Are You Making These Mistakes With Your Google AdSense Campaigns?
This article does not propose itself as a guide to setting up Google AdSense campaigns; detailed and exhaustive information on such procedures are available freely on the Internet.
What this article does aim to do, is guide publishers in making sensible decisions on how to structure their AdSense websites, determine the type of ads to target, profile the user likely to come to your website, and some loose “if / then” tweaking suggestions.
In order to capitalise on the billion dollar industry that is Google AdSense, you must have a clear understanding of the dynamics by which AdSense works.
You must first learn to differentiate between the types of people surfing your website, for the type of content contained therein. Behaviour plays a fundamental role in profiling the type of visitors you aim to attract to your AdSense websites. AdSense is primarily an advertising and information medium, whereby you provide on your website relevant ads, drawn from the inventory of advertisers in the Google Content Network.
As a publisher, it takes a bit of analytics and common sense to determine the type of behaviour a person landing on your website might have. You will need to then target specific topics.
Establish if your topic is one that liaises to a commercial intent. If your website specifically talks about “Product X (Model Number)”, it is likely that the profile of the person coming to your page will have a buyer’s intent; thus, target ads of a commercial nature, and not merely informational.
Conversely, if your page details the benefits of high PH alkaline water, chances are the reader is only out to gain a further understanding of the topic. In such cases, targeting the “information seeker” profile of readers will be ideal.
Please realise that behaviours and profiles of info-seekers are also different, amongst themselves. There is a big, big difference between people casually surfing a site out of mere curiosity, because of reports of an alien UFO hovering over Washington DC on Obama’s inauguration day, and people surfing for information specifically.
Most anyone, independently of their specific areas of interest, would be likely piqued by such an event. It’s like saying Godzilla and King Kong appeared suddenly in Miami, and played football with a zeppelin. Of COURSE that would get anyone curious. So they’d click through.
Thus, the publisher inventory from which Google might offer ads would be pertinent to UFO’s, Area51, Space Travel, or whatever similar and “relevant” content it might deem suitable from your page’s material. But that DOES NOT mean people are navigating to your site out of an interest in UFO’s, specifically.
Does that make sense?
This is a very important point that you need to understand about AdSense, when capitalising on this model known as “trend traffic”. It is generally a short-lived operation, for reasons that are self-evident. Once the trend or topic of buzz is over, the spike in traffic will wane until it pretty much dies.
I would also add that you cannot base your AdSense success (or sentencing of the lack thereof) on the basis of one buzz-topic website. An AdSense operation may seem highly successful, based purely on the metrics of one highly performing trend-following website, and a very particular instance of content relative to that website’s page.
But what about other websites you may be running? Take into account, albeit loosely, the idea behind the Pareto Principle: 20% of “x” will produce 80% of “y”. In this case, 20% of your highly performing websites may be producing 80% of your AdSense revenue; the remaining 20% of revenue derives from the other 80% of your website portfolio.
Next (and this is very important), if you are running affiliate promotions, then you should know it is a big no no to sideline your affiliate moneypage with AdSense. You risk losing out on sales, as a person clicks out on your ads, in alternative to your offer.
The flip side of this is that you can circumvent clickout with proper copy that engages the reader. Of course, this goes to the detriment of CTR. It’s a Catch-22 situation.
Please understand that, when you mix AdSense and affiliate marketing, in the end you’ll generally capitalise on one, or the other – not both.
However, if you insist on using both, then ensure your external links open in a “blank” page, and not the same “self” page your ads are on. In this way, you can heighten the possibility that the person will return / stay on your site and click an ad or offer, if the external link did not provide them suitable material.
One other topic of interest to AdSense publishers is without a doubt the ranking for highly competitive keywords. This often proves difficult, as any AdSense publisher would like to make bank on $20+ clicks. As an AdSense publisher, you can do one of two things to capitalise on such keywords (ideally, both): use PPC, and SEO.
Clearly, PPC wil drive immediate traffic to your AdSense sites. You work a system of arbitrage to evaluate if the CPC does not offset the ROI in AdSense earnings. SEO, as we know, is a more long term, but organically reliable method of positioning. But of course, in using these two systems, if you convert well in CTR, you will rank more highly in quality scores from both the Search and Content networks; meaning more exposure, naturally.
To recap, if you are running AdSense content campaigns, then you need to do 3 things.
1) Ensure you are targeting on your page the right people who are hungry for information, or those with a buyer’s intent – not both. They are two completely different breeds of surfers, with two very distinct surfing behaviours (hence, the different types of sites they will visit).
2) Ensure you are getting the “right”, reasonably unique, content that is relative to your site, by weighting the keyword of the page’s contents. Do not simply follow the broader aspects of this dynamic, or – God forbid – use scraped, duplicate content.
3) TEST TEST TEST. Then test again. High traffic, but low CTR? Target your ads better. Low traffic, but high CTR? Optimise your pages for SEO, or opt for PPC.
If you are not having luck with AdSense, you need to step back and re-evaluate the way you are working it. AdSense is multibillion dollar industry. It’s advertising. It’s been around, in one form or another, since business and commerce have existed. It will always exist, and it will always be wildly profitable to those who are doing it correctly.
I often hear would-be publishers claim AdSense sucks, it’s dead, you can’t make money with it anymore, and a plethora range of other feeble excuses. If this were truly the case, Why are some of us still making a 5 figure income per month with it?
AdSense is far and away NOT dead. You just need to know how to do it… and constantly stay ahead of this ever-changing game. It’s a business, and should be treated as such. Of course, it’s competitive and not easy, but it’s definitely worthwhile when done properly.
Joshua D. Harris – Born in Naples, Italy in 1972, Josh Harris was raised here, there and everywhere, following his U.S. Government Director father “all over the place” in …