Adsense: get more Bucks for your Clicks
In 2007, due to several reasons, Adsense income was going down rapidly. Especially since Google announced that the clickable area in the Adsense ads was going to be reduced, webmasters reported significant losses in their Adsense income. So it is becoming more and more important to know how to optimize the ROI of the clicks on your ads.
I maintain several sites, and on one I decided to try out 2 strategies. One was to exclude the URL of websites that were bidding only 1 or 2 cents a click. The other was to optimize ad type, number of ads and ad placement. Both strategies turned out to be very effective.
Strategy 1:
Use the Competitive Ad Filter
When you are logged in to your Adsense account, click on the ‘Adsense setup’ tab. Now click on the ‘Competitive Ad Filter’ link and you will see an area where you can enter URL’s of websites you want to filter from your content pages. The trick is to enter a list of websites that have large budgets and are using the content network to get low click traffic. You do not want ads of these sites on your website. Especially sites like Ask.com and Dealtime.com are using the content network in this way. But there are many others.
The result: after entering my list of URLs to be excluded, my earnings per click more than doubled!
Download my list for the Adsense Competitive Ad Filter
Strategy 2:
Optimize Ad type, number of ads and ad placement
From the start of this particular website, I was using the maximum number of allowed ads on a certain website (I think that the allowed number at the moment is 3 ad units, next to 3 link units, 3 referral units and a search box). I was using 1 link unit and 3 ad units. Having 3 ad units seems great: more ads are shown and the chance a user clicks on an ad seems bigger. But what I did not know is that the highest paying ads were shown in the first ad unit. And every other ad unit had lower paying ads. So by reducing the amount of ad units, you make certain that you get paid more when a user clicks on one of these ads, because now only the highest paying ads are shown on your site!
Secondly I changed the ad size form 200×200 ad units to 300×250 units and moved them from the right hand column to a place in the first text block.
These changes made my CTR climb from 2% to 5%!
Now this site is a fairly low traffic site (100 visitors per day). But by using both strategies my monthly income for this site was raised by more than 300%. So use these tips to your advantage. And ifyou have another great tip to optimize your Adsense Income, feel free to comment and share it with us all!
February 25th, 2008 at 11:03 am
i definitely concur on the less is more when it comes to google adunits.
as for competitive filter, i’ve had mixed results. maybe you can help?
- how can you be certain which sites are bidding only 1 or 2 cents a click?
- how do you know which sites are targeting you directly via the content network?
and..having said that, doesn’t google automatically place the highest bidders in your ad zone. in other words, if someone targets your site via the content network, they will only appear if they bid more than what google determined you would get through regular contextual matches. am i wrong?
appreciate your thoughts.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Hi Brad,
Here is what I do: whenever I see u URL in an ad that seems not to fit with my niche, or seems to focus on a very general topic, such as shopping, or smells like an MFA site (usually a very niche-keyword-rich url, ending on .net or .info) I lookup that site on the web. And when I see a shopping site or a parked site with only ads on it, I know enough.
As for your last remark: Googles’ strategies tend to change over time. But yes, because the highest bidders get top positions, I only place one (sometimes 2, depending on the niche) ad units, so the lowest bidders will be excluded for sure.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
thanks for your feedback.
have you had any experience with the 728×90 zone or the 300×250 zone where a single advertiser takes up the whole block with a big font? This instead of the usual 3-4 smaller text ads. They are appearing on my sites alot and many questions arise:
- are they directly targeting me or has google matched that ad?
- how does the CTR of those compare to the regular 3-4 ads per unit style
- is google really delivering this ad because its the highest paying?
anyway…great blog. thanks for sharing your ideas.
b
February 28th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I’ve just stumbled your site and I love it. I’ve read many of your posts and have learned/enjoyed each one.
I’m fairly new to blogging (about 6 months) and have yet to break the profit mark. I pay $16 month for my server and make about $3 in advertising. Your tips and information help me to look forward to a green line at the end of the month.
If you ever feel like guest blogging, I’d sure be happy to oblige. I have little to offer, but a blogroll link and your own affiliate links in your post.
If not, at least take comfort in knowing that I really enjoy your blog. Bookmarked & Stumbled.
Keith