How to Make Money with Google Ads

Using Internet search technology, Google will serve ads on web pages that are based on the specific content of that web page. For instance, if someone is on a webpage that's covering the latest golf tournament, Google will serve ads for golf clubs or golfing attire. If you own that site, you get paid every time someone clicks on that ad. Not too shabby. This is usually called CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising.

The Major Benefits of Google Ads
You may not even notice banner ads any more. As an Internet-savvy society, we have learned to filter them out. There is also banner filtering software available because banner ads can be very annoying, and that could harm your website readership. But Google Adsense is different:

• Google Ads are less intrusive, so they don't annoy people
• The content is RELATIVE, and therefore has more impact
• People trust Google Ads because people trust Google
• The payment model is generous and reliable
• It's possible to make a healthy living from Google Ads

That last point is paramount. How do you make a living from Google Ads? Well, with the right combination of traffic, content and users, you can make thousands of dollars every single month.
Making a Google Adsense Income
Let's be clear. You cannot expect to throw Google Ads onto your site, sit back and watch the money roll in. It doesn't work that way. Like anything in business, it takes an investment of your time to get a return that you can bank on. To understand the logistics of making money, you need to know the basic way Adsense works.

How it Works
Let's say you currently have a blog or website that gets 100,000 visitors every single month. That's over 1 million every year. Sounds like something that could make you money, right? Well, think of this:

1. You have 100,000 ad impressions (views)
2. You have a CTR (click through rate) of 1%, which is standard
3. 1% of 100,000 = 1000
4. If the CPC (cost per click) of the ad is $0.01, you make $10
5. If the CPC (cost per click) of the ad is $1.00, you make $1000

There's a big difference between the two, and obviously most ads do not pay out at the $1/click rate. The more obvious and widespread the keyword of the ad (which is what triggers the ad itself), the lower the CPC. And that is info you can use.

What You Can Do To Maximise Adsense Income
Whether you want to make money off the blog or website you already have, or you want to create a blog with the sole purpose of making Adsense money, there are several ways you can increase your revenue:

• Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing to maximize the keywords in your content.
• Write more. The more you write about your subject, the more keywords you have for Google to search and feed ads to.
• Write often. More content is everything, and the fresher the better.
• Post useful, accurate content. When you post garbage filled with keywords it is difficult to read and doesn't bring people back. You want your site to be sticky, so that it generates traffic.
• Find a niche. Talking about football is all well and good, but thousands of people are doing it. But movie soundtrack collections, that's another story.
• Don't create too much bad traffic. It's easier than you'd think to create a lot of traffic, but if it's not qualified, which means there to read your content, then it will be a flash in the pan. It also affects your CTR.
• Make use of Google Analytics. Google gives you the tools, for free, to make a profit.
• Think differently. Don't just write the same old boring content that everyone else is. Have a new take on Mad Men? Got a better angle on knitting? PlentyofFish.com, earns over $300,000 every month! But it's not just given away. You have to earn it. Now go, be successful.

96 percent of Google’s revenue is advertising, who buys it?

A whopping 96 percent of Google‘s $37.9 billion 2011 revenue came from advertising, but who is putting all that cash in Google’s wallet?
Google is best known for its web search product, which has completely overturned how we research and find answers. But the search itself is only the basis upon which its golden empire has been built. Advertising based on search, as well as banner advertising on websites touches nearly every industry. It even created the jobs of the search engine and display marketers, whose responsibilities include understanding Google AdWords and Adsense, as well as navigating the strategy behind bidding and maintaining ad campaigns.
In 2011 the industry which used Google’s advertising the most was the finance and insurance industry with $4 billion handed over to Google. State Farm topped the charts at a whopping $43.7 million spent. The most common search term in this industry with the highest cost per click was “self-employed health insurance,” which charged advertisers around $43 for every time someone clicked their advertisement.
The retail and general merchandise industry holds second place for most spent on Google ads, with Amazon leading at $55.2 million spent. You would think that number would be so high to accommodate Amazon’s recent debut of the Kindle Fire, but the most commonly search for keyword in the retail industry was actually “Zumba dance DVD.” If we learn anything from common keywords it’s that the economy is down, so people are self-employed and want to dance at home for exercise.
Travel and tourism came in third with $2.4 billion spent on Google advertising. Jobs and education came in fourth, and home and garden in fifth.
Check out the infographic below for more on who contributes to Google’s huge wealth.

How Google Makes Its Billions: The 20 Most Expensive AdWords Keyword Categories

Insurance keywords are the most searched for on Google, making insurance the most expensive category on Google AdWords and the top PPC money-maker for Google. Bidding on insurance keywords can cost advertisers up to $55 per click, according to a new study from SEM software company WordStream that aimed to determine the top 20 categories that see the highest search volume and cost per click (CPC).
Loan, mortgage, attorney, and credit keywords rounded out the top five.
Google continued to shatter quarterly revenue records in Q2, and has made $32.2 billion in total advertising revenue over the last year – which is 97 percent of Google's revenue, WordStream noted. Google AdWords is the biggest source of profits for Google, so to determine where Google is making its billions from, WordStream used data from its own keyword database, as well as the Google Keyword Tool, and found these 20 categories make up the most competitive terms and CPCs (at least during the unspecified 90-day period WordStream studied):

1. Insurance (e.g., "buy car insurance online," "auto insurance price quotes"); 24 percent of keywords; top CPC of $54.91
2. Loans (e.g., "consolidate graduate student loans," "cheapest homeowner loans"); 12.8 percent of keywords; top CPC of $44.28
3. Mortgage (e.g., “refinanced second mortgages,” “remortgage with bad credit”), 9 percent; $47.12
4. Attorney (e.g., “personal injury attorney,” “dui defense attorney”); 3.6 percent; $47.07
5. Credit (e.g., “home equity line of credit” and “bad credit home buyer”); 3.2 percent, $36.06
6. Lawyer (e.g., "personal injury lawyer," "criminal defense lawyer); 3 percent; $42.51
7. Donate (e.g., "car donation centers," "donating a used car"); 2.5 percent; $42.02
8. Degree (e.g., "criminal justice degrees online," "psychology bachelors degree online"); 2.2 percent; $40.61
9. Hosting (e.g., "hosting ms exchange," "managed web hosting solution"); 2.2 percent; $31.91
10. Claim (e.g., "personal injury claim," "accident claims no win no fee"); 1.4 percent; $45.51
11. Conference Call (e.g., "best conference call service," "conference calls toll free"); 0.9 percent; $42.05
12. Trading (e.g., "cheap online trading," "stock trades online"); 0.8 percent; $33.19
13. Software (e.g., "crm software programs," "help desk software cheap"); 0.8 percent; $35.29
14. Recovery (e.g., "raid server data recovery," "hard drive recovery laptop"); 0.7 percent; $42.03
15. Transfer (e.g., "zero apr balance transfer," "credit card balance transfer zero interest"); 0.6 percent; $29.86
16. Gas/Electricity (e.g., "business electricity price comparison," "switch gas and electricity suppliers"); 0.6 percent; $54.62
17. Classes (e.g., "criminal justice online classes," "online classes business administration"); 0.5 percent; $35.04
18. Rehab (e.g., "alcohol rehab centers," "crack rehab centers"); 0.5 percent; $33.59
19. Treatment (e.g., "mesothelioma treatment options," "drug treatment centers"); 0.4 percent; $37.18
20. Cord Blood (e.g., "cordblood bank," "store umbilical cord blood"); 0.4 percent; $27.80

WordStream also offered four PPC tips for bidding in a competitive keyword niche:

1. Target specific, 3-5 word keywords.
2. Use negative keywords to eliminate keywords that aren’t relevant to your business.
3. Break up large keyword lists into smaller, more targeted lists.
4. Test various offers to improve conversions with landing page optimization.
   

WordStream also released this snazzy infographic:

How Google Rakes In Over $100 Million in Search Advertising Daily

Each day, Google makes over $100 million in search advertising, with 5.6 billion daily ad impressions through Google search and another 24.2 billion impressions from the Display Network.
On a typical day, there are 237.9 million Google ad clicks across search and the network. The AdWords cash cow is stronger than ever, according to research from search marketing software provider WordStream.
Larry Kim and his WordStream team have put together an infographic packed with insights into the daily search marketing activity of the dominant player in the field. Despite investor disappointment, Google just raked in their largest quarterly revenue to date, reporting $14.10 billion for Q3 2012.
Google search ads have a slightly higher conversion rate, at 5.63 percent, compared to 4.68 percent for Google Display Network ads. The average cost per click is now $0.35, down 18.2 percent from the quarter before.
Which verticals contribute most to Google’s search marketing income? Finance tops the list with the highest CPC at $3.09, as well as the most conversions, with 1.39 million transactions (sales or leads) completed daily as a direct result of AdWords ads. State Farm, Geico and Quicken Loans top of the list of companies with deep pockets for AdWords campaigns.
Travel companies like Expedia, Hotels.com and Booking.com take the second spot on the list of industries that spend the most on Google AdWords. This is in spite of their earning the lowest average conversion rate on the list, at 1.45 percent.
Shopping ranks third on the list of industries spending freely on Google. A 5.23 percent click-through-rate puts them at the top of the list for that metric. The average CPC in shopping, for companies like Amazon, eBay and JC Penney, is just $0.25 on Google Search and $0.27 across the display network.
Also on the big spenders list: Jobs & Education, Internet & Telecom, Computers & Electronics, Business & Industrial, Home & Garden, Autos & Vehicles, and Beauty & Fitness.