AdSense’s Place In The Online Advertising World

Let ’s start our journey in the world of Google AdSense by first understanding how the online advertising came into being and how Google AdSense is place with respect to the other online advertising concepts :

Soon after the advent of internet, it was realized that the website real estate (or the space on websites ) had commercial value in the advertising world. The simple reason behind this was the soaring popularity of internet and the increasing number of eyeballs received by various websites . Thus , internet advertising (or online advertising) came into being. Today, internet advertising is treated as one of the most effective and most economical means of advertising .
In fact, a lot of businesses , especially small businesses , use only this (affordable) medium for advertising their products and services . As technology progressed, so did the online advertising methodologies . Graphics based banner Ads and text Ads got their due recognition and were used quite extensively for online advertising. Even now banner advertising is one of the most popular forms of online advertising.

However, the real breakthrough in online advertising came with Google AdSense advertising program . This program helped in connecting advertisers to several website owners who were ready to offer advertising space on their websites . Through Google AdSense program, the advertisements were floated on the websites that had some relevance to the products or services offered by the advertiser. This type of advertising is also called targeted advertising since the Ads are served only to the interested audience and not just anyone or everyone.
Soon, Google AdSense became a very effective form of targeted advertising. On Google AdSense program, webmasters are paid on per-click and per-thousand-Ads-displayed basis .

And the advertisers can control the amount of money they wish to spend on advertising through Google Adwords program that works in conjunction with the AdSense program.

Google AdSense program has caught the fancy of a lot of advertisers and webmasters and its popularity continues to soar everyday. Until another, better advertising program comes into being; Google AdSense will continue to hold its place at the core of online advertising.

What Is AdSense?

Now that we know how Google AdSense program is placed in the world of online advertising, let’s delve a bit deeper into the concept of ‘AdSense’ and understand what it is about and how people make money by using this concept.

AdSense is a wonderful advertising concept that was conceived by Google some time back. Though new advertising concepts keep coming up all the time, this one is something that is altogether different.

AdSense (Google’s advertising program ) presents an earning opportunity to the website owners by allowing Google to post advertisements on their websites . These advertisements are either text advertisements or image based advertisements . Of course, the website owners need to enroll to the AdSense program through Google’s website (https ://www.google.com /AdSense). Google AdSense program requires you (the website owner) to include a piece of code (a programming script) on your website. You can add this piece of code anywhere in the html code of your website i.e. depending on where you want to position the advertisements (however , there are certain rules that you must follow while pasting this scripting code). This piece of code is what determines the structure of advertisements and their content (and this is what helps Google in floating the advertisements on your website). W hen people visit your website they are able to see these advertisements . Your earnings are based on how many Google Ads are displayed on your website and also based on how many times visitors to your website actually click on one of those Ads . The Google AdSense system calculates your revenue on per-click (CPC ) and per-thousand-Ads -displayed (CPM) basis . The latter is also known as impressions .

For people who want to advertise their products and services through the Google AdSense system, it’s just a matter of signing up through Google Adwords program and letting Google know how much they want to spend towards advertising through Google AdSense. These businesses can specify the limit and Google AdSense system will accordingly serve their Ads so as to ensure that the specified limit is not crossed. Google AdSense increases the visibility of their business / services and also increases traffic to their website; hence fulfilling their purpose of advertising.

AdSense Related Terms That You Should Know

We now know what AdSense is. As is the case with any concept, Google AdSense program also use certain terms and phrases for relating to various things Knowing these terms upfront will make it easy and smooth for you to read and understand any AdSense related material:

Here is the list of AdSense related terms that you should know for sure:

Page Impression: A page impression is generally the same as a page view but
the number of page impressions can sometimes be different than the page
views . This happens when the page is viewed by a visitor but the AdSense code
is not executed for some reason (which means that the Ads are not displayed to
the visitor).

Ad Unit Impressions: W henever you get page impressions , you also get Ad unit impressions . However, the ad unit impressions are dependent on the number of ad units you have on your page i.e. number of ad units that get executed when the page loads on user’s browser. Note that the link unit impressions are also counted as ad unit impressions .

Click: A click (for the purpose of AdSense) is recorded whenever a website visitor clicks on one of the AdSense Ads . Note that a click on a topic in a link unit is not considered as a click.

Click Through Rate , for the purpose of AdSense, is the number of clicks received by an ad unit divided by the total number of ad unit impressions for that ad unit. So, a better CTR can mean more revenue for you.

Effective CPM : It is calculated as the cost per 1000 impressions . However, do not confuse effective CPM with your earnings . In fact, effective CPM is calculated by dividing your earnings by the number of page impressions and then multiplying the final figure by 1000. Effective CPM is generally used to compare various channels and determine which channels are more profitable for you.

AdSense Ads Can Be Hosted By Any Website

Now that we have an overview of the Google AdSense program, we are ready to take the next step. So, let’s go ahead and check the suitability of Google AdSense program for various websites

We all know that Google’s AdSense program is one of the most reputed internet
advertising programs around. AdSense is one advertising program that brings a
number of people (websites ) into its fold as advertising media and hence helps
them earn revenue (advertising revenue). These people are webmasters who
own websites and it’s their websites that function as bill-boards and serve
advertisements .

With Google AdSense program, any website can easily become a bill-board:

No Experience Necessary : Google AdSense program offers earning opportunity to every webmaster. The only criterion is that you should have a website (and your website should be compliant to the AdSense program policies ). You don’t need to know anything about advertising or advertising media etc . Just enroll with the Google AdSense program and Google will take care of designing the Ads and serving the relevant Ads on your website. So, no special designing skills or coding skills are required for getting enrolled and using Google AdSense program .

No Need To Look For Advertisers

W hen the commercial value of websites for advertising was recognized, webmasters started looking for increasing traffic to their websites in order to make their website worthy enough to attract advertisers . Even then, getting advertisers was not easy. So, they could not really derive any monetary benefits from the traffic to their website until an advertiser actually bought advertising space on their website. However, with Google AdSense program , webmasters start earning revenue from the day they join the Google AdSense program . As the traffic to their website increases , so does their revenue.
No Need For Tracking Revenue: Google AdSense program will also take the responsibility of tracking the revenue that you earn from serving the Ads on your website. You can just login to your Google AdSense account and check your earnings. Moreover, you have various reports and statistics available to you that you can use for enhancing the performance of your website on the Google AdSense program .

So, Google AdSense program has really made it easy to convert a website into revenue earning medium .

What Makes Google AdSense System So Special?

By now you must have got an idea about what the Google AdSense program is and how almost every website owner can benefit from it. So, it has started making some ‘Sense’ to you. But what is it that makes Google AdSense program really so special? Let’s take a look:

The basic arrangement in which Google AdSense system works is such that Google has the basic control over the Ads that are displayed on the websites subscribed to Google AdSense system. Of course, the website owner can customize how an Ad looks and also block/filter certain types of Ads on their website. The Ads that Google serves are ‘Senseful’ Ads (these Ads are actually relevant to the topics that the website discusses / caters -to). This is something that is not found in other advertising programs /systems . This creates a win-win situation for everyone.

The people who are visiting the website (that contains Google AdSense Ads ) are
doing so because they are interested in the product/service/topic that is
discussed on that website. It would be of little use to them if you were to serve
Ads that are not related to the topic in any way. On the other hand, Ads related to
the topic of the website would really prove useful to the visitor. They might
actually be interested in a product or service that is being advertised through
Google AdSense Ads . So, website visitors get a richer experience due to
AdSense program.
Website owners get revenue for displaying the Google AdSense Ads and for the clicks they receive on the Ads . So, they are happy too. As far as businesses /advertisers are concerned, they get a system (AdSense system) for targeted advertising that is both easy and economical to operate.

Moreover, Google AdSense Ads are presented in a much better way than the banner Ads or other types of Ads . Most of the Ads are simple text Ads that are clear and concise. The website owners find it easy and the advertisers find it easy too. Google AdSense is really one of the best advertising programs available today.

AdSense Account Setup - Part 1 (Enrolment Form )

As the benefits from Google AdSense program start getting clear to you, you (as a website owner) would be inquisitive as to how you can setup your Google AdSense account and whether it takes a lot of time to set up an AdSense account. Let’s take a look at how you can setup your Google AdSense account:
So, you have decided to go ahead and use Google AdSense for generating revenue from your website. Google AdSense doesn’t need you to sell any products or services . W ith Google AdSense, you are just selling advertising space on your website. And the best part is that Google doesn’t discriminate between websites ; so, any website owner can enroll with Google AdSense program (as long as it adheres to the Google AdSense program policies ). Moreover, setting up a Google AdSense account is so easy that you can literally start generating revenue within 15 minutes .

F or e n r o l l i n g t o t h e G o o g l e A d S e n s e p r o g r a m , g o t o https ://www.google.com /AdSense and click on the ‘Click here to Apply’ button. You will be presented with an enrolment form where you need to fill-in some details like your website information (URL and website language), the Google AdSense products that you wish to use (i.e. AdSense for Content or AdSense for Search), your contact information, your email address and your preferences . You will also need to select an account type (business /individual) for your AdSense Account and agree to the various policies , terms and conditions of Google AdSense program. The account type will not affect your revenues in any way; it is there just to determine if the payment is to be made in the name of a company or an individual. The email address and the password that you provide during the enrolment process will be required by you for logging into your account later on. Note that you will be referred to as publisher by the Google AdSense program ; so when you return back to the Google AdSense website, you will be asked to enter your login details as an ‘Existing Publisher’.

That’s it. You can now submit your application form for Google to evaluate and get back to you.