Running AdSense on Existing

Most AdSense publishers incorporate the program into existing Web sites to
generate extra revenue. As long as the site qualifies according to Google’s
standards of professionalism, implementing AdSense takes no more than a
few minutes.
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AdSense is such a good deal that a question naturally arises: How about creating
sites specifically as additions to the AdSense network? In other words,
does Google allow Web pages that were created exclusively to display
AdSense ads? The answer is twofold:
 Officially, no
 Practically, yes
I’m not advising any attempts to fool Google. The best answer to this question
is complex. Google forbids pages whose only or main purpose is to display
AdSense ads. Those lame business attempts are cut out of the system
with alacrity. However, the motivation for creating a Web site isn’t really the
point. Google doesn’t interview Webmasters and doesn’t try to discern why
a page was created. Google cares about results, and the results it most cares
about are relevancy, user experience, and value for its advertisers. When
examining sites for eligibility in the AdSense program (and such examinations
are human processes, not automated ones), Google looks for solid content
enhanced by ads — not ads enhanced by scraps of content.
Whether you start a site with the intent of monetizing it with AdSense, or start
it with other business plans and incorporate AdSense as a supplement to your
main strategy, you should construct the resulting Web site according to the
same principles. Optimization, PageRank, relevancy, and usability are the
foundation stones of Google-related success no matter which part of Google
you angle into first. Build a site dedicated to AdSense revenue if you like, but
it won’t work to slap up a few bare-bones pages and throw AdSense ads onto
them. You’ll probably be kicked out, and even if you aren’t, you won’t make
any money. Build your content, build your PageRank, start drawing traffic, and
then start your AdSense account and you’ll be fine.
Show Me the Money
I vowed to never use a movie tagline as a section header. How depressing.
Okay, I’m over it.
When contemplating AdSense revenue, two questions naturally come to
mind:
 How much can a Webmaster make?
 What percentage of clickthrough revenue does Google pass on to
AdSense Webmasters?
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The answer to the first question is all over the map. Revenue levels depend
on site traffic, ad relevancy, clickthrough rates, and the value of the keywords
associated with the ads displayed on your site. Read the AdWords chapters
for a detailed tutorial — for now, just know that AdWords advertisers bid for
placement on Google pages by offering to pay certain maximum amounts on
each keyword they assign to their ads. Some keywords are far more valuable
than others.
Because AdSense buttons and banners (which I explain in Chapter 12) display
one, two, four, or five ads, whereas a Google page displays up to ten ads, you’re
hosting ads from the top bidders of the keywords associated with your site and
its ads. You’re sharing revenue from the biggest players and highest rollers.
Still, some ads yield spectacular clickthrough revenue (dollars per click) and
others yield miniscule clickthrough charges (pennies per click).
The second question is unknown. Google doesn’t publicize the revenue split.
Nobody outside the company knows what percentage of a clickthrough goes
to the AdSense Webmaster. Google operates what is probably the only affiliate
program in the industry that refuses to divulge the terms of payment. The
frequency is not a secret: Google pays monthly. But the split is shrouded in
mystery.
Don’t think there isn’t a great deal of grumbling throughout the AdSense community
about this peculiar state of affairs. A tribute to Google’s clout, the company’s
secrecy hasn’t stopped thousands of Webmasters from signing up. My
experience and the consensus of the community lead to the conclusion that
Google is sharing generously at this point. At any rate, right now AdSense provides
worthwhile money to well-trafficked and finely optimized sites.
Working Both Sides of the Fence:
AdSense and AdWords
Here’s another question that ambitious Webmasters and publishers are asking:
Can we run AdSense and AdWords accounts at the same time? Can we run an
AdWords ad to drive traffic to an AdSense site? Or, to phrase this in yet another
fashion, can an AdSense page be the landing page of an AdWords site?
No matter how the question is phrased, the answer is yes. Google allows you
to work AdWords and AdSense in sync. Whether such a tactic is advisable is
another question. On the surface, paying for clickthroughs (in AdWords) to
get clickthroughs (in AdSense) seems futile. But consider the following two
circumstances:
 Pay less for your AdWords ads than you receive for AdSense clickthroughs.
Your AdSense ads represent the highest-bidding advertisers
for certain keywords because lower-bidding advertisers tend not to
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appear on content sites. If you run AdWords ads for those same keywords,
and bid low for them using the Traffic Estimator in AdWords,
chances are good that your ad will be positioned lower on the page, and
run more cheaply, than others. This gambit requires some experimenting,
and the last thing you want is for your own AdWords ad to appear
on your site as an AdSense ad — leading dizzily right back to your site.
 Bid on less valuable keywords leading to the same page. Suppose that
you’ve optimized your page for the keywords coins and coin trading. You
then build an AdWords campaign around more specific and less costly
keyword phrases, such as ancient roman coins. Your ads might not generate
overwhelming traffic, but the traffic won’t be expensive, either. With
your Web page optimally running AdSense ads keyed to more expensive
key concepts (coins and coin trading), your traffic could result in net gain.
In both these scenarios, remember that not every person who clicks through
your AdWords ad to your site will click your AdSense ads. Your AdSense
clickthrough rate might be less than 5 percent. So the differential between
what you’re paying for AdWords and what you’re receiving for AdSense must
be greater than 1-to-20. For example, if you pay only $0.05 per AdWords clickthrough,
you must average $1.00 per AdSense clickthrough to break even.
That’s a tough nut to crack.
Playing AdWords against AdSense is a risky strategy. Because the AdWords
program gives you the flexibility to try out strategies, you might want to
experiment with concurrent AdWords and AdSense usage. But generally, the
purpose of AdWords is to drive traffic that returns the investment in clearer
and more predictable ways. If you want to add AdSense to the revenue mix,
nothing is stopping you. Just remember that an AdSense click takes visitors
away from your site, a result that is at cross-purposes with most conversion
strategies. The best bet might be to place AdSense ads on your post-conversion
page, where you thank visitors for accepting a newsletter, buying a product,
or registering at the site — whatever the target conversion of your
AdWords campaign is.