Google Adsense Basics

AdSense helps website owners make money through advertising.

Google AdSense is a program offered to website owners that helps them make money through advertising. Google Ad units are placed on the website, which scan the page and display ads relevant to the content on it. When a visitor clicks on one of these ads, the advertiser pays Google a certain amount of money, which varies depending on the keywords in the ad. Google then shares a portion of this money with the person who runs the website.

Setting Up

Google AdSense accounts are created at adsense.google.com. When signing up, your primary URL -- your main website -- must be submitted. This does not have to be your own website, and can be one you run through a content management service such as WordPress or Blogger, provided you have access to the website's HTML source code via the content management system. Your website must also be compatible with JavaScript for the ads to be displayed.

Installing Ads

Once signed up and logged in, the AdSense control panel is displayed. From here it is possible to create some ad units. This is done by clicking "AdSense Setup," then "Get Ads." Different sizes and shapes of ad units can be made from horizontal banners, to vertical skyscrapers, to box or rectangle units. The fonts and colors of Ad units can be customized. Once you set the color, you get HTML source code for the ad. This must be pasted into your website code at the place you want the ad to go.

Tracking

The "Reports" section of the AdSense admin area lets you know how your ads are doing. At the top you see a quick reminder of how much you've made that day, and then underneath you can make custom reports. "Page Impressions" tells you how many times the ad has been displayed, "Clicks" tells you how many people clicked it, "CTR" is the click through rate (clicks per 100 impressions) and eCPM tells you how much money that ad unit earns per 1,000 page impressions.

Optimization

Once you have gotten the hang of the general interface, know how to set up ads and know how to track the stats of your ads, you can start to optimize your adsense performance. Try setting your ads in different locations, and use different sizes. Try making them stand out, and try making them blend in to your website design. See which gets you the best results after a few tests, then stick to these effective settings.

References

• Google AdSense: What is AdSense?