Strategies for Monetizing Your Blog with Google AdSense

In this article, we will explore different strategies for monetizing a blog site using Google AdSense. We will start with 1) what is Google AdSense, going then to describe 2) why using Google AdSense is a good idea, 3) requirements for using Google AdSense, and 4) monetizing strategies with Google AdSense.

WHAT IS GOOGLE ADSENSE?

AdSense is the powerhouse moneymaker program by Google, which provides everyone with a win-win situation. Through this program, companies can promote their ads to their  at a comparatively cheaper cost while website or blog owners can make money displaying those ads. In this advertising cycle, everyone makes money and companies get a chance to bring their businesses right in front of their target audience.

Criteria for AdSense

There are different criteria that Google uses to send ads to a particular website or blog through AdSense:

• Contextual targeting: In this kind of targeting, AdSense crawlers analyze the kind of content that is present on your website or blog by scanning your page and decide which ads suit your website or blog the most. This is conducted by analyzing the structure of the website/blog, font size, word frequency, and keyword usage.
• Placement targeting: In this kind of targeting, companies or advertisers choose specific subsections for ad placement and, therefore, their ads only appear on the publisher’s website if the company’s criteria match with the website.
• Interest-based advertising: The interests of users play a major role in this kind of advertising. Companies analyze if users have already come to their website previously and make a decision accordingly. Ads Preferences Manager enables users to define their interests, which makes it easier for advertisers to maintain focus on their ad campaigns. This is an excellent method for website monetizing as it enables users to have a relevant experience while providing great value for advertisers.

WHY USING GOOGLE ADSENSE IS A GOOD IDEA

There are many many advantages for bloggers to make use of Google AdSense. From the ease of use to making money through writing content, AdSense provides great opportunities to bloggers.

Attracting International Traffic

Numerous blog owners find it difficult to spot advertisers that cater to Non-US target groups and hence they cannot even participate in the advertising network if their blogs attract users from outside North America. However, this does not apply to AdSense. The whole world knows what Google is about and, therefore, this program has advertisers from all over the globe. Therefore, it does not matter which location your blog is focused on; you will find advertisers who will be willing to post their ads on your blog.

Easy to use and quick access to advertisers

Bloggers do not have to be tech-savvy in order to understand AdSense and keep it running on their blogs. Anyone can set it up and begin displaying ads in just a few minutes. Google has now made the ad units more seamless than ever before, and that is why numerous ad networks are following the footsteps of AdSense. Moreover, it is not easy for bloggers to directly approach, talk, pitch and then negotiate with independent advertisers in order to make money.

Bloggers are just interested in writing great content for their readers while making money on-the-go without much hassle and trouble. All bloggers have to do is to add the code to their blogs and then let it be. Obviously, you will increase your chances of money making if you pay attention to the ad positioning and testing different designs.

Vast variety of topics

Apart from having advertisers that cater to almost every geographic location in the world, AdSense also has a huge base of companies that deal with all sorts of topics. Therefore, even if you are dealing with highly targeted niche and complex topics, AdSense will still be able to find advertisers for your blog.

Unspecified Traffic Level

Recent bloggers who do not have much traffic also struggle to find advertisers. AdSense does not have a specified or minimum traffic level that you need to have in order to be accepted by the program. Even if you have a few readers, you can start making a little money as you grow your readership with time.

Use Other Ad Networks

Are you thinking about running different ads from different ad networks alongside AdSense? Do not worry! Google has become very flexible in this regard over time and provides bloggers with complete freedom of action.

Ad Formats

You can easily customize your ads through selecting different ad unit sizes and can also opt for displaying different ad formats such as Ad link units, Video Ads, Image Ads besides the usual Text ads. Other ad networks only allow a maximum of two ad formats while AdSense has no limitation.

Timely Payment

Google is highly credible in everything it does and, therefore, has a good reputation with the advertisers as well. This means a blogger can have peace of mind when it comes to receiving payments through AdSense.

Performance tools

Google provides personalized and detailed reports to bloggers that help them understand the performance of a particular ad and identify how growth can be achieved.

Additional features

Bloggers have a lot of freedom of action when it comes to AdSense; they can select ads that are compatible with both desktop and mobile devices. Similarly, they can select ads that directly cater to their readers and are designed for a particular target group.

REQUIREMENTS FOR USING GOOGLE ADSENSE

In order to be successful in using AdSense for your blog you need to work on the following points:

High Traffic Website

The more traffic you will have, the more money you will make. AdSense is probably the easiest and quickest way for bloggers to make sure that they make money from writing or publishing high-quality content. However, no one can provide you with an exact figure of how much money would you be able to make through this program as your total earnings will depend on your CTR (click through rate) and EPC (earnings per click). Hence, every blogger should strive to have a highly targeted audience.

Website Functionality and Content

It does not matter whether you post videos, pictures or text, if your content is amazing, AdSense will love you. However, you will have to keep the AdSense content policies in mind in order to make money through it. Optimization is the key especially if you are dealing with too much video and image content, helping the crawlers identify the type of content that is present on your blog or website. That is why AdSense works the best with blogs and websites that have great text content such as success stories, how-to tutorials, and case studies.

Also, your blog or website needs to be highly functional, user-friendly, and high quality as Google will not want its clients’ ads to show up on a blog or website that is poorly designed. In the past few years, Google has made its policies quite staunch in this regard.

There are numerous blogs that fall under the category of MFA (made for AdSense). These blogs are only created so that they could earn revenue through this program by posting low quality and mediocre content. Such black hat tactics no longer work with Google, and all bloggers and website owners have to make sure that they have a defined purpose of their platforms, which goes beyond gaining online clicks for money. If you are passionate about a particular field and are willing to work hard, you will not only make great money through AdSense but will also create a genuine name for yourself in the industry which can further help you monetize your blog.

Keyword targeting

Whether you are working with AdSense or any other ad platform, targeting the correct keywords is the first step, which will decide how much money you will make. Advertisers bid on specific keywords and the more you use those keywords, higher the chances you will have to increase your income. Blog or website owners should focus using keywords that companies use to promote their products or services or opt for keywords with a high conversion rate.

Take the example of two website that deal in cancer prevention and both of the websites have the equal amount of traffic and are making money through AdSense. The first website targets keywords such as, “anti-cancer home remedies”, “how to fight against cancer” and cancer prevention tips.” The second website is optimized for keywords such as, “health tips”, “why drinking milk is important” and “important multivitamins”.

While both of the websites have similar traffic, the first one will make more money as advertisers will be interested in keywords that are directly relevant to treating or preventing cancer. Users are also more likely to click on the links that provide relevant information rather than general topics.

Therefore, bloggers should strive for organic traffic as it has a high conversion rate and is more relevant for the advertisers.

AdSense Compliance

AdSense is highly important for Google as it makes one-third of its revenue through this program. Anyone can easily sign-up for the AdSense account, but you have to make sure that you comply with its policies to avoid losing your account. Do not try to trick the search engines and make sure that you read and understand the policies thoroughly before signing up for an account.

MONETIZING STRATEGIES WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE

Getting an AdSense account is as simple as signing up for it. However, there are numerous strategies that can be used by bloggers or website owners to earn higher revenue through this program.

Basic tips

Here are some basic tips to get you started with AdSense money making:

Use Common Ad Sizes

Advertisers have the opportunity of choosing from numerous ad units although there are some basic ad sizes that are more common. Bloggers and website owners should use these standard measurements to make sure that their platform gets selected from a vast pool of advertisers. These common sizes are 160×600, 728×90, and 300×250.

Incorporate Link Units

Numerous advertisers these days opt for link units and hence website owners should pay close attention to them.

Allow Image and Text Ads

You can either restrict AdSense ad unit to display only image ads or to allow both image and text ads to appear. Allowing both of these options will make sure that you get a great pool of ads for your blog or website thus increasing your revenue.

Keep an eye on the dashboard

Go to the “scorecard” under the ‘AdSense Partners’ menu to know the revenue optimization score. It will let you know your score, and you can make modifications or conduct testing if you think that your score is not high enough.

Do not overdo it

At times, greed takes over bloggers and website owners leading them to make decisions that might do wrong to the overall user experience of the website. While this can potentially earn you a few extra bucks in the beginning, it will not be fruitful in the long-term. Therefore, keep the ads at the optimal to make sure that your website or blog is not all about ads or revenue generation.

Ad Positioning

ATF – Above The Fold ad units are the most revenue-friendly. Try to place your ads strategically on the top of the page in order to get the maximum clicks.

Keep an eye on the Fill Rate

Make sure that your website or blog is not going to waste through displaying blank space instead of ads. Position your ads appropriately and keep an eye on the fill rate to make sure that you earn the maximum through AdSense.

Experiment Ideas

You can only ensure that your ads are getting the exposure they deserve through conducting experiments and testing. Always remember that you can tweak some design esthetics of the same ad to make it more appealing.

Play around with colors and sizes

You can increase the size of your ads and edit their colors to make sure that they get the maximum eyeballs. If you think that an ad contains information that deserves a large space, increase its size to 970×90 from the previous 728×90. This is significant in increasing the conversion rates and helps bloggers and website owners to run convincing ads with efficient calls to actions.

Moreover, you can also play around with the colors of the ad unit. While this may sound very simple, it can sometimes take hours for testing and previewing. Make sure that your text, background and border color do not overlap each other, and the ad is perfectly visible and readable even after changing the default colors. Similarly, you can also edit the link unit color to go from the basic blue to something extra for higher visibility. However, keep it subtle and do not opt for colors such as purple or hot pink for link units.

Ad Positioning

Website or Blog layout will eventually decide which ad position would be the best. However, placing ads in or near the comment section can increase engagement. If you have a weblog or blog with active participants, then this kind of placement will be a good idea for you. Moreover, putting links under the navigation bars is a common ad placement option that bags huge returns. You can also place ads strategically within your content for higher user engagement.

Conduct A/B testing

A/B testing is super important because it tells you the impact your ad is having on your users. Therefore, you have the ability to change the impact through experimenting with different designs, layouts, font size, colors, etc. Google Experiments is a great way to make more money with AdSense. It is very user-friendly, and it will just take you 30 minutes to fully familiarize yourself with it. Make sure that you have an experiment or testing going on at all times to stay on top of your earnings.

Conduct better A/B testing

If you are using other ad types or platforms apart from AdSense, make sure that you shut all of them while conducting Google Experiments, as it will be able to provide you with better and focused results. This will help you in analyzing if you are wasting your blog or website space through displaying low earning ads so that you can move forward and make the decision of removing them.

Technical tips

Beyond all the basic monetizing strategies and design principles, the loading speed of a website and its overall functionality play a vital role in making money through AdSense.

Optimize your Desktop & Mobile traffic

Optimizing the desktop traffic is the first step to earning via AdSense. However, for some blog or website owners, their mobile traffic might be a lot more than their desktop traffic. Therefore, make sure that you optimize keeping both mobile and desktop traffic in mind for the best gains.

Optimize your Website Speed

A user-friendly website is extremely important to earn more via AdSense as Google does not want its partners’ ads to show up on websites that are a loading disaster. Make sure that ads load quickly, and the overall speed of your website is nicely optimized for higher functionality.

Asynchronous Ad Codes

Through using Asynchronous Ad Codes, you can make sure that your basic website content will load separately from the ads you are displaying. This enhances the click rates and user experience and will foster better website loading.

Incorporate Responsive AdSense Codes

If you want to optimize your website or blog to different screen sizes, you can utilize the Responsive AdSense Code. This will automatically chance the size of ad units placed on your website or blog according to the user’s screen.

Mobile Anchor Ads

Through Google’s Mobile Anchor Ad, you can display ads on a mobile screen which will continuously stick to the screen’s bottom as the user scrolls down.

AdSense Reporting

AdSense Reporting provides users with flexible and detailed interface carrying important information that is required to make necessary changes for better optimization.