I was using Google’s Adsense program to generate some revenue from my various web sites. Before Adsense, I had never been paid to run these before and did so for a hobby. Overall I was happy with my earnings. The only drawback was that I was always looking for ways to get people to my site. I enjoyed working to bring in more visitors but felt that if I looked at my earnings versus the hours worked, the economics didn’t make sense.
Then I found out that some sites are paying far more than the minimum .05 cents per click. I argued if I could get visitors pay .05 – .10 to visit. Then if they clicked on enough ads that paid more than what I paid for, AdWords could be a viable way to increase traffic to my sites.
Increase your Adsense Profits by Using Google Adwords
So I paid my $5.00 setup fee and added two of my most profitable sites. The same day my traffic jumped dramatically and was just as I expected. Visitors who came through AdWords were more likely to click on other Google ads on my site. My conversions kept increasing and I thought why not put all my sites on AdWords.
This was where some careful research was needed. I found that some of the sites I was running had AdWords sponsors that were only making the lowest bid. Remember the concept was to get advertisers on my sites to lower bids. While my traffic was skyrocketing, for some sites my expenses outweighed any gains. When my reports came out, it was clear that I only wanted to use AdWords for sites that featured advertisers with high bids. This creates margin for visitors who come through paid ads but don’t click on my own sponsored ads.
Use Google Adwords
The exception would be when my site is offering a product or service. Then it would be worth sticking with AdWords on those sites to get more buying traffic. Because my sites are purely informational, I had to look carefully to make sure I was putting money in AdWords where it was working for me. In some cases I increased my bid on certain keywords that were apparently bringing in steady traffic that converted well.
How to Use Google Ads
Google’s new offering called Websense may change that a bit. By allowing you to place Google’s search form on your site and then paying if your visitors search from your site and click on other sponsored links it can make those low-performing sites profitable again. Time and further research will tell.
The moral of the story is that AdWords is a great way to dramatically increase your profits when using Adsense. Care needs to be taken to see that you are putting your money where it is most effective.
John Gall is a full time IT Manager and IT Consultant in Minnesota. He runs several websites as a hobby showing similar content to this article.