Is Google Adsense Holding You Back?
For the longest time, I loved to build sites with Adsense. Making money with Adsense was so easy. I would simply purchase a domain name, build a site, add some relevant content, slap some Adsense blocks on there and WHAM! make money with easy clicks.
That being said and done, however, I have been doing some heavy split testing as of late and have ultimately come to the conclusion that Adsense blocks on your site actually damages you business long term.
"What?" You ask. "Adsense damages my business?" You say.
Yep. Sure does…depending on your business model that is. Now, if you’re business model is what mine used to be…building small/lean sites monetized ONLY with Adsense blocks, then there is still some money to be made this way, but make no mistake, this avenue of revenue is drying up, at least for MFA sites. (Yeah, I said "MFA sites".)
Why Is It Bad?
Adsense is bad because of the fact that it takes people AWAY from your site for "pennies on the click".
So lets analyze this scenario…if Adsense is taking visitors away from your site for pennies on the click, then what the heck is point of generating quality/engaging content? Honestly? If your goal is to get Adsense clicks, then wouldn’t you want your content to push people to your Adsense blocks?
Using that logic, why would one even invest in quality content for a site like that? Its almost not worth wasting time on…which means that Adsense is worth little more than being put on a site with poorly spun or automated content…which will probably get your account penalized or banned.
So honestly, what good is Asense at all…because it ultimately turns out to be a giant leak. Visitor "leak" out of your site for pennies…if Google even pays you for it. They decide if the click is relevant or not…if they decide its not…they don’t pay you.
I have noticed a severely disturbing trend as of late. I monitor out-going links and as of 2012, I have noticed substantially less and less "clicks" being considered "legitimate" by the big "G". Personally, I no longer trust their "judgement" in these matters, so I will no longer be monetizing any of my websites with Adsense blocks.
Adsense Ads Less And Less Relevant
Another problem with Adsense ads as of late is the fact that they are becoming less and less relevant. Ads are being more and more personalized and tracking user behavior more and more closely.
Personally, I consider this a horrendous invasion of my personal privacy and what is more, I do not want to see the exact same ad on "EVERY WEBSITE I VISIT"!!! I wonder if it ever occured to Google that if I didn’t click on the ad the first 50 times I saw it, maybe I’m not going to click on it…hmmm.
Additionally, I am really not interested in seeing ads for MMO products on pages where the content is about "Natural Gas BTU Determination". I mean…really.
The real downside to this is the fact that SEO traffic is becoming less and less targeted.
Moving Forward
Moving forward, there is really only one way to monetize a website and it involves taking the reigns completely away from Google and downgrading them and the ads that they serve.
Adsense will now be replace with minimal affiliate links and banners and the majority of efforts will be focused on lead generation and capture.
If there is one thing that both 2011 and 2012 have proven it is this…Google is only good for lead generation…and its not even really that good at that anymore.
Social media is looking more and more like a viable replacement in terms of targeted traffic.
Now I will say this about Google…Google Plus is actually a pretty decent place to connect and do a little business. They have some pretty neat things going on with its "circles, sparks, and hangouts". I will be looking into this more and more.
BTW. Just incase you’re interested, here is a great product from PJ about learning how to leverage G+. I really like this one: CLICK HERE.
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That’s quite a unique way to look at things. I’d never thought of it this way. When we can make more through affiliate marketing with similar disadvantages, why go for PPC. I do agree with your take on social media marketing. Social media members are growing by the second, and there’s much to do on social media websites that’s yet to be done.
Adsense does not perform well on marketing / selling websites. And they seem to promote a lot of their own products lately which anyway are so popular that it reduces the CTR when they show up on your sites. Good post thanks for sharing.
I’m not sure if that applies to all businesses though. I used to have affiiate links and banners instead of Adsense ads, and truly it didn’t pay off. Even if the users clicks and buy, if they don’t do it in a short time window, we lose the commission. I always felt I was driving traffic for them for free. Now I only use Adsense.
It’s always been my goal to monetize through adsense but I couldn’t agree with you more when you mentioned that most of the ads nowadays are either irrelevant or non-performing. I think it would be wise to block some of them altogether to make sure that our ads remain targeted and related to our niche. Thanks!
Yes, google is holding some people back, one negative about Google Adsense is that Google can close your advertising account if they believe there is fraud. You can’t click your ads, so people often click on competitors ads rapidly to get it banned . This is click fraud and it is hard to combat.