How to Advertise on Google AdSense

by Warren Davies

Google AdSense is a program that website owners can use to make money from their websites. The ads the program displays on a website are relevant to the site's content and appeal to certain characteristics of its visitors, making it a useful solution for bringing target traffic to your website. To make your business appear on the AdSense network, first sign up to the advertisers' program, Google AdWords.

Step 1

Open a browser and navigate to the Google AdWords site (link in Resources). Sign in with your Google account or click “Create account” if you do not have one.

Step 2

Click “Billing” from the top menu bar, then click “Billing preferences.” Type in your payment details and VAT information, then click “Billing” again, this time followed by “Make payments.” Type in an amount you want to add to your advertising account, then click “Continue” and approve the payment on the next screen.

Step 3

Click “Campaigns | All online Campaigns | New campaign." Fill in the details of your advertising campaign, including a name, the locations, networks and devices on which you want the ads to be shown, and a budget for your campaign. The amount you pay when a user clicks on of your ads is based on an auction system among advertisers, so choose a starting bid and a daily budget. Start with a low bid of less than a dollar -- you can increase it as necessary later. Click “Save and continue” when done.

Step 4

Create an ad. Type in a name for this ad group -- for example, if you sell video games, you might create a different ad group for each popular platform. Type in a headline, description and destination URL for the ad in the relevant text boxes, then type in keywords for this ad group. These relate to the searches your potential customers make in Google. Generally, the more relevant the keyword, the more effective and expensive it will be. For example, the name of a video game will generally convert better than the name of a character in it, though the latter may probably be cheaper.

Step 5

Type in the maximum you want to bid on these keywords in the “Ad group bids” section. Click “Save ad group” when done. Your ad will go live once approved by Google. You can now create new campaigns and ad groups as required.

SOURCE:  smallbusiness.chron.com