Using Google Sense is one of the simplest ways to generate ad revenue. Many bloggers, webmasters, and website publishers generate AdSense revenue to help support their operations. The amount of money you can make will depend mostly on the amount of traffic you can bring. Traffic generates impressions, which in turn can generate clicks that trigger payments.
AdSense is just one way you can monetize your website. It’s an easy tool for bloggers and publishers to use for monetization, especially if they’re operating a WordPress site. WordPress makes it easy to put the AdSense code in a widget or plugin to start.
As you grow your audience, however, you may find there are more efficient alternatives that can generate significantly more money.
In this article, we’ll look at how to make money with AdSense. Also, how much money you can make, and some alternatives to consider.
Is Google AdSense Still Profitable in 2023?
AdSense remains one of the most popular ways to monetize websites because it’s so well known.
Google launched AdSense in 2003. It was initially called “content-targeted advertising.” When Google bought out a competitor, Applied Semantics, it adopted the AdSense name. More than 38 million websites use AdSense, and Google says it distributes more than $10 billion of revenue to publishers yearly.
AdSense earnings accrue for publishers in one of two ways, either on a cost per thousand (CPM) or a cost per click (CPC) model. CPC is the most common form of ad placement, where publishers get paid when website visitors click on ads. The better a publisher’s click-through rate (CTR), the more money they can earn. In the CPC model, publishers are paid based on the number of impressions per thousand visitors. So the more page views a publisher gets, the more revenue that shows up in their AdSense account.
Your earning potential is tied closely to your site’s traffic. Other factors impacting your ability to make money online include the type of content you are producing, where site visitors are located, and the ad placement within your website. The money you earn can vary wildly from month to month depending on these factors and more.
You can still make money on AdSense in 2022. Once you’ve set up your account and put the code on your website, it’s a mostly passive way to earn. However, the rates advertisers pay and the number of money publishers can earn are limited. Google takes 32% of the payment upfront for placing and serving the ads, leaving 68% to publishers. At the same time, many other ad networks and ad exchanges pay far better rates to publishers.
Average Payouts from Google AdSense
Google won’t provide you with the exact amount you will earn because it varies in several ways. You can get an idea of the potential payments using Google’s revenue calculator on the AdSense site. While AdSense does not require a minimum number of page views per month, the calculator only estimates earnings based on 50,000 or more visitors monthly.
Most of the time, advertisers buy pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns through Adwords and pay Google each time someone clicks on the ad. Google keeps about a third of the revenue (32%) and passes on the remainder (68%) to website owners, publishers, and bloggers on the AdSense platform based on the clicks that come from your site, the availability of ad inventory, and the competitive bidding process.
The amount an advertiser pays to run an ad on Google AdSense will depend on the niche and the competitive bids. While display ads running on AdSense have an average cost per click (CPC) rate of $2.32, some industries such as legal, tech, finance and insurance, online education, consumer services, and auto ads can have significantly higher rates.
As ads are served to match audience interest for higher engagement, publishers that provide content in areas that attract higher bids have the potential to earn more revenue.
Depending on the bid, the part Google keeps—the “commission”—can range from 20 cents up to $15 per click or more.
Many factors also impact the average payouts, including:
Advertisers can also run impression-based campaigns through AdSense and other ad networks, which set rates based on cost per thousand (CPM) views.
How Does AdSense Provide Payouts?
As long as you set up your Google AdSense account properly, have the necessary information, and verify your account, the process to start earning money is fairly simple.
Google will need your tax, bank account, and personal information to set up your form of payment and establish your unique advertiser identification. The advertiser ID will be embedded in the code you put on your website so Google can track where payments should go.
Once your account and website have been approved and you put the code on your website, AdSense works to match relevant ads to your website. As visitors click on display ads, each ad click is registered and attributed to your website. The more clicks you get from the PPC ads, the greater amount of money you can earn.
Once payment thresholds are met, you’ll start getting payouts. You’ll need to earn at least $100 before AdSense will provide payment. There’s a 21-day processing period, so if you meet the $100 threshold in one month, you’ll receive pay the end of the following.
Can You Make a Living from Google AdSense?
Some people do make a living from Google AdSense, but it’s rare. It takes a lot of time and a lot of traffic for website owners to earn anything substantial.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you have a website with quality content that attracts about 2.5 million website visitors a year in organic traffic. Based on the amount of website traffic, the Google AdSense calculator shows you could potentially earn somewhere between $8,000 and $45,000 a year annually, depending on your niche.
For smaller bloggers, Google AdSense may be an easy way to add a few dollars to the revenue stream, but you have to be highly successful in generating traffic to make a living at it. That’s why most website owners diversify into multiple revenue streams, such as selling ads directly, using affiliate marketing strategies, or working with other ad networks rather than just relying on AdSense Ads.
Even if you work hard to optimize your website and grow your traffic, serious revenue generation with Google AdSense can be challenging.
The Pros and Cons of Monetizing with Google AdSense
There are pros and cons to using Google AdSense to make revenue.
While it’s a mostly passive experience once you set up your account and place the code, the earning potential is based on the type of ads, ad formats, the visitor clicks you get, and all of the other digital marketing you do to attract and maintain a regular stream of visitors. While social media can help drive audiences to your website, too much traffic from social media can impact your results. Social media traffic to websites doesn’t convert as well for AdSense.
With any ad network, you’ll need to provide a strong user experience for monetization and invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and have a solid organic presence on Google Search.
Alternatives to AdSense
Google AdSense is a viable option for website monetization, especially for beginners and those just starting to gain an audience. However, it is just one option for running ads on your website, and there are other alternatives.
Several high-quality alternatives can increase the amount of revenue you can earn, such as Newor Media.
Newor Media is one of the world’s fastest-growing tech companies, providing a programmatic header bidding platform for high-performing blogs and websites to maximize their earning potential. Featuring a team of AdOps experts that can help deploy your ad units and optimize your revenue.
With Newor Media, you can use algorithmic real-time bidding and machine learning to grow your revenue. You get a dedicated partnership to provide expert guidance on ad placement for maximum potential without negatively impacting the user experience.
If you are curious about how much you could be making by using Newor Media, try out the earnings calculator and see for yourself. If you’d like to discuss your options and learn more about how things work, contact the Newor Media team today.
