How Does Google AdSense Work?

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a Google product that enables publishers to earn money by displaying ads on their websites, blogs, or YouTube videos. You get paid by Google when a visitor clicks on the ad or based on ad impressions, according to the type of ad.

The advertisements can be text, images, video, or interactive media. These ads are selected by an automated ad auction system. The auction selects the highest bidder among bidding users of Google AdWords.

Google selects the ads for your site by using different types of targeting:

• Contextual targeting – they analyze the keywords used, the word frequency, and link structure to determine the webpage context and match the ads to it.
• Placement targeting – this allows advertisers to choose where they want their ad to appear. These ads are selected by advertisers who think your site can be a match for their target audience.
• Personalized targeting – advertisers can select sites that cater to a specific category, for example (musical theater lovers).
• Run of Network targeting – this selection includes all sites in the AdSense network, but the explicitly excluded sites.

Types of Adsense ads

What types of ads are right for your site? Google AdSense provides a variety of ad types for you to choose from: 

Text ads

These are the ads in the form of simple text that often appear when you are searching for something in Google. They have a title, a short description, and a link going to the site. These ads can appear on your website or in Google searches.

Display ads

These are the ads that you see typically displayed on marketing web pages.

Rich Media Ads

These interactive advertisements can be in image format, video or Html. There are three types of ads:

Dynamic image ads

These consist of animated text that appears when the user scrolls down the page. You can choose the size and type: vertical, horizontal, and square.

Video ads

This type of ads are presented by Google in several ad types:

Standard: non-skippable ads up to 20 seconds.

TrueView:  these ads let the user skip the video after 5 seconds. They can appear in the preroll and mid-roll positions, but require compliance to additional policies.

Advantages of Google AdSense

• A huge number of publishers and advertisers. As of today, over 10 million websites are using it.
• High level of security, safety and transparency for both advertisers and publishers. This is another good feature of AdSense. Google acts as an intermediary between the two sides and is mindful of the whole process being transparent and clear for everyone. All the necessary metrics can be tracked within your Google Analytics account.
• Variety of ad formats. In AdSense, advertisers can run text, images, HTML ads, video ads and much more, and in many different sizes. As a publisher, you can experiment with different ad types and figure out which ones drive the most revenue.

Tips To Make Money with Google AdSense

Assess your website type

Certain websites perform better with Google AdSense than others. The types of websites that are easiest to optimize and generate good traffic are:

• blogs;
• media sites;
• forums;
• social networking sites;
• online marketing tools and games.

Don’t incentivize clicks

This means you shouldn’t click on your own ads or ask others to do it. Google is very strict about ad performance inflation, and such practices may suspend your AdSense account.

This may result in getting a Google two-click penalty which can significantly decrease your revenue.

Create high-quality content.

High-quality content that resonates with your audience is essential. It is also the main aspect that determines your website search rankings.
Structure your content around user intent and update it regularly. In addition, follow SEO best practices to drive organic traffic to your digital website.

Add ads.txt

Ads.txt, a.k.a. Authorized Digital Sellers, is an IAB initiative that lets you declare authorized sellers of your ad inventory. You can download the ads.txt file directly from your Google AdSense digital account.

In fact, skipping or delaying this step may result in ad revenue absence for up to a month.