[Long Read] Why You Fail with AdSense and How to Make Money With AdSense

[brusacco]

I will like you to write a detailed tutorial about the ads server.

The ads server technology - can it work with a hosted Adsense blogger blog?

He says: "Networks allow to set passback"
This means that the Ad Networks have an option to call other "ads" if there is no fill for that ad unit. There is no need for an "adserver" for this basic setup at least.

 

[Deleted member 813988]

I have a blog website in the health niche, right now im only using adSense, and I want to try other ad networks. Can you please suggest some good ad network to use and also ad server?

Thanks

How much traffic does your site have per month and where does the traffic come from?
I can submit your site for approval with partner network we work with.

He says: "Networks allow to set passback"
This means that the Ad Networks have an option to call other "ads" if there is no fill for that ad unit. There is no need for an "adserver" for this basic setup at least.

Right, but this doesn't mean this is the best solution, but a simple (very basic) or temporary solution. Running ad server provides better options to manage ads and get higher revenue.

 

[kisders]

Rất tốt <3 tks để chia sẻ

 

[Deleted member 813988]

m?

 

[Knugen]

Why You Fail with AdSense

Many publishers fail with AdSense because they expect a lot from AdSense and think that AdSense is the best and highest paying ad network available.

A lot of those who just starting, think that it's enough to put ads on the site to start making money. Unfortunately, that is not so, and there're many things to understand about AdSense first.

There're many 'technical' reasons for a monetization failure: bot or low-quality traffic, bad ad placement, low-quality content, however, it's relatively easy to take care of the technical issues. The most important reason for a failure is that AdSense is the only ad network that is used for monetization on the site.

Another reason for a failure is a misconception that you can still build a site around specific keyword with high CPC or niche, rank it and start making money from it. It doesn't work that way, and microniche websites won't work. These days personalized targeting is one of the main points of how Google decides what ads to display, therefore if your site built around 'birds' user can see ads about 'kayaking'.

Why AdSense is so attractive to newbies
AdSense is the #1 ad network in the world, it's made by Google - the most popular search engine in the world. Couple months ago I did a research on the ad networks and publishers, and I was able to list over 1 million publishers that use AdSense according to IAB rules. (Not every site follows IAB, or even knows about it so there are much more sites of a lower quality).

It is hard to provide support for that many publishers, therefore AdSense creates universal rules that affect big and small, and this also affects revenue.

AdSense Revenue vs AdNetworks
In comparison to most other networks, AdSense - has a 100% fill rate, every visitor of your site will see specific ads. AdSense doesn't care about your location - there're plenty of advertisers from every continent. This also means that some of your visitors AdSense will define as prime visitors and will give a higher rate (more expensive ads), but the rest have an average or low rate. Comparing with other networks AdSense rates are pretty low and this simply because of fill.

The other Ad networks may not always provide 100% fill, however, they provide better rates, and where AdSense pays $0.12 you can get $0.50 with other ad networks. Those a sample rates and they can be as high as $20 or even more, depending on your site. Some networks may only buy 20,000 impressions or only Canadian traffic, but those 20k impressions or specific Geo traffic will be more profitable to monetize with the other ad network rather than AdSense.

How to be successful with AdSense?
Don't put all eggs in one basket, don't use AdSense as your only ad network, try to mix it with the other ad networks. There're over 5,000 ad networks in the world and while doing my research I have created a list of https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/top-100-ad-networks-adsense-alternatives.1045408/ in the world by publisher count
Note, there're no such crap networks like propeller ads, exoclicks, etc. on the list.

The best solution is to run multiple ad networks to monetize your traffic. You literally can have couple dozen networks and customize and optimize it for maximum revenue by showing each user a specific ad from a specific ad network.

How do I run a dozen ad networks on my site?
You can setup Header Bidding on your site, this means that all the networks you have accounts with will compete for every impression and the highest bid wins. Bidding happens programmatically in less than half a second.

The other option is to set up a waterfall where you set networks one-by-one from top to bottom (you can also apply additional rules, e.g. specific network only is shown to a specific geo). On my own experience - AdSense is the bottom of the list and only used to buy the impressions all other networks refused buying. If a network has lower rates than AdSense - I take them off the ad stack.

Both processes are done through an ad server, but if you don't know how to manage an ad server, and have no money to hire an expert - don't worry. Networks allow to set passback, this means you provide them with an ad code they have to fire if they have no fill for this specific impression.

So, for example, you have an account with Sovrn, Criteo, and Adsense - you set up a floor $5 with Criteo, $3 with Sovrn and set Sovrn passback with Criteo and AdSense with Sovrn. If Criteo doesn't have an ad for this specific user - it will pull the Sovrn ad, and if the Sovrn has no ad it will pull AdSense that will always have an ad.

Based on the example above you have an opportunity to make more money from the same exact user just by showing a different ad, because the price per that impression will be higher.

What to do if AdSense earnings drop?
Nothing, if you're using just AdSense, however, if rates dropped among all the networks something bad is going on, but most of the time it's technical issues.

Hi se900se I have checked out a lot of your posts and replies and love the tips and guidance you give about ad arbitrage as there is not a lot of information about it out there and most people dont even know what it is or how it works, I am new to ad arbitrage and just found out it was a thing about 1 month ago and have created my website and is trying to gather as much information as I can about this business model.

I have got rejected by Adsense and have applied for some of the networks on your top 100 list but as my website is so new it does not have much traffic they don't approve me which is understandable. What would you recommend is the next step, should I try to grow my site organically with social media before I start applying for networks again and if so what is a good way to do this?

 

[Deleted member 813988]

Hi se900se I have checked out a lot of your posts and replies and love the tips and guidance you give about ad arbitrage as there is not a lot of information about it out there and most people dont even know what it is or how it works, I am new to ad arbitrage and just found out it was a thing about 1 month ago and have created my website and is trying to gather as much information as I can about this business model.

I have got rejected by Adsense and have applied for some of the networks on your top 100 list but as my website is so new it does not have much traffic they don't approve me which is understandable. What would you recommend is the next step, should I try to grow my site organically with social media before I start applying for networks again and if so what is a good way to do this?

Ad networks prefer sites with traffic as they can ensure they will make money, but some of the ad networks have lower requirements to get in. For example, AdBlade should be fairly easy to get into. I partnered with some ad networks and may help to open an account through us in case the site is approved.

 

[Knugen]

Ad networks prefer sites with traffic as they can ensure they will make money, but some of the ad networks have lower requirements to get in. For example, AdBlade should be fairly easy to get into. I partnered with some ad networks and may help to open an account through us in case the site is approved.

Thanks for such a fast reply! I will definitely look into AdBlade

Are ad networks okay with ad arbitrage or would I have to "hide" that is what am doing?

If I have posts with like "38 Cool Tattoos" and then just make page breaks between each picture is that okay or do these networks want more professional websites.

I made posts like this and did some test runs with native ads just to see how long they would stay on my site and what the average pageview was and I got an average pageview per visitor of something like 12 I think and 3 minutes average time spent on site.

But I have deleted those posts, and have paid and also made some articles myself to make my site look more professional.

Is this a mistake or should I be cautious about making my site look like its goal is to maximize pageviews and earnings?

 

[Deleted member 813988]

Are ad networks okay with ad arbitrage or would I have to "hide" that is what am doing?

No need to hide, this is a legal business

If I have posts with like "38 Cool Tattoos" and then just make page breaks between each picture is that okay or do these networks want more professional websites.

Ad network wants more professional websites, but as long as you have traffic and able to monetize ads, it's professional enough.
Each network has own requirements, but mostly they related to traffic quantities and type of content.

I made posts like this and did some test runs with native ads just to see how long they would stay on my site and what the average pageview was and I got an average pageview per visitor of something like 12 I think and 3 minutes average time spent on site.

But I have deleted those posts, and have paid and also made some articles myself to make my site look more professional.

Is this a mistake or should I be cautious about making my site look like its goal is to maximize pageviews and earnings?

Those are good statistics, and no you didn't do anything bad.
If you place 38 images on the same page it will take time to load and may affect the browsing experience, so it makes sense to break it into pages. More to that, you can place half of image on the page - as long as visitors fine with that, you can do anything you want. Ad networks want to bring the result to their advertisers, so as long as your site is the platform that brings that result - you're fine.

 

[Knugen]

No need to hide, this is a legal business



Ad network wants more professional websites, but as long as you have traffic and able to monetize ads, it's professional enough.
Each network has own requirements, but mostly they related to traffic quantities and type of content.



Those are good statistics, and no you didn't do anything bad.
If you place 38 images on the same page it will take time to load and may affect the browsing experience, so it makes sense to break it into pages. More to that, you can place half of image on the page - as long as visitors fine with that, you can do anything you want. Ad networks want to bring the result to their advertisers, so as long as your site is the platform that brings that result - you're fine.

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, it is really useful information for someone who just getting started

Thank you!!

 

[Ateriese]

There's so much I need to learn, jeez. Had no idea there were that many alternatives to Adsense. K, time to go do some more searching...

 

[Deleted member 813988]

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, it is really useful information for someone who just getting started

Thank you!!

There's so much I need to learn, jeez. Had no idea there were that many alternatives to Adsense. K, time to go do some more searching...

I am happy to help and contribute

 

[Knugen]

I am happy to help and contribute

Hi Se900se!

I have been driving traffic to my site now to grow it and make it look more appealing for the ad networks, I have got accepted by Adblade and Infolinks but the earnings were so low I removed these ads from my site to just focus on growing my pageviews to get into the better networks. I applied to Sovrn but was not accepted because my site was to new as I understood it and they wanted at least 4 month of editorial content.

How many pageviews would you recommend me to have before I start applying to the better networks?
Or do you know any good networks that you think would accept me now?

Here are my stats for the last 11 days I been driving traffic to my site.

 

[gettinthere]

@se900se - do you have any recommendations for ad networks that accept fairly high traffic sites (about 20k per day) but the pages have very little content?

An example would be file-sharing type sites (however the site is not illegal content) whereby there may be following 'rows' of content; Header / Small Ad / Small content / Continue button / Main Ad / Small content / Footer.

I'm looking for something non-spammy. I guess CPM is probably most suited, but CPC OK too. Just don't want any network that serves dodgy ads or invasive ads - want to maintain good user experience.

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 813988]

@se900se - do you have any recommendations for ad networks that accept fairly high traffic sites (about 20k per day) but the pages have very little content?

An example would be file-sharing type sites (however the site is not illegal content) whereby there may be following 'rows' of content; Header / Small Ad / Small content / Continue button / Main Ad / Small content / Footer.

I'm looking for something non-spammy. I guess CPM is probably most suited, but CPC OK too. Just don't want any network that serves dodgy ads or invasive ads - want to maintain good user experience.

Thanks

Hey,

I would have to know more data about the site to suggest something.

 

[gettinthere]

Hey,

I would have to know more data about the site to suggest something.

Cool - will ping you a message at some point.

 

[SEO&LIFE]

good one

 

[Life 101]

Why You Fail with AdSense

Many publishers fail with AdSense because they expect a lot from AdSense and think that AdSense is the best and highest paying ad network available.

A lot of those who just starting, think that it's enough to put ads on the site to start making money. Unfortunately, that is not so, and there're many things to understand about AdSense first.

There're many 'technical' reasons for a monetization failure: bot or low-quality traffic, bad ad placement, low-quality content, however, it's relatively easy to take care of the technical issues. The most important reason for a failure is that AdSense is the only ad network that is used for monetization on the site.

Another reason for a failure is a misconception that you can still build a site around specific keyword with high CPC or niche, rank it and start making money from it. It doesn't work that way, and microniche websites won't work. These days personalized targeting is one of the main points of how Google decides what ads to display, therefore if your site built around 'birds' user can see ads about 'kayaking'.

Why AdSense is so attractive to newbies
AdSense is the #1 ad network in the world, it's made by Google - the most popular search engine in the world. Couple months ago I did a research on the ad networks and publishers, and I was able to list over 1 million publishers that use AdSense according to IAB rules. (Not every site follows IAB, or even knows about it so there are much more sites of a lower quality).

It is hard to provide support for that many publishers, therefore AdSense creates universal rules that affect big and small, and this also affects revenue.

AdSense Revenue vs AdNetworks
In comparison to most other networks, AdSense - has a 100% fill rate, every visitor of your site will see specific ads. AdSense doesn't care about your location - there're plenty of advertisers from every continent. This also means that some of your visitors AdSense will define as prime visitors and will give a higher rate (more expensive ads), but the rest have an average or low rate. Comparing with other networks AdSense rates are pretty low and this simply because of fill.

The other Ad networks may not always provide 100% fill, however, they provide better rates, and where AdSense pays $0.12 you can get $0.50 with other ad networks. Those a sample rates and they can be as high as $20 or even more, depending on your site. Some networks may only buy 20,000 impressions or only Canadian traffic, but those 20k impressions or specific Geo traffic will be more profitable to monetize with the other ad network rather than AdSense.

How to be successful with AdSense?
Don't put all eggs in one basket, don't use AdSense as your only ad network, try to mix it with the other ad networks. There're over 5,000 ad networks in the world and while doing my research I have created a list of Top 100 Ad Networks AdSense Alternatives in the world by publisher count
Note, there're no such crap networks like propeller ads, exoclicks, etc. on the list.

The best solution is to run multiple ad networks to monetize your traffic. You literally can have couple dozen networks and customize and optimize it for maximum revenue by showing each user a specific ad from a specific ad network.

How do I run a dozen ad networks on my site?
You can setup Header Bidding on your site, this means that all the networks you have accounts with will compete for every impression and the highest bid wins. Bidding happens programmatically in less than half a second.

The other option is to set up a waterfall where you set networks one-by-one from top to bottom (you can also apply additional rules, e.g. specific network only is shown to a specific geo). On my own experience - AdSense is the bottom of the list and only used to buy the impressions all other networks refused buying. If a network has lower rates than AdSense - I take them off the ad stack.

Both processes are done through an ad server, but if you don't know how to manage an ad server, and have no money to hire an expert - don't worry. Networks allow to set passback, this means you provide them with an ad code they have to fire if they have no fill for this specific impression.

So, for example, you have an account with Sovrn, Criteo, and Adsense - you set up a floor $5 with Criteo, $3 with Sovrn and set Sovrn passback with Criteo and AdSense with Sovrn. If Criteo doesn't have an ad for this specific user - it will pull the Sovrn ad, and if the Sovrn has no ad it will pull AdSense that will always have an ad.

Based on the example above you have an opportunity to make more money from the same exact user just by showing a different ad, because the price per that impression will be higher.

What to do if AdSense earnings drop?
Nothing, if you're using just AdSense, however, if rates dropped among all the networks something bad is going on, but most of the time it's technical issues.

This is gold. Do you know any tutorial on how to do this ?

 

[Deleted member 813988]

This is gold. Do you know any tutorial on how to do this ?

You are on it

 

[Life 101]

You are on it

Sorry, i didn't explain myself.
I meant a tutorial on how to make ad networks compete for themselves and show the best ad for each person.

 

[WPAutoGuy]

Thank you for this share, great read!