Smart Pricing: Anything But Smart

If possible, try to avoid Google’s “Smart Pricing” scheme. With Smart Pricing, Google gives advertisers a discount based on how popular or “valuable” their website is. They tend to base this on their site’s click-through rate. So, if your website has a high click-through rate, then the perceived value of your site is high, so the cost per ad click is higher. However, if your clickthrough rate is low, the value of your site is “low,” so you get less money per click. The difference between a site with smart pricing and a site without smart pricing can be anywhere from a couple of cents to several dollars.

Choose large ads:

AdSense ads come in a variety of formats and sizes, so you can tailor the formats to see which works best for your blog or website. Having a good looking ad on your blog or site is important, but keep in mind: large ad sizes have long been proven to pay the best. Maybe this is because the ad is right in the face of any visitor, or maybe it’s because that size can show video ads.

Use multiple ad units to maximize conversion:

An easy way to increase your click-through rate and AdSense earnings is to place ad units of more than one type (AdSense for content, link, and search) and in different sizes on your pages. In this way, your users receive more ads from Google’s large ad inventory, increasing the likelihood that they will end up clicking on one of them. Make sure the best placed ad on your web page appears first in your HTML code. This will ensure that the ads that rank high in the auction take up your most visible ad space, increasing your revenue.

Create an audience before setting up AdSense:

While it can be tempting to set up AdSense on your website right after you’ve published your first piece of content, you need to avoid the temptation if you really want to be successful with AdSense. Filling your website with ads before anyone actually knows about it will likely discourage visitors and consequently make them less likely to share or link to it. This limits your ability to emerge as an authority in your niche.

Consistently post high-quality content:

This really is very important to be successful with AdSense, the other points are just tips to help one way or another, but when it comes to AdSense earnings, content is really the most important thing. To make it simple, if you don’t have traffic, you won’t make money, but more traffic, then you will make more money.

Enable location targeting:

This allows advertisers to include your website in their campaign, either by name or by targeting an interest group. Location targeting should be enabled by default, but if you’re using DFP, you may need to take a few extra steps.

Monitor your success:

No matter what you do with your blog or website, you need to track the success of your ads. If you don’t monitor your ads, you will eventually fail. You’ll be able to pinpoint which ads work and which don’t, and over time you may find that certain ads work better at certain times of the year, while others work better at other times.