Wondering why your website or blog is only showing CPM Adsense ads instead of CPC? First, CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions (the M is the roman numeral 1000). That means an advertiser is paying every time the ad is displayed on your site, whereas CPC only pays when clicked. CPM ads compete with CPC ads for every Adsense Auction on your site, meaning you may or may not get CPM advertisements.
Often, in my experience, CPM ads tend to display more often when you are running image ads, especially more than one image ad, on your site or blog. There are text CPM ads as well, but like I said, image ads tend to be more CPM driven on the sites I run.
So why the recent surge in CPM ads with Adsense? Ever since Adsense has allowed Google approved, competing ad networks to compete for auction space on your site, the CPM ads have drastically increased. Google Adsense is heavily known for being the leading CPC ad program, but with these new programs giving them competition, CPM ads are on the rise.
If you notice CPM ads, and do not want them on your site, it is best to do a couple things. First, you can disable the other ad networks in your Adsense account under the Ad Review Center. You can opt to block all existing ad networks, in addition to all new networks. Try experimenting with this to see if that helps lower CPM ads.
You can also try limiting your Adsense ads displaying on each page of your site. The most effective is one text, one image, and one label ad per page.
Finally, before you go making any changes to experiment with CPM advertisements, ask yourself if they are good or bad for your site. For large traffic sites with poor Click thru Rates (CTR), CPM ads are great, because it is guaranteed revenue. However, if you have a lower traffic site that can generate decent CTR and CPC revenue, you may see a dip in online earnings if CPM ads start displaying consistently.
Because Adsense does not give you direct control over what ads display, it is best to experiment and see what set-ups and ad types work best for your website or blog.
Ever wonder how Google Adsense auctions the ad positions on your website or blog? How Adsense determines how much to pay on a cost per click (CPC) basis is determined by several calculations. It's not as simple as you might think.
It is important to understand how Adsense ads are selected when they are displayed on your website. Every single time a page on your site is opened, a new auction is run for Adsense ads on that page. This ensures you are getting the best CPC or CPM possible.
Each advertiser has a set amount they want to bid. Let's say there are 3 ad slots available. Here is the max CPC amount that each Adsense advertiser is willing to pay:
Max CPC Bid | |
Advertiser A | $7.00 |
Advertiser B | $5.00 |
Advertiser C | $3.00 |
Advertiser D | $2.00 |
In the simplest version, the way Adsense is designed is that the top bidder only has to pay the max bid of the advertiser below them. So, following the chart above, Advertisers A, B, and C would get the slots, and what they would pay would look like this:
Max CPC Bid | |
Advertiser A | $5.00 |
Advertiser B | $3.00 |
Advertiser C | $2.00 |
Now, let's dig deeper. If you have the above concept down, then we can move on to the Adsense Ad Rank.
Here is how Google determines its Adsense ads positions:
Max Bid x Quality Score of the ad = Ad Rank
Highest ad rank = 1st Position
2nd highest = 2nd, etc.
Quality score is how well the ad performs.
Let's take another look at the original 4 advertisers with quality score of their ads and ad rank, with new positions, and all bids of $5.00:
Max CPC Bid | Quality Score | AdRank | Position | |
Advertiser A | $5.00 | 1 | 5 | X |
Advertiser B | $5.00 | 5 | 25 | 2 |
Advertiser C | $5.00 | 8 | 40 | 1 |
Advertiser D | $5.00 | 4 | 20 | 3 |
So, with such a low quality advertisement, Advertiser A does not get placed. Advertiser C would get the top slot, followed by B,then D. Now, if they all bid the same amount, then how does Adsense actually determine each CPC bid?
We are set up with another equation:
P1 x Q1 = P2 x Q2
This means that the ad with the highest ad rank only has to pay enough to beat the ad that came in second. Thus, price for ad 1 multiplied by quality score equals price for ad 2 multiplied by quality score. So, the objective is to find out what the actual CPC is:
Simple math gives us this final equation:
P1 = (P2 x Q2) / Q1
Or, the price actually paid for the ad will be the Ad Rank of the ad below divided by its own quality score. So, here is what the final result would look like:
Max Bid | Quality Score | Ad Rank | Actual CPC | |
Advertiser C | $5.00 | 8 | 40 | $3.13 |
Advertiser B | $5.00 | 5 | 25 | $4.00 |
Advertiser D | $5.00 | 4 | 20 | $1.25 |
Advertiser A | $5.00 | 1 | 5 | X |
A = 25/8 ($3.13)
B= 20/5 ($4.00)
C= 5/4 ($1.25)
This goes to show that ad position does not guarantee the highest CPC. Hopefully this help in understanding how Adsense calculates its CPC costs, and determines ad ranking and ordering.
This video is a GREAT help and explains this perfectly:
Wondering what cost per click (CPC) means? It is a term used to describe the amount an advertiser pays when an ad of theirs is clicked on a given website or blog. The money is paid to an ad program, such as Adsense, who then shares the revenue with the website publisher. Cost per click also is known as price per click, or PPC.
So, how exactly does it work, then? Well, let's say you make a blog or website about online shopping coupons. You decide to ad Adsense advertising to your blog. You choose to have text ads displayed in your sidebar. Adsense reads keywords on your site telling it to display online coupon ads. Anytime a visitor comes to your site, and clicks on the ad, you make money! It's that simple. Cost per click works the same way across all online ad programs that use CPC. The revenue sharing may be different, but the concept is the same.
Now, not all ads are the same, and not all will generate the same CPC revenue. A website about lawyers, which may have a $20 to $30 CPC, may generate more money than a website about how to groom cats, which displays CPC ads at less than $1 per click. So choosing the right topics and keywords are essential.
Most ad programs that use CPC advertising are free to use. Adsense is the leading CPC program, so you will see many websites using this program. After all, it helps Google reach out to audiences and readers they otherwise may not be able to. That's better for them, and better for their advertisers.
To sum up, cost per click is ultimately a very simple concept. Put ads on your site. Readers clickthe ads. You make money! Good luck!
So you've created a blog, and now you want to generate traffic and keep readers coming back. After all, this is the best way to generate that online revenue, correct? Content is the absolute king when it comes to determining the ultimate success of a blog. Quality is essential, and it must deliver something useful to the reader.
I'm sure many of you have been to different sites on how to make money blogging, or how to earn money online, many of which are preaching that quality blog content leads to blogger success. Sadly, they rarely delve deeper than that, often focusing on content on a much broader scale. The articles just don't hit to the depth of what the average blogger needs, which is pinpointing certain dynamic details.
My goal for this article is to provide a more thorough resource for how important blog content is to its overall success, ultimately leading to blog revenue.
Theme, Subjects and Topics
One of the fatal blog killing mistakes is to have a blog with too many scattered subjects. The subject of your blog needs to be focused on a consistent theme. The blog posts and topics you write about need to be related to this subject matter. If you don't follow this simple protocol, you are likely to lose readers.
First pick your topic, such as this one, which is focused on making money online by blogging. Primarily I use Adsense, so my subjects are:
- Blogging
- Making Money Online
- Adsense
- Blogging Tips and Code Help
When creating your blog, brainstorm what your blog will be about, and include sub-categories that you can post and write content on. Try and stick to this outline, as readers are much more likely to read other posts you have written, increasing the likelihood they will help contribute to your online revenue.
Grammar and Punctuation
Here is a commonly overlooked aspect of blogging: you must have good grammar and punctuation skills. Spell checking is also a plus. I cannot tell you how many blogs and sites I have left because I couldn't stand to read their unfiltered, uneducated sounding mess of an article or post.
When you are reading something, keep in mind what you yourself pay attention to. Someone who is knowledgable about their topics, and someone who is well versed in their writings will often command more attention from their readers. Someone who writes clearly, and provides detailed and valuable information is someone you will listen to. Aim to be that type of blogger and author.
Style
Every blogger has their unique writing style. It more or less slowly evolves as you continue to write. Make sure to stay true to your style.
Imitating others and how they write will ultimately result in failure, because you are not writing from yourself. Eventually, you will lose steam, and the creativity that is required for this task will not evolve as you continue writing.
For instance, I like to write to readers like yourself as if you were tright in front of me. Very rarely will you see me writing in third person. I believe this approach is more personal, and can encourage more interaction from you on my site.
I myself, find that I love blogs where the author goes into specific details on topics they cover. I love reading examples and real-life applications. These types of bloggers are the ones I tend to follow most.
The 'Quality' of Posts
The most crucial part of blog success is actually what is being written. The content MUST have value to the reader. The goal of each of my posts is to leave blog readers like you with a little bit more of an understanding on what I am writing about. Maybe you learned a lot, and maybe you leanred a little. Maybe I presented something to you in a way you had not thought of before. Regardless, I hope you take something from this site that will help you, and in the future will return to see what more I have to offer.
I am going to direct you now to a couple of blogs that I have been following for quite some time. Both of these bloggers have very successful blogs, and they both have great content to offer.
- First, I would like you to head on over to Steve Pavlina's blog. His self-improvement site is packed with great self-help posts, and you could literally spend hours at a time reading through his material (trust me, I have on several occasions).
- And second, I would like you to take a peek at a type of blog that is on the rise, a Mom Blog. I know this is a bit off topic, but as a stay-at-home dad, I find a variety of blogs appeal to me now. Check out MckMama's blog, and read a few of her posts. You will be surprised at how quickly she can draw you in.
The focus of visiting her blog is to read her content. She is one of the top mom bloggers in the nation, so don't scoff at what she has to offer. Take notes and learn. See how her writing style and content reaches out to her readers. I have seen daily posts of hers drawing in over 800 comments each. She is doing something right.
Tips
Some helpful tips should be included here, some of which you might have heard before. These can help with creating content, leading to ideas for current and future posts.
- Break news - You hear this all the time in how to make a successful blog articles. But what I would encourage is if you aren't actually 'breaking' news, like many of us will not, report on it and offer a good, genuine opinion of it. The Yahoo / Bing search engine deal is a prime example of something a ton of bloggers have been writing about recently. They didn't break the news, but they are all offering their opinions on how it will compete with Google, and how it will affect Adsense and advertising, and so on and so forth.
- Write How To's - Write an article on how to do something. My most recent how-to is how to add a related posts widget to Blogger. Blogger can be very restrictive on some of their html flexibilities, so this is a nice bit of information for those who may be struggling with adding this to their blogs.
- Personal accounts - Write about an actual experience you had, including what led up to it and what became of it. One such example I can think of, that I have seen time and time again, is when bloggers received their first Adsense checks in the mail. They will often post how they went about earning that first $100, and include photos of themselves with their checks. I love reading these because a) it offers encouragement to those trying to make money with adsense, and b) I love reading success stories, showing that making money online actually does work. It just takes time and effort.
Content is King
Yes, content is king. Every other factor that contributes to blog success and making money online is important, but none comes close to touching how imperative it is to creating good, quality content.
From me to you, blogging for money does take some work, and it can be hard work. Don't let other people, or other blogs tell you that making money online is easy. As with any job, success comes with a little blood and sweat. As you establish success, yes, it becomes easier, but everyone has to go through the growing pains.
Focus on your blog content, and ultimately, that will be what draws your readers to you. It is the pristine gem behind all blogging success, and ultimately, blogging revenue.
When trying to earn money from a blog, it is common to want to plaster Adsense all over your site, thinking more is better. This is not always the case. Number one, you can only place a certain number of ads on each page. This is one of many common Adsense mistakes we're going to cover.
- Number of Ads - In the Adsense Program Policies, you may only have 3 link units and 3 ad units per page. Also, you may only have 2 adsense for search bars per page. Placing any more than this amount will cause the ad to simply not show up. It will only show the first of the 3 per page.
In blogs with multiple posts per page, especially the home page, if you have adsense within the posts, it will only show on the first three posts. The rest will not show. Either limit the number of posts per page, or consider moving one ad or link unit above or below the posts.
- Content of Ill-Repute - That's what we'll call this. In the Adsense content policies, you may not place ads on your site or link to any sites containing the following content:
- Pornography, adult or mature content
- Violent content
- Content related to racial intolerance or advocacy against any individual, group or organisation
- Excessive profanity
- Hacking/cracking content
- Gambling or casino-related content
- Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content
- Sales of beer or hard alcohol
- Sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products
- Sales of prescription drugs
- Sales of weapons or ammunition (e.g. firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, stun guns)
- Sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods
- Sales or distribution of coursework or student essays
- Content regarding programs which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails
- Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others.
If Google catches any of these violations, expect your adsense account to be promptly and swiftly banned.
- Clicking on your own ads - While in theory this would seem brilliant, help yourself make money!...clicking your own ads is considered fraud. Adsense has a very intricate click fraud system, and can tell if you are clicking your own ad units.
When you log onto adsense, Google knows which IP address you came from. If a click on your blog or site registers from the same IP address, they will nullify any earnings you made from that click.
Google understands that from time to time you may accidentally click on your own ad, maybe while scrolling, or just a simple mis-click. This is usually forgiven and they will not punish the account. However, multiple offenses will more than likely flag the account and you stand the risk of having your account banned.
- Encouraging Clicks - This is a huge no-no. Do not encourage clicks on your site. This can lead to an immediate ban. By suggesting to the readers that they should click ads on your blog or site for any reason is in strict violation of the adsense program policies.
- Placing other ad programs on adsense pages - You absolutely CAN place other ads on your blog from other programs, BUT they must not resemble adsense ads. There must be a way to differentiate between the two.
If you have any questions on whether or not a certain ad program can exist on the same page as adsense, email the Google adsense help team for a quick answer.
You will often hear a variety of opinions on what the best adsense format is. It really depends on how your site is laid out and what meshes best with your content. That said, there is a general consensus that the best ad format as the 300x250 rectangle ad unit.
300x250 Ad Unit
Specifically, we're talking about the 300x250 ad when placed inside the top of your post content, either wrapped in the top left, or top right of the text. This is in one of the adsense 'hot zones', and is also the highest place to get clicks. The 300x250 displays 4 text ads, or and image advertisement.
Research has also shown that this ad format generates the highest CTR and CPM. When a reader views your blog, and starts to read the posts, this ad will be right there with the beginnings of your content, thus increasing the chance they will see the related content, and click on the ad.
When trying to make money online through blogging and adsense, strongly consider this option. To further customize it, make sure the links and text of the ad blend in with the rest of your site. Make sure similar colors are used, as bright or mismatched ad colors will turn a reader off and likely send them away from your page.
250x250 Ad Unit
The second best performing ad unit is the 250x250. This may be best for blogs with smaller post width. This also performs very well, functioning in the same manner as the 300x250.
Text vs Image Ads
When blogging for money, not only is it important to consider what ad formats work best, but also what they are displaying. For the 300x250 and 250x250 ads, most top adsense users will say that the text and image combination format performs best for them, generating the most adsense revenue. This will vary from user to user, of course. I myself have seen better results from the text only ad units. It really is a form of trial and error and seeing what works best for your site and your content.
This is a common question asked by so many adsense users. Where do I place my adsense ads? There have been many studies done on where people are most likely to click on ads. Google has their own 'heat map', which can be found here.
The darker orange the area, the more likely the ad is to be clicked. The white areas are the least likely.
Think about when you are reading an article or blog on the web, where is the first place you look? To the blog post, correct? Well, since we read left to right, it makes sense that the 'hottest' areas to place adsense are in the upper left quadrant of the post and sidebar areas.
The other 'hot' area to place adsense, helping improve your chances of making money online, is below the post, where people are often looking for labels and comments.
Ultimately, it is up to you were to place them, so try to optimize your adsense in whichever way you can. If one configuration doesn't work out too well, try another until you find something that is fairly consistent and successful in bringing in adsense revenue.
So you've decided to earn a little money with your blog or website, and now you want to place adsense to start generating revenue. Setting up and placing adsense on your site is fairly easy, but here is a quick walk through for those that are interested.
Sign-up
The first thing you want to do is sign up for an adsense account. You will need to provide accurate information, as this will be how Google mails your Adsense check to the right location, as well as details needed for them to be able to pay you in the first place. There are no gimmicks here, it's a secure site, and you shouldn't have to worry about sending this information online. Sign up for adsense here.
Getting Started
Okay, now that you are all signed up for adsense, it's time to choose your format. First, choose adsense for content, which will give you the option of placing link units or ad units.
- Ad Units - Ad units generate income by placing text and image ads on your site that are relevant to the content of your blog. When a reader of your blog clicks on one of these Google ads, you make money!
- Link Units - Link Units are a set of topics that are relevant to the content of your blog. When a person clicks on one of these links, it takes them to a google search page, with other advertisements on it. When a person clicks on one of these advertisements through your link unit, you make money!
For this example we'll go with text only.
2. Now, find a place on your blog that you want the text to go into. For instance, if you wanted to place adsense on your sidebar, you will probably want a vertical tower. Two good options are the 120x600 tower and the 160x600 tower.
3. Taking the 160x600 tower, I now have to choose the color format. Google defaults its adsense ads to the blue text. You can change this to match your site. This is recommended, as ads are much more likely to be clicked if they blend in with the content of your blog or website.
4. After choosing the colors, I have the option to change the font and corner styles. For this, I am leaving them as the adsense default.
5. The last part of this set up section involves what to do if there are no relevant ads to a particular page on your blog. This occasionally happens, so Google needs to know what to place in your ad slot. YOU can choose to display public service ads, which generate no income when clicked on, or you can have another ad program's advertisment placed there. You can also have it set to simply display a solid color.
That's it! Your adsense ad is designed. But you are not quite through yet. You still have to set up a channel for your ad.
Channels
Channels are extremely valuable tools for Adsense. By customizing a channel for a particular ad, you have the ability to see how well it performs. An adsense report will tell you how many times it has been viewed, how many times it has been clicked, how much money it has made. It also tells you the CTR and CPM. These numbers are very important to how much money you make, and we'll go over these in another post.
To create a channel for your new adsense ad, select new channel. Name it whatever will help you recognize it in your reports. For my text ad, I would label it Blogsite 160x600 text sidebar.
Proceed to the next page, where you are now labeling the ad itself. I like to individualize my channels and my ad, so I named the ad the same thing I named my channel.
Click Submit and Get Code! Your ad is created. Now we have to place it.
Place into your blog with HTML Code
The resulting adsense html code needs to be copied in its entirety and placed on your blog. Find the edit html area of you blog, and copy and paste the code where you want your adsense displayed. That's it! Within 10 minutes, your adsense ads should start displaying!
For Blogger users, you can also insert adsense code by placing them into an html widget. Just select the new gadget option in your layout, and choose html. Paste the copied adense code and save. All done!
That's it! Adsense should now be running on your blog! Now you can add mroe adsense units to help make even more money with your blog!
Adsense is Google's web advertising program. It consists of text, image, and even video ads that can be placed on just about any website, including blogs. Many bloggers today, including myself, have found adsense very useful, and that it can be an extremely powerful income generating tool.
Focusing on blogging, adsense works in this manner:
- The blogger creates a blog about a specific content, be it how to make money online, celebrity news, family and parenting, etc.
- When the blog is set-up, the author can immediately start placing adsense on their site.
- When readers visit the site, they see ads relevant to the content of the blog, and click on the ads.
- By clicking on the ads, the blogger is paid for each click. These clicks can range from $.05 to as high as $20 or more!
When you see advertisements on "Make money in you sleep!" or "4 hour work weeks from home!", they are referring to placing advertisements on your site that continuously work while you are away. Adsense is the leading advertiser in this manner, and with Google's vast web of networking and clients (we're talking billions of dollars here), why not take advantage of it?
Why use Adsense?
Why not? When working on a blog or website, wouldn't it be nice to generate a little side income while doing something you enjoy? The extra money can be used to cover web hosting costs, or domain name registrations, whatever tickles your fancy.
Personally, I use my adsense revenue to help put away money for my daughter's wedding and education. It has also helped me cover web hosting costs on other sites and blogs I have.
What's the cost to use Adsense?
Nothing! Signing up for adsense and the ability to place them on your blog is absolutely free! Google wants to expand their advertising as much as possible, and bloggers are a great affiliate for that. You promote Google's ads by placing adsense on your blog, and Google will pay you each time someone clicks on an ad! It really is that easy! You can sign up for Adsense here.
When do I get my money?
Here is the only catch, Google will not mail you a check until you have reached a total of $100 or more. For some, it can several months to reach that total as they continue to build traffic to their blogs. It seems like a long time, and yes it can be, but once you have established a good reader base and consistent blog traffic, the revenue only keeps going up from there!
Adsense Equals Blog Income
The bottom line is Adsense will make your blog money. I won't lie, it does take some effort to make a good blog that people will want to read, so don't be frustrated if you don't see immediate results. The people making money with adsense have established good blogs, with many readers over a certain period of time. But the potential is there, and it has the ability to make great amounts of additional income, all while doing something you love!
