In the last chapter, we talked about content. Google won't let you ask
visitors to click on your ads, or use other deceptive ways to make them click. But good content is an endorsement in itself. Some of its charm rubs off on the ads, making the ads more believable — and interesting!
If you have a website with impartial product reviews, for instance, visitors
are more likely to click the ads to learn more about a product, check out the latest prices or order online.
It’s crucial to create content that’s genuinely interesting. But your work doesn’t stop there.
After setting up your AdSense Account, the first thing you want to do is play with your ad formats and placement to make the ads blend in. That's where the bulk of the "easy-money" is hiding.
But once you've got that right, what next? You start tweaking the text and making all sorts of other changes to improve your CTR.
But every time you make any sort of change to your ads, you must track the results.
Consider this example:
Joe Drinker has a great website about "How to make Beer at Home". It's
doing well on AdSense, but not well enough. His week’s stats look something like this:
A few days later he logs into the stats on his AdSense account and finds that that that change has actually HURT his income:
Joe has not only disappointed a lot of collectors who come looking for beer
cans — his site contains lots of keywords but little in the way of good content — he has also discouraged visits from people who want to make beer at home.
His search ranking has gone down, making his website harder for people to find him and lowering his impressions. It's also hurt his earnings per click as the people who visit the site leave faster. What's worse is that he's also risked his AdSense standing!
Now, does that make it a bad idea to optimize your website for AdSense?
Not at all. It is actually a good idea, if you do it right. And by that I mean… No Shortcuts!
There is a simple, step-by-step process to optimize your website for highpaying search terms. And this method is almost fool-proof! So why isn't everybody doing this? Simply because very few web publishers know how to use Tracking to their
advantage.
Tracking will not only help you minimize your mistakes, it will also reveal hidden pockets of money that you would have never found otherwise.
Read on to find out how YOU can use Tracking to sky-rocket your CTRs and increase revenues per-click.
TIP: Click here to learn about tools to optimize your website for highpaying search terms.
9.1 How To Track With Channels
Google has its own FREE tracking feature called "Channels". Channels remind me of spy movies, where a smart chip is planted in the arm of a super sleuth, making it easier to track his activities or whereabouts.
AdSense hands you 50 such chips. Use them to track ads on specific domain names or to group ads according to specific ad formats, keywords, their location on the page etc. You can use any other factor that might impact their effectiveness, based on the type of website you have.
Channel those clicks!
Google tells you many things about each Channel, such as the ad impressions, click-throughs and earnings data.
You can use the channel reports to find out which channels are making you the most money — and how to increase your earnings for other channels.
9.2 How To Create A Channel
You should create a channel for each one of your sites.
Within a site, you’ll still have the option of creating channels for individual
pages if desired, and this can be useful if you want to check how well ads are doing on a certain set of pages versus another set. But start by creating one
URL channel for each site and you’ll have the general overview that you can use as a starting point for your tracking.
And it’s very easy to do.
The first thing you’ll want to do is create URL channels.
Fig 9.1 Google gets powerful with URL Channels.
The original Channels required you to manually change AdSense tags for each ad block you wanted to track. Many AdSense partners complained about the pesky old channels, and at last, Google launched its URL Channels to make life easier.
You can use URL Channels to track individual pages or just specify the
domain name to track all the pages in that website. The pages or websites you add will be automatically tracked — there's no need to manually change the code on those pages. Neat!
If I need to track all the ad units appearing on my website
www.DealOfDay.com, I just need to feed in the domain name and Google does the rest. The URL Channels are especially useful if you have several websites, and have a general idea of the formats, colors, alignment etc. that works best for you.
Remember though, you still need the original, Custom Channels if you want to track ads across different domain names, based on ad sizes, formats, colors etc.
For instance, if I want to track left-aligned ads across all my websites (sites with different domain names), I need to group them together into a single channel and manually change the channel code for each page.
First, I name the new channel:
Fig. 9.2 Here comes a new channel...
Then I choose the Ad Type, Layout and Color of the ads I want to track:
Fig. 9.3 Defining the ads to track in my new channel.
Finally, it’s simply a matter of allocating an alternate URL if I don’t want
public service ads, selecting the channel and copying and pasting the code onto each of the pages that contain the sort of ad I want to track:
Fig. 9.4 Creating the code for my new Channel.
Of course, I would then have to repeat the process if I wanted to track ads of a particular color or size.
While Google can now track ad performance for your specified domain name, please don't expect URL or Custom Channels to give you data about your visitors, such as who referred them to your website or which web browser they use. These are details only your server logs can tell you.
9.3 How to Read your Server Logs
Various AdSense Tracking programs are currently sold on the Internet. This type of software runs on your own server which means it has access to vital visitor information.
These packages are not affiliated with Google, but you can use most of them without violating the AdSense TOS.
External tracking software can tell you many things that the Channels don't reveal, such as:
- Where your visitors are coming from;
- Where the ad-clickers are coming from;
- What search keywords led them to your web page.
Your stats package should compile and interpret your log files. It will tell you how many people visited your pages, how long they stayed, which are the most popular pages, what countries/domains they visit from, and how many bookmarked your site.
Just about all the information you need.
One thing that external Tracking software cannot do for you, is to tell you exactly how much MONEY a specific ad (or a group of ads) is making for you. Only Google's Channels can tell you that.
External tracking software can tell you an ad's CTR, but your AdSense
income also depends on factors such as the earnings per click, content
relevance, your ranking on Google Search Results and many other factors besides.
That means that the same ad can produce different commissions on two different sites.
The better your site (the higher your ranking, the more links you have etc.) the higher your commissions will be.
I do recommend the use of external tracking software in addition to Google's Channels.
Why? Because Channels can be quite confusing if you use them by themselves. Consider this example:
In this hypothetical case, Jim has a website about fast cars, where he
discusses his passion with thousands of like-minded visitors. He decides to find out which ads are doing better than the others.
Jim groups all ads with a blue border into a specific channel, which he called "Blue_Border". He finds that the blue-border ads generated a 5% CTR (click-through ratio), while the rest of the ads generated around 2% CTR on average:
Next morning Jim tweaks all his ads to give them a blue border. The result? The ads in the "Blue_Border" channel continue to generate 5% CTR, while the rest of the ads (which also have a blue border now) are still generating 2% CTR. Very confusing!
Clearly, there's something else that's making Jim's visitors click — and it probably has nothing to do with the blue border.
What is that hidden ingredient that's jacking up those click-through ratios? The Channels won't tell.
Jim now decides to install an external tracking software on his website.
After looking through his server logs, he finds that ads with the term "Car Accessories" are getting the maximum click-throughs. How does Jim know that?
Simple. His tracking software tells him which ads his visitors are clicking. He also knows which sites his visitors are going to.
Jim found that of all his visitors, those who searched for the term "Car
Accessories" were generating the maximum click-throughs on his web pages. Naturally, ads with the term "Car Accessories" were doing better than the others.
Should Jim now optimize his website for the search term "Car Accessories"? For most web publishers, that's good enough to get down to work.
But Jim is skeptical. Jim wants to know if his "Car Accessories" ads are also his top income generators.
To find out, he creates a Channel to track the earnings of all ads with the term "Car Accessories" in it. He calls the new channel "Car_Accessories".
A few days later, Jim logs in to his AdSense account to check his earnings. He finds that about 30% of his income is drawn from visitors looking for car accessories.
That's significant, but it raises another question in Jim's mind. Where is the remaining 70% of his income coming from?
He looks through his tracking reports once again and finds that ads with the term "Car Parts" are also doing well. He found that while "Car Accessories" took the lead with 5% CTR, the "Car Parts" ads were generating a healthy 3% CTR.
Jim is excited. He knows he's on to something big!
Jim's tracking software has helped him uncover two great "leads". Which of these will lead him to his top income generator?
The plot thickens…
To find out, Jim now creates another channel called "Car_Parts". A week later, he logs in to compare his earnings for each channel. Here are Jim's results: Total AdSense income for one week = $1666.67
"Car_Accessories" Channel = $500 (30% of total AdSense earnings) "Car_Parts" Channel = $1000 (60% of total AdSense earnings) Remaining Ads = $166.67 (10% of total AdSense earnings)
Incredible! Jim now knows that his "Car_Accessories" ads might be getting him the most clicks, but his "Car_Parts" ads are making him the most money!
Google won't tell you all reasons why the "Car_Parts" ads are making Jim more money. But Jim knows that the keyword "Car Parts" is probably more expensive, and that his website ranks better for that term.
FINALLY--
Jim is ready to act on this information. Let's take a look at his various options:
1. He can use it to optimize his page for the search term "Car Parts", so that his content is more relevant. Jim knows from experience that when his ranking for the search term "Car Parts" goes up, so will his earnings per click.
But it does have a downside. It might LOSE him his "Car Accessories" traffic! Jim knows that the price of keywords keeps fluctuating with the bids placed by AdSense advertisers. A keyword that's not so hot today can trigger a frenzied bidding war tomorrow!
Jim doesn't want to lose his most responsive visitors, earning him a decent $500 per week.
2. Jim can optimize his page for "Car Accessories". But that comes with the huge risk of losing a whopping 60% of his earnings.
3. Jim can launch dedicated web pages for "Car Parts" and "Car Accessories".
4. Jim can optimize his page for BOTH search terms.
Jim decides to go with option 4 — optimize for BOTH search terms! Jim knows the old saying that if you try to please everyone, you end up
pleasing none at all. That's why he decides to play his cards carefully.
Jim understands visitor behavior. He knows that his visitors like to read in "bite sized" portions. They take a bite here and a nibble there. But they never read a web page like a book, starting from the top and reading right through to the bottom.
He tweaks his layout to make the "Car Parts" articles more visible. He
smartly uses the hot car photos on his website to create several points of interest in his neatly laid out website.
Jim knows that people will instinctively look at the car photos, then be drawn in by detailed information about car parts — followed by the strategically placed Google ads.
Google allows you to put up to three AdSense blocks (ad units) on the same page. Read more about this policy change — and what it means to you.
To leverage this opportunity, Jim creates new space for content by tweaking the framework of his web page. Now Jim can capitalize his page layout by drawing people in with short, interesting 'content hooks' that build interest in the Google ads.
He adds new side-bars with juicy tid-bits about hot new car accessories. These will act like instant magnets to visitors looking for car accessories. More importantly, they run right alongside the AdSense ads, which tempt people with hot new offers on Car Accessories.
A specially designed "Accessories I love" section invites visitors to scroll down for more. Here Jim provides news, updates and impartial reviews about the Car Accessories Market. He entices visitors to check out new product launches with an integrated Google Search Box, which enables them to search within his website or search the entire web for relevant content.
These changes not only make Jim's web pages more relevant; it makes his
visitors more receptive to the ads. And there's more. Jim can now create new income streams for himself by plugging in new links to pages dedicated to car accessories, car parts and other keywords that are already attracting highly responsive visitors to his existing pages.
Jim used his channels and server logs to drill deep and come up with a real gold-mine of information. You too can use these secrets to zero in on ads that make you the most money — and to find hidden sources of AdSense income.
9.4 Tracking Tools
There’s a whole range of different tracking tools available to fill the gaps left by Google’s Channels. Here is a quick run-down of the main ones with two MUST-HAVE titles at the end:
AdSense Log
http://www.adsense-secrets.com/adsenselog.html
Created by MetalGrass, this stats analyzer has easy-to-read graphs and charts. They also use Google’s own stats rather than tapping into your server’s MySQL.
You can check your account as frequently as you want and the log will even you give you a sound, an email or
a pop-up window when new data is available.
Price $50. Free 30-day trial.
AsRep
http://www.asrep.com
asRep
AsRep lets you track all of your stats in real time. That
includes each of your three regular ad units, an AdLink unit and up to two search boxes on each page.
The program also captures colors, format and channels, and whether the units are showing ads or alternates.
Price $50. Unlimited evaluation version available.
CSV AdStats
http://www.nix.fr/en/csvadstats.aspx
CSV AdStats is less of a tracker and more of a
number-cruncher. You can download Google’s CSV data file and conduct a full stats analysis to check averages and create charts.
A useful way to squeeze more sense out of your stats.
FREE
Google AdSense Tracking Script
http://www.biz-directory.org/AdSense/
The Google AdSense Tracking Script lets you see the domains and files where clicks occurred, hourly and daily stats and who clicked what, where and when.
Price $100.
TWO TOOLS YOU CAN’T DO WITHOUT!
If you are serious about making money with Google AdSense, there are two tools that I use regularly and wholeheartedly endorse above all others. The investment in these tools will pay for itself again and again.
AdSense Tracker
AdSense Tracker does the following:
1. Track clicks, page views and CTR by referrer.
2. Track clicks, page views and CTR for each search engine and all search keywords.
3. Real-Time tracking of your
AdSense channels and your own custom channels.
4. Track clicks, page views and CTR by domain, page, directory, advertiser url, IP and ad format
5. List all clicks (IP, ad url, originating page, referrer and date/time).
6. Track WebSearches by domain, page and referrer
7. Track WebSearches by search engine and all search keywords, as well
as by channel, hour and IP address
8. List all WebSearches (IP, search terms, originating page, referrer and date/time) and run reports on any date range.
The developer of this package offers a 30-day FREE TRIAL, so you can’t go wrong with giving it a spin.
Click the link below to try AdSense Tracker for free: http://www.adsense-secrets.com/tracker.html
AdSenseDesktop — Instant Stat Analysis
And once you’ve got your stats, I
recommend reading them with AdSenseDesktop. This is a great program that lets you download your stats, turn them into graphs and analyze them to identify trends and work out what works best.
You’ll also be access your data
faster and easier — there’s no need to log in through the Google AdSense website each time you want to see how you’re doing — and all the changes you make are kept in a centralized log! That makes it easy to remember the changes you made and see which
ones increased — or decreased — your earnings!
And as I discuss in a later chapter, it is critical that you keep an AdSense
journal, making note of the changes you make to your AdSense as you go. AdSense Desktop includes a “Notes” page that allows you to do this.
It’s a very useful tool.
Fig. 9.2 AdSenseDesktop gives you instant readouts with a quick rollover on your taskbar.
One of the best things about AdSenseDesktop is that you can turn your stats into a whole range of different graphs, including:
Page Impressions graph
No. Clicks graph
Click-through rate graph
Effective CPM graph
Earningsgraph
Fig. 9.3 Keep track of different channels with one glance.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? You can download a FREE trial copy from
http://www.adsense-secrets.com/adsensedesktop.html
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