Common AdSense Questions

If you’ve read to this point, you know just enough to be dangerous, which
means you probably have a ton of questions about AdSense. Other chapters
answer most of those questions for you, but to keep you focused, I answer a
few of the more pressing questions now.
What follows are answers to a few of the more common questions that are
usually asked about AdSense (which incidentally are probably the ones that
you want the answers to the most).
How much money can I
make with AdSense?
There’s just no easy answer to this question. Well, okay, there’s an easy
answer — it depends. But that easy answer isn’t really useful. The problem
is that several measurements impact your daily revenue from AdSense ads,
such as
Unique visits: A visitor is considered unique when she visits your Web
site the first time during a given period of time. Depending on the
metric — the measurement used to track visitors on your Web site —
that’s used, a visitor might be considered unique the first time he visits
your site in a 24-hour period, the first time in a week, or the first time
in an hour. For AdSense, the unique visits measurement is used to help
determine the click-thru rate for ads.
Click-thru rate (CTR) is the number of people who click an ad and are
taken to the Web page designated for the advertisement. This page is
usually a larger, more colorful ad, the opening page of a Web site, or a
page that displays more information about the product or service featured
in the ad.
Average click-through-rate (CTR): The CTR is the actual number of
visitors who click through an ad on your Web site. This is important
because you’re paid when users click your AdSense ads.
Average cost-per-click (CPC): The CPC is the amount that advertisers
pay each time someone clicks one of their ads. This number varies
widely and is dependent upon the cost of the keyword to which an ad is
related. For you, as an AdSense publisher, the CPC is the basis for how
much you’re paid.
Using these three measurements — measurements which are highly
variable — you can estimate how much you could make based on some
hypothetical numbers. For example, assume that your Web site gets 1,000
unique visits per day and that the average value of the ads that are displayed
on your site each day is $.25 per click (that’s the CPC). Finally, assume that
about 2 percent of your 1,000 visitors click through the ads on your site each
day. Now, you have numbers that you can work with.
With those hypothetical numbers in place, you can use this equation to estimate
how much you might make from your AdSense ads on a given day:
(unique visits x average CTR)average CPC = potential revenue
so
(1,000 x .02)$.25 = $5.00
Using that equation and the hypothetical numbers I’ve defined, you could
estimate that you’d make $5.00 per day, or $150.00 per month. Again, however,
that’s assuming your numbers are exactly what I’ve defined here, and
they probably won’t be — these are completely fictional numbers used solely
for the purpose of example.
Any change in those numbers — more or less visitors, higher or lower CTR,
or more or less average CPC — results in different numbers.
I can hear you wailing in frustration — “So what can I realistically expect
to earn with AdSense?” I understand your desire for solid numbers, but the
truth is, I can’t give you an exact figure. More accurately, I can tell you that if
your site is well-targeted and has high traffic levels, you can expect to make
pretty good money (at least enough to get a check every month). And if your
site traffic is slower or your site isn’t as highly targeted, you might be lucky
to make enough to pay for your Web site hosting each month.
In an effort to keep costs down, Google doesn’t release payments until you’ve
earned $100 or more in ad revenues. If you make less than $100 in a given
month, your earnings will be held until you reach the $100 minimum. So, if
you’re not making enough money, you’ll get your payment eventually, just not
right away.
Fortunately, there are ways to optimize your Web pages so that you get the
most possible return on your AdSense ads. I cover those strategies throughout
the rest of this book.
How much does AdSense cost?
Easy question, easier answer. AdSense doesn’t cost you a thing. Well, it doesn’t
cost you a thing unless you consider the time that it takes to implement the
ads on your Web site. But even this step isn’t overly time-consuming, so even
labor costs should be minimal.
What kind of ads will show
on my Web site?
The advertising kind.
Okay. All jokes aside, the ads that show on your site are determined by the
content of your site. Google uses a search algorithm to determine what ads
are best suited for your site — an algorithm that’s quite similar to the one
Google uses when you run a search query from the Google search pages or
through a Web site-based search box.
That said, it’s possible that the ads that show on your site might have nothing
at all to do with the content of the site. Here’s why: If your site content
isn’t very focused, the algorithm gets confused and isn’t sure which ads are
appropriate. So, it makes its best guess, which may or may not be correct.
The best way to ensure that the ads are highly relevant to your content is to
have well-focused, keyword-rich content. You can find guidelines for putting
together the best content for your site in Chapter 3.
Can I control ad content?
No one wants ads from their competitors on their Web site. Even if you’re not
selling anything from your site, it’s likely that some ads you just don’t want
shown on your site.
Fortunately, Google’s made it possible to exclude some companies from
showing their ads on your site. It’s not too difficult to do; simply ad your
competitors’ URLs (Uniform Resource Locator, the Web address) to your ad
filters, and the competition is then blocked from advertising on your site.
You can find more information on filtering the ads that are shown on your
site in Chapter 5.
Can I use AdSense on more
than one Web site?
Sure you can, and here are a couple ways to do it. First, you can use the same
AdSense code on all your sites, and the metrics — the tracking measurements,
like number of clicks and payment for clicks — are all collected in the
same report with no way to differentiate the Web site.
The other way you can track multiple sites (or even different pages within
the same site) is to use Google channels. Channels simply allow you to track
different sites or pages on a site by using code that’s written to indicate each
separate channel you set up.
You can set up channels by URL or by custom-defined differentiators. You
can find out about the fine art of using channels effectively in Chapter 14.
Can I have more than one
AdSense account?
Having more than one account might seem like a good idea in certain situations.
For example, if you run multiple Web sites, you might want to have a
different AdSense account for each of those sites.
Google doesn’t think that’s such a great idea.
You’re limited to a single AdSense account per payee. You can differentiate
between ads on your various Web sites with the channels that I mention earlier
in the preceding section, but having two accounts is a no-no.
Google’s very sensitive about the ways in which publishers use AdSense capabilities.
Reading through the AdSense program policies before you even being
to set AdSense up for your Web site is a very good idea. Google won’t think
twice about banning policy violators from using AdSense.