9 Advanced Tips for Google AdSense Optimization

by Eyal Katz March 23, 2016
March 23, 2016

You’re the kind of person who doesn’t settle for “good enough.” In fact, your ears twitch, a little, if anyone within a 10 mile radius mentions the word “optimized”. We know, it’s ok. You’re in a safe place with like minded people. If you also know your way around a Google AdSense dashboard we have some words and paragraphs for you.flux_capacitor_car_charger


We’ve collected a few tips beyond the usual “use larger ad sizes” advice you’ll find everywhere. So after you read this post and implement its suggestions, you should have that competitive edge over your run of the mill AdSense publishers. With all that extra cash you can buy that Flux Capacitor USB Car Charger you’ve had your eye on.


1. Fix Invalid Google AdSense Traffic

Congratulations, you’ve made it past the Flux Capacitor Gif. We must be doing something right. So let’s get to it, since 2015, Google began to include a line in your monthly revenues report. The “Invalid Traffic – AdSense for Content” line that lowers your income. Sometimes it’s a negligible sum. And sometimes it can be significant chunk of your revenue stream.


google adsense optimization for invalid traffic


According to Google: “Invalid click activity consists of any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser’s costs or a publisher’s earnings, and for which we decide not to charge the advertiser. This includes, but is not limited to, clicks or impressions generated by a publisher clicking on his own ads, a publisher encouraging clicks on his ads, automated clicking tools or traffic sources, robots, or other deceptive software.”


And although Google assures us they have smart tools and a dedicated team to protect advertisers from unethical publishers, they don’t specify what it is you might be doing to cause the invalid clicks on your pages.


This isn’t the first time we’re comparing Google to an angry girlfriend when it comes to AdSense policies, but we find ourselves coming back to it again.


If you keep getting invalid traffic, you’ll keep losing money and risk suspension even if you don’t know where the heck these invalid clicks are coming from.
why do i have invalid traffic google adsense


So what can you do?


Well, Google has a few tips like avoiding low quality traffic sources, verifying implementation, and avoiding the temptation to click one’s own ads (Duh!). But scammers find ways around these, so Google keep their tricks hidden (although some educated guesses are out there). And honest publishers like you get hurt. But enough with the lamentations, and on to the solutions!



  • Content! Google will penalize you if your page has more ads than content. Make sure you balance the two as this can affect your audience of returning users.
  • Keep an eye on social media traffic – AdSense doesn’t like it. Google prefers viewers that come from its search engine (gee, wonder why) or from pages they reached through it. They especially dislike paid traffic that is not paid through the platform it’s coming from (like paid posts in massive Facebook groups or paid retweets by bots).
  • Last but not least – contact Google. If you’re not doing anything wrong, and the traffic you’re getting is real, legit and clicking? You might be the victim of click-bombing from your competitors.

2. Category Blocking

Blocking or unblocking categories in AdSense can have an effect on revenues. How much of an effect and how? That’s a bit complicated.


By default, all the “safe” categories are marked as enabled and the riskier categories (like gambling) are disabled. Odds are you left these settings alone.


Because you trust Google to pick the best ad for every visitor to your page. Well, that’s an optimistic point of view. But let’s get real for a second.


You might think that by allowing all available ad categories to appear on your website, you’re actually increasing the advertiser competition over your audience.


Some categories have higher CPCs, while others have higher CTRs. The main question is – how do you maximize RPMs with category blocking/unblocking?


Higher RPMs are a result of high CTRs and high CPCs. But one doesn’t work without the other. If a particular category of ads brings in record CPCs but sad-looking CTRs? Then it’s not the right category for your audience.


Look at the reports under “Allow & Blocks Ads” to check which categories are underperforming. Categories with many impressions but low revenues are the ones that you should try blocking, at least temporarily.


We’d insert a screenshot now but this feature isn’t available in all countries.


True, it will lower the competition over your ad placements, but it will stir your way the right ads and advertisers. But make sure not to go trigger happy with the block button, and keep an eye on those fill rate


3. Hacking Smart Pricing for Higher CPCs

Many publishers are petrified of the Google AdSense Smart Pricing algorithm. This algorithm tries to ensure advertisers get their money’s’ worth when advertising on the publisher network.


Meaning that whenever possible, Google will track the conversions for the advertisers. Websites and pages that bring higher conversion rates will get higher CPC bids on their inventory.


Unfortunately for us publishers, we can only see click throughs but not conversions. So we can’t target specific ad categories or advertisers to improve our quality in Google’s eyes. What we can do is try and raise its worth to get better bidders and higher CPCs.


Smart Pricing isn’t new. It’s been around for 9 years or so and that’s also the length of time publishers have been trying to hack it. For the most part, it’s about audience quality and its engagement with ads. Clicking is lovely. But if people click and don’t become clients, many advertisers see it a lost investment over time.


google adsense smart pricing hack


So make Google’s Smart Pricing work for you instead of against you. Block unprofitable categories. Place ads in places where you don’t risk accidental clicks and bring traffic that converts. Not just cheap views that don’t turn into clients.


But how do I know what traffic will convert?


You need to “reverse engineer” the classical customer journey and provide content specifically designed for a part of that journey.


For instance, many review websites have this down to an art. Customers often read reviews as part of their “customer journey” to conversion the it’s highly likely that review websites will have a high smart pricing score and high CPCs. This was very much the case with Carz.co.il whom we wrote a case study on.


Think how your websites can fit into a customer journey and tailor your content to match.


 


4. Custom Channels

To attract savvy advertisers and granularly track ad unit performance, you want to use custom channels, if you aren’t yet.


Custom channels let you create groups of ads or single placements advertisers can target directly. By giving advertisers this ability, you’re increasing competition for your ad space.


If have yet to set up custom channels in your AdSense account, we have a guide to walk you through it. If you’re not sure it’s worth the time investment – you still want to read this guide. It’ll probably convince you to create those custom channels in your AdSense account.


5. Anchor & In-flow Ads

Every website monetization newbie knows – above the fold is gold. But it’s fools’ gold. Here’s why.


The over-the-fold ad is often one of the first things the visitor sees when they land on your page. Ads are made to be appealing. But the viewer didn’t come to your page to look at ads, and you can’t afford to forget that.


The person viewing your page is there for the CONTENT. That thing you’re really good at creating and marketing.


adsense anchor ads and adsense in-flow ads


So let’s say a viewer lands on a page on your website, following a promise of awesome content. Now, assuming you do everything right, this viewer will see an ad relevant to them and want to click it.


But they’re here for the content. Even if the offer is relevant, if your content is as awesome as it should be, they’ll just continue scrolling. And by the time they are done, they may have forgotten all about that interesting ad.


How do you solve this?


Anchor (also known as hovering, sticky and floating) ads and in-flow ads. The correct combination of ads that follow the users as they scroll, and in-flow ads that provide in-content “exit points” in are the way to higher RPMs. You can read more in our post on 7 ways to put that extra squeeze on AdSense for higher revenues.


One thing to keep in mind before you move on, anchor ads on mobile devices can lead to invalid clicks, a lot of invalid clicks. We’ve recently started recommending that our users stop using them.


6. Optimize for Sizehillary clinton and mobile banner ads

If you got a dollar for every time someone told you that it’s crucial you optimize for mobile? You wouldn’t need to monetize your content anymore. Or work. Ever. But that’s not exactly what we’re saying here.


 


Depending on the theme or setup of your website, you can create different layouts for different devices. Responsive pages will always put ads in the wrong places, so you want to get on top of that to maximize mobile revenues.


For example, a sidebar ad unit might appear on the bottom of the post in the mobile version of your website. Or take up too much screen-room if placed elsewhere in the page.


So what you can do instead is hide the ads that bring less performance on mobile when the device is a tablet or a smartphone. Then ad a mobile-only ad unit that displays only on mobile devices and is optimized for the mobile layout.


 


7. Advanced Geo-Targeting

Some countries and locales have higher CPCs than others. For example, UK, US, Canada and Australia bring much higher CPCs than Africa or India.


If you have a blog in Italian or German – you might want to consider adding an English section for higher CPC views. And you’ll have to look for high-priced niches in your locale.


Assuming your content site is in English, you want to do your best to bring in traffic from the countries that pay most. This means that your audience acquisition efforts should focus there and appeal to the interests of people in the region.


How do you check which countries pay more? Check the Countries in your performance reports on AdSense. And bring more traffic from the locales with the highest CPC you can see.


how to optimize by country in google adsense

8. Use Asynchronous AdSense Code

Back in 2015, Google introduced the asynchronous ad code to help publishers reduce the load time of their pages with ad units in them.


You can read more about the difference between synchronous and asynchronous ad codes, but the bottom line is asynchronous code will help your pages load faster, and ads will load according to order of appearance.


9. AdNgin Optimization

Our last advice, is to always be testing. From our experience monetizing various niches, if there’s one optimization to take away it’s to always be testing. In fact, we took this a step further, and created the AdNgin testing eco-system to make the whole process of optimizing AdSense CTR easy and fast.


experiments page screenshot


You can use the platform to increase your CTR by trying different layouts, color schemes, tests and experiments. Analyze what works and keep learning.


Now you’re a Geeky AdSense Ninja

You should now be ready to get your AdSense geek on and go on optimization full blast of your Google AdSense account. If you learn something interesting along the way that we forgot to mention please come back here to share with the class – we’re always happy to hear from you.


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