows around the right-hand-side of the ad, is also very effective, though many templates may not allow this to be done easily.
In my experience, the large rectangle has been the most profitable AdSense unit, both because of its size and position on the web page.
Google has a created a nifty heat map that shows the best places to show AdSense ads.
Make the ads blend in
These days people are almost immune by to ads, and will automatically glance over anything that looks like an ad.
AdSense ad units tend to work best if they blend in with the rest of the web page, so what this means is:
- Make the background of the ad unit the same colour as the rest of the web page (or at least the area where the AdSense ad is placed).
- Make the border of the ad the same color as the background, so that it looks like there is no border
- Make the text the same color as the text you use on the web page
Of course people will still see that the AdSense units are advertising, they just won’t be as likely to glance over them as they will be less obtrusive.
You’ve find Google’s take on colour palettes here.
Use keywords in the title, intro and paragraphs
In order for AdSense to accurately present ads that match your content, it needs to understand what your content is about.
For this reason it’s important to use “keywords” or words that are directly related to the subject in the title and intro, and in the article itself.
As a general rule, Google thinks that what it sees first, ie headline and intro, is more important than what it sees at the bottom of the page.
It uses this information to decide what ads to present on your Web site. For example:
“How to speed up your Vista PC”
is better than
“More computer tips”
Taking this approach also helps with search engine optimization, since it helps the Google search algorithm understand what your web site is about.
Make sure your highest or most clicked ads load first
To understand this tip you need to understand this.
Advertisers bid for keywords in order for their ads to appear on Adsense pages. Google presents the ads from the highest bidders first (higher on the page), and the ads from the lowest bidders last (lower on the page).
To keep things simple Google makes the assumption that the ads that appear in your Web page’s source code first, are highest on the page. Due to how Web site templates work, this might not necessarily be the case.
There’s an extra complication in that sometimes you might have two ads high up on a page, where one ad performs much better than the other .
It’s clearly in your interest that the ad that works best, is loaded first, so that it contains the higher-paying ads.
In my case, in the original BLORGE template, the left column originally loaded first (containing the Skyscraper), followed by the center column (containing the Large Rectangle). More people clicked on the Large Rectangle than the Skyscraper, so it made sense to change the template so that the center column loaded first. Once I made the change, overnight I saw a substantial increase in revenue.
Keep experimenting
Don’t be complacent – always keep on experimenting with different ad units and different positions.
I’ve made the mistake of thinking that I’d done everything possible to optimize the AdSense advertising on my site, only to later discover something else months later that increased revenue by 20 percent or more. That’s a significant amount of money I left on the table because I didn’t do further experimentation.
By the way, that “something else” was the position of the Large Rectangle below the article copy. Just moving it from above the comments to just below the article copy made a significant difference in some, but interestingly not all, my sites.
You may be surprised how small changes can lead to significant improvements in revenue.
Always make sure that you keep good records of when you make changes, and what they were. Monitor any changes you make for at least a few days to see how it affects revenue.
You really need a couple of weeks of data to see what effects your changes have had, so I don’t recommend you make any hasty decisions based on one or two days of data. Having said that if you do see a dramatic fall in revenue, that can’t be explained otherwise, don’t hesitate to reverse the changes you’ve made –- none of us likes loosing money.
You should also integrate your Adsense account with Google Analytics, as this will allow you to track how much revenue each page on your site is generating. This can be very helpful when you’re experimenting with different things.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch
You may come across websites and books that offer systems and techniques for generating easy money from AdSense.
There’s no easy money to be made from Adsense.
Think about this. if someone is selling a system that makes money, why wouldn’t that person keep the system to themselves so that can maximize their profit. As soon as sell the system to anyone else, they automatically make the system less viable as they’re increasing the competition. As they say, if it looks too good to be true, it’s too good to be true. Don’t get sucked in
And be aware that Adsense will quickly terminate your account if you do anything that contravenes AdSense Standard Terms and Agreements.
At the end of the day, making money with AdSense comes down to generating good content, providing value to visitors to your Web site, and ensuring the AdSense is optimized for your particular Web site.
While these tips have worked for me, what works on your Web site might be slightly different. So use these tips as a starting point, and experiment!
And one final recommendation, check out the Improving Performance section on Google’s AdSense support website.
If you have any suggestions, comments or advice, please feel free to comment. I would love to hear from you, especially if you’ve had a different experience.
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