Many websites use AdSense to monetize their
content. AdSense has been particularly important
for delivering advertising revenue to small
websites that do not have the resources for
developing advertising sales programs and sales
people.
To fill a website with advertisements that
are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters
implement a brief script on the websites' pages.
Websites that are content-rich have been very
successful with this advertising program, as
noted in a number of publisher case studies on
the AdSense website.
Some webmasters invest significant effort
into maximizing their own AdSense income. They
do this in three ways:
- They use a wide range of
traffic-generating techniques, including
but not limited to
online advertising.
- They build valuable content on their
websites that attracts AdSense
advertisements, which pay out the most when
they are clicked.
- They use text content on their websites
that encourages visitors to click on
advertisements. Note that Google prohibits
webmasters from using phrases like "Click on
my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. The
phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and
"Advertisements".
The source of all AdSense income is the
AdWords program, which in turn has a complex
pricing model based on a
Vickrey second price auction. AdSense
commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid
(i.e., a bid not observable by competitors).
Additionally, for any given click received,
advertisers only pay one bid increment above the
second-highest bid.
