Technology

9 advanced tips for Google AdSense optimization

You are the type of person who does not settle for “good enough”. In fact, your ears wiggle, just a little bit, if someone within a 10 mile radius mentions the word “optimized.” We know, it’s okay. You are in a safe place with like-minded people. Now if you also know of a Google AdSense dashboard, this is the post for you.

1. Fix the invalid traffic

Since 2015, Google began to include a line in its monthly income report. The line “Invalid traffic: AdSense for content” that reduces your income. Sometimes it is a negligible sum. And sometimes it can be a big part of your income stream.

If you keep getting invalid traffic, you keep losing money. And if there is too much, your account could be suspended. Even if you don’t know where the heck these invalid clicks are coming from.

So what can you do?

  • More content! Google will penalize you if your page has more ads than content. Make sure to balance the two, as this can affect your repeat user audience as well.
  • Be on the lookout for social media traffic – AdSense just doesn’t like it. Google prefers viewers that come from its search engine (gee, I wonder why) or from the pages they reached through it. They especially dislike paid traffic that is not paid through the platform it came from (such as paid posts on massive Facebook groups or retweets paid for bots).
  • Last but not least, contact Google. If you’re doing nothing wrong and the traffic you’re getting is real, legitimate, and really clicking? You may be a victim of click bombardment from your competitors.

2. Category lock

Blocking or unblocking categories in AdSense can affect revenue. How much effect and how? That’s a bit more complicated …

Some categories have higher CPCs, while others have higher CTRs. The main question is: how are RPMs maximized with category lock / unlock?

Look at the reports under “Allow and Block Ads” to see which categories are performing poorly. High-impression but low-income categories are the ones you should try to block, at least temporarily.

It is true that it will reduce the competition on your ad placements, but it will stimulate your path to the right ads and advertisers.

3. Hack smart prices for higher CPCs

Many publishers seemed to be petrified by Google AdSense’s smart pricing algorithm. This algorithm tries to ensure that advertisers get their money’s worth when they advertise on the publisher network.

So make Google’s smart pricing work for you instead of against you. Block unprofitable categories. Place ads where they can’t be accidentally clicked, and do your best to drive converting traffic. Not just cheap views that don’t convert to customers.

But how do I know what traffic will convert?

You need to “reverse engineer” the classic customer journey and provide content that can be used as part of that journey.

Think about how your websites can fit into a customer journey and tailor your content to match.

4. Custom channels

To attract expert advertisers and closely track ad unit performance, we recommend using custom channels, if you haven’t already.

Custom channels allow you to create ad groups or unique placements that advertisers can directly target. By giving advertisers this capability, you increase competition for your ad space.

If you have yet to set up custom channels in your AdSense account, we have a guide to guide you. If you’re not sure if it’s worth the time, you still want to read this guide. It will probably convince you to create those custom channels in your AdSense account.

5. Anchor and flow ads

Every newbie to website monetization knows – the top half is gold. But it is fool’s gold. This is why.

The over-the-fold ad is often one of the first things a visitor sees when they land on your page. Ads are made to be attractive. But the viewer didn’t come to your page to see ads and you can’t afford to forget that.

How do you solve this?

Anchor Ads (also known as Floating, Fixed, and Floating) and Streaming Ads. The right combination of ads that follow users as they scroll and in-stream ads that give them “exit points” in content is the path to higher RPMs. You can read more about it in our post on ways to squeeze more AdSense for higher income.

6. Optimize for size

What if you got a dollar for every time someone told you that it is crucial that you optimize for mobile devices? You probably no longer need to monetize your content. Or work. Forever. But that is not exactly what we are saying here.

Depending on the theme or configuration of your website, you can create different layouts for different devices. Responsive pages will always place your ads in the wrong places, so you need to be aware of that to maximize mobile revenue.

So what you can do instead is hide the lower performing ads on the mobile device when the device is a tablet or smartphone. Then add a mobile-only ad unit that displays only on mobile devices and is optimized for mobile-friendly layout.

7. Advanced geographic targeting

Some countries and regions have higher CPCs than others. For example, UK, US, Canada, and Australia bring much higher CPCs than Africa or India.

If you have a blog in Italian or German, you may consider adding an English section for higher CPC views. And you will have to search for high-priced niches in your area.

Assuming your content site is in English, you want to do your best to drive traffic from the highest paying countries. This means that your audience acquisition efforts should be focused there and appeal to the interests of the people of the region.

How do you check which countries pay the most? See the countries in your AdSense performance reports. And drive more traffic from the regions with the highest CPC you can see.

8. Use asynchronous AdSense code

In 2015, Google introduced asynchronous ad code to help publishers reduce the loading time of their ad unit pages.

9. Optimization

Our last tip is to always be testing. In our experience in the monetization of various niches, if there is an optimization to eliminate, it is to always be testing. In fact, we went one step further and created the test ecosystem to make the entire AdSense CTR optimization process quick and easy.

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