There are several ways to monetize your small business website. Beyond affiliate links and selling services, you can use Google AdSense to create another revenue stream.
Google AdSense is an advertising network for website owners to display ad content on their sites. When your visitors click on an ad, you earn money. The process is all managed in your Google dashboard.
Setting up AdSense on your WordPress site has the power to turn it into a revenue-generating machine. Here are seven plugins to get you started.
1. Quick AdSense
As a small business owner, you understand the importance of monetizing your website. Placing ads on your site helps you generate income and offset other costs.
However, you might be unfamiliar with the AdSense platform and how to use it effectively. Quick AdSense is a WordPress plugin that eliminates all of the stress of placing advertising on your website.
This helpful tool lets you place up to three AdSense ads and a total of 10 ads on a page. Just copy and paste your code into the plugin using the Quicktag Buttons in your visual editor.
Quick AdSense also offers a randomization feature for you to experiment with a variety of ad formats and placements. That way, you can maximize the effectiveness of your advertising.
2. Easy Google AdSense
Easy Google AdSense is designed to improve the performance of your AdSense advertisements. This plugin uses machine learning to decide what ads fit with the content on your site. Then, it recommends the best times to display the ads for optimal visitor experience.
'To maximize your AdSense earnings, it is necessary to keep experimenting and testing different ad placements until you find what combination works best for your website and audience. What worked better for me or other people, may not be the best solution for you,' says Alex Chris, a digital marketing consultant and author.
The tool works with all advertisements, including text ads, video ads, and in-feed ads, and it helps reduce redundancy in your advertising by checking other ad codes on your site. Easy Google Adsense lives up to its name with a setup time of only a few minutes.
3. Google AdSense Dashboard
Let’s take a look at the Google AdSense Dashboard, which details your advertising statistics in WordPress. You can generate reports to monitor your total earnings, cost per click, click-through rate, and page views. There’s also an option to select date ranges for your AdSense reports.
Don’t worry about unauthorized people viewing your reports. This plugin gives you control over who can access your dashboard, like editors, authors, or contributors.
Lastly, Google AdSense Dashboard improves your page loading speeds with its dedicated cache system. Because reports aren’t updated in real-time, you can avoid any server overloads.
4. Advanced Ads
Advanced Ads is an ad management plugin to grow your monthly impressions. You can create and display unlimited ad units, schedule ads with a set start time and expiration date, and inject ads into a post or page without any coding experience. Display conditions let you show ads by post category, tags, and, author.
The plugin includes an ad blocker to prevent ad units from being removed. You also can insert content and banners in other affiliate networks, including Amazon, BuySellAds, Google Ad Manager, and DoubleClick.
5. AdSense In-Post Ads
Next up is AdSense In-Post Ads, a plugin that allows you to save your top Adsense ad codes and insert them as a shortcode. You have the flexibility to use these shortcodes in the body of any post to display your AdSense ad.
Small business owners usually place their ads in the sidebar. However, most readers do not look for content in that area. This plugin lets you put the ad in the post for your site visitors to see easily.
You’ll also want to consider the number of ads you use per page. Too many ads can discourage your visitors from reading your content. Review Google’s policy regarding the number of ads allowed per page and other ad placement rules.
6. Ads for WP
Considered the number one ad solution on the market, Ads for WP offers an easy-to-use interface to add unlimited advertisements. This plugin helps you learn more about your visitors, like the device used and their language.
You can conduct an A/B test to find out which ads perform best and how you can improve your ad revenue in the future. Here’s some expert advice from Tyler Bishop, an award-winning digital marketer and SEO veteran:
'Do not disguise ads. Keep ads looking like ads. Being deceptive about where ads are placed (i.e. close to buttons and navigation) will generate false clicks; which can lead to you getting banned. Furthermore, make sure you don’t encourage accidental clicks.'
The plugin’s click fraud protection feature helps you prevent a rise in ad cost due to spambots. There are also GDPR tools to help you comply with privacy laws.
7. Easy AdSense Ads
Last but not least, there’s the Easy AdSense Ads plugin. This ad manager injects ads into your homepage, post, and pages in nine ad locations. Unlike other plugins, Easy Adsense Ads integrates within your WordPress customizer to give you an instant ad preview.
Plus, you’re not limited to AdSense ads with this tool; you can insert ads in Amazon Affiliate Ads, Infolinks, and BuySell Ads networks. These options mean more revenue for your small business.
Sometimes you will not want to inject ads on a particular post or page. For example, the content may violate advertiser policies, or you don’t want ads on sponsored content pages. Whatever the reason, you can disable the ad with this plugin.
Monetize Your WordPress Website
With Google AdSense, you can earn more money with your website. Take advantage of WordPress plugins to optimize the advertising experience for your visitors.
Shayla Price creates and promotes content. She lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology, and social responsibility. Originally from Louisiana, Shayla champions access to remote work opportunities. Connect with her on Twitter at @shaylaprice.