7 AdSense Strategies and Tips to Increase Earnings Per Click

You want to monetize.

But AdSense isn’t showing a solid return.

Google AdSense can generate serious money if you’re doing it right.

In this article, I’d like to share a collection of Adsense strategies and tactics to increase your earnings per click.

You’ll learn where they need to go to how to get the most from each page without doing more than a few tweaks.

Sound good? Let’s do this …

1. Create Great Content (But Get Readers Wanting More)

Content, as you know, is that gets people to your website.

It’s what search engines index, can be used to promote your brand/products/whatever, and gives people a reason to stick around and simply put: the reason people use the web. Your content needs to be informational, first and foremost. Content needs to have a reason to exist whether it’s to teach, review or just entertaining.

Here’s the thing: Your content needs to be “passable”.

Passable content is:

Creating something informative or entertaining
Leaving the visitor wanting more

You could create a super long piece detailing every step. Or, give them the basics.

But, also offer a choice of paid products to fill out the rest (aka what’s in the ads)

The advertisement, in this case, becomes the extra information or call-to-action when placed intelligently on your website.

This greatly increases your click-through rate and your overall earnings.

2. Use What Works, Leverage the Rest

Placement is another element of making the most from Google Adsense.

An incorrectly placed advertisement will have little to no gain on your website despite any amount of traffic you throw toward it.

Google published case studies and reports sharing which areas have the greatest click through ratings.

Likewise, they openly share the highest performing ad units because, after all, they want to make money just the same as you do.

From my own experience, I’ve found that placing an advertisement in the top-right of a sidebar to be enormously effective in gaining ad clicks.

Google AdSense Medium Rectangle Placement

It’s a common area for individuals to find ads.

Other areas to place your Google Adsense ads include:

A banner across the top of your page – next to the logo
Advertisement at the end of the post and before comments
Adsense injected into the body – creating a “break” for the readers

Once the placement is down pat – it’s only a matter of leveraging what works to increase your Adsense profits and clickthrough ratings.

Over a month or two of running your Adsense, I would recommend that you take the time to begin blocking low performing ad networks which can be accessed within the Adsense dashboard.

Likewise, you should filter out the ad channels that are no longer performing and receiving clicks on your website; this dramatically changes the way you earn with Adsense and should be a continuous process of tweaking to ensure the right ads are being displayed on your website.

3. Curate AdSense on a Page-by-Page Basis

Most webmasters use AdSense plugins to place ad units across the site.

But:

Should they go on a product page?
Should they appear alongside reviews?
Should they embed in services?
Should they block opt-in forms?

Of course not.

These are your money makers.

The ads only serve to take people away from the profitable offers.

You’re trading pennies for what could have been an affiliate promotion, instead.

Ditch the AdSense plugins unless they provide full control where ad units are placed as this removes exit options. You keep visitors focused on the one offer with higher income potential.

The added benefit:

Improve click through by only showing on pages with ad interest
Create novelty in their placement to remove ad blindness

4. Use the Larger AdSense Ad Formats

People have begun to become “blind” to advertising on the web.

This means that most advertising has reached a point that people no longer actively noticed despite advertiser strategies like flashing banners or attractive models.

One way to circumvent this ad blindness is to go bigger.

Google AdSense Half Page Placement

Google Adsense has published reports stating that the larger ad unit, in their Adsense platform, has greater results for the websites they’ve tracked.

Yes, this does mean your content gets a bit scrunched.

But:

These larger units have a higher click-through rating meaning greater earnings for your business.

Likewise, place these ad units around common areas such as the comment section.

This keeps the ad in their face without disrupting the content.

Over time, in my personal opinion, this tactic won’t have the same effect because, just like users did in the past, people become blind to these ads.

Going larger won’t be the difference maker.

The solution to this problem, on a short-term scale, is to constantly shift around your advertisements so even repeat visitors will have something different to see when landing on your page.

5. Know Your Visitors and Entry Sources

Look, the major reason that your high-tech website isn’t getting a lot of Adsense play is that your users are probably too sophisticated.

They understand online advertising and will actively avoid it or use Adblock plugins, in their browser, to completely remove ads from their web experience.

The first thing to focus on is knowing your visitor.

For example:

I would be hard-pressed to have high click-through rate on a website aimed at web designers because these individuals see online advertising (and work with it) day in and day out. On the flip side, someone completely fresh to the topic may see the ads as beneficial because they may want a fast solution.

People that are, for a lack of a better term, “less tech savvy” will be far more likely to click on your Google Adsense.

Another item to focus on is where people are coming from to land on your website.

Entry Sources

Knowing where your visitors come from allows you to make the necessary tweaks and ad placement changes so that visitors aren’t ‘blind’ to your advertising.

It also lets you know how to write content while letting Google matches with appropriate, generation-specific advertising.

6. Test a Temporary Hiatus

Google is a bit confusing at times.

They tell you more advertising means you’re less likely to be accepted as an authority (because they see your site as ad heavy).

But, on the flip side, Google Adsense will alert you that your website could be displaying more ads.

Where’s the balance?

A while back, I did a test where I completely removed the Google Adsense ads from my website.

Earnings, obviously, went down for that month but it allowed people to “take a breather” from landing on yet another website that displayed ads – it was a change up from the usual.

A month later, I turned the Adsense ads back on and my click through rating shot through the roof.

People were now reintroduced to the advertising.

Marketing messages were relevant and because there was a fresh set of eyes landing (and digging around) on the website.

Try it.

Take the temporary hit from making your Adsense check and see if you see a greater increase in your ‘time on site’ and less ‘bounce rate’.

Then, sling them back on a month later to build up a quick spike (making up for the downtime).