Saturday, October 3, 2009

AdSense FAQ

Here is a list of some common questions I get from readers regarding AdSense ads.

How do you place AdSense ads on Blogger?

Four methods are available to place AdSense ads on Blogger blogs. They are:

  1. The AdSense Gadget - From the Page Elements view, if you select an Add Gadget option in any of the sections, the list of gadgets provide an AdSense gadget. You can easily configure the ad options from the dialog box and place the ad unit in any place where gadgets can be dragged and dropped. (See How to Add More Gadgets to increase the ad placement options)
  2. Ads Between Posts - The Posts gadget has an option to display ads between posts. From the Page Elements window, go to Blog Posts -> Edit and select Show Ads Between Posts.
  3. The Monetize Tab - This is more recent addition which offers a convenient way of adding ads. Go to the Monetize tab on your blog's admin console and select the required display option
  4. HTML/Javascript Widgets - This is the most flexible method of adding ads which gives you more control over how to place them. Simply copy the ad code from your AdSense accout and use an HTML/Javascript widget to place it anywhere you want.
How many adds can I display at a time?

AdSense has a limitation of only 3 ads of one type per page. That means you can have up to 3 ad units and 3 link units per page.

I enabled Ads Between Posts. Now my sidebar ads are gone?

This can happen due to the limit of 3 ads of one type per page. If you have configured your Posts widget to show 4 or more posts on the homepage, then the Ads Between Posts option will consume the maximum of 3 ad units on the home page. If the sidebar loads after the posts column (which is usually the case when the sidebar is on the right), then the ads on the sidebar will not be loaded ad they will exceed the ad limit per page.

My blog shows irrelevant ads. Why?

There can be several reasons for this.

Firstly, if your blog is new, then it takes some time for Google to properly index it and understand the relevant type of ads.

Secondly, if your blog is not focussed on a particular topic, it becomes hard for AdSense to decide which type of ads are relevant.

Thirdly, even if your blogs is focused on a particular niche, that niche may not have enough relevant ads. The focus of this blog itself is an example for such a case.

Fourthly, due to the geo-targeting of ads (i.e. serving ads based on the locality of visitors), you might not see relevants ads on your blog. But visitors from the other parts of the world miget see more relevant ads than what you see.

There can be more reasons. But the above are the most common ones for irrelevant ads.

My earnings are random. Why?

See Fluctuations in AdSense Earnings

How can I optimze my ads?

See AdSense Tips for some useful tipe on making more out of your ads.