Google AdSense and Testing

Google AdSense and Testing


If youre like most people, you find you dont have enough time to do the things you really want to do. And when you think about it, if you did, you probably wouldnt have the money to do them.

Sort of a catch 22.

The main reason youre reading this is to change all that, no But heres the deal: It is going to take some time and patience. Those are two things most people lack nowadays. Most should be doing what my wife is doing - but thats another story.

Ask any marketer worth his or her salt and youll soon find that testing is the de facto standard of that industry. They track and test everything. Heres just an example:

On a 30 second radio ad they normally test the following criteria:

You get the picture. They are more meticulous than those who do baseball scoring and stats. And can you guess why that may be

Because they want to monetize every second of that airtime to their advantage. To them, its a business - it aint a hobby! So, approach to this whole AdSense thing is everything. Is it a hobby; a few ads on a few pages Or are you dead serious about making this work

If youre serious, you MUST take notes. You must become aware of what is working and, of course, what isnt.

So, how do you do that

Google AdSense makes it easier to see what is making you money and what isnt by breaking your ads down by channel and day. You can create any number of customized reports to track the code included on your pages which displays the AdSense ads.

But, it doesnt end there. You must test, just as the radio ad people, for criteria on your webpage. Like:

Testing is impossible when you have no traffic. You need visitors (feedback, clicks), in order to track your numbers each day. Once you have visitors, you can see what works and what doesnt and adjust accordingly. Now, remember; dont go about changing your AdSense around daily. Real testing requires leaving the page as is for a week or more, unless, of course, you have thousands of visitors a day.

So, hello Dave, what do I do

I recommend looking at the successful site that display AdSense ads. Google has a few examples of successful AdSense campaigns - https://www.google.com/adsense/newsandstudies. See where they place their ads. See what colors they use. And notice how they blend well with the context.

As your site receives more visitors, youll be better able to compare your AdSense statistics with your web pages. Dont forget to do that. Treat this like a business. Print out the pages with ads and your AdSense stats for each week and you will have an idea what is happening. And, guess what A pattern will appear.

Take your time with this and do it right. It will pay BIG dividends if you put time into it.

  

Founder of one of the first web hosting companies on the Internet, World Wide Mart, Dave Jackson has been teaching others how to monetize their web sites for over ten years. Currently he teaches others to create a solid residual income by creating quality web sites of great benefit to visitors and monetizing them using contextual ads. His blog is  .

Which AdSense Format Works Best?

Our daughters grade school is right across the street, so its easy to hop on the bike and with her on the seat tube we have a nice ride to the playground.

When we get close to the school, signs abound telling everyone to slow to 20 mph from 7:30 AM - 8:30 AM. There is the typical school zone sign, and the white lettering on the pavement.

In fact, at the corner there is even a senior citizen crossing guard!

Ever notice how everything ties together Each weekday morning millions of kids go to school with hardly an incident How can that be

Optimization. Based on years of what works and what doesnt, local governments know what signs to place where, what color, size, style of lettering, color of lettering, reflectivity, height, distance from the school, distance to the school, and many other factors that have made school zones safe.

Likewise, there is a pool of experience that can greatly improve the monetization of your pages with Google AdSense ads. If you were starting a new school zone in your city, and you were appointed to create the safest zone, would you start experimenting around Wouldnt it make sense to do as much research as possible into what has been successful

Thats exactly what Ive done with AdSense.

Lately Ive been writing about different tips on how to get more visitors to your site because that is a vital part of the monetizing equation with Google AdSense. It only makes sense that in order to realize any revenue at all with a campaign, you must have someone visiting your pages and viewing the ads.

But once those visitors start showing up at your site, either through promotion on your own, or by using Googles AdWords to point them here, cashing in on the experience of AdSense pioneers will insure that youre converting those visitors into clicks on AdSense ads displayed on your site.

When I first learned about AdSense, I thought I was dreaming. Here was a company (Google), willing to pay me for the traffic I was already enjoying to my sites. As I related in an earlier post, my friend, Matt Wright, explained to me that he was making well into four figures a month on his sites.

If youre like most of us, you not only want to enjoy the profit, you want to know the best recipe possible to have the best results possible. (Squeeze that turnip, baby!)

I remember when I started drinking coffee. Wow, good stuff! As the years went by, and the event of being able to get better coffee, I learned that the way I was creating my cup was really crappy. It was good, but someone showed me better. Much better! Soon, I purchased a burr grinder and bought high quality beans.

I experimented with different roasts and found ones I enjoyed much more than others. I found that water played a great part in making that perfect cup. Bottom line, it took some experimentation and following successful recipes of coffee pioneers to get me to a connoisseur of coffee.

Lets look at what has worked best with AdSense. Consider this a recipe you should try.

  1. Displaying images directly above the leaderboard style ads. What happens is the pictures draw the eye to the ads and they become even more appealing. You must be careful that you are not drawing unnecessary attention to the ads. In other words, keep the images generic. Anything that may construe the images as being from the AdSense ads is against the Google AdSense Terms of Service agreement.
  2. Weve talked about experimenting with colors. Pioneers tell us the very best click thrus are realized when the ad itself blends with the format and colors of your web page.
  3. Make sure you have ads on every page of your site. In this case, more IS better. Again, stick with the program rules. Currently you are allowed three ad groups and one text link group per page.
  4. Get fat! According to Google, a wider is better because it holds more content and make it easier to read without dropping down line after line. The most effective sizes for click-thrus are 326x280, 300x250 (inline rectangle), 160x600 (wide skyscraper).
  5. Gurus say to place your ads in the top section of the page and to the left. Why Better for maximum eye attention. Visualize the monitor as a piece of paper and cut it in half horizontally. Secret: top left!
  6. Did you know you can earn AdSense money with a Google search box on your site For more on this, see:

    Google Adsense Tour
    http://www.google.com/services/adsense_tour/page6.html

    Users can search just Google or your entire website. If they click on the ads displayed on the search page, you earn money.

  7. Use link type ads. These are smaller text ads ranging in six sizes from 120x90 pix to 728x15 pixels. You can add one link unit to the already allowed three ad units per page, giving you a maximum of four ad units on a page. Again, it gives you another opportunity for revenue.

    Google Link Units
    http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/topic.pytopic=294

  8. Track, track, track! Use channels to track different ad formats and color schemes youve created to find out which ad units are working best. Then, take that information to tweak and refine your site. For more, see:

    What are Channels
    http://google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.pyanswer=9868&topic=152

  9. Tweak even more by adding special tags to your pages. This assists Google in knowing where the real content is on your pages which results in more targeted ads and hopefully higher click-thru rates for you. Its called:

    Section Targeting.
    https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.pyanswer=23168

  10. Never forget that content is king! Think of content as your resume to the world. It doesnt have to be about you, but it should reflect something of value to the end user.
Alas, another ten tips to help you make more. Let me know about what has been working for you, or ask what might be wrong with your placement.

      

    Founder of one of the first web hosting companies on the Internet, World Wide Mart, Dave Jackson has been teaching others how to monetize their web sites for over ten years. Currently he teaches others to create a solid residual income by creating quality web sites of great benefit to visitors and monetizing them using contextual ads. His blog is  .

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