What is the Google AdSense program?

The Google AdSense program has been around since 2003 and was an instant success with anyone who had previously struggled to make money through banner ads. It was one of the pioneers of contextual advertising and has allowed many webmasters and bloggers to earn a living from their websites through the revenue it generates.

How does the Google AdSense program work?

Google sends ‘spiders’ to the pages that contain the AdSense code. These automated programs read the on page content and the meta data (title tag, filename, ALT tags, meta description etc) and then delivers relevant ads to those pages.

Once approved for the Google AdSense program, all you have to do to display AdSense ads is install a small snippet of JavaScript code on the pages (or in your template) where you want the ads to appear, and Google does the rest.

Where do the adverts come from?

Google operates another program called AdWords. This is a program that allows website owners to bid on their most relevant keywords. Generally, the higher the bid the higher the placement on Google’s results pages. The image below shows a typical Google results page. The links inside the red boxes are adverts purchased through the AdWords program. Google refers to these as Sponsored Ads.

AdSense ads extend the coverage for the advertiser. The advertiser can choose to have their adverts displayed on the AdSense network or they can choose to only have them displayed on Google’s results pages.

AdWords is a very flexible program and the cost of advertising changes all the time. An advert which may have cost $1.50 today may only cost $1.00 tomorrow. The price may also go up, so the same advert could actually cost $2.00 tomorrow.

How much can you earn from AdSense?

It is only recently that Google has finally disclosed the amount of money an AdSense publisher earns (Google reveals revenue share for AdSense publishers). The amount for an advert on a standard web page is 68%. If an advert costs $1.00 in the AdWords program, you will get 68¢ per click on your site. Google keeps the rest.

To make a lot of money from AdSense you need to decent amount of traffic. Typically, between 2% and 5% of your visitors will click on the ads. This is an average rate, there are some sites that do better than this and can boast a click-through rate (CTR) of 15% and more.

You should also bear in mind that there is a distinct possibility that adverts for your competitors may appear on your pages. If this happens you can either live with it or exclude the URL(s) from appearing on your site by using the Competitive Ad Filter.

The benefits of using the Google AdSense program

AdSense has become a massive program and provides many benefits to website owners:

It’s free to join
It’s easy to implement
Google finds advertisers for you
AdSense compliments other types of advertising (but be careful and read Google’s guidelines)
Customisable adverts – change text and link colours to suit your site design
You can use text ads, image ads or rotate between text and image ads
Payments to the site owner occur on a monthly basis (minimum payout is $100)
Payments are by cheque or direct transfer
AdSense is a proven way to make money if you have enough traffic

I can’t recommend AdSense enough. The program is very simple to use, there is a lot of advice online and you will almost certainly make some money.

If you decide to sign up for AdSense you should read all of Google’s official documents before you start. Then read them again before you add any adverts to your website. Google is very strict and likes to make sure people do not breach the guidelines. For instance, you can only place a certain amount of adverts on each page and you cannot click on your own ads or encourage other people to do so.

Google has been known to close down accounts without any kind of warning so the more you know about what you can and can’t do, the better you will be able to manage your account.

RELATED LINKS:
Google AdSense
What is Google AdSense (official page)
Program Policies
Terms and Conditions