7 AdSense Strategies You Should Adopt

1.  Make room for the 728×90 banner — if you can

Obviously you don’t want to crowd your site or make it look awkward, but if your experience with this unit size is anything like mine, you may want to consider opening up a spot.

I am now using this banner size on three of my sites: WebsiteBabble.com, Flat-Stomach-Exercises.com and finally this blog.

In all three cases it performs great and the eCPM (earnings per thousand) is higher than the other sizes.  This is the only AdSense unit that has ever performed well on this blog.

Due to the Google terms I am not allowed to disclose my eCPM, but it is significantly higher than my other units.  Understand that a high eCPM doesn’t necessarily mean I’m getting a lot of clicks, but I’m earning more per click compared to other units.

2. Set your channels to “Targetable”

Doing this allows premium advertisers to advertise solely on your site if they wish.  They can outbid all other contextual advertisers and lock down a spot on your site for an indefinite amount of time.  Premium advertisers pay more for this kind of ad, so it means you can earn more per click.

For more details on how to set this all up, watch the video I created last September…

3. Display ads alongside videos

I do this quite often on 2CreateAWebSite.com, and those units usually perform better than any other (even the leaderboard ads).  And if you’re wondering if this is against the terms, wonder no more.

I actually got this idea from Google.  Their optimization team ran an analysis on my site years ago and suggested I add the ads alongside my videos.

From a technical standpoint, there are a few ways to accomplish this.  It’s probably best to use CSS, but you can also use a simple table.  Yes, tables are so 1990-ish, but they still work and come in handy for accomplishing this.

So the idea is to create a table with two equal columns.  Put the video in the left column and the ad code in the right (or vice versa.)  Here’s the code for a simple table you can use.  Adjust the widths of your table, video and AdSense ads accordingly….

<table width=”600″ align=”center”><tr>
<td width=”300″>
INSERT VIDEO CODE HERE </td>
<td width=”300″> 
INSERT ADSENSE CODE HERE
</td></tr></table>

4. Create Channels

It’s amazing how many people do not setup new channels when they create new AdSense code.  How will you ever know which unit performs the best if they are all lumped together?

5. Refresh!

Every now and then I’ll do a refresh and change the look of my units… slightly.

I usually keep the background color the same because I like for it to match my site, but I may change the color of the title or URL text.  I seem to notice a slight boost when I do this.  Of course there is never any proof this is the reason, but what can it hurt to try?

6. Pay attention to your Analytics reports

If you use Google Analytics, you can sync your AdSense and Analytics accounts together so you can see how much each page is earning.

Keep track of and analyze your highest earning pages.   Are they your highest because of traffic or is there some other reason?  (Different ad placement or size.)

7. Delete under-peforming units

I have not been able to confirm exactly what AdWords advertisers can see with regards to the Publisher’s stats (click through rates, etc.)  But since they can opt to advertise on our sites exclusively,  I try to keep my overall CTR as high as possible by getting rid of units that perform below my own average.

Obviously “under-performing units” will be defined by your individual average and it will be different for everyone.

Are there any other AdSense tips you’d like to share?