homebiz.bukiki.com » Social Media » Why Social Media Traffic Will Kill Your Adsense Revenue

Why Social Media Traffic Will Kill Your Adsense Revenue

Making money through Adsense comes down to extensive research relating to keywords and a particular niche. Google Adwords provides a tool for both Google advertisers and publishers enabling them to estimate how much they could expect to either pay or earn when a visitor clicks an ad for a targeted keyword.

So why do these research tools provided by Google often fall short when put to the test? For example, last week I was trying to gauge how much I’d earn for an online dating site I have recently set up. According to Google, the Adwords cost per click would be $3.30 for the keyword – online dating. The Adsense publisher could then expect to earn between 30% – 60% of the value of that click, theoretically speaking.

After setting up my social media accounts and getting some initial bursts of traffic, I did some calculations and comparisons with the Google Adwords keyword estimate tools mentioned above. The amount I earned in reality paled into insignificance compared to what my research suggested. The average revenue I was earning per click was 9 cents!! If Google was to split the click revenue based on the $3.30 estimate for an online dating search, shouldn’t I automatically expect to earn AT LEAST $1.00 for that click, right? WRONG!! Ever heard of Google Adsense Smart Pricing?

The facts about Adsense Smart Pricing
There are many factors that determine an Adsense publishers payout. The tools provided by Google offer a guideline based on best traffic practices. Although before and beyond everything else, if advertisers start competing on a lower scale than the Google estimate, then obviously this will reflect the payout for the Adsense publisher – the whole Adwords/Adsense model is susceptible to fluctuations for many reasons. The $3.30 online dating estimate used above is probably just an estimate Google has used based on advertiser bidding fluctuations.

Click through rates does not necessarily affect the advertiser ROI. What does matter though, is the amount of clicks that convert for the advertiser. So if a website receives 1000 visits from a StumbleUpon post, and a competitors website in the exact same niche also receives 1000 visits but directly from Google search traffic, which site is going to produce the better quality/targeted visitor thus delivering more conversions for the advertiser? The traffic from Google search of course. Visitors from search engines provide a much more targeted visitor who are likely to convert when compared to social media traffic.

Another aspect publishers often make mistakes with is removing ads from pages with low CTR. A low CTR is not necessarily a reflection of low conversions. In fact, some of my highest paying dating sites have a CTR of only 1%.

Smart pricing exists to protect the value and profitability of their advertisers, and to maintain a strong ROI. Webmasters are ultimately rewarded for providing useful and quality sites. And so the more targeted traffic your website gets, from real people who are literally searching for your product or service, you can expect to reap the full potential offered by the Adsense platform.

So if you’re an Adsense publisher, the next time you’re offered 1000 visitors for $10.00 or to be sent loads of visitors from Facebook, don’t do it! Instead, start writing awesome content and start pulling converting visitors.

About the author: This article was written by Matt Fuller for exclusive publication. Matt owns a portfolio of Adsense websites targeting various niches including dating and relationships, social media, dating sites reviews and online dating sites tips for single people.