AdSense comes in a number of different forms:
• AdSense for content is the most popular. This is the kind of AdSense you can see on my Web pages. It displays ads that pay on a cost-per-click (CPC) or a cost-per-action (CPA) basis and that are targeted to the keywords on the page. The ads are usually text-based but they can also be images and even video.
• AdSense for search provides a search box that you can place on your site. You can specify which sites the user can search, and AdSense will display small text ads next to the results, giving you a share of the advertiser’s fee for every click.
• AdSense for mobile content places AdSense on content built specifically for mobile gadgets like cell phones.
• AdSense for feeds places ads in RSS feeds, a useful way of making some money from people who read your content in their RSS readers rather than on your site.
• AdSense for domains lets you make a little money even before your site has launched. Instead of showing a blank page as you’re developing your site, you can display AdSense units on pages that contain no content at all. These sorts of pages aren’t going to have a great deal of traffic (and Google won’t allow you to market an empty page) but it can be a useful net to help you catch visitors to a defunct domain or a work in progress.
If all that isn’t enough, AdSense for mobile applications lets developers of Android and iPhone apps place ad units in their programs ; AdSense for TV provides a way for television companies to place ads in the shows they put on the Web; AdSense for video monetizes video clips; and AdSense for games lets programmers earn money from ads in browser-based games.
Those last four types are available only to “qualified publishers” rather than to just anyone, but it should be clear that Google has a way to place ads on just about any kind of content someone might want to offer on the Web.
In practice, you’re most likely to find yourself using AdSense for content and to a lesser extent AdSense for search.
There’s little you can do to increase the payments you receive from AdSense for search. You can make sure that the search box is in a prominent place on the page (although users tend to expect to see it in the top right-hand corner), but it’s really best to think of AdSense for search as providing an important service for your users ... that also brings you money. If your users are going to leave and search on Google for their next read, they may as well search from your site so you can earn money if they happen to click on an ad.
It’s in AdSense for content that the real work begins. Google can fill content ad units with text ads, image ads, link units, video ads, and gadget ads. If you remain opted in to receive image, video, and gadget ads, you’ll get them when they’re available and if and when Google thinks you’ll make more money with them than with any other unit. You don’t get to pick and choose. They do look nice on the page, though: You’ll receive a picture or a video—or, if it’s a gadget ad, some sort of souped-up, interactive video—and you’ll probably be paid on a cost-per-mille (CPM), or cost-per-thousand-impressions, basis. These sorts of ads tend to turn up most frequently on sites with lots of traffic.
You can choose to receive link units. The unit in the top left corner on WorldVillage.com is a link unit. These contain a short list of hyperlinked words. When users click the link, they are taken to a page containing the ads. That means that to earn from link units, users have to click twice. But the unit’s small size and flexibility and high click-through rate can make link units great additions to a Web page.
The real workhorses of AdSense for content—and the units most likely to be bringing in the bulk of your site’s revenue, at least at the beginning—are text ads (Figure 3.5).
These come in a dozen different formats, and Google also allows you to play with the color and the fonts, which means that you have to do some thinking.
Figure 3.5Just some of the 12 different formats for text units. There are also 12 different kinds of link units.
The formats you choose, where you place them, and how they look will all determine how much money you earn. Those choices can make the difference between earning pennies per day and making hundreds of dollars per day. It really is that important.
There are some general rules, and Google provides some basic strategies. On the whole, wide formats do better than narrow formats, and the 336 x 280 large rectangle, the 300 x 250 medium rectangle, and the 160 x 600 wide skyscraper are said to be particularly effective.
I wouldn’t want to get that specific. Instead, rather than say which formats are best, it’s smarter to think about which formats are best for you.
AdSense delivers the highest revenues when the units are blended into the page. Users don’t visit a web site to see the ads. They come to see the content, and they’ve now become accustomed to looking around the ads. If they can spot an ad on a page, it’s very easy for them to ignore it and focus on the content.
When you disguise the ads and make them look like content, you’ll get the highest number of clicks. The user will feel that the links are coming directly from you—and are therefore recommended by you, someone they trust and respect. And because the ads are targeted toward the kind of content you serve, the text will fit right into the site.
One way to blend the ads into the page is to
