Monetizing your website with ads is a great choice if you set your prices right. Learn our ultimate guide to know how to charge from advertising on your website.

How Much Does It Cost to Advertise On A Website In General?

Advertising spending is different for every business, but ‌you would expect a small business to spend less money on advertising than large enterprises. The global digital advertising market in 2022 will be worth $602.25 billion.

On average, businesses can invest anywhere between $584 to $10,000 a month in a digital campaign, depending on their goals and company size.

For Small Businesses

A 2021 survey among small businesses in the U.S. showed that 45% of respondents paid for digital advertising.

• Average spending in digital advertising for small businesses – $584 monthly

For Medium Sized Businesses

Much of the digital campaign costs will depend on the cost model you choose. Paying with a Pay-per-Click model can be less expensive than CPM models. A common rule is calculating your advertising budget as a percentage of your revenue. Medium B2B companies should spend between 2 and 5% of their revenue on marketing and advertising.

• Average spending in digital advertising for medium businesses  – $1250 monthly

For Large Companies

Large companies have a larger budget for online advertising and can spend an average of $10,000 a month on advertising. 

Global advertising spending will continue to grow; according to Statista, the digital advertising spending projected for 2026 is $876 billion.

As we previously said, much will depend on your network ad pricing model.

Sources: Statista, The Cost of Digital Ads

What Are The Average Online Advertising Costs Per Ad Channel?

Digital ad campaigns can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars per month. Whether you use Pay-Per-Click advertising, SEO, or Content Marketing, the costs will vary.

PPC

Pay-per-Click pricing depends on several factors. Different industries may have very different cost-per-click rates. For example, insurance and legal ads tend to be the most expensive. The average Cost-per-Click in Google Ads is between $1 and $2 on the search network. In the display network, the cost averages $1. The average CPM is $3.12 per 1000 impressions. 

SEO

SEO services are a cornerstone of digital marketing. After all, if people cannot find your company in search results, all your marketing efforts are useless. SEO services costs’ can vary according to the SEO plan and how the agency prices their services, if by the hour or by the project. The average SEO cost for US Companies is between $150 and $300 an hour. In 2022, most SEO projects will cost between $1500 and $5000. Many companies offer plans that include content creation/writing.

Content marketing

The cost of a content marketing campaign will vary depending on the type of plan, the industry, and the type of content. The rates can go from $2000 for small companies to over $60,000 monthly for enterprise businesses. The rates should include a comprehensive content marketing package comprising a content audit, an inventory of your existing content, analyzing your target audience, and creating a custom content plan and editorial calendar for your business. Agencies often offer these services with an SEO package.

The Average Cost of Website Advertising

As we mentioned above, some niches pay better than others for online advertising. Thus, if your site happens to be in the lucky industries, you have more chances of higher revenue.

What Influences Your Website Ad Rates?

Before getting into pricing models, we should understand that there are features that impact how much can you charge for adverts on your site. Consider that ad rates can vary greatly, from $0.01 to $10 per click.

What makes a website ad-worthy? Well, there are benchmarks your site needs to meet in order to start selling ad space. Each ad network and platform has different requirements for publishers.

The golden rule is that the more value your ad placements bring to advertisers, the more they’ll pay. 

Traffic and reach are two of the most important factors to consider regarding how valuable can be advertising on your site. Here is a list of the most common:

1. Niche

Advertising on your site must make sense for potential clients. That means, they need to see ROI from advertising on your website. The amount you can charge for ads will also depend on your niche. The bidding rate varies greatly according to the industry.

The highest-paid niches are usually legal, finance, and insurance sites. Review and comparison websites are also among the ones with top advertising rates.

2. Traffic

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This is the characteristic ad networks look at first to evaluate a website for its advertising value. The more visits your site has, the more people see the ads placed on it, generating more leads and conversions for the advertiser.

Know your traffic and performance metrics. Check not only the number of visitors but also the number of page views. Track your site’s performance changes to identify hot spots where the activity peaks. But the most important traffic metric you should look for is monthly traffic, how many visitors view the site per month.

Remember that some pages on your website attract more visitors than others. So, a page may make a different number of impressions (thus, money) than another. If a page can contain 4 ads, will make more impressions per page view than another that can only have one ad. Take into account that too many ads can disturb the user experience.

Ad networks and platforms usually have traffic minimums you need to meet in order to qualify for advertising. Once you reach the required number of visitors per month, you can monetize through an ad network, monetization platform, affiliate marketing, or other options. How many visitors should you have? This will depend on your niche and audience. Some will need hundreds of unique daily visitors, and for other companies, the number needs to be close to several thousand.

Potential advertisers want to reach their target audience and expand their reach. So, if the amount of traffic on your website is too low, you should first grow your numbers to become attractive to advertisers.

3. Content

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The quality of the content on your website is the other big factor that influences your rates. Attracting visitors requires publishing quality content consistently. The content should be varied, relevant, and provide value to the user. The more your content is specific to your target, the more value the visitors can get from it, and the more valuable is your website.

Specific topics also increase your site ranking. If your users can find the answer to a specific question on your website, search engine algorithms will rank your site higher. You also have chances of getting a coveted featured snippet. The more unique your content, the more value you provide to users and potential advertisers.

When creating content for your website, consider the buyer journey. Create content that addresses the awareness, consideration, and decision stages. There are certain types of content that are more attractive to advertisers because they have high conversion rates. An example of that is a comparison or review site.

4. Performance

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Your site performance is key for generating a good user experience. There are on-page factors that can affect negatively your site performance. Start by having a clean design and easy navigation. Take care of potential latency problems by ensuring your site and images load quickly. Finally, make sure the site responds to mobile devices.

5. Audience

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Knowing about your audience is critical for a successful website. Pay attention to your audience demographics, interests, and behavior. Factors like age, location, gender, economic activity, or income can give you insights about who are your users and which type of advertisers you may attract. The more information you have about your audience, the better you can target it.

If your site targets your advertisers’ typical clients, chances are that your site will become attractive for companies. After all, your site is where their potential clients hang out or go for

answers.

Pricing Models

There are a few ways you can charge per advertising. The pricing model will depend on your type of website and audience. Does your site provide a lot of exposure? Review and informational sites are included in this category. Maybe your site encourages conversions? Examples of this are e-commerce sites.

Here are the most common pricing models:

CPM – Cost per Mille

You can charge the advertiser per impression. Every time a visitor views the ad, it counts as an impression and it adds to the total bill to the advertiser.

A more popular and simpler way is to charge per thousand impressions. Cost per Mille stands for cost per a thousand impressions. It means how much do you charge advertisers every thousand times an ad gets viewed.

How do you calculate CPM?

CPC – Cost per Click

In this model, the advertiser pays you every time a visitor clicks on their ad. This is a popular method of pricing since it is less risky for advertisers. Depending on the rate, it can be profitable for you as a publisher. The downside of this method is that it is unpredictable since you don’t know how many people will click on the ad.

How do you calculate CPC?

CPA – Cost per Action

This option involves charging advertisers a fee for each specific type of action, like leads or sales. Also called Cost per Acquisition, this method offers a higher reassurance to advertisers because they pay for more concrete results. In this model, you place the ad on your website and get paid only when someone clicks on it and completes the conversion on the advertiser’s website.

The conversion can be registering for an event, purchasing a product, or filling up a form. Usually, publishers get paid a percentage on each conversion that can range from 20% and up. Therefore CPA can be very profitable for publishers. The downside is that you depend on the advertiser making the conversions to get paid.

How do you calculate CPA? 

Flat rate

You can also charge a flat rate to advertisers, for instance, charge a monthly amount. This model can be very predictable since you charge a fixed fee regardless of how the ad performs. However, this pricing model can be risky for advertisers so they may look more into your website performance.

What Are the Most Popular Ad Formats

Besides choosing a pricing model, you should understand what type of ads are you going to place on your website. Tip: Mix different types of ads. Here are the most popular ads formats:

Banner Ads

These are the most popular ads, and you usually see them on top of pages but they can be on almost any place on a page. There can be different sizes too.

There are also vertical banners, called skyscrapers

Banners can also be square, like the ones you see on the side of a webpage.

Video Ads

Video ads are becoming more popular every day. According to a report from eMarketer, marketers will dedicate 28.8% of their budgets to digital video ads by 2024 from 24.9% in 2019.

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Video ads engage and keep the attention of viewers, increasing the time-on-page. However, when videos are too big, they can cause the page to load slower, disrupting the user experience.

Native ads

Native ads are adverts that blend with the page. They are also called contextual ads since they integrate with the text, being similar to the site content. These types of adverts don’t disrupt the user experience but enhance it, by providing value to users.

There are three main types of native advertising:

• In feed/In content – The ads are integrated into the content pieces or social feeds, trying to blend with the original content.

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• Content recommendation ads – Usually displayed alongside editorial content, typically at the end of an article, they feature recommended ads or content.

• Native content ads – Also called branded ads, they display unique content on a publisher’s website.

Interactive ads

Interactive ads encourage viewers’ participation. Interactive advertising can appear in social media, videos, web banners, or display windows. Examples of interactive advertising can be an interactive display, a gamified ad, a contest, or a poll.

Ad sizes according to format:

Choosing the right ad format can be the difference between catching visitors’ attention and missing it.

Keep These Metrics on Track to Attract High Paying Advertisers

Ad viewability

Placing ads on your site is not very useful if they aren’t easily visible. Ad viewability refers to how visible ads are on a website. An ad is considered visible when at least 50% of it shows on the screen for more than one second. This is the standard for measuring an impression.

Ads can lose viewability for several reasons:

1. The site has ad blockers
2. The site is getting bot traffic
3. Poor ad placement
4. The page takes too long to load
5. The ad is below the fold

Also, the position, size, and layout of the ad also can prevent visitors from viewing the ads.

How do you measure viewability? 

Active views are the percentage of the ad’s total impressions that are viewable.

Viewable % = (Viewable Impressions) x 100
Measurable impressions

Reach

Reach is the number of people that are exposed to an ad during a specific time period. There is a difference between impressions and reach. Impressions measure the times a user saw your ad or content. The reach measures the number of unique people that see your ad.

CTR – Click-Through-Rate

This metric measures the number of clicks the ad receives divided by the times the ad is shown.

How do you measure click-through rate?

CTR = Total number of clicks
            Total impressions 

For example, if you have 100 clicks on 2000 impressions, then your CTR should be 5%.

Conversion rate

This metric is calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the number of interactions in the same time period.

For instance, if you had 60 conversions from 1000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 6%.

Conversion rate = total number of conversions
                                Total number of interactions

How Do You Price Advertising On Your Site?

Calculating how much you charge for advertising is the result of a combination of factors you should consider. You should determine a rate that helps meet your monetization goals and at the same time attract high-paying advertisers to your niche. Here is what you should take into account step by step.

1. Determine where are your page hot spots

Use a heatmap to understand where are your visitors looking when they are on your site. Identify the best-performing pages. Using this information, determine the ideal ad placement for your pages.

2. Find what is normal to your industry

As we explained above, the rate of ads can vary greatly for different industries. Check your industry benchmarks to know how much is the CTC/CPC. Then compare the rates on your niche. Some niches pay better than others.

3. Consider your website metrics

Check your CTR on your website. The revenue you’ll get from advertising will depend in great part on how many people click on the ads. Pageviews, CTR, Number of Clicks, and Cost per Conversion, affect the total revenue you can get from advertising. Considering that the average CTR for ads on Google display is $0.58, let’s see an example in the table below:

Tips to Price Advertising on Your Website

• Not all visitors are the same. How much value a visitor is as a lead for your advertiser can influence your rates and pricing. If your site is geared to people buying cars, these potential customers are worth top dollars for your advertisers, therefore, they can spend more to capture them.
• Focus on advertisers with the highest lead value. Your potential for revenue depends on providing quality leads to your advertisers.
• Prevent “banner blindness”. Highly targeted ads can catch user’s attention.
• Your site’s E.A.T also affects your ads. If your site has the expertise, is authoritative and trustworthy, the ad on the site are seeing as trustworthy too.

How much can you earn according to your metrics?

Case 1: Low CTR and low number of clicks

Case 2: High CTR and number of clicks

Here you can see that for the same number of page views when the number of times an ad gets clicked grows, the earning grows.

4. Test by Yourself How Much an Ad on Your Site Is Worth

Now is the time to check whether your online advertising strategy is correct. Once you know your metrics, your audience, defined your rates and type of ads, test your ideas. Start by adding a few advertisers and check the ad performance. This will help you get a more accurate picture of how much an ad on your site is worth to advertisers.

5. Project sales

Projecting how much you might sell from ads can help to get a better idea of how much you should charge. Try to calculate how many ad units you might sell from your site. Calculate how much available space for ads you have on your website.

A good starting point is to look at the ad placement and format. How many ads you can fit on your page without it being cluttered? What is their size and position on the page? Keep in mind to calculate how much of the ad space you will sell through a pay-per-click program and how much you will sell yourself.

6. Look at your competitors

Take a look at what your competitors are charging for advertising. Similar websites that attract the same audience are the obvious choice. Your audience can also give you insights. Check where your target clients are advertising, list the prices per ad size, placement, and frequency.

7. Calculate your CPM

CPM is the cost to reach a thousand views of an ad. As a publisher, you should calculate how much will cost for an advertiser to run an ad a thousand times on your site. Compare your CPM with those of your competitors to see if your need to adjust your rates.

8. Define your minimum rate

How much do you need to charge to make a profit? The first step should be defining what your minimum rate. Analyse your costs and what is the annual profit from advertising you need to make.

Let’s say your business expenses will be $100,000 this year, and you have projected to make $30,000 from sales and other non-advertising income sources. You’ll need to make $70,000 from selling advertising space.  Once you know your profit needs, your competition, and how much is your target audience you can set your own rates. Remember to include any discounts or promotions you will offer.

Why a Monetization Platform Can Be a Solution

A monetization platform gives you the opportunity to tap into the best pricing schemes without the hassle. CodeFuel is a complete monetization platform, where you can leverage search and display ads for your site. The platform bases the ads on high user intent, thus maximizing conversions and optimizing the user experience.Learn more about how to optimize your advertising monetization by contacting us.

FAQ’s About How Much to Charge for Advertising on Your Website

CPM and CPC are pricing options that define how much money an advertiser will pay for an ad campaign on a website. Advertisers bid on ad networks according to these pricing options toon get the best placement for their ads.

As an advertiser, which one should you choose? As a publisher, which option pays better? Here at CodeFuel, we prepared this guide to walk you through the nuts and bolts of CPM vs CPC bidding.

What Is Cost Per Click

For example, if the advertiser’s campaign generates 1,000 clicks at a $3 CPC, you will get paid $3000.

Example for advertisers

Advertising budget: $100

Pricing model: $0.07 CPC

Number of clicks/budget:  ($100/$0.04) = 2500 clicks

Takeaway: You get the number of impressions necessary to reach 3000 clicks regardless of the CTR

What Is Cost Per Mille

For example, if CPM is priced at $2 per thousand impressions and generates 10,000 impressions, the advertiser will pay $20.

Example for advertisers

What’s the Difference Between CPC and CPM?

Since CPM refers to how many times the ad appears on the website, advertisers use this option to build brand visibility. By choosing websites related to their business, brands can drive awareness of their product or service.

The downside of CPM is that the advertiser pays for impressions regardless if they get clicks to their site or not.

CPC refers to how many times visitors click the specific ad. Brands choose this pricing option to drive conversions in the form of website visits or sales. When a visitor clicks on the ad, is taken to the advertiser’s site which pays the cost of that click.

The downside of CPC is that they are fewer impressions. However, the ads are targeted, and the advertiser pays when a user clicks on those ads.

How the Bidding System Works?

Advertisers bid at ad auctions managed by publishers and ad networks like Facebook or Google AdSense. Let’s clarify some basic terms of online advertising auctions:

Ad bid: The bid is how much an advertiser proposes to pay for an ad published in a network or website.

Ad budget: The budget refers to how much money a company or brand wants to pay for ads for that campaign. 

Why Do Ad Networks Use Auctions to Determine the Ads That Appear on Website Pages?

Networks use the auctions to select the best paying and more relevant ads for a website. In a typical ad auction, advertisers state the price they wish to pay for clicks on ads or impressions served in publishers or platform pages.

• Related content: Top Ad Networks for 2021

The auction ranks advertisers according to their bid and (in the case of Google Adsense, the quality score). Then, the platform assigns the ad unit to the highest bidder. Therefore, publishers get high-paying ads and brands get their ads placed on relevant sites.

• Related content:  how to make money from Google AdSense

Cost Per Click (CPC) Bidding

In this model, the advertiser only pays if someone clicks on one of their ads. Usually, brands use the CPC bidding model when working with search ads as it increases conversions. CPC bids are ranked according to Click-Through-Rate, Quality Score, and other factors.

You have two main options for ad bidding:

• Automatic Bidding

In this option, you set a budget for how much you are willing to pay. The ad network then presents you with as many clicks they can offer for your budget. Some networks let you set a maximum cost per click so you can control your costs.

Automatic bidding can save you time and allow you to plan your budget. If you use this option, we recommend you set a maximum CPC. 

• Manual Bidding

In this option, you can control your maximum bids. For example, you can set what is the maximum you want to pay, be it per group, keyword or placement.

This option gives you more control over how much you spend per click. The downside is that it can be time-consuming. 

Cost per Thousand (“Mille”) Impressions (CPM) Bidding

This bidding model is more common for advertisers looking for Display ads. As we mentioned before, Cost per Mille helps you increase your brand awareness.

The advantage is that display ad bidding focus on the price. Therefore, the highest bidder ranks at number one. The downside of this method is that you can pay for a thousand impressions, but those impressions result in zero clicks. 

When CPM Is Your Best Option

CPM is the best option when your goal is to make your brand known. It is the best choice to maximize your exposure and engage your audience for the awareness state.

When CPC Is Your Best Option

A CPC model is better to encourage conversions or acquisitions. This helps you maximize your ROI.

CPC and CPM Pricing for Publishers

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We explored CPC and CPM models for advertisers but how does it work for publishers?

CPC vs CPM for Programmatic Advertising

Choosing CPC or CPM model will depend on the goal of the advertiser for the specific campaign. However, for programmatic advertising CPM offers some advantages:

• Reduced risk of ad fraud: Models like CPC and CPA can be subject to fraud like click-injection and click-spamming. Because CPM focus on the times the ad is viewed, it doesn’t offer so many incentives to fraudsters.

• Cost-efficiency: CPM, especially dynamic CPM, allows marketers to automate their bidding budget so they can control the advertising budget.

CPM vs CPC Bidding by Platform

Every platform has a different model for ad bidding, let’s take a look at the most popular:

Facebook

Facebook gives you two tiers for pricing options consisting of four internal options:

• If you want to use the CPA (Cost per action) model, you should choose: “Ad result/ Website Conversions”.
• CPL (Cost per Like) is only available if you choose: ”Ad results/ Page likes”.

• Facebook offers CPC as a default option for bidding. This option is good for the beginning if you are a small business.

Google

• Google AdSense allows advertisers to bid according to the following types: CPC, CPM, Active View (cost per 1000 visible impressions),and CPE (Cost per engagement) 
• Advertisers participate in an ad auction through which AdWords selects which ads will appear in what order and placement.
• Besides CPC and CPM, advertisers can bid per Active View CPM. Meaning, the percentage of viewable impressions. What’s a viewable impression? When at least 50% of the ad is visible in the visitor’s browser window and the ad was viewed longer than a second.
• Google AdSense also allows advertisers to bid according to the cost per engagement. The engagement action is defined by the advertisers. In this type of bidding the advertiser pays when the visitor interacts with the ad in a predefined way. Examples may include hovering over the ads for a certain length of time, taking a poll, starting a video ad, signing up for a newsletter.

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is the platform most used by  B2B advertisers. But there are a number of LinkedIn bidding options, including Enhanced CPC and CPM.
• Enhanced CPC is billed on a per-click basis, therefore it gives you more control over the performance of the ad.

eCPC Bid = Historical Conversion Rate * CPA Goal 

• Implementing a CPM bid works better when the CTR is above LinkedIn’s average (>1%) resulting in more impressions and clicks.
• On LinkedIn, you can opt for automatic or manual bidding. However, manual bidding is better on this platform because CPC on LinkedIn correlates with the CPC bid itself. In LinkedIn automatic bidding you get charged on an impression basis.

Instagram

• For Instagram, CPC ads are more consistent, since you know exactly how much you pay per click and can manage your budget around it. CPC is better in the Instagram context when you want to reach a specific number of clicks. The Instagram algorithm will then show your ads to the users more likely to click.
• If you don’t have a large followers base, then CPM can help you perform better. If you know our audience, you can test your ad visibility by running a specific number of impressions. CPM works great to A/B test Instagram ads.

FAQ’s About CPC and CPM

1. Which is better? CPC or CPM?

If you are an advertiser, the pricing model you choose will depend on your campaign goals. If your campaign goal is to ramp up conversions and generate actions, then the CPC model is more effective. If you want to increase your brand awareness, then the CPM model works best.

2. How do publishers get paid on an ad exchange?

Ad exchange publishers are paid based on a metric called “effective Cost per Mille” (effective cost per thousand impressions). This rate measures the ad revenue of a campaign per the number of impressions.

3. How do you calculate eCPM?

4. What is CPA?

This model involves paying every time a user takes an action, for example, a purchase, on a website after clicking the ad.

5. What is CPCustomer?

Some platforms allow companies to calculate the cost of acquiring a customer. While CPA tracks how much it costs you to get a customer to do the first action if the action is not a purchase you need to add another variable.

How CodeFuel helps Reduce your Costs

CodeFuel is a complete monetization solution that leverages search, ads, and news monetization options. CodeFuel allows advertisers and publishers to manage the costs by balancing different monetization channels, such as contextual advertising, display and search ads.

CodeFuel helps you get the most for your bid and reduce advertising costs. For publishers, the holistic monetization solution allows them to maximize their ad revenue while enhancing the user experience.

Learn how you can manage your advertising costs the smart way today. Contact us.

Your website can generate money outside your core business. After all, your digital real estate is worth money. If you wonder how you make money from publishing ads on your site, this article is for you. At CodeFuel, we constantly innovate and bring solutions to increase revenue for publishers. This post will give you an overview and tactics to make money with Google AdSense. Let’s begin.

What is Google Adsense in short?

To put it simple, Google Adsense is an ad network that enables publishers to monetize their content by displaying ads. It works programmatically, which means the ads are automatically selected according to a bidding system.

How does Google Adsense Work?

Google AdSense is a Google product that enables publishers to earn money by displaying ads on their websites, blogs, or YouTube videos. You get paid by Google when a visitor clicks on the ad or based on ad impressions, according to the type of ad.

The advertisements can be text, images, video, or interactive media. These ads are selected by an automated ad auction system. The auction selects the highest bidder among bidding users of Google AdWords.

Google selects the ads for your site by using different types of targeting:

• Contextual targeting – they analyze the keywords used, the word frequency, and link structure to determine the webpage context and match the ads to it.
• Placement targeting – this allows advertisers to choose where they want their ad to appear. These ads are selected by advertisers who think your site can be a match for their target audience.
• Personalized targeting – advertisers can select sites that cater to a specific category, for example (musical theater lovers).
• Run of Network targeting – this selection includes all sites in the AdSense network, but the explicitly excluded sites.

(Google)

Why does Google use an auction to select the ads? 

Advertisers on the Google Display Network bid to show their ads on AdSense. The ad auction ranks advertisers according to the bid and their Quality Score. Therefore, you get the advertisers who are willing to pay the most and have good quality.

Learn more about how Google AdSense works in this video:

How to Build a Passive Income Stream with Google AdSense

If you have a website with regular traffic, you can create passive income by selling ad space through AdSense. You don’t need to create a product or contact buyers directly because AdSense matches ads to your site based on its content and audience. 

AdSense in four simple steps:

1. You sign up for Google AdSense and create an account.
2. You make your spaces available by adding the code to your website or YouTube video. Advertisers bid to display their ads on your digital property via a real-time auction.
3. The highest paying ad wins the bid and displays on the selected space on your website.
4. You get paid for the ad clicks or impressions your website visitors generate.

Why is Google AdSense a good way to earn passive income? 

• You leverage your existing website or YouTube channel
• You don’t need to create ads or promote anything yourself.
• The earnings will keep coming as long as you keep creating great content and driving traffic to your site. 

The average CPC in Google Ads is between $1 and $2. So, let’s calculate: 

Let’s say you have three ads displayed on your site: 

Ad A got 500 clicks = 500 * $1.5 =  750

Ad B got 1000 clicks – 1000 * $1.5 = 1500

Ad C got 250 clicks – 250 * $1.5 = 375

This is the amount the advertisers pay Google over the clicks.

From that amount, the publisher keeps a 68% according to Google. 

So let’s do the math:

• 750 *68% =     510 +
• 1500 *68% = 1020
• 375 *68% =     255/1785

Are There Any Requirements for an AdSense Account? How do I apply? 

Google selects the sites that qualify for an AdSense account according to 12 eligibility criteria about you and your site:

You: 

1. You must be over 18 years of age
2. You must be the owner of your site and control it.
3. You can’t use means that generate fake traffic

Your site:

4. The content on your site must be unique and interesting
5. The content must comply with Google Content Policies 
6. If your site is inside a host partner, like Blogger or YouTube, you can apply for Google AdSense, but there are other eligibility criteria you need to meet.
7.  The site must have clear navigation
8. You cannot publish plagiarized content
9. Your site should be at least six months old
10. You need enough traffic.
11. A site with a history of abusive experiences (fake messages, misleading practices) cannot apply.

Does it take long to get approved?

The time it takes for an account to be approved varies. Some sites get approved in 24 hours while others may take up to two weeks for approval.

• The first thing you need to do is to verify your Google Account and your website ownership.
• Please take in mind to fix any issues your site may have about the content, navigation, SEO, or traffic before you send your application. 

Types of Adsense ads

What types of ads are right for your site? Google AdSense provides a variety of ad types for you to choose from: 

1. Text ads

These are the ads in the form of simple text that often appear when you are searching for something in Google. They have a title, a short description, and a link going to the site. These ads can appear on your website or in Google searches.

For example, a search for women’s boots showed me two text ads from online retailers:  

2. Display ads

These are the ads that you see typically displayed on web pages. Here are the basic three formats:

Horizontal

Banner

Vertical

Skyscraper

Wide skyscraper

Square

• 250×250

Small square (200 x 200) 

4. Rich Media Ads

These interactive advertisements can be in image format, video or Html. There are three types of ads:

Dynamic image ads

These consist of animated text that appears when the user scrolls down the page. You can choose the size and type: vertical, horizontal, and square.

Video ads

This type of ads are presented by Google in several ad types:

Standard: non-skippable ads up to 20 seconds. This can appear in pre-roll, midroll, and post-roll slots.

TrueView:  these ads let the user skip the video after 5 seconds. They can appear in the preroll and mid-roll positions, but require compliance to additional policies.

Creating Your First Ad Unit

What’s an Ad unit? One or more Google ads are the result of one piece of the AdSense ad code. Users can create, manage, and customize the ad units on their AdSense account. There are different types of ad units: 

• Display ads – responsive and customizable.
• In-feed – native ads that show inside a feed.
• In – article – native ads that present between sections of an article.
• Matched content  – ads that promote the content to visitors.
• Link – presents relevant links that complement the content of the page.

So, how do you create your first ad unit? Let’s see

First, you need to sign in to your AdSense account and go to the Ads page. From your overview page, select the option by ad unit and Display ads. Give your unit a name so you can find it later.

You can select several options for your ad unit:

• You can select the size
• You can select if you want it to be responsive (we recommend you do!)

Once you save, you will get the code to copy and paste in the tags of your pages. If you are not sure how to do this, check Google’s code implementation guide. Click Done, and in a few minutes the ads will be on the page.

How to Earn Money From Google Ads?

Learning to make money advertising with Google Adsense may seem a challenge for beginners. You can display Google Ads on your website or your YouTube channel.

Here is a list of the top 10 tips to make money with AdSense:

• Your website’s focus shouldn’t be on the ads. Ensure your website enhances the user experience and doesn’t look like you made it for AdSense. Of course, you want to monetize your website. But if you focus on delivering great content, the ads will add value to the site instead of cluttering it.
• Improve your site’s loading time. Faster websites increase conversions. Several methods to optimize your site include reducing the number of images, optimizing the size and format, optimizing the cache, and reducing HTTP requests.
• Be consistent when publishing content. While the frequency of your publishing will depend on the type of your website, you must publish consistently. Publishing new content attracts more visits to your website, which can translate into more AdSense clicks.
• Choose the ad placement wisely. Where you place the ads can make all the difference in clicks and earnings. While it is better to have the ads above the fold, you should be careful not to clutter the space with too many ads. Google is punishing websites that show too many ads above the fold.
• Use responsive ads First, it is better if you have a responsive website. That way your visitors can find you on desktop and on mobile. Once you made your website responsive, you can add Responsive AdSense units. With Responsive AdSense units, AdSense will serve the ad that best fits the available ad space in size and type.
• Not all niches pay the same. Some industries will pay more for their ads than others. When you monetize with AdSense, there are two key factors to consider: the level of competition in your desired niche and how much you can earn from it. Big niches such as consumer goods, insurance, and finance compete hard. Some niches, such as Beauty, Health, Fashion, and Hobbies, offer innumerable smaller niches that can be profitable.
• Standardize your ad sizes. When you set up the ads, you should use the sizes AdSense recommends as the most popular. The 728×90, 336 x280, and 300 x250 sizes have more demand.
• A/B Test the ads. AdSense Experiment is a feature where you can test different versions of the same ad and check its performance. You may test different borders, colors, and formats. After a few days, you can see which one performed better.
• Improve your AdSense Referrers. When you enter your Google Analytics account, you can check which referrers are generating AdSense revenue and invest more marketing efforts in them. For instance, you can get visitors from social media platforms to your website.
• Follow the AdSense guidelines. Whatever you do to increase your AdSense earnings, don’t violate any AdSense guidelines. The full guidelines are here, but some highlights may include buying clicks or traffic, hiding ads, or inappropriate content surrounding the ads.

What kind of websites work better for displaying Google Ads? 

According to Google: blogs, news sites, forums and niche social networks, are the best options. Your website should comply with Google AdSense guidelines about appropriate content and traffic. While there is no minimum traffic threshold you need to meet, if you want to make money, you need decent traffic.

Using different ad formats is also important if you want to keep the attention of your visitors. If you have a YouTube channel, you can also leverage ads and monetize your videos.

How Much Can You Earn by Using AdSense?

It depends on the competition and Cost per Click (CPC) of your niche. Google pays you per every click on your ads, but it takes a commission.

Generally speaking, publishers get 68%, or 51% when using AdSense for reach. Depending on the niche, the commission can go from $0.20 to $15, with an average of $3 per click for publishers.

Here are the most profitable niches in the US for 2021

Sources: SEMRUSH, Ahref. 

How do you get paid? 

Once you get your AdSense account and your ad units up and running, you should start getting payments from Google every month. Google pays you every month your earnings reach or are over $100. The company pays you directly, depositing to your bank account or via check (where available).

What happens if you don’t reach $100 in earnings one month? The earnings accumulate until you do.

How to check Adsense earnings? 

Where can you see how much did you earn with AdSense? You can see the earnings in your homepage of your account. AdSense displays estimated earnings and finalized earnings.

Let’s explain the terms: 

• Estimated earnings: a ballpark idea of how much you’ll be going to earn according to your account activity this month so far.
• Balance: Your earnings that have not yet been paid and it also shows the most recent payment.
• Transactions: Here you can find the finalized earnings, what you will actually receive.

Keep in mind YouTube earnings have a different homepage. Here is how to see the earnings of your YouTube channel:

• Go to YouTube analytics
•  Check the revenue tab

The key metrics card shows the estimated revenue. You can also see which videos are performing well and earning more money.

How Much Does Adsense Pay Per 1000 Views or Visitors?

This will hugely depend on your niche, and your content. As a range, Google AdSense pays from $0.2 to $0.25 per pageviews.

Here are some examples of earnings on sites targeting North America (Tier 1):

How much do you earn will depend of your zone, (Tier1 websites earn more than others), and your site’s category. Check the AdSense calculator to know more. 

The average Cost per Mille that you receive from your content can be $4 to $6 per 1000 views in developing countries.

Pros and Cons of Monetizing with Google AdSense 

9 Tips for Making Money With Adsense (And What Not to Do!)

Having steady earnings with AdSense requires a strategy and following the rules. Whether you are new or already have an account and want to increase your AdSense Ad Revenue, here’s what you should and shouldn’t do when monetizing your site with AdSense: 

• Follow Google policies: read and follow the Google Publisher policies, AdSense program policies, as well as webmaster policies.
• Don’t click on your own ads
• Don’t pay per click: giving incentives for clicks, buying Pay Per Click (PPC) space or any other way to give rewards for clicks is against Google policies.
• Provide valuable content: giving your target audience content they want to read ultimately leads to them clicking on the ads and making money.
• Build organic traffic: optimize for SEO, optimize the content to attract organic traffic.
• Make sure your site is responsive: let your target find you where they are.
• Optimize the layout and format of the ad: having ads above the fold test ad types and placement, have a leaderboard ad next to your logo.
• Use in-content ads: native ads that blend with the content has a higher chance to be seen and clicked on.
• Monitor, analyze, refine: check your results and tweak your strategy accordingly.

Alternatives to AdSense – Other Ad Network Programs

Although AdSense can be a great option to monetize your site, it is not the only way. In fact, there may be other monetization alternatives that are better for your site:

• CodeFuel – our complete platform increases your revenue by engaging searches, text ads, shopping ads, and news on your website, blog, or search page.
• Affiliate Marketing – these kinds of programs work when someone clicks on a link on your page. They are usually free to add to your website.
• Sponsors – to attract sponsors, you need to have a decent amount of traffic and influence with your audience. You can get your entire site or a single page sponsored.
• Sell your product or service – you can always sell your product, merchandise services.

Mind-blowing Google Advertising Stats

• 38.8 million websites use Adsense (Google)
• Google Ads is the biggest provider of search advertising on the market
• Online ads increase brand awareness by up to 80%
• 75% of marketers advertise both on Google Ads and Social media 

Which ad sizes are the most popular in Google AdSense? 

It’s a Wrap!

Well, that was a handle!. As you can see from this guide, there are many ways to earn income from a website, both with AdSense and with alternative sources. Keep in mind that most income sources require two key factors: great content and enough traffic to make money. This is where CodeFuel is a good option to monetize your site. 

CodeFuel offers a complete solution to monetize your content, presenting relevant ads in searches, pages, and blogs. The ads increase user engagement and provide a great user experience to your audience. 

Learn more about how to monetize your site with CodeFuel.

FAQs

How much does Google Adsense pay per pageview?

The rate you’ll get from Google AdSense, will depend on the zone your website is registered, where your traffic comes from and your content category. The range can go from $0.2 to $0.25 per pageview. Tier 1 zone websites — with traffic coming from North America, Europe and developed countries—, get a better payout than countries in development.  How does Google Adsense pay in India? 

With a decent amount of traffic, you can expect 800INR per 1000 pageviews on average. It will depend on your niche. Let’s have an example with 50,000 views per month in a food and beverage category. 

Amount of pageviews/month= 50,000

Annual estimated earnings = $7044

How to earn money from Google Adsense without a website?

Websites are not the only thing you can monetize with AdSense. You can also monetize a YouTube channel and incorporate ads to your videos. 

How long does it take to get your AdSense Account Approved?

It usually takes a few days but it can take up to 4 weeks. AdSense send you an email when the account is fully activated. 

How Much You Can Earn With Google AdSense?

This will depend on your traffic and niche, but generally speaking, publishers get 68% of each click. If using AdSense for reach, you get 51% .

If you are looking to improve your monetization results, it is time to look at ad placement. Here at CodeFuel, we prepared this guide to help your company understand what is ad placement, why it is important and how you can use it to get results for your website. Let’s start.

What Is Ad Placement? 

In its simplest definition, ad placement means the group of ad units that specify the areas on the website where advertisers can place their ads. Ad placement criteria include the size, type, and location of the ads. For example, you can find ad placements noted like this: 

• 728×90 (size in pixels) – above main content (location) 
• 300×250 (size in pixels) – in-feed (location)

Each ad network has its own placement criteria. Some offer automatically created placements, others allow publishers to define their own placement criteria.

Types of Ads and Placements

Before going to explore the best ad placements, let’s review the basics of ad types. 

Ads come in several sizes and formats, from full page to small squares. Here are the most common:

Full page

The image below shows the layout chosen by a specific publisher. At the sides, you can see a full page space for placing ads. Full-page ads go above and below the fold, and there are among the most expensive ad types. 

Image source

Half-page

Image source

Half-page ads are usually expensive due to the large space they take. They are used by publications to show sponsors. See this example on the Forbes website:

Credit: Forbes.com

Here, the large ad pops when you start consuming the content relevant to the ad. Sometimes large ads can be effective on social media platforms, like this on YouTube.  

Image source

Banner ads

These are the ads you can see usually displayed on web pages. They often appear in the side, top, or bottom sections of websites. Publishers broker their ad space with ad networks or you can buy the ad space as you’ll do in a newspaper. 

They can be horizontal:

Or vertical, that is also called a skyscraper:

Large square

These are usually found at the sides of SERP or website pages: 

Image Source

Small Square

These small 200×200 pixels can help your audience remember a product related to previous searches or relevant to the content: 

They are often found at the sides or also below the fold.

Ad Layout and Placement

Well, now that we explained ad types, it is time we talk about ad layout or ad placement. 

There are two key terms you need to know when considering where to place your ads: above the fold and below the fold. 

Image source

Above the Fold (AF)

This is the part of the webpage that is first displayed to the viewer, without the need to scroll down. Since this part of the page is what the user sees right away, is considered one of the most expensive ad spaces.

• Another example of above the fold placement:

Below the fold (BF)

Placing ads below the fold may seem unproductive, but in reality, it can be a cost-effective way to catch your user’s attention. As the viewer consumes the content, you can place the ads to complement it based on previous searches. Here’s an example: 

Video ads

Studies show that three quarters of consumers prefer video to static ads. Video advertising involves creating short videos promoting a product or service, played on a website, inside an application, or before, during or after a main video. Audiovisual pieces help tell a story better, improve conversions, and expand the reach. 

Most platforms play videos automatically when different percentages of the video are visible on screen. Amazon, for example, requires the video to be 50% visible on the screen before playing it. For Google platforms, the video ad is considered viewable when 50% of the ad is visible on the screen.

Take, for example, this campaign encouraging people to visit Iceland: 

This campaign uses humor to advertise the natural beauty of Iceland. The results are clear, in its first week was viewed by more than 6 million people.

Social media ads

Advertising in social media has the advantage of being a direct way to reach the target audience. All social networks offer ad placements. Every social media platform has their own ad requirements and offers. 

Which one should you use? It depends on where does your target group hangs out. 

If your target is teenagers, TikTok is a sure bet. If 40 something, Facebook is where to find them. Let’s review a couple of examples: 

Facebook 

• Three different types of campaigns: awareness, consideration or conversion.
• The platform offers detailed targeting options
• If placing video ads, Facebook allows to place video ads inside other videos
• Facebook stories ads are a great format for limited time offers
• Photo, video, carousel, stories, playable ad types
• Since Facebook owns Instagram, the categories on it are similar.

Instagram 

• Same ad categories as Facebook
• Audience: Millennials and Generation Z
• Custom targeting options
• Photo, video, carousel, reel, stories and collection ad types.

 Source: Instagram

What is Meta ad placement? 

Since Facebook is now Meta, their ad placement rules changed a bit. 

Here is an overview:

• Ads can appear on the Facebook or Instagram feed, in Facebook marketplace or video feeds. The ads can also appear in the right column of desktop Facebook.
• When someone taps on a business post header, the ad may appear on Facebook Business Explore.
• Similarly, ads can be placed on Instagram Explore

Learn more on the Meta Business Help Center

Why Is Ad Placement Important?

When planning an online campaign, advertisers usually focus on how captivating and catchy the ad is, but where the ad will be displayed is as much important. After all, the ad can be great, but if it is not in the right place, chances are your audience won’t see it. Ad placement can effectively make or break a campaign. 

For publishers, designing your website to position your available ad space right, is even more important than choosing the size of the ads. Your site should offer spaces that are attractive to advertisers. If your ad space is hidden below the fold or tucked in a corner of the page, advertisers will not bid for your space. 

Therefore, above the fold, or positions that require minimal scrolling are the best.

Even more important, if viewers cannot easily access the ads on your site, this can bring down your Click-Through-Rate, affecting your monetization income.

What is Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and why it is critical for a publishing website? 

Click-Through-Rate calculates how many people actually click on your ad (clicks) per the number of people that view the ad (impressions).

This is the formula:

CTR = (Total clicks on Ad) / (Total Impressions) 

CTR is critical for publishers because a higher click on your ad means it is performing well and appealing to the advertiser’s audience. This can establish your position as a publisher and earn you better advertising bids. 

One of the ways you can increase the CTR for your ads is by using display ads on your page. Here are some reasons display ads can help increase CTR:

• They include images and media- being more catchy and attractive for viewers.
• They boost brand awareness– helping the audience to familiarize themselves with the advertiser’s brand.
• They are less expensive than traditional advertising.

How Do You Find the Best Ad Placement on Your Website? 

Finding the best place for ads on your website requires to know well two key factors: your website and your audience. You need to find where your viewers like to hang out on your website, check the number of visitors and where they come from.

1. Prepare the tools

You will need some basic tools to work with:

Analytics or SEO tool: to monitor and analyze the traffic and audience. The analytics can tell you where your traffic is coming from, what devices your visitors use most, demographics, and similar data. 

Heatmap: heatmaps became really popular in recent years as a way to detect which parts of the website are the most attractive for viewers. Heatmaps collect the data from a webpage displaying which content of the web page is clicked more or gets more attention. Heatmaps can tell you on which areas of your page where viewers clicked the most, and how far the viewers scroll down. For example, see this heatmap of a Facebook page: 

Image source

Ad Manager: An ad management tool can help track how much exactly you are earning on your inventory. You can know how much each ad size or type makes.

2. Understand your audience

Once you have your tools ready, start by analyzing your audience. Use analytics to understand which country your traffic is coming from. So you can explore what ad placement is popular with advertisers in the most popular areas and focus your ad placement on that.[ADD GOOGLE ANALYTICS SCREENSHOT] This can also help you discard which pages are getting less traffic and improve them.

3. Check ad viewability

Viewability rate checks how many of the ads on your website get viewed. Placing ads on a website doesn’t mean your audience is actually going to see them. Publishers that have a high viewability score are considered to have high-value inventory. These high-level publishers usually get higher bids from advertisers because their ads will be seen. 

How do you measure ad viewability? Google considers as viewable a display ad that is on view for at least a second (even if they are 50% in view). The same about video ads, but it requires two seconds to be considered as viewable. These are the “Active Views” you see in the analytics. 

How do you improve ad viewability?

• Test ad layouts, sizes, and placements.
• Check your page load speed.
• Optimize your site for mobile.
• Test how the ads work on different channels.
  

  4. Evaluate past ads performance

  Start with what you have. Review the performance of the existing placements in terms of viewability, CTR, and revenue generation. Keep what is working and rework what is not. Use the findings as a base for further testing.

  5. Keep testing

  Try different layouts, above/below the fold. Experiment with A/B testing. Try different types of ads, display, rich media, video until you find which combination works better for the highest engagement according to the heatmap.

  6. Let Our Experts Help You With The Process

  All these trying and experimenting can be time-consuming and overwhelming when doing it yourself. Using the help of experts like CodeFuel can save you time and money by automatically choosing the best placement for display ads. 

  – Do you need any help? Our monetization experts are happy to help.

How Do You Find the Best Ad Placement on Your App? 

One of the most popular app monetization strategies is In-App advertising. Unlike mobile web as these ads appear when a person is using the app. You can place display ads, banners, or video ads. 

Whatever type of ad you want to display, first you should optimize your app for ad placement. Think about monetization right from the start. When designing your app, think about what monetization model you will choose. If you’ll include in-app advertising, show it in the interface. There are two main criteria for in-app advertising optimization: 

Optimize for viewability: When choosing the ad format to display on your app, take into account the size of the ad vs the size of the screen. Small banner ads are likely to be too small for a user to view. 

When designing the UX of your app, think about where the ads have a greater chance to be viewed. 

Image Source

Optimizing for Revenue: That means, optimizing to get as many clicks as possible. 

Check your revenue model first, and classify the ads according to how the advertisers pay – per click, per conversion, or impression. Many advertisers pay per click. 

You can learn more about models in our guide to monetization metrics: What Is and How to Increase Your Page RPM?

How Advertisers Decide Where to Place Ads

Advertisers want to place ads on websites where they can get good returns for their money. Therefore, there are a few factors they consider when choosing where to place an ad:

How Does it Work When Working With an Ad Network? 

Companies that use Google AdSense and other ad networks like CodeFuel, don’t have to worry about choosing the ads manually. Monetization networks match advertisers with publishers, choosing the best websites for the companies and the most relevant ads for the websites

You can learn more about monetization with AdSense in our guide: How to Make Money with Google AdSense

How to Make the Most of Ad Placement on Your Website?

Consider your visitors’ user experience. Think about what the user is trying to do by visiting your site. Use the heatmaps to discover the customer journey, what does the user do when is visiting a particular page, where they focus their attention.

Once you define the area that catches most of the attention of visitors, think about how you can incorporate ads on this area without disrupting the user experience. The key here is to think like a user.

The ads should be easy to identify as such. Avoid misleading users with images and content that make it difficult to tell if it’s an ad or not. Label ads properly.

Keep your site looking clean and not ad-cluttered. Sometimes less is more with ads. Take into account balancing the size and quantity of the ads.

Look at your site for user experience. Check if your content provides value, if it is easy to find. Evaluate if your content is easy to differentiate from your ads or sponsored content.

What is An Example Of A Managed Placement?

A managed placement is a type of ad placement that can give advertisers a bit more control. The advertiser can define the placement criteria for their ads based on relevancy to their business. For instance, an advertiser may determine the ad can appear on “Display Network Only“ campaigns, “Search Network with Display Select” campaigns or “Video” campaigns.

An example of a poorly managed placement would involve inserting an ad for candies in a health blog talking about the dangers of sugar consumption.

Advertisers can ensure this won’t happen by optimizing placements not only by keywords, but also by using contextual ads. Contextual ads take into account the relevancy of the whole content where the ad is placed.

Tips for Ad Placements to Get Results

Multisize ads placements

Leverage multiples ad sizes to maximize returns on your pages. Different types of advertisers require different formats. Add video, rich media, display and in-feed ads so you can offer a mix that can work for several advertisers.

Sticky ads

These clever ads stay afloat when a user is viewing your webpage. They have the advantage of increasing ad viewability, resulting in a higher yield. However, not all networks allow sticky ads.

Ad refresh

These ads generate more revenue by refreshing ads on a page as long as the users are active, based on triggers. This increases the number of impressions and the chance of the viewer clicking through the ad.

Lazy loading

This feature enables ads to serve only when after a certain trigger, for example, when scrolling down. This makes the website easier to load, enhancing the user experience.

Let CodeFuel Experts Place The Ads For You

To get the most of your ad placement, you can follow the tips we presented in this article. However, this requires a bit of time and skill. Moreover, you have to analyze and research your user intent for every campaign. Here is where an intent-based ad solution like CodeFuel comes to help.  You can enrich your website with display ads, text ads, and news that are specifically relevant to your audience, and match its intent every time. Learn more about how high-intent ads result on high-intent visitors. Contact us.