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Google Adsense - The More The Better?

Google Adsense CentsI was just browsing around Digital Point Forum specifically on Google Adsense issues to see what’s been on many web owner’s minds about Google Adsense. In a sub-topic, there are requests for reviews on Google Adsense placement, colour and related stuffs - presumably to increase the click thru rates (CTR) and earnings. When I visited some of these sites which require a review, I was astonished to discover that many web owners place Google Ads all over the site (just below the header and sidebars) but none on the content. Well, to be frank, I used to do that and I maximised all available Google Ads slot for me (1 link unit + 3 Ad units). Over time, I learnt that having more Google Ads does not equal more earnings. Here’s why.

 

Bots

To display the right type of ads, every time your page loads, your site sends a signal to Google Adsense’s server (I think it is called java call) and this may result in the Google Bot coming to scan your page for the keywords. If your page is well written (meaning that it concentrates on certain keywords), chances are the relevant ads to the keywords in that page would appear. These keywords also play a role in how the search engine tracks your site’s relevance in a search. If your content is not targetted, chances are the ads would be irrelevant to the reader who came in from the search engine. And when the ads are irrelevant, chances are they won’t click on the ads.

 

Search Engine

Regular readers on your blog are unlikely to click on your Google Ads. They come to read what you have recently written and then they will probably go to the next blog or site on their bookmarks or RSS readers. People who pop into your blog from search engines are more likely to be people who are looking for information. These are the people whom you should optimise your ads for. Make it easy for them to see your Google ads and click on them. Don’t make it easy for them to click on other stuffs. Therefore, minimise or get rid of other types of advertisements or non-paying widgets. If you must, remove blogrolls and social networking badges. If you really want to focus on a higher CTR, you must allow it to happen. The more alternative links there are for people to click on, the lower your CTR will be.

 

CTR

The higher your CTR, the higher you get paid per click. Why is this so? When a site performs well on CTR, advertisers will compete to place their ads on your site. This is natural. As an advertiser, I want people to click on my ads. If a site shows CTR at 5%, it means the advertiser has a higher chance of getting its ads clicked compared to a site which shows CTR at 0.5%. When advertisers compete or bid to place their ads on a site with high CTR, they will have to pay more to advertise there.

 

Other Sites

If you have 1 Google Adsense account and you are placing the ads across a few sites of yours, bear in mind that the payment per click can be affected by one site with another. So, if you have 1 site which gives you 5% CTR, the payment rate would be affected and dragged down if your other 4 sites performs at 1% CTR. Remove your sites which perform badly so as not to affect your total earnings.

 

Stay Away From Social Media Votes

If your site is doing well with social media votes which translates to higher traffic, don’t display Google Ads unless the traffic corresponds with CTR. From my experience, readers coming through social media votes rarely click on Google Ads. They may click on related ads or links on the topic of interest but not Google Ads. I may be wrong but I would love to hear otherwise. The problem with social media votes is that it pushes up the traffic but decreases the CTR percentage and with that, your Google Adsense earnings.

 

Less is More

Having more Google Ads emplaced on your site actually reduces the overall CTR. Let’s say you have 1 link unit and 3 Ad units. For ease of calculation, that means there are 4 ads on your site when a page is loaded. Assuming a reader out of every 5 readers clicks on one of the ads, you get a total CTR of 5%. If you only have 2 ads on your site and the same rate of 1 click every 5 readers, you get a total CTR of 20%. Get the picture? The more Google ads you have, the more the risk of diluting your overall CTR and earnings. Therefore, be selective in choosing the number of ads to emplace.

 

Positioning

Since the lesser the number of ads the better the CTR is likely to be, where should they be placed? From my experience, the ad which is placed in the content fares twice better than elsewhere (below header, sidebar or footer). Why is this so? Going back again to the likely profile of the reader who clicks on a Google Ad, this reader came in searching for answers or information having been referred from the search engine. The first thing he reads is the title of the content and the first few paragraphs. If it gives him what he wants, he will read on. Otherwise, he will look for a way out from the site and this is where the Google Ad placed at the top of the post might assist him. A Google Ad placed at the middle or end of the post would also give this reader an “escape route” from the blog. Does that mean that you have one ad above the content, one in the middle and one at the bottom? No. Read “Less is More” above. This is where you need to use your discretion on which would be the best position. Having 3 ads in a post spells “spammy” as far as the site is concerned. You wouldn’t want to irritate your regular readers, would you? ;)

 

So, there you go. 7 reasons why the more does not mean the merrier as far as Google Adsense is concerned. Hope the tips are useful. If it is, I don’t mind a thumbs up on social media. Just use the ShareThis icon below.

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. 14 Apr 08 | About Money

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Intelligent Replies

  1. i z z a t | April 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    everything you write does make sense and it really actually hit me in the face, before this i really into to get money from google, i do anything that i think the possible solution but it actually doesn’t really work and i just put the ads without care if there is click or not.. I’M giving up.. :D

    thanks for the nice post..

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