Google changes their AdSense policies at any time in an attempt to protect the interests of their advertisers. The last update was on August 1, 2012 but they don’t highlight the changes unless it’s a critical update. But you can subscribe to the official Google AdSense blog to follow all the updates whenever it happens.

But now, why am I writing this blogpost when you can read AdSense’s Program Policies, Terms & Conditions right from their website. Well, a couple of days back I got an e-mail alert from Google AdSense that ad serving has been disabled to one of my website. It was an obsolete website but I haven’t disabled the AdSense ads on that website.

Google AdSense ad serving has been disabled to your site

This email is to alert you that one of your websites is not currently in compliance with our AdSense program policies and as a result, ad serving has been disabled to your website.

Well, it’s the “ad serving to a single website” and not the “Google AdSense account” which has been disabled. And the reason for disabling the ad serving was “Copyrighted Material”. No, I was not distributing any copyrighted materials myself but was linking to a pirated movie hosted by RapidShare from two posts (dated 2009).

So, AdSense publishers are not allowed to place ads on websites which are distributing copyrighted materials and is not even allowed to link to those sites/pages. But, dear Google, then why are you still indexing those websites?

Read: How Much Traffic Do You Need To Make $100,000 With Google AdSense

Google AdSense Terms and Conditions In A Nutshell

• You need to be at least 18 years old and must have a verified Google account.
• Your website/content should comply with AdSense Program Policies AND Google Webmaster Guidelines.
• You need a valid postal address and must verify your address.
• You shouldn’t disclose Google Confidential Information (e.g. exact click-through rates, cost per click etc.) without their prior consent.
• You shall not encourage any third party to click ads directly or indirectly as it is classified as invalid clicks and click fraud.
• You shall not create a new AdSense account once your account is disabled for whatever reason.

Read the full Google AdSense Terms & Conditions.

Google AdSense Program Policies In A Nutshell

• You shouldn’t click your own ads or tell others to do so – for whatever reason.
• There’s no need to contact the AdSense team for those “accidental clicks” as they understand that accidental clicks may occur from time to time.
• You’re not permitted to label the Google AdSense ads with texts other than “Sponsored Links” or “Advertisements”. So, avoid phrases such as “click the ad” “support our sponsors” “recommended links” etc.
• Your pages should comply with Google AdWords’ Landing Page Quality Guidelines.
• You’re not allowed to place Google ads on websites distributing copyrighted materials. It includes sites hosting copyrighted content as well as sites linking to other sites containing copyrighted materials.
• Your pages should contain only family-safe content and you’re not allowed to include or link to – adult content, hacking content, sales of tobacco, drugs, alcohol, weapons etc., casino-related content and anything that is illegal.
• You’re required to adhere to the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
• You shouldn’t place misleading images or headings alongside AdSense ads. The ads should be placed in such a way that it is distinguishable from the actual content.
• You shouldn’t inflate traffic by using any of those auto surf programs or click-exchange programs.
• You are allowed to share your ad space with other publishers and can even place multiple publishers’ ad code on the same page or site.
• Your AdSense code may not be altered or manipulated in any way for any reason.
• You’re not allowed to place Google ads in pop-unders, pop-ups, e-mails or software.
• You are allowed to place AdSense ads along with other ads (by another ad network) but they shouldn’t be using the same layout and colors as Google ads.
• You are allowed to place up to 3 individual ad units, 3 individual link units, and 2 search boxes per page.

Read the dos and don’ts while using Google trademarks and the full Google AdSense Program Policies and beginner’s guide.

If you have any specific question about AdSense’s program policy or terms then search the official Google AdSense Help or post your query on Google AdSense Forum where active forum users and more experienced AdSense publishers are there.

Google AdSense Program Policies: Everything You Need To Know is a post by Minterest

Is it really possible to make $100,000 a year from Google AdSense (or by selling ads on your website/blog)? If so, how much traffic do you really need to make big bucks with Google AdSense?

How Much Traffic Do You Really Need To Make Money With AdSense?

Let’s say you want to make $100,000 a year from Google AdSense and/or Google AdSense alternatives.

Read: 20+ Google AdSense Alternatives You Probably Don’t Know

$100,000 divided by 365 = $274 a day.

So, you have to create either: 274 pages which earns $1 a day OR 548 pages which earns 50 cents a day OR 1096 pages which earns 25 cents a day (which sounds reasonable, right?). Let’s say you have 1,096 high quality blogposts and you earn $0.25 per click from AdSense.

I have analyzed the traffic and AdSense stats (using Google Image Search) of several websites including my own blogs and websites.

Read: How To Find The Traffic Of (Almost) Any Website

From my analysis, I found that the average Page CTR is around 1%. But it really depends upon your niche, web site design and other factors. In fact I have achieved a Page CTR of over 20% in 2007 for a niche website and was making $100+ a day from Google AdSense alone.

Google AdSense Glossary

Page Views

A page view is what Google counts in your reports every time a user views a page displaying Google ads. We will count one page view regardless of the number of ads displayed on that page.

For example, if you have a page displaying three ad units and it is viewed twice, you will generate two page views.

Clicks

For standard content ads, Google count a click when a user clicks on an ad.

For link units, Google count a click when a user clicks on an ad on the page of ads, after selecting a link in the link unit.

Page Click Through Rate (Page CTR)

The Page Click Through Rate (CTR) is the number of ad clicks divided by the number of impressions or page views that you have received.

Page CTR = Clicks / Page Views

For example, if you received 5 Clicks from 100 Page Views, then your Page CTR would be 5%. (5/100*100=5%)

Cost Per Click (CPC)

The Cost Per Click (CPC) is the amount you earn each time a user clicks on your ad. The CPC for any ad is determined by the advertiser; some advertisers may be willing to pay more per click than others, depending on what they’re advertising.

Page Revenue Per Thousand Impressions (Page RPM)

Page Revenue Per Thousand Impressions (RPM) is calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views you received, then multiplying by 1000.

Page RPM = (Estimated Earnings / Number of Page Views) * 1,000

For example, if you earned an estimated $0.15 from 25 page views, then your page RPM would equal ($0.15 / 25) * 1000, or $6.00.

Estimated Earnings

Your account balance (or earnings) for the time period selected.

Source: Google AdSense Help

You can increase the Page CTR by using one of those high CTR WordPress Theme for Google AdSense. But I really wouldn’t recommend those WordPress themes as it will impact the user experience very negatively. Instead, you can focus on creating awesome content and driving more traffic so that it increases your Google AdSense earnings (or advertising revenues) naturally.

Now, let’s assume that you have a Page CTR of 1% and your average CPC is $0.25 (I believe it’s a quite achievable target unless your keywords have no advertiser competition – e.g. a recipe blog).

Some of the top paying AdSense niches are Finance, Internet Marketing, Technology, Web Hosting, Internet & Computers, Software, Health etc. and some of the lowest paying AdSense niches are Entertainment, Arts, Movies, Celebrity Gossips, News blog, Jokes, Wallpapers, Quotes, Recipes, Photo blogs etc.

So, You Want To Make $100,000 A Year With Google AdSense, Right?

As mentioned earlier $100,000 a year means you have to earn $274 a day. If your average CPC is $0.25 then you need 100,000/0.25 = 400,000 clicks a year (or approximately 1,000 clicks a day) to earn $100,000 a year from Google AdSense. Assuming that your Page CTR is 1% you need approximately 100,000 page views a day. Now, let’s say your “Bounce Rate” (it is the estimated percentage of visits to your website that consist of a single page view) is 100%. It means that you need 100,000 unique visitors a day itself to generate 100,000 page views a day.

In a nutshell, you need 100,000 visitors a day to make $100,000 a year from Google AdSense alone (with a CTR of 1% and CPC of $0.25).

But you are not using AdSense alone to monetize your website. Right? Let’s say you’re selling banner ads directly and is also selling CPM advertising which is an effective way to monetize your website.

Read: CPM Alternatives To Google AdSense

What are CPM ads?

CPM (Cost Per Mille) stands for Cost Per 1,000 Impressions. CPM networks pays for every 1,000 impressions you generate. If a CPM ad network is paying you $1 CPM then it means that they’re paying you $1 for every 1,000 page views you generate.

CPM Network earnings total depend upon your traffic quality but you can expect anywhere between $1 – $3 per 1,000 impressions. So, if you generate 100,000 page views a day then you can make $100 – $300 a day from CPM Networks. Again, you can earn $100 – $300 (or maybe even more) a day by selling banner ads directly to advertisers.

Now, you can split the traffic into three as you’re earning $300 each from 3 advertising networks. It means that you need 100,000/3=33,333 unique visitors a day (with a bounce rate of 100%) to make approximately $274/day.

Again, if you have an authority blog then your bounce rate will never be 100%. In that case you can expect an average page view of 1.5 per user. It means that 50% of your visitors exits from the landing page and others visit more than one page from your website.

All in all, you need approximately 20,000 visitors a day to generate 30,000+ page views and it can earn $274 a day which translates to $100,000 a year in advertising revenues. Need a little more help reaching that $100,000/year goal? Add commissions from Affiliate Programs as well into the equation and you can hit that $100,000 goal with much less traffic. In fact, in 2008 I was averaging $200+ a day from less than 200 daily unique visitors with affiliate marketing. It was possible because when it comes to affiliate marketing it’s all about traffic quality and not traffic quantity.

How Much Traffic Do You Need To Make $100,000 With Google AdSense is a post by Minterest

Google AdSense is undoubtedly the best advertising network out there which follows a pay-per-click advertising model. When AdSense was launched they were accepting almost all websites that comply with their Program Policies. But today, your website must not only comply with Google AdSense policies but must also comply with Google Webmaster Guidelines. Even then, Google is rejecting most of the applications as they are now accepting only quality websites with original content.

Google AdSense Alternative

Google AdSense is almost unassailable when it comes to monetization. Now, why wouldn’t you use AdSense? What are the alternatives to AdSense? Okay. You can consider these AdSense alternatives if they banned you for whatever reason or if you want to try something else or if you don’t want to depend on AdSense alone. You can place ads from almost all the below mentioned networks along with your Google AdSense ads. I have reviewed few pay-per-click ad networks, in-text ad networks and some CPM ad networks. If you’re looking for Cost Per Action (CPA) or Pay Per Lead (PPL) networks then check out the Top 10 Affiliate Networks for affiliate marketing which is again an alternative to Google AdSense.

1. BuySellAds

BuySellAds is an online advertising network where publishers can list their ad inventory. You get access to thousands of advertisers through their market place. The BuySellAds network supports web, mobile web, RSS, Tweets, apps (desktop, iOS, Android) and e-mail. BuySellAds is a good alternative to AdSense and is used by most professional bloggers.

Alexa Rank: #1,778

Minimum Payment Amount: $20 (PayPal); $50 (Check); $500 (Wire Transfer)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check, Wire Transfer

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression, Fixed Rate Banner Ads, Sponsored Tweets

BuySellAds: Sign Up | FAQ

2. Text Link Ads

Text Link Ads are unique because they are static html links that can drive targeted traffic and help your link popularity which is a top factor in organic search engine rankings. You can use Text Link Ads along with Google AdSense or any other ad networks.

Alexa Rank: #4,772

Minimum Payment Amount: No Minimum (PayPal, Payoneer); $25 (Check)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Payoneer, Check

Programs Offered: Fixed Rate Text Link Ads

Text Link Ads: Sign Up | FAQ

3. LinkWorth

LinkWorth is an alternative to Text Link Ads. Their products consist of text link ads, paid blog reviews, in-text ads, in-content pay per click ads, rotating text ads, hosted content pages and many more.

Alexa Rank: #9,035

Minimum Payment Amount: $25 (PayPal); $100 (Check, Wire Transfer, Direct Deposit)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check, Wire Transfer, Direct Deposit (US Only)

Programs Offered: Fixed Rate Text Link Ads

LinkWorth: Sign Up | FAQ

4. SponsoredReviews

SponsoredReviews is a blog advertising network that allows you to build backlinks, increase traffic and improve search engine rankings of your website. If you’re a blogger then you can make money by reviewing advertiser’s websites.

Alexa Rank: #2,605

Minimum Payment Amount: No Minimum

Payment Method(s): PayPal

Programs Offered: Fixed Rate Sponsored Reviews

SponsoredReviews: Sign Up | FAQ

5. ReviewMe

ReviewMe allows you to make money by reviewing products you find interesting. Price is determined by the reach of your blog. Reviews can range from $40 to $500 per review and it will be a one time fee.

Alexa Rank: #10,968

Minimum Payment Amount: No Minimum (PayPal); $25 (Check, Prepaid MasterCard)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check, ReviewMe Prepaid MasterCard

Programs Offered: Fixed Rate Sponsored Reviews

ReviewMe: Sign Up | FAQ

6. InfinityAds

InfinityAds (or Paypopup) is popular among Pop Under and Pop Up ads and they pay you for every thousand impressions shown on your website. The average payment rate according to their website is $1.80 per 1,000 impressions. All the websites gets auto approval and the minimum payout is just $5.

Alexa Rank: #17,278

Minimum Payment Amount: $5

Payment Method(s): Check, PayPal, Wire Transfer

Programs Offered: Cost Per View

InfinityAds: Sign Up | FAQ

7. Clicksor

Clicksor is one of the best Google AdSense alternative which allows publishers to display advertisements related to their website content by using their contextual technology. You can place Clicksor ads along with Google AdSense ads and can even set minimum prices for CPV, CPC, CPM and CPI ads. The ad formats include Inline Text Links, Text banners, Graphical banners, Pop-unders and Interstitial ads. You receive up to 85% of the ad income and can earn extra income by referring other publishers. Clicksor pays 10% additional income every time you refer a publisher or advertiser to Clicksor network.

Alexa Rank: #144

Minimum Payment Amount: $50 (PayPal, Check); $1,000 (Wire Transfer)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check, Wire Transfer

Programs Offered: Cost Per Click, Cost Per Impression

Clicksor: Sign Up | FAQ

8. BidVertiser

BidVertiser is another top alternative to Google AdSense which pays you for valid clicks on ads placed on your website as well as for conversions generated from those clicks. You display ads on your website or blog and advertisers bid against each other so that you earn the maximum cost per click.

Alexa Rank: #1,512

Minimum Payment Amount: $10 (PayPal); $100 (Check)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check

Programs Offered: Cost Per Click

BidVertiser: Sign Up | FAQ

9. adBrite

adBrite is another Google AdSense alternative that shares 75% of the ad revenue with you and is open to small as well as large publishers. They have text ads, banner ads and full page ads. Text ads are paid out on a Cost Per Click (CPC) basis, banner ads are paid out on a Cost Per Mille (CPM) or CPC basis and full page ads are paid out on a Cost Per View (CPV) basis. All campaign ads (CPM, CPV and CPC ads) are auctioned based so the highest paying ad available is always displayed.

Alexa Rank: #2,089

Minimum Payment Amount: $100

Payment Method(s): Check

Programs Offered: Cost Per Click, Cost Per Impression, Cost Per View

adBrite: Sign Up | FAQ

10. Chitika

Chitika is an online advertising network that allows publishers to display ads on their website, blog, app or mobile site. They offers publishers and advertisers user targeted, search targeted, mobile and local ads for websites, blogs, apps and mobile sites. Most publishers consider Chitika and adBrite as a perfect alternative to Google AdSense.

Alexa Rank: #2,714

Minimum Payment Amount: $10 (PayPal); $50 (Check)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check

Programs Offered: Cost Per Click

Chitika: Sign Up | FAQ

In-Text Advertising Networks

In-Text advertising can’t be considered as an alternative to Google AdSense but you can use it along with AdSense or any other contextual ad networks like BidVertiser or Clicksor.

11. Infolinks

Infolinks is the leader in in-text advertising which offers 70% revenue share even if you’re a newbie blogger. Infolinks follows a pay-per-click advertising model. Whenever a visitor hovers over one of these double-underlined words, an ad related to what they’re reading appears and you get paid every time a reader clicks on one of those ads.

Alexa Rank: #791

Minimum Payment Amount: $50 (PayPal, eCheck, Payoneer); $100 (Wire Transfer, Western Union)

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Wire Transfer, eCheck, Western Union, Payoneer

Programs Offered: Cost Per Click

Infolinks: Sign Up | FAQ

12. Kontera

Kontera discovers the best editorial content and dynamically delivers brands’ advertising, content and social assets for optimal results. Their In Text ads are a highly effective and profitable online advertising solution for websites and blogs.

Alexa Rank: #7,914

Minimum Payment Amount: $50

Payment Method(s): Check, PayPal, Wire Transfer

Programs Offered: Cost Per Click

Kontera: Sign Up | FAQ

In-Image Advertising Networks

13. Luminate

Luminate makes images interactive. They offer an Image App Platform, which enables consumers to conduct their favorite online activities such as shopping, sharing, commenting and navigating directly from a picture. Luminate publishers can offer innovative consumer features that increase audience engagement, website traffic and drive incremental revenue.

Alexa Rank: #15,006

Minimum Payment Amount: $10

Payment Method(s): Check, PayPal

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

Luminate: Sign Up | FAQ

14. GumGum

GumGum is one of the largest in-image advertising (In-image advertising is a term used to describe targeted ads overlaid on images) platform, reaching over 150 million unique users worldwide. GumGum doesn’t require any minimum number of visitors but they require at least 500,000 monthly page views targeting U.S. based audience.

Alexa Rank: #51,164

Minimum Payment Amount: $50

Payment Method(s): Check, PayPal

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

GumGum: Sign Up | FAQ

15. Direct Advertising

Direct Advertising is most effective way to monetize your website and it can earn you a lot of money. All you need to do is to create an “Advertise” page on your blog or website with your Google PageRank, Alexa Traffic Rank, Traffic Statistics (by Google Analytics) and the available ad formats with their rates per month.

Looking For CPM Alternatives To Google AdSense?

CPM (Cost Per Mille) stands for Cost Per 1,000 Impressions. Unlike Google AdSense which pays for only clicks, CPM networks pays for every 1,000 impressions you generate. It means that if a CPM ad network is paying you $1 CPM then it means that they’re paying you $1 for every 1,000 page views you generate. CPM Ads are the best Google AdSense alternative since you make guaranteed income from your traffic.

16. CPX Interactive

CPX Interactive monetizes ad inventory for publishers ranging from the most high profile destinations, to those “best-kept secrets” that quietly deliver the highest ROIs. CPX Interactive supports in-page display, flash, rich media, video pre-roll and text ad units.

Alexa Rank: #5,602

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression, Cost Per Click, Cost Per Action

CPX Interactive: Sign Up | FAQ

17. ValueClick Media

ValueClick Media is one of the leader in online advertising – across display, mobile and video. They does not accept web sites that generate less than 3,000 page views per month but that seems reasonable when compared to Tribal Fusion’s minimum requirement of 500,000 unique users per month (that’s the reason why I excluded Tribal Fusion from this list).

Alexa Rank: #8,305

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

ValueClick Media: Sign Up

18. Burst Media

Burst Media gives you high CPMs, quality campaigns and full control of which ads run on your site.

Alexa Rank: #13,807

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

Burst Media: Sign Up

19. ContextWeb

ContextWeb is one of the top CPM (Cost Per Mille) Network that exists today. With ContextWeb you can set your own prices. Set your current eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) so that the advertisers compete to beat your current eCPM. If they don’t beat your current eCPM then it will show backup ads from other networks like Google AdSense. So, you’ll always make the maximum money when you work with ContextWeb.

Alexa Rank: #14,643

Minimum Payment Amount: $50

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check, Electronic Funds Transfer (US Only)

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

ContextWeb: Sign Up | FAQ

20. Vibrant Media

Vibrant Media have over 6,000 premium publishers, reaching over 250 million unique users per month. Some of the products are Vibrant Image, Vibrant In-Text Ads, Vibrant Display, Vibrant Related Content and Vibrant Lightbox.

Alexa Rank: #17,635

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression, Cost Per Click

Vibrant Media: Sign Up | FAQ

21. Say Media

Say Media sells big brand advertising that runs on your property and pays you when users engage.

Alexa Rank: #18,313

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

Say Media: Sign Up

22. Gorilla Nation

Gorilla Nation sells advertisements on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model to advertisers and agencies around the globe.

Alexa Rank: #19,477

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

Gorilla Nation: Sign Up | FAQ

23. Technorati Media

Technorati Media is one of largest social media advertising network which accepts sites with great original content and deliver targeted campaigns from top brands at high CPMs.

Alexa Rank: #20,493

Minimum Payment Amount: $50

Payment Method(s): PayPal, Check

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

Technorati Media: Sign Up | FAQ

24. Casale Media

Casale Media is a CPM Network that maximizes digital media value for the world’s leading publisher and advertiser brands. They pay the publisher 70% of the advertising revenue and retain 30% for its services.

Alexa Rank: #20,904

Minimum Payment Amount: $25

Payment Method(s): Check, PayPal

Programs Offered: Cost Per Impression

Casale Media: Sign Up

Now, what’s your favorite Google AdSense alternative?

24 Google AdSense Alternatives You Probably Don’t Know is a post by Minterest

Quick — How Does Google Make Money?

When it comes to Microsoft we all know how they make money. Most of their revenue comes from the flagship products – Microsoft Windows & Microsoft Office. As you can see from the chart, Windows & Office sales accounts for 60% of Microsoft’s revenue. But have you ever wondered how Google makes money?

I have asked many of my friends about Google’s business model. But no one exactly knows how Google makes money.

Thirty seven billion dollars ($37 bn). Guess what? That’s the 2011 revenue of the search engine giant Google. But how is that really possible when they don’t have any tangible products or when they don’t charge a penny for most of their products/services? Then, where does this revenue come from? Well, it’s advertising, and again advertising – Google AdWords & Google AdSense to be precise. In fact 97% of Google’s revenue is from advertising.

Who is actually spending these billions on search ads? The following info graphics is the answer – Google Revenue Sources & Breaking Down Google’s 2011 Revenues.

But Wait, I Don’t See Any Ads On Google

Google’s homepage is almost empty with no contents or ads. (Reason?). And, everything you use from them is absolutely free whether it’s Search, Gmail, Orkut, YouTube, Apps, Docs, Picasa, Maps, Earth, News, Analytics, Blogger or the so called 101 Google Products And Services You Probably Don’t Know. Then how the hell do they make big bucks?

It’s all about advertising. Google has a very popular auction based advertising program called – Google AdWords. With Google AdWords you can advertise your business on Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page). That is where all the revenue comes from.

If you have noticed carefully during any of your searches on Google, there is a section called “Ads”. These are obviously contributions by advertisers who pay Google every time you click on any of those. So if you search for “loans” or say “insurance” on Google then you’ll  find ads relevant to loans or insurance itself.

The following screenshot shows the ads appeared when I searched for “car insurance”.

That’s not all. Google has an advertising program called – Google AdSense – that allows publishers like me (and probably you) to make money by displaying relevant ads on our website/blog. When it comes to monetizing every webmaster/publishers prefers Google AdSense.

It’s Really A Win-Win-Win Situation

The thought of making money without any tangible products can be difficult to absorb but its essence lies in Google’s innovation. Google gets the money from their advertisers. And, the advertiser pays only when someone clicks on their ad. This is contrary to traditional banner advertising where advertisers are required to pay whenever their ad is displayed on a banner network. The consumer who is searching for a particular product sees only relevant ads. So it is this advertising that creates a win win win situation for Google, Advertisers & Consumers.

If You Still Don’t Know How Does Google Make Money

In Google’s Own Words…

Today, the majority of our revenue comes from advertising.

Advertisers are increasingly turning to the Internet to market their products and services. Google AdWords, our auction-based advertising program, enables advertisers to deliver relevant ads targeted to search queries or web content to potential customers across Google sites and through the Google Network, which consists of content owners and websites. Our proprietary technology automatically matches ads to the content of the page on which they appear, and advertisers pay us either when a user clicks on one of its ads or based on the number of times their ads appear on the Google Network.

We distribute our advertisers’ AdWords ads for display on the Google Network through our AdSense program. We share most of the revenue generated from ads shown on a site of a Google Network member with that member.

Source: Google Investor Relations

Okay. So How Much Does Google AdWords Charge Per Click?

The price an advertiser pays for a click (known as Cost Per Click or simply CPC) usually depends on a lot of factors. Google is using a kind of bidding system. You select the keywords for which you want to show ads so that when someone searches for those keywords on Google, your ads will be shown.

Let’s say you own an insurance company and want to find customers. What you do is bid on keywords related to “Insurance” like “buy insurance, life insurance etc. So whenever someone searches for “buy insurance” or “life insurance” your ads will be shown.

The price you need to pay Google depends on the competition for that particular keyword(s). Now if there are many other companies bidding for the same keyword then most probably you’ll have to outbid them. The Cost Per Click (CPC) varies from 0.01$ to 100$ or maybe even more.

Holy Google! Advertisers are paying as high as $50 per click for insurance, mortgages and loans related keywords.

Did You Know?

About 69% of Google’s revenue comes from ads running on Google’s own websites including Google, YouTube, and Orkut, about 28% of the total revenue comes from ads running on Google’s partner sites via Google AdSense. And the rest comes from Google Apps subscriptions, Gmail paid storage, Google search appliance sales, etc.

The most bizarre thing about Google’s business is that they hardly have any tangible products. Then what is it that they sell? Traffic, yes you got it right, they sell real traffic.

So now you know that the biggest search engine is also the biggest advertising company in the world. Do you want to advertise your business on Google? You can kick start your trial campaign with a $75 FREE Credit from AdWords. Read (Free Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising Credits).

How Does Google Make Money? is a post by Minterest