By working with an ad network like AdSense, you can spend less time marketing and selling your advertising space and more time focused on creating the best content for your users. Learn more in the AdSense 101 article.
As a site owner, you’ll need pages with unique content that's relevant to your visitors and that provides a great user experience. Before you apply to AdSense, make sure your site's pages are ready by visiting the AdSense Help Center. If you’re ready to turn your #PassionIntoProfit, sign up for AdSense today.
How do I know if I’m eligible to join the AdSense network?
Before applying for an account, make sure that the site you own has been active for at least six months, and complies with the AdSense program policies.
AdSense also works with products such as Blogger and YouTube to allow you to create host partner accounts. To be eligible for a hosted AdSense account via Blogger or YouTube, you must first meet certain eligibility requirements. Learn more about signing up for an AdSense account via YouTube.
How do I monetize my YouTube channel using AdSense?
To start earning money from your video content, you’ll need to apply for an AdSense account to link to your YouTube account. Follow these steps to become eligible to receive payments:
Make sure your YouTube account is enabled for monetization.
If you also have your own non-host site where you’d like to show ads, then you’ll need to submit a one-time application form to tell us the URL of your site (you only need to complete this step if you want to monetize your site, and don’t need to take this action to earn money from your YouTube videos).
Providing that your site is following the AdSense program policies and you’ve completed 5 steps to getting paid, Google will send your first payment the month after your account exceeds $100 in earnings.
How can AdSense help me grow my online business?
AdSense helps you to create a revenue stream from the valuable content you host on your site. AdSense saves you time with a quick and easy setup allowing you to focus on the elements of your business that require your focus.
It’s like an automatic car -- it removes most of the manual adjustments, allowing you to cruise along with less effort. You still need regular “tune ups” to get optimal performance, but you won’t need to shift gears to get from point A to point B.
What is DoubleClick Ad Exchange?
DoubleClick Ad Exchange gives you real-time access to the largest pool of advertisers.The main difference between DoubleClick Ad Exchange and AdSense is that AdSense does a lot of the technical settings and optimization work for you, such as automating the sale of all your ad space to the highest bidder. With DoubleClick Ad Exchange you manage these adjustments yourself, controlling exactly how your inventory is sold.
As an example, DoubleClick Ad Exchange allows you to choose which ad space is for public sale and which is reserved for private auctions. This additional input from you helps you to get the best results from DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
Another important distinction is that through AdSense, demand is primarily from AdWords advertisers, whereas DoubleClick Ad Exchange pulls demand from multiple sources. This means that in addition to AdWords advertisers, you can also access other major ad networks and agencies. Check out the more comprehensive list of differences at our Help Center.
WordPress doesn’t allow advertising on their free hosting plan (WordPress.com). If you’d like to show ads on your WordPress hosted site, then you’ll need to switch to a self-hosted WordPress.org domain. Visit our product forum and learn how to make this switch.
Can I monetize multiple sites under a single AdSense account?
Yes! AdSense allows you to add multiple sites in association to the same account. This will enable you to monitor the inventory on your sites from the same place, saving you valuable time. Here’s how to set up multiple sites on your account:
Enter the URL of the site that you'd like to add (e.g., example.com). If you're unsure which URL to enter, check the section on formatting the URLs of your sites below.
Click Add site.
Your site is added to your site list with a status of "verified".
First, you’ll want to take advantage of the options within Google Search Console to make sure your site is visible for search users. The AdSense Help Center has all the information you’ll need to submit your site for index, diagnose any problems, and identify which keyword queries are driving traffic to your site.
Next, follow the Long-term revenue framework, a tool often used by our AdSense optimization experts, to better understand the four levers that can help you grow and develop your site.
Also, catchy titles are a way of pushing referral traffic from social media platforms, and Brandon Gaille wrote a great guest-blog for us that lays out how to approach naming your content.
Be sure to follow AdSense best practice policies when planning your strategy, to avoid violations on your account. It’s important to know that in order to maintain ad serving on your site and keep an AdSense account active, it's the responsibility of the publisher to keep up to date with, and adhere to, the AdSense program policies.
How do I increase clickthrough rates (CTR) in AdSense?
Please see our recent response to this question on Quora where Symone Gamble shared her best practices.
What are responsive ad units?
Responsive ad units automatically control the size of your ads using a single piece of ad code. They also allow ads to be resized after a screen orientation change. Using a responsive ad unit will allow your site to show the most appropriate ad size according to your user's device, and will help you to maximize your revenue potential. Learn more about how responsive ad units work and then check out how to customize responsive ads to match the style of your site.
Why do I have invalid traffic deductions in my AdSense account?
How do I stop my site getting hacked?
HTTPS protocol ensures your servers are talking to who they are expected to be talking to and the conversation cannot be interrupted by anyone else, and that content cannot be altered in transit.
Make sure your software is up to date: this might seem common sense, but up-to-date software means there are no holes or faults that might make you vulnerable to people with a less than honourable intention.
Passwords: Using safe, secure, and complex passwords will protect the security of your site. Avoid words that contain common words, names of friends, family and pets as these are all easily attainable using social media, leaving yourself at risk. Don’t forget to change your password regularly; set yourself a reminder to change your password every few months.
What can I do if a site that I don't own is using my AdSense code?
Since site code is readily available to anyone who inspects your page, it's possible for someone to copy your ad code and paste it on a site you don’t own. In this case, if the ad code ends up on a site that violates the AdSense program policies, your account will receive a policy warning.
To prevent this, site authorization is an optional feature that lets you identify your verified sites as the only sites that are permitted to use your Google ad code.
What are AdSense experiments and how can I run an experiment?
AdSense recently introduced automatic experiments, which allow you to take a back seat as Google runs A/B tests on a small portion of your traffic. To enable the feature, just visit the "Experiments" page on your Optimization tab, and switch on "automatic experiments".
The opportunities generated from these experiments will appear in the “Opportunities” page on your Optimization tab. They'll be labelled "verified by experiment,” so you’ll know they’re backed by data and tailored to your site and users.
Ad balance is the first example of a Lab that's being made available to all publishers. Those of you who had the Show fewer ads lab enabled have been automatically moved over to Ad balance**. Thank you for trying it out!
To learn more about this new feature, please visit the Help Center.
We’d love to hear what you think about Ad balance. Please leave your feedback within your AdSense account by clicking send feedback.
*We don’t guarantee any specific results. And, just as a reminder, you’re responsible for the content and layout of your site. **Find out how you turn this feature on and off and make changes to your settings in the AdSense Help Center.
What separates a website from a brand? Credibility, consistency, and community.
Think of the websites you visit most - chances are they’re updated regularly with content that’s familiar and trustworthy. You can also navigate these sites intuitively, without putting any thought into how you’re consuming the content you love or where the links you’re looking for are positioned.
In this blog, we’ll cover how to effectively measure how well your site is performing, how to use experiments to uncover new insights, and how to lay out your site in a way that engages your readers.
Measure your performance with reports
Only by digging deep into how visitors engage with your site can you identify the roadblocks that may keep them from returning.
To make sure you’re up-to-date with everything you need to know, check the ‘common reports’ tab in your AdSense account dashboard. Focus on the following key areas to analyze your overall account performance.
The reporting dashboard gives you a quick summary of three main reporting metrics: estimated earnings, page views, and revenue per thousand impressions (RPM). It’s a great way to quickly check the overall health of your account.
The entire account by day report helps you analyze daily performance, and gives you a better understanding of why your earnings change over time. If you’ve made recent changes to ad units or placements, then it’s a great way to measure how the adjustments affected click-through rates.
To find this report, visit the Performance reports tab, then Common reports on the left-hand panel, select Ad units and then add Platforms from the top as a secondary dimension.
Use Ad units + Performance to measure your campaign success by device. CTR and Active View Viewable (AVV) are the key metrics to monitor here, with AVV showing you how many of your total measurable impressions were truly viewable. If an ad’s active view percentage is below 50%, then consider placing it in a more prominent area to improve engagement. To learn more about viewability, check out DoubleClick's 5 Factors of Display Viewability.
The Platforms report identifies how ads are performing on different devices. For example, you may find that your ad units are performing better on mobile devices than on desktop (or vice versa). If that’s the case, then measure your web traffic and make sure that your ads are optimized for the devices you receive most traffic from.
If you manage multiple domains within a single account, then use the Sites report to compare performance. The report is especially helpful if you have different mobile and desktop versions of the same site, allowing you to find new ways to optimize UI for consistent experience across devices.
Every website is different, so if there are specific metrics you want to target, then learn how to create your own reports to measure what matters to you.
Use experiments to discover new opportunities
AdSense Experiments split your site traffic into two different ad settings, so you can compare performance and make more informed decisions.
There are three different ways to run experiments on your content:
Design it yourself by choosing the ad setting and variation you’d like to test.
Choose an experiment from an opportunity on your Optimization page.
Use automatic experiments, which allows AdSense to run experiments on a small portion of your web traffic that are tailored to your website.
Experiments can help you to measure the impact of both ad content and ad style on your earnings. Discover whether ‘text only’ or ‘text and display ads’ capture the attention of your audience, and whether or not changing the colors of your ads helps them to blend in.
We recommend allowing automatic experiments on your site, as a time-efficient and easy way to inform your decision-making.
Improve the usability of your site
Great content can get lost when it’s hosted on a website with poor usability. Pages that are slow, needlessly complex, or difficult to navigate are more likely to disrupt your visitors focus and drive them away.
Speed: A recent study by Google found a strong correlation between page speed and key performance indicators like revenue, bounce rate, session duration, and viewability. Web users are impatient when it comes to loading times, and are likely to get frustrated and abandon slow pages.
Finally, use the mobile web speed toolkit for in-depth and tactical recommendations to get your website up to speed.
Scroll: Infinite scroll continues to add new content at the bottom of your page, taking away the need to load new pages.
It’s ideal for publishers that post lengthy articles, tutorials, or slideshows, and works particularly well for websites focused on mobile consumption.
Style: Your website needs to look attractive and consistent across all pages to build immediate trust with new visitors. Focus on two areas: content style and ad style.
For content style, choose a theme, layout, and color scheme, then stick to it. Consistency is key to developing a brand that your readers will grow comfortable and familiar with.
Responsive web design improves UX by maintaining the same look and feel to your site regardless of the device it’s being viewed on.
With ad style, the first thing to consider is how they will affect the flow of content on your site. Placing ads at natural breaks in your narrative, or in areas where the user’s attention may have waned, can improve UX and may encourage a higher CTR (click-through rate).
When placing ads, take some time to consider your options. Responsive ads automatically adapt to your user’s screen size, while native ads and matched content may help you unlock new ad revenue.
Simple: The best digital content is scannable, snappy, and intuitive. By focusing on simplicity, you’re removing the roadblocks that potentially stop users from enjoying your content.
Here’s some tips to make sure your site is as easy as possible to engage with: