Simple tricks to increase Adsense CPC, CPM, earnings & revenue

Ana Ghoib Syeikh Malaya 7:08 PTG
If you are visiting this post, chances are you're using Google Adsense? Why? Cuz Adsense is the biggest, highest-CPC program out there today.

What does CPC mean? Cost per click. CPM? Cost per 1000 hits (whatever the M means, I have no clue, but that's what it is.)

Anyways, I have a few small strategies to increase your Adsense CPC, thus allowing you to make much more money than you already were without doing much different than you are doing now.

1: KEYWORDS. Figure out which keywords have the highest CPC and search traffic, using the Adwords tool. Search, search and search more, and find keywords that have high CPC. Then, center your pages or HubPages articles around such keywords. Don't bother with keywords that pay 1 cent, 30 cents, etc per click/CPM. Go for, ideally, the $2.50+ keywords - and ESPECIALLY go after the over $10.00 keywords.

This is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT part of your mission. You don't want a page that makes 1 dollar out of 6 ad unit clicks - you want a page that pulls 6 dollars out of 2 ad-unit clicks, or 60 dollars out of 8 clicks, or even better. Even if you already have a lot of traffic, you WILL NOT make a nice amount of change unless you are smart with your keywords. Even if you are not an internet marketer, you should still use this.

2: LIMIT THE AD UNITS. If you can help it, don't go having 12-15 different ad units on your page. Why? Cuz there is less competition for advertisers to get ads onto your page. That means advertisers can pay less, meaning Google pays you less. If you have, say, 6 ads on your page, you knock off the 6 lowest paying ads, because advertisers are fighting for just 6 spaces instead of 12 spaces. (This mostly applies on your own sites, not on HubPages)

And if you are one of those tinker-happy jackasses, like me, quit tinkering, set your page to a certain ad-unit setup, and leave it. I've noticed my clicks AND my cpc go down if I'm always tinkering with the type and positioning of the ad units.

That said, if your keywords check out with the adwords tool as being both high-CPC and high-traffic, and high-advertiser-competition, you can probably get away with more ad units

3: MAKE YOUR HIGHEST-CTR UNIT YOUR HIGHEST CPC UNIT. You can't do this for your own websites. Use your channel tracker to figure out WHAT your ad unit is that has the highest CTR (click through ratio). That means what are most of your viewers clicking on? Then, make sure that that particular ad unit comes FIRST in the HTML. Whether or not it's at the top of the page is irrelevant - MAKE SURE it comes first in the code. Change your lower-CTR units into link units or move them, or delete them.

4:
Don't forget about the Smart Pricing effect as well clicker location. FWIW my top ten EPC earning countries compared to the overall average EPC since April are:

USA - 128.5%
UK - 140.5%
Canada - 102.4%
Australia - 121.4%
India - 23.8%
South Africa - 33.33%
Netherlands - 71.4%
Germany - 50%
France - 50%
Italy - 45.2%

It's also interesting to note that India also has my 4th biggest page impressions and 4th biggest click volume which obviously has a massive effect on my overall EPC average.

My sites are global however it may be worth studying your Performance Reports > Countries in the new interface to see from where your actual traffic is deriving and the actual values you are getting.

IMPORTANT: Tackle Smart Pricing


You need to take special care of SmartPricing here.

Here is what Google says what SmartPricing is: “How smart pricing works
We are constantly analyzing data across our network, and if our data shows that a click is less likely to turn into business results (e.g. online sale, registration, phone call, newsletter sign-up), we may reduce the price you pay for that click. You may notice a reduction in the cost of clicks from content sites.
We take into account many factors such as what keywords or concepts triggered the ad, as well as the type of site on which the ad was served. For example, a click on an ad for digital cameras on a web page about photography tips may be worth less than a click on the same ad appearing next to a review of digital cameras.
Google saves you time and hassle by estimating the value of clicks and adjusting prices on an ongoing basis. With improved smart pricing, you should automatically get greater value for clicks from ad impressions across our network, all with no change in how you bid.”


The major factor: NEVER EVER TRY TO CHEAT GOOGLE. Don’t host content that your visitors don’t want to see. They came on your website in good faith that you will give them quality information, exactly what they are looking for. Just putting crap there, and stuffing the search results of a search engine is what Google hates.

If the visitors are given crap information, they will never be good buyers, or will become resistant to the convincing power of the advertisers where your AdSense code is directing them to. Google will sense that the traffic form your website is of poor quality, and you will get a shock of SmartPricing.

Please if you have any question relating to adsense please comment engaged me in discussion. More thank glad to help! MRM