Top Five Tips for Using Google AdSense

Monetizing your website traffic can be a tricky business, but with an intermediary like Google AdSense, it doesn’t have to be.  For large corporations, this usually means hiring an entire department to manage ad revenue, but for a small business or your own personal blog, using a service like Google AdSense is the most efficient way to connect you with the advertisers who want to give you money.  Like anything, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this, so here’s a list of the top five ways to make the most of your partnership with AdSense.

1. Getting Started

The AdSense website has plenty of information on getting your account up and running, but some simple things might get lost in the shuffle.  You can have up to three ads on your page, so you might as well have all three.  Link units are also a good option.  And, as a general rule, use the most open settings you can for selecting ads.  Having both images and text enabled, as well as sticking to the standard sizes – 160x600, 728x90, and 300x250 – gives you and AdSense the most options to draw from.

2. Learn the Art of Placement

Your website is your very own piece of two-dimensional real estate, so know where on it users are most likely to look and most likely to click.  Content on the left of the page is usually viewed first, so ads there are more likely to draw attention, and in general, ads above the fold (at the top of the page) are viewed more.  However, be careful to avoid separating the ads from the content, such as with a banner at the very top of the site – as soon as your reader scrolls down, a top edge banner is out of sight and out of mind.  You can even try your hand at “omnipresent” ads, which follow users as they navigate your site so they’re never missed, although this is a somewhat risky move as some users find omnipresent ads an insufferable nuisance.

3. Make Sure the Advertisements Fit with the Theme of your Website

AdSense allows you to control certain aspects of the ads that are put up on your website.  For text/link ads, you can change the color and font size of the ads to fit with the overall look of your site and avoid being overly distracting to your users.  With picture, video, and interactive type ads, you can choose where on the page they are placed, and you always have the right to say no to an ad you don’t find visually pleasing.  People (your users) are visual creatures, so having a good-looking site ruined by intrusive ads is a major problem.

4. Don't Neglect Mobile Users

Mobile users are a rapidly growing percentage of almost every website’s total traffic, so you can’t afford to have ads that won’t perform on a small screen.  Make sure load speed is AdSense’s top priority to avoid bogging down your ads and your whole site.  One especially useful option with AdSense is responsive ads, which allows your site to automatically adjust ad sizes to fit different mobile screen sizes.

5. Don't Get Lazy
You've put a lot of time and effort into making sure Adsense is working for you, and now that you have optimized you might be tempted to kick back and relax. However, AdSense is always adding new features, tweaking options, and bringing you advertisers who might be willing to pay you more than what you're currently getting. The official AdSense site is a good place to keep up with updates and new features, and after you've gained some experience you can join AdSenseExperts.com to learn some more advanced monetization strategies. In the long run, keeping your advertising strategy dynamic will pay huge dividends.

9 Tips for Startups Using Google Adwords

9 Tips for Startups Using Google Adwords

Google Adwords is one of the most prominent cost per click tools for customer acquisition on the Internet.  Because of its dominance in the marketplace, many startups use the tool to help gain exposure for their products.  The problem for startups new to Adwords is the sheer complexity of the platform.

Here are some helpful tips for creating successful Adwords campaigns and making the most of your budget.

1. Do thorough keyword research

There are a number of keyword research tools that are provided by Google including the Adwords keyword tool, Google insights and the Google traffic estimator.  Use these tools to understand the number of queries for a specific term, the competition for those terms and the cost of a campaign targeting those terms.

The general principle with keyword targeting and Adwords campaigns is the more specific and targeted your keyword is, the better the conversion rate.  Look at what customers want and what your startup provides, then think about the keywords to link the two.

2. Use multiple keyword match types and negative keywords

In Adwords you can set a type of keyword match to target (Broad, Phrase and Exact). Tailor the keyword match types with care and think about how your prospective customers will be looking for your product. If there are keyword combinations that don’t match the intention of your startup, remove them by using negative keywords. Also utilize category targeting and topic targeting to further target your advertisements. By being very specific you can stretch out a small Adwords budget.

3. Consider bidding on your business name

If your search engine optimization is not up to scratch, it is possible that customers searching for your startup by its name may not see it on the first page.  If this is the case, bid on the name of your business to help people find it easily.

4. Build ad groups around a theme

If you have a product that has multiple functions, create ad groups tailored to each function.  For example, if you were selling an iPhone video application that can change the format of videos, upload to Youtube, share via iPhone and add creative effects — create an ad group for each of those capabilities.  The “upload to Youtube” ad group would target people who are searching the Internet for a way to upload edited videos directly from their iPhone to Youtube.

5. Write great copy and use a call to action

If you aren’t the best at copywriting, hire someone to do it for you.  Adwords can be expensive and if you aren’t making the most of the short sentences in the advertisement, you could be wasting money.  Also include a call to action in all advertisements to help obtain a better click through rate.

6. Create multiple advertisements and test them

By split testing advertisements you can ascertain which ones have the highest click through rate and conversion rate.  Continue to refine your advertisements even after finding combinations that work.

7. Check ads for quality score

The Adwords quality score refers to how relevant your keywords, ads and landing page are to people who see the advertisement.  A high click through rate (CTR) indicates that people seeing the ad find it highly relevant to what their needs are.  It is important to maintain a high quality score for a number of reasons, but chiefly the fact that it leads to lower cost per click, lower first page bid estimates, lower top of page bid estimates and better ad auction eligibility.

8. Make great landing pages relevant to keywords

At the end of the day, your Adwords campaign is about making sales and gaining customers.  You should spend a great deal of time crafting and testing landing pages that are highly relevant to your target keywords.  It is a good idea to create multiple landing pages for different ad groups, so you can split test these pages.  Again, copywriting is extremely important and this last step of the conversion process requires a flawless marketing pitch that meets customer expectations.

A great landing page will also have a lower bounce rate, which is tracked by Google and helps maintain a high quality score.

You should pay close attention to functionality as well.  If you have a shopping cart on the website make sure it is extremely fast and easy to use, make sure the text is easy to read, make sure the landing page has a sense of legitimacy and security about it.  Mobile traffic is also increasingly important, so make sure your website looks great on everything from laptops to tablets and smart phones.

9. Use conversion tracking and Google Analytics

It is critical that you understand which parts of your Adwords campaign are successful and which parts are not.  You should use Google Analytics and track successful conversions to understand what is working within your campaigns.  If your product doesn’t have a checkout process, look at bounce rates to determine if the visitors are a good match for your startup.

Setting Expectations

It’s important to remember that Google Adwords should only be one part of your promotional campaign for your startup.  When you are starting out, expect to spend money simply determining what works and what doesn’t.  The key is to start small, test often, and work your way up to having a highly targeted and successful Adwords campaign.