Are you looking to increase your Google AdSense revenue?
Google AdSense is a great way to make money online from your WordPress website. You can skyrocket your AdSense revenue by placing ads in high-converting areas, selecting the right theme, and choosing the best plugins.
In this article, we will share tips on how to optimize your AdSense revenue in WordPress.
What is AdSense and How does it Work?
Google AdSense is an advertising network run by Google that allows bloggers and website owners an opportunity to earn money by showing text, image, video, and other interactive advertisements on their websites. These ads are targeted by site content and audience.
AdSense ads are cost-per-click (CPC), meaning you get paid for every time an ad is clicked on your website. It’s a great way to make money online for your WordPress blog.
The amount you receive per click varies based on the ad content and user demographic. For example, traffic from tier-1 countries (U.S, U.K, and Australia) usually gets a much higher CPC than traffic from tier-3 countries (Congo, Jamaica, and Sri Lanka).
Here are three factors that impact your overall AdSense revenue:
- Ad Size
- Ad Placement
- Quality of Traffic
Let’s take a look at which AdSense size and placements perform the best.
Best AdSense Ad Size and Placement
Google AdSense revenue depends on how your users interact with ads on your website, so the strategic placement of ads is crucial for increasing your AdSense revenue.
In our experience, the AdSense sizes that work best are:
- 336 x 280 (Large Rectangle)
- 300 x 250
- 728 x 90
- 160 x 600
Notice that these are fairly large ads and are more prominent by default. The areas where you would generally place them also have to be prominent.
The ideal ad placements are your site header, above the content, in-between content, and after-post content.
Sidebar ads rarely have a good click-through rate (CTR) thus we tend to avoid them altogether.
The general rule of thumb is that you should place at least one ad unit above the fold of your WordPress website. Above the fold is the area visible to users when they land on your website without scrolling.
When setting up Google AdSense, there are a few placement areas that you absolutely want to avoid at all costs because it can result in your account getting terminated.
Floating Scrolling Ads – Some publishers use floating sidebar widgets or floating footer bars to display ads that scroll with users. We’ve seen people getting their AdSense accounts banned for doing this, so we recommend against using this placement.
Popup Ads – We have also seen folks displaying their AdSense ads inside a lightbox popup. This is also against AdSense policies, and you should avoid this placement.
Ads above pagination – One of the best places to generate accidental clicks is above pagination. We have received a warning from Google in the past about this and made a quick change to prevent getting our account suspended.
Also whatever you do, do not click on your own ads. Because that’s a sure-fire way to get your Google account banned.
Having that said, let’s take a look at the best Google AdSense plugins for WordPress that can help you increase your AdSense revenue.
Managing and Inserting AdSense Ads in WordPress
The best way to manage ads in WordPress is by using an ad management plugin. These plugins allow you to insert and manage your ads from one spot without writing any code.
Additionally, many sites that use Google AdSense choose to use their ‘auto ads’ feature. This feature lets Google place the ads automatically on your site with no additional setup from you.
This works for some sites better than others, and if you are not seeing the results you want from the auto ads, here are some WordPress plugins to optimize your AdSense placements.
1. WPCode
WPCode is the best custom code snippets plugin for WordPress. With it, you can insert ad code and anywhere you want. You won’t need to edit any of your theme’s files, and you will have complete control of the placement.
All you have to do is take the ad code from Google, create a new snippet, and insert it into a post or page using a shortcode. You can also schedule ads to show for a specific period of time, such as a limited-time promotion.
In addition, you can use WPCode to track your ad performance on other popular platforms like Facebook, TikTok, or Pinterest. The WPCode Conversion Pixels addon lets you add tracking pixels so that you can track events like product page views, when users add items to their carts, as well as checkouts and purchases toto help improve your ad-spend ROI.
The free WPCode plugin comes with everything you need to display ads on your site. To unlock scheduled snippets, conversion pixels, and other powerful features, you need to upgrade to the premium version.
2. AdSanity
AdSanity is a premium WordPress plugin to properly manage ads on your WordPress site.
It works with all advertising platforms, including Google AdSense. You can easily create and insert ads on your WordPress site and manage your ad units from your WordPress admin area.
You can create ad groups and display ads on a rotating basis. You can also display ads using drag and drop WordPress widgets.
For more information, you may want to take a look at our tutorial on how to manage ads in WordPress with Adsanity plugin or how to insert ads within your post content.
Bonus: MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is the best Analytics solution for WordPress and it helps you set up Google Analytics without editing code or hiring a developer.
With MonsterInsights Ads addon, you can set up AdSense tracking on your WordPress website in just a few clicks and see how people are interacting with your ads.
You’ll get insights to increase your AdSense revenue and find out which ads get the most clicks. The plugin also helps find the best position for placing ads on your site and boosts the click-through rate (CTR).
Besides that, MonsterInsights helps set up advanced trackings like eCommerce tracking, conversion tracking and more.
It also brings the most important analytics stats inside your WordPress dashboard, so you can view how your site is performing at a glance and make data-driven decisions.
For more details, you can go through our detailed guide on how to track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics.
AdSense Optimized Themes for WordPress
While you can add Google AdSense to any WordPress theme, there are some themes that are more optimized for advertisement.
These themes either have special designated areas where you can place an ad code or have a layout that allows you to insert ads in optimized locations.
Here are some AdSense optimized WordPress themes that you can use.
1. Divi by Elegant Themes
Divi by Elegant Themes is the best WordPress theme that’s optimized for Google AdSense. It offers thousands of page templates and loads of customization options to place your AdSense ads.
The best part about using Divi is that it offers a complete WordPress theme and visual page builder. You can customize and edit your theme by adding and removing elements using the drag and drop builder.
With Divi, you get hundreds of elements to add to your theme and over 2,200 page layouts. Besides that, there are multiple hover styles and effects, fonts and text styles, shape dividers, and more to customize your theme.
2. Ad-Sense
Ad-Sense is a theme that’s designed and optimized for Google AdSense. It is one of the most ad-friendly themes in the market.
With Ad-Sense, you get different features like ad placement to place your ads in the navigation menu, header, site background, before and after content, and more.
The theme also lets you manage your ads, automatically detects ad blockers and locks content for ad block users. There are 8 different predefined layouts to choose from, and you can customize them according to your needs.
3. MH Newsdesk
MH Newsdesk is a fully mobile-friendly WordPress theme for magazines and news websites.
The main feature of this theme is that it is a fully AdSense-optimized theme for WordPress sites. The theme comes with widget-ready areas allowing you to place your ad widgets anywhere on your site.
The theme is SEO optimized and you won’t have to worry about slow performance. It also comes with Google fonts, so you can easily change the font of your text and headings.
4. ProMax
ProMax is a beautifully designed free AdSense-ready theme for WordPress.
It comes with ample spots to prominently display your Adsense ads above the fold area without compromising user experience.
The theme features a custom background, header, and social menu. Plus, you can easily customize any element in the theme to match your business needs.
We hope this article helped you learn how to optimize your AdSense revenue in WordPress and boost your earnings. You can also check out our guide on how to choose the best website builder and best web design software.
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Adamu Maigari says
Please what is the name of Wpbeginner.com Theme. I want to use it.
WPBeginner Support says
Our theme is a custom made theme, it is not something available to others at this time.
Admin
Fathnan Id says
Hi, I am from Indonesia, I am very inspired by your website, thank you
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome, glad you like our content
Admin
Colin says
Hi! So on my blog, my “above the fold” is a large featured photo of my article, which takes up the entire screen. My post doesn’t begin until you scroll down below the fold. My first ad is within the first two paragraphs of my post, but again, is below the fold.
What do you think? I like the large featured photo, but I don’t know if it will affect the ad since it’s pushing the ad (and everything else) below the fold.
WPBeginner Support says
If I’m understanding you correctly, if you like the theme you are using currently you should continue to use it. If you are concerned about the location of your ad you can move it to a different location on your site.
Admin
Ephrem Firew Asrat says
WpBeginner, you are my number 1 help and support center for my WordPress experience. But Adsense Supports Popup but with a rule.
Tushar Bansal says
thnx 4 dis post help me alot to optimize my ads .keep it up
Christiana says
Thank you for this wonderful post! I have been struggling with placing my ads properly. With this ad before placement has become a lot easier.
Ahsan says
Is it safe to use sticky adsense ads?
Raghavendra Mahendrakar says
Great Article, now I have implemented your tips to my website. But still my revenue generating is very low? any tips to improvements please…
Frederick says
Hi,
Thanks for the article.
I am wondering, does adsense give a lower revenue when you place the adds in a add widget?
Because, when the adds are in a widget, can google still show an add, that is foccused on your keywords?
Sorry, i hope you understand what i’m saying.
Best Regards,
Frederick
AMISH says
HELLO,
I wanted to know that can one use ad -sense in their free blog of wordpress. Means like “…xyz.wordpress.com” is allowed for google ad sense or not? Does google permit free blog?
if not word press then any other blog?
WPBeginner Support says
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Admin
kam says
Great article. Lots of information.
Joseph says
Hi just curious why no AdSense has placed on this super high traffic site of wpbeginner.com?
Editorial Staff says
Because we don’t use AdSense as a monetization method for this website. Working on an eBook to explain different monetization methods that we use across our websites which will help answer the question for you
Admin