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Ultimate Guide to Understand What is Google AdSense

Google adsense

What is Google AdSense?

What is AdSense? This question is on the minds of many Digital Marketing newbies. This entire post will help you understand not just what is Google AdSense and how does it work, but also how you can monetize it. Google AdSense is Google’s online advertisement network which connects advertisers with the online publishers, i.e. the website owners. It enables publishers to monetize their websites by placing ads at different locations on their websites using the CPC (cost per click) model. While advertisers use Google Adwords to create campaigns and run ads, the publishers on the other hand use Google AdSense to allow ads on their website and thus earn money from the clicks obtained on the same.

What is google adsense
Putting a google adsense ad right at the top (also known as above the fold)

Thus Adwords and AdSense are gelled together by Google to help both the advertisers as well as the publishers. In short, AdSense is an absolutely free way for publishers to make money on their websites. Just make sure that as a publisher your website should adhere to the policies of Google.

If you don’t do that, in the first place Google will not approve your AdSense account. And if somehow you manage to get the approval, Google reviews websites time-to-time and thus can block your AdSense account and drop your organic traffic anytime!

What is RPM in Google AdSense?

RPM in Google AdSense means, the page revenue per thousand impressions, i.e. the amount of revenue which your website earns for every 1000 page views. Google says that it is calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views you received, then multiplying by 1000.

i.e. RPM = (Estimated earnings / Number of page views) * 1000

For example, if you earned an estimated $0.30 from 50 page views, then your page RPM would equal ($0.30 / 50) * 1000, or $6.00. Which means, for every 1000 page views, you earn $6 from the Google AdSense.

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How to Sign up for Google AdSense?

If you have a website with a decent traffic, only then apply for the Google AdSense, otherwise with a brand new website which has no traffic it doesn’t make any sense. Google will most probably reject your application. Google requires your website to be active for at least the last 6 months, before you apply for an AdSense account.

Next make sure that your website is ready for AdSense. Just a decent traffic is not enough. Your website needs to comply with Google’s standards. Here is the basic criteria:

  • Create original and highly relevant content for your target readers. Don’t copy or spin the content from other websites otherwise, forget a chance to rank organically on Google and if somehow you rank, Google will not approve your AdSense account. Remember, content is still the king. So create a great content to create a great user experience. Most importantly Google helps users find the most relevant information for their searches, so if you create great and original content which helps your users, then Google automatically will start ranking you in the top 10 searches.
  • You must have a navigation bar (or menu bar) at the top of your website. This is not only helpful for the visitors on your website to find the right content they are looking at but it also helps retain the visitors and increase the page views. Not only this, Google considers it to be one of the best practices for the website user experience. And remember that your menu should be functioning correctly, there should be no dead links or non-clickable options anywhere.

If your website satisfies this criteria, then go ahead and sign up for the Google AdSense. Signing up over there is a cake walk.

What is google adsense
Sign up for google adsense

You need a Google Account (which is same as your Gmail Account), then add your website URL and your basic information asked by Google and you are done. Apart from this criteria, your website must also comply to all the AdSense program policies.

Then you have to wait for Google to approve your account. It may take a few hours to number of days for you to get approval. For some countries like those in Europe and North America, it usually happens really quickly while for some of the Asian countries it may take many days to get the approval.

About Google AdSense Integration With YouTube?

These days lots of publishers are creating content in the form of videos which they upload on YouTube to generate extra traffic towards their website. Sometimes videos can go viral and bring in lots of bonus traffic, which is a real deal. And Google gives an attractive option to monetise your YouTube channel too using AdSense. So many publishers are positive about Google AdSense integration with their YouTube channels to make additional money apart from their websites. You need to do following steps to link your YouTube channel with your AdSense account:

  • Apply to join the YouTube Partner Program.This April, 2017, Google introduced a new review process for all the channels applying to join the YouTube partner program. One of the prime criteria for the eligibility is 10,000 public channel views. Visit youtube.com/account_monetization to check your channel’s view count. Your channel should also adhere to YouTube’s Partner Program Policies to get approved.Here are the steps to be followed (as per Google):
    • Sign in to your YouTube account.
    • In the top right, select your account icon > Creator Studio.
    • In the left menu, select Channel > Status and features.
    • Under “Monetization,” click Enable.
    • Follow the on-screen steps to accept the YouTube Partner Program Terms.

      What is google adsense
      Youtube channel options
  • If your application is approved, then you have to set monetization preferences.

That’s it. you are set to go!

Can a Single AdSense Account Be Used With Multiple Websites?

Yes, that’s the beauty of it. Once your AdSense account gets approved, you can link it with your multiple websites. But remember, never to mess up with Google policies or to copy or spin content from other websites. As you can get suspended or banned altogether from using the AdSense account. Here are the steps, as defined by Google, to do the same

  • Sign in to your AdSense account.
  • In the left navigation panel, click Settings.
  • Click My sites.
  • Click Add.
  • Enter the URL of the site that you’d like to add (e.g., example.com). If you’re unsure which URL to enter, check the section on formatting the URLs of your sites below.
  • Click Add site.
  • Your site is added to your site list with a status of “verified”.

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Best Practices for AdSense

Always think from your website visitors’ perspective. No one likes the ads distracting their reading experience on a website. So think, in which areas of your website will you post the ads so that the reading experience of your visitors does not get affected. The visitors, visit your website for certain information they which they require. They do not visit your website to click on the ads (although Google does a great job of matching the Ads with the topic of the Website).

Here’s one diagram by Google where it shows Good and Bad practices of placing Ads on websites:

What is google adsense
Best practices for adsense

“Above the Fold” means that portion of the website which is visible to the user, without any scrolling. Apart from that some other best practices for AdSense Ads placement are:

  • Don’t completely camouflage your website design and colours in order that the Ads are not recognisable to the visitors. Google doesn’t like that. The Ads on your website should be distinct and easily recognisable by the visitors. It is up to them to click on the Ads or not.
  • Avoid placing Ads in locations where visitors might confuse them with menu, navigation and download links. Google doesn’t like that because it considers this as fooling around with the visitors to make them click on your Ads.
  • Don’t put too many Ads on your website in a bid to increase your revenue. It should not look like that there is less of a content, and more of the Ads. Most importantly your visitors will not like that, which will lead them to leave your website thus increasing your bounce rate.
  • One of the best practice as far as web design is concerned is to create a responsive website which can adapt itself on all sorts and sizes of devices like desktop, mobile, tablets etc. In addition to that, many publishers these days are using fully responsive AdSense Ad units, as showcased in following GIF by Google itself.
What is google adsense
How fully responsive adsense ads adapt across digital devices
  • If you don’t want to go for fully responsive ads and want specific Ad sizes for your website, then Google recommends to use following Ad Sizes:
    • For screen widths up to 500px, use a 320×100 ad unit
    • For screen widths between 500px and 799px, use a 468×60 ad unit
    • For screen widths of 800px and wider, use a 728×90 ad unit
  • Since traffic from smartphones is increasing with each passing day on the internet and Google also favours “Mobile First” approach of web design (because it assumes that if you optimize for the mobile, the website is optimized well for all other platforms, although that is debatable) it is important to experiment with Ad Sizes pertaining to your mobile website. Google recommends using 300x250 Ad unit above the fold for proper results.

You can experiment with the recommendations in this article and see which Ad units and placements work well for you.

Conclusion:

I am hopeful that the information in this article will help you to understand what is Google AdSense and how does it work apart from the ways to monetize your website using it. Being a part of Digital Marketing, Google Adsense has given a lot of marketers a chance to make money online and also showcased how good is Digital Marketing.

If you have any queries about Google AdSense, please ask in the comment box below.

Avatar of dr. Harmanjit singh
Dr. Harmanjit Singh
Dr. Harmanjit Singh has executed a wide variety of Digital Marketing campaigns across different companies and marketing agencies in the last 10+ years. After working full-time with different organizations, he is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak. His interests include reading books and taking a walk amidst greenery.

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