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I recently talked about making money on Twitch and a couple of my readers mentioned their challenges with earning revenue through Adsense on their websites.
It was about time, I talked exclusively about how to increase your Adsense revenue.
There are different ways you can earn money from your website – from fan donations to selling products on your site. However, some of them relate to advertising via third-party products which allow you to earn as online traffic flows in and out of your site.
Among the advertising programs that help you monetize by ads, the most widely used is Google Adsense which was launched in 2003. By placing ads that are relevant to your content and target audience, it creates an opportunity for developers and site managers to earn from their traffic.
Now here are some strategies you can implement yourself for increasing your AdSense revenue:
1. Using Ezoic
This is one of the best and simplest methods of optimizing AdSense revenues in the market today. However, this is only available for websites maintaining traffic of about 20,000-page visits every month. Otherwise, move to the next method and apply the manual techniques for optimizing AdSense.
Ezoic is a free tool available for all bloggers who have the above monthly traffic. It allows web developers and bloggers to easily improve their websites. Once configured for your preferences, it will automatically start trying out ads to improve the visitor experience. You can check this site for a recommendation from an actual user.
What makes it popular among website owners is that it uses artificial intelligence to automate important decisions on your webpage. Instead of manually testing out your ad placement, Ezoic can try on your behalf ad placement factors such as the size and position of your ads. Even more, the machine learning algorithm implemented in Ezoic is focused on improving the visitor experience. This tool will keep your visitors happy and satisfied while helping you earn more from your website.
Usually, before going to Ezoic itself, publishers start with using Ad Tester. It is an application on the Ezoic platform which allows you to test thousands of prospective ad locations at once. Ezoic then automatically assesses the ad combinations that improve your SEO and UX metrics and keeps on customizing it with every visit based on your readers’ response.
2. Increasing Size and Location
Size and location are among the most important components in determining your click-through rate (CTR). CTR refers to the number of times your ads are clicked over the number of times the same ads are viewed.
Usually, experienced web developers strongly recommend placing Adsense ads above the fold and around the content. This is because above-the-fold-ads generally do better than below-the-fold-ads.
Usually, new bloggers often disregard link-based ads. These kinds of ads differ from banner advertisements and if used properly, even supplements the CTR of your main AdSense ads.
In designing websites intended for generating income via AdSense, an important guide to keeping in mind is the AdSense heatmap. This allows you to choose immediately which themes would look good on your website while making the most out of your ad placements.
3. Making your ads more relevant via AdSense Section Targeting.
AdSense has a tool called the crawler which visits your page and tries to extract keywords leading to your website. While this is an automated method that improves your metrics, you can further maximize this tool. Keep in mind that generally, Adsense scans your website, even the parts not always relevant to your target content. This includes your headers, footers, sidebars, and even the comment section whenever available.
Section targeting is an option that assists Google Adsense in finding ads that are more relevant to your content, which in turn serves you and your audience better. This strategy will result in a higher CTR and consequently, higher income from your AdSense ads. It works by setting AdSense to focus more on a specific part of your website.
To use section targeting, you simply need to add a pair of HTML tags to enclose the section you want your AdSense to focus on:
<!– google_ad_section_start –>
…….
<!– google_ad_section_end –>
Conversely, you can mark out which parts of your webpage are to be ignored by Google AdSense. This is usually applied to other parts of your webpage like the headers, footers, and sidebar sections. The HTML tags used are as follows:
<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –>
…….
<!– google_ad_section_end –>
4. Optimizing your traffic and location
Google AdSense works better with traffic directed from search engines like Google and Bing. On the other hand, direct traffic, which refers to page visits not coming from external links, is not really compatible with Internet-based advertisements.
This causes people to complain about the low cost per clicks (CPC) and low income despite millions of impressions per month. The reason behind it is the CPC itself as well as the sources of traffic. You would do well aiming for traffic from countries like the U.K. and the U.S.A. Traffic from these countries offers higher CPC.
Also, learning about on-page SEO optimization techniques should help you get more traffic and consequently, more AdSense income. On-page SEO is a way for web developers and owners to manage their content in a way that search engines and online bots better understand your content. By focusing on specific parts like Meta title, keywords, heading tags, and links, you can rank higher in search results and bring your content closer to your audience.
There are other techniques to increase your traffic such as converting visitors into subscribers by sending updates and working to make them visit your site regularly. Even better, you can also apply push notifications that send an offer or an invite to anyone visiting your site. Push notifications can range from asking visitors to subscribe to bots inquiring if they have specific requirements.
5. Add a revenue stream with AdSense for Search
There are a lot of ways for Google AdSense to help you monetize your website, and the more ways you utilize means more potential revenue streams for you. One of which is AdSense for Search, which helps improve user navigation for your site. You can simply add tags to match Google’s highly targeted ads with your preferred search results. There are two options available in terms of showing search results: (1) within the blog page and (2) on Google page.
Setting up your AdSense for Search
Starting up AdSense for Search is easy with the tool’s proprietary interface. It is made even easier with the new AdSense interface.
- On the AdSense dashboard, click on “My ads.” Then select “Search” from the left toolbar. Next, click on “Custom Search Engines” and “New Custom Search Engine.”
- Fill in the required fields such as name and keywords
- In the “What to Search” option, select “Only sites I select” and fill in the complete URLs of the sites you wish to include in the search, including the HTTP:// tags.
- Next, in the “Search Results and Ad Location,” find the “Search Results” options and choose “On my website using an iframe.”
- On your WordPress dashboard, create a new page – this is where your search results will be displayed. For easier recall, create a page name with the word “Search” and make sure you have no index tag for that site. The page name, for example, would be yourdomain.com/search
- In the URL field, paste the new link for your WordPress search page
- Click “Save and get the code” to generate two codes. The first one is for displaying the search box and the second code is to be added where you plan to show the search results.
- Paste the second code on the HTML editor of your newly-created Search page.
- Create a text widget from the updated Search page and include the first AdSense code.
6. Optimizing Text and Image Ads
A common thought in the AdSense community is that image ad are better than text ads. To tell the truth, either type of advertisement caters to a specific market and it is still better to utilize both.
For fans of image ads, they would usually point out the glaring flaw in using text ads. Dead space refers to the space between the linked title text and the main URL, both of which are clickable. You can actually try this out, try to click the text between the title and the URL, and you can’t. This dead space equates to quite a number of clicks you lose and revenue you should be having. Image ads work simpler, they have no dead space and the larger the image, the larger the link you have.
While it would not hurt to use both, maybe users will no longer have the option since Google has notified its AdSense publishers about their plans to phase out text-only ads in order to promote richer ad formats.
7. Give thought to placement targeting
While this technique has been around for a while, only experienced web developers and marketers use it. Placement targeting allows Google AdSense to choose specific placements where they would like to see ads on their page. Users can choose from entire websites or specific subsets of advertisement units in that site, like appearing in selected sections or pages only.
When you create a channel, you can add more details about the kinds of ad you prefer and put it for auction in the market. This increases the competition among ad companies and marketers and therefore, increases the ad value on your website. However, for every custom channel, you have to set it up manually.
For AdSense users, your website is automatically added to a roster of pages visible to advertisers when they start looking for topics or themes related to your content.
Creating an Ad Placement
- Sign in to your AdSense account
- Click “Ads,” then select “Custom channels.”
- Select the name of the channel you would like to target. You can also click “New custom channel.”
- Under the “Targeting” section, tick off the box.
- Fill in the required fields
- Click Save.
8. Place Some Ads Between Posts
Another common method for maximizing your AdSense revenue is placing ads between successive posts on a page. You can easily set up your ads to work with your existing theme, page background, and palette. Ideally, you can add some seven to ten pictures in between posts. However, keep in mind that you need to consider maintaining a good user experience. Cramping the gaps between posts might end up violating AdSense rules and regulations.
9. Putting up an AdSense Blacklist URL
Before, there was an AdSense “blacklist” where you can check the list of advertising agencies who pay very little for each click. However, if you have other sources or even your own list of undesirable advertisers, you can block their URL. You can even block competitor ads from appearing on your site.
Blocking certain AdSense ads
- You can right-click on the ad you wish to block and copy the destination URL of that link. However, Google now has a nifty extension called the Google Publisher Toolbar that you can use for quickly addressing issues like this one.
- Click the extension and click enable on Google AdSense
- Browse the page where you have the ad you wish to block. The Google Publisher Toolbar extension will automatically pull and highlight each ad on the page. Highlight and copy again the destination link.
- In your Google AdSense account, search for “Allow and Block ads” and paste the copied URL and click the “Block URLs” button below.
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10. Using AdSense Category blocking
The New AdSense category allows easier use of the category blocking feature. With a click on the dashboard, you can now view which categories perform well compared to others, as well as those which perform poorly. Usually, you should block categories which have a good impression percentage but an unusually low earning percentage.
You can block undesirable ads en masse at the product level or at the site level.
Blocking at the Site Level
- Sign in to your AdSense account
- Select “Blocking controls”
- Choose “Content”
- Under “Content,” select the domain you want to apply the block on. If the site you wish to block is not included, you can simply add it through AdSense’s site management feature.
- Select “Manage General categories.” Use the indicated controls in this tab. All changes you make are automatically saved.
Blocking at the Product Level
- Sign in to your AdSense account
- Select “Blocking controls”
- Click your product. Choose “Content” for AdSense content.
- Select “Manage General categories”
- In the page for “General Categories,” choose from included controls for allowing or blocking certain categories. AdSense has close to 500 ad categories.
11. Using AdSense for YouTube
For content creators on YouTube, including web developers expanding into video publishing or uploading, you can also monetize all your copyrighted videos via the YouTube publisher program. In a nutshell, what you earn from YouTube depends on the number of views you can generate.
With the increasing popularity of video blogging, more and more are turning to monetize their YouTube channels. However, to apply for the Youtube publisher program, the requirements are as follows:
- At least 1,000 YouTube subscribers
- At least 4,000 hours of total watch time in the previous twelve months
- YouTube partnership is easier for original content creators. No content is copied from other sources and having complete ownership over all your videos.
- You should have an active AdSense account
Of course, AdSense for YouTube is focused on placing advertisements before and in between videos on YouTube. Advertisers can use text, image, or videos linked to different sites which are then paid per click.
Feel free to experiment
If you focus on generating income from monetizing your site through Google AdSense, the tips above should be enough to give you a headstart. However, there are still a lot of possibilities and methods you can use to increase your revenues.
You can start by experimenting on the characteristics of your links such as color and font and see if it impacts your CTR. You can also mix and match ad placements on your page using the AdSense heatmap as a reference.
Also, try playing around with non-standard types of advertising. A highly successful ad unit in the market today is 300×600 format. It is currently considered non-standard because not all site themes and layouts are designed to carry this format. Also known as a Monster MPU, it can be run on its own but can also be set up as a multi-sized ad used with smaller units like 160×600 300×250.
In terms of experimentation, you are even free to try out other monetization schemes, although I strongly recommend Google AdSense in terms of being user-friendly and in reach. You can always track the effects of your changes through analytics tools and by checking your clicks and traffic. Knowing which setups work and does not work will definitely help you develop a streamlined Google AdSense strategy on your website.
I am sure with the beginner-friendly tips listed above, and the techniques you will find yourself, you can definitely generate a significant increase in your traffic and consequently, your revenue.