Using Testing & Optimization to Improve your Google AdSense Income

Bloggers who depend on AdSense for their passive income might be leaving money on the table if they do not know how to properly optimize their website for better revenues.

While there are countless other factors that contribute to the overall earnings, considering some simple, easy-to-follow suggestions might help boost your ad revenue on your blog or website. Ad revenue optimization is probably your best bet here.

Optimize Your Advertisements

It is no secret that almost everyone in the online publishing world believes that it’s all about increasing website traffic. Although traffic makes a substantial part of the equation, many webmasters/publisher out there undermine the real strength of ad optimization using A/B testing.

CTR (Click through Rate) of your ads is a crucial factor, which is immensely significant and plays a vital role in increasing your Adsense income.

You can utilize Ad revenue optimization to improve your ad income even when there is no change in the overall website traffic. It takes much less efforts than trying to generate more traffic on your website, as well.

The process would primarily require us to change a few elements (which are under our control) relating to the Ad units, with the aim of improving the Ad CTR. For example, the ad unit size and its location is something, which we decide and small changes here can make a large difference in your overall Ad CTR.

Some Important Elements

Size of the Adsense ad matters a lot
If you feel a certain ad unit is better than another just because a case study on some site said so, I’m afraid you are wrong.

No two sites are alike and what you need is to compare and test between different ad units on your site, yourself. Small changes in the Ad unit can make a lot of difference. Take this as a case study – Just By changing the 120×600 Skyscraper with a 160×600 Wide Skyscraper and the 468×60 Banner by a 300×250 Rectangle, caused a 109% rise in Adsense Revenues for this website.

Location of the ad unit
Try to place at least 1 Ad unit above the fold. Let’s assume that your website receive majority of its traffic from search engines. The traffic is generated from visitors looking for something.

Therefore, when they land on your webpage, they should have at least 1 Ad unit visible to them. Similarly, try experimenting with at least 3-4 locations for every ad unit. You’ll be astonished to see the difference in CTR, which each ad location can produce.

Ad Design/Theme
Selecting appropriate colors for all the text ad units that are to be displayed on your website is incredibly important. The importance of selecting the right shades cannot be stressed enough. If you still haven’t tried it, go ahead and give it a shot.

Majority of the websites that have considered and implemented this method have benefited a lot. In a recent test which we did over at AdPushup, we saw a website improve the CTR by 75% without any change in location or ad unit size, all thanks to a small change in the AdSense’s Text ad theme/color.

A/B Test everything

A/B testing is a very new concept for publishers. There are a lot of factors which can be A/B tested to improve your ad revenues – You can begin with the 3, which I mentioned above – ad theme, size, and location. Choose a few different positions for the ad units – also referred to as variations.

Split the traffic on your website between these different variations. Compare the click-through rate from every variation and you’ll start seeing results. Similarly, choose different sizes of every ad unit and different shades for text ads. A/B testing can be done manually as well as through automated testing tools.

Block the Ads that are not relevant to the content on your website!

It goes without saying that your CTR will automatically improve if your Ads are more relevant to the visitors. So, your ads must be relevant to what your blog or website offers.

The more targeted and relevant your ads are, the higher your click through rate would be. Therefore, whenever you see an irrelevant advertisement on your website, filter it out using your Adsense account.

Content is King

Content has always been and will be the “King”. But, do you know how the content on your blog or website can affect the CTR of your Adsense ad units? Although there is no study available that can give us some fact and figures, but every publisher is aware of the importance of the content you offer to your visitors. Here are a couple of hypothesis for you to consider:

Jim Boykin has written an article relevant to what we are discussing, where he says that if your users or visitors find the content on your website good, satisfying and adequate, they are likely to look no further on your website. This might lead to a substantial decrease in click through rate.

On the other hand, if we consider the impact of a very well researched, detailed article that educates the readers about an amazing technology, the chances of intriguing the audience and making them click on a very relevant ad on the same page could be very high.

Do Consider Other Ad Networks

Although Google Adsense is one of the most well-know and preferred exchange network, there are plenty of other option out there for you. It’s true that Adsense ads pay the most, but it is equally important to consider other quality ad networks, especially niches ad networks.

This also means that you should try affiliate networks or CPA. There are so many people out there who are making substantial money via commissions from Amazon and Clickbank, and you can be one of them.

Getting the most out of a blog or website is everyone’s wish, and there are plenty of ways to help you optimize your web properties.

All you need to focus is on testing and making statistically backed decisions. Start with small changes and you’ll see how much they can affect your overall revenues.