After the Google Adsense post the other day and explaining some of my settings and strategies, I thought one tip I mentioned should be given more explanation.
This little tweak can improve your earnings significantly so it is something to keep in mind when you plan your monetization with Adsense.
I mentioned that if you want to make more money with Adsense, you should have less ads. Yeah, sound crazy, I know. But it works.
There is one important number in Adsense which we will revolve around in this post – CTR, the famous Click Through Rate.
Now I am getting to the point of the post… Every advertiser wants their ad to bring traffic, so he wants more clicks. Obviously, pages with high CTR are getting more clicks and advertisers want to see their ads on those pages.
They “compete” to put their ad on a high CTR page. If you have one of those, you will get better, higher paid ads on your page. Higher paid ads bring more money.
The next thing you need to do is – remove ads from some pages. You will remove the ads from all pages that have low CTR.
That way, you can see exactly which pages have low CTR. No need for some complicated settings, it is there in plain view.
Make sure you have something to look at, like stats from last 3 months or something similar. Looking at stats from the last week is not a good starting point, you need more data.
Once you have all your pages in front of you, you need to choose which are the ones with lowest CTR. Don’t look at the ones with only a few clicks if their traffic is low as well. Low traffic and few clicks usually mean average CTR.
What you need are the pages that don’t perform well.
First, determine which pages have the best CTR. See if there is a group of such pages.
For example, when I did this on my site, I tested about 45 pages that had Adsense on them. I found 10 that performed really well, with CTR about 3%. About 25 of them had CTR anywhere from 1.5% to 3%. But I had 11 pages that had CTR below 1%.
So this should be your guide. Find pages that have CTR significantly lower than the majority of them.
Track the traffic the page is receiving. If you have a page that gets 2.000 visits but CTR is 0.5%, you are not doing great. Maybe you can monetize that page much better!? It is obviously not working with Adsense.
As soon as I did this, I am talking after a day or two, I started getting more money from a single click. That means that the ads delivered to my site were more expensive.
So, simply remove ads from pages that don’t perform well!
Keyword focused pages. Yes, every page should have one keyword to focus on (these are basics of SEO).
Connected Adsense and Analytics accounts for tracking purposes.
Previous tested: best colors for ads, best sizes, best placements.
Certain amount of time to determine which pages have good CTR and which don’t.
A lot of tracking and testing.
Delete and “throw away” everything that is not working.
Find the best paying keywords using Google Keyword Tools or Market Samurai and put them in the paragraphs above and below the ad units (but only if they make sense in the text). That usually pulls up even better targeted ads.
This little tweak can improve your earnings significantly so it is something to keep in mind when you plan your monetization with Adsense.
I mentioned that if you want to make more money with Adsense, you should have less ads. Yeah, sound crazy, I know. But it works.
There is one important number in Adsense which we will revolve around in this post – CTR, the famous Click Through Rate.
Ad CTR = Clicks / Ad impressionsThe higher the CTR the better your pages are performing. High CTR means that a large percentage of people are clicking on your ads (in simple words).
Now I am getting to the point of the post… Every advertiser wants their ad to bring traffic, so he wants more clicks. Obviously, pages with high CTR are getting more clicks and advertisers want to see their ads on those pages.
They “compete” to put their ad on a high CTR page. If you have one of those, you will get better, higher paid ads on your page. Higher paid ads bring more money.
How to increase your CTR?
By using all the tips about placement, colors and sizes (and everything else) from the previous post – Money From Google Adsense. But that is only the start.The next thing you need to do is – remove ads from some pages. You will remove the ads from all pages that have low CTR.
How to find pages with low CTR?
The best thing you can do for your blog/site is to track everything using free Google tools. That includes Adsense and Analytics. So to track your efforts easy, connect your Adsense account to your Analytics account (this link should help you).That way, you can see exactly which pages have low CTR. No need for some complicated settings, it is there in plain view.
Make sure you have something to look at, like stats from last 3 months or something similar. Looking at stats from the last week is not a good starting point, you need more data.
Once you have all your pages in front of you, you need to choose which are the ones with lowest CTR. Don’t look at the ones with only a few clicks if their traffic is low as well. Low traffic and few clicks usually mean average CTR.
What you need are the pages that don’t perform well.
First, determine which pages have the best CTR. See if there is a group of such pages.
For example, when I did this on my site, I tested about 45 pages that had Adsense on them. I found 10 that performed really well, with CTR about 3%. About 25 of them had CTR anywhere from 1.5% to 3%. But I had 11 pages that had CTR below 1%.
So this should be your guide. Find pages that have CTR significantly lower than the majority of them.
Track the traffic the page is receiving. If you have a page that gets 2.000 visits but CTR is 0.5%, you are not doing great. Maybe you can monetize that page much better!? It is obviously not working with Adsense.
What to do when you find low CTR pages?
I removed Adsense from all of those 11 pages. So overall, my CTR went up. (I did this such a long time ago, I wish I had the screenshots to show you the differences, you would be amazed).As soon as I did this, I am talking after a day or two, I started getting more money from a single click. That means that the ads delivered to my site were more expensive.
So, simply remove ads from pages that don’t perform well!
What do you need to get this to work to the max?
You need to have a topic focused site. That way Google will deliver very targeted ads. Targeted ads mean more clicks.Keyword focused pages. Yes, every page should have one keyword to focus on (these are basics of SEO).
Connected Adsense and Analytics accounts for tracking purposes.
Previous tested: best colors for ads, best sizes, best placements.
Certain amount of time to determine which pages have good CTR and which don’t.
A lot of tracking and testing.
Delete and “throw away” everything that is not working.
Extra tips and tricks for making money with Adsense
Lower your page bounce rates. If they are high, the problem might not be the ads themselves. What might be happening is that people are clicking the back button before even having the chance to click on the ads.Find the best paying keywords using Google Keyword Tools or Market Samurai and put them in the paragraphs above and below the ad units (but only if they make sense in the text). That usually pulls up even better targeted ads.
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