AdSense Beginners Tips

I’ve already written a quick tips guide for AdWords this this week, so I thought it might be an idea to do the same for AdSense.

AdSense is the program that allows publishers to put Google Ads on their own sites - and generate revenue from them. It’s popular because it’s so easy to do and because the ads are context sensitive. Whatever the subject of your web site, Google will crawl it and automatically choose ads that match. And with thousands upon thousands of advertisers, the chances are you’ll get relevant ads on your site.

Getting AdSense up and running is fairly easy - just paste the Javascript code into your blog template - but if you want to make the most of Google ads on your site, here’s a few quick tips:

Placement
The placement of ads on your page (where you put them) is possibly the most important factor if you want to get maximum revenue from AdSense. Try to place ads “above the fold” - i.e. near the top of the page, so a reader doesn’t have to scroll down in order to see them. If you’re ads are right at the bottom of the page, nobody will ever see them, never mind click them.

Ad Sizes
Different sized ads can perform very differently, so it’s worth experimenting with different sizes to see which works for you. Many people find large leaderboard ads at the top of a page, or 300×250 ads embedded in the content perform best.

But you also need to consider how the ads fit into your blog template. If an ad won’t physically fit, try a different size or placement. You might even find that you need to try a completely new blog template in order to fit ads in without detracting from the content.

Colours
You might not think it, but the colour of your ads can have a huge impact on your revenue. Most people find that colours that blend in with your own site work best. In particular, look at removing borders (by setting them to the same colour as the background).

Change one thing at a time
When tweaking your ads, rather than changing ad size, placement and colour all at once, change one thing at a time and wait at least a day to see how that change affects your stats. This is by far the best way of seeing how a particular change is affecting your revenue, and you won’t have to spend time figuring out what it was you need to put back if your earnings suddenly fall through the floor.

Use channels
Google provides custom “channels” that enable you to track ads on specific pages or placements to see how they perform. This is really useful if you want to see how one ad is performing in relation to another, and it’s absolutely vital if you have more than one site. Spend some time setting up channels and getting a feel for how they work, and you could end up saving yourself a lot of time and money in the future.

Experiment with image ads
For some ad sizes, Google lets you specify if you want to see text ads, image ads, or both. Often, letting Google’s algorithm decide works best, but in some circumstances, using only image ads can improve revenue. If you have a very text-heavy site with few other graphics, an image ad can provide an eye-catching focal point to your page. On other sites, it just looks overly busy and doesn’t work. Experiment!

Don’t Click!
Never, ever, ever be tempted to click your own ads or encourage your readers to click ads on your site. Not only is this against the rules, but Google has some pretty sophisticated fraud detection algorithms, and if you’re caught clicking or encouraging readers to click ads, the chances are your account will be frozen and you’ll lose all your earnings.

It’s also worth remembering that someone - a real, living, breathing advertiser - is paying for every ad click. If you’re clicking your own ads, you are effectively stealing their money. So don’t do it!

Track your changes
You’ll be surprised how a small change in layout or placement can affect the amount of money you can make from AdSense, but sometimes, you might find a sudden jump or fall in revenue and think “What did I do???”.

A lot of the time, it will be nothing that you’ve done - a change in Google’s ad placement algorithms or search engine rankings - but if you do make changes to the AdSense ads on your site, just write a note of what you changed and when.

Get a book!
As with so many things in life, a good book can be the best way to learn about AdSense. The AdSense Code by Joel Comm looks to be a popular choice with good reviews.

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