AdSense vs. Traffic Problem

[jdegg79]

I've been earning from AdSense for about 18 months and earnings have been very consistent and "predictable" However, I increased my AdWords spending to generate more traffic and my number of visitors has gone up around 30% each day but my AdSense earnings have remained exactly the same, thus profits went down. In the past my AdSense was alway closely tied to advertising, but this is my 4th attempt over a period of 2 months to increase spending and it never seems to make a bit of difference - sales just don't budge. If I lower AdWords below the "normal" level than sales fall but if I raise above "normal" they just stay the same. Any advice or ideas? Thanks all!

[incrediBILL]

Be careful, you're doing arbitrage, you could lose both your AdWords and AdSense accounts if you don't meet certain highly subjective criteria.

[adwords.google.com...]

Beyond this, do the math, your ads are being smart-priced by AdWords so you're going to pay about the same as the next guy because your site isn't being valued any more for certain topics.

They won't charge you $0.05 and the next guy $0.50 for the same topic on the same site, the old days are over, you need to find a different ad network to get in cheaper than the other advertisers because pitting AdWords vs AdWords for the same site isn't as lucrative as it used to be IMO.

Others may know loopholes to this problem, I don't.

[Lame_Wolf]

Apart from what incrediBILL said, and I agree with...

sales just don't budge

You are either attracting the wrong type of visitor, or you will have to look at your site with a fresh pair of eyes. If people are coming and not buying, then the problem is closer to home.

[CMidd]

your targeting the wrong customers. Optimize your adwords.

[Jaideemaak]

Every time I sign out of my AdSense account Google tells me that I have logged out and then gives me five links. The first is 'Drive traffic to your site with Google AdWords'.

If Google is suggesting to its AdSense publishers every time they log out that they use AdWords to get more traffic to their sites, why is this necessarily arbitrage?

I'm not being contentious. This is a very civilised forum with lots of good advice, but I am just curious as to why something Google is apparently promoting should be seen by some people as a bad thing that could possibly get you banned.

Obviously, if AdWords is just being used to direct people to MFA web sites with no content and lots of ads, that is one thing, but if the site is genuine I don't see why there should be an issue using both AdSense and Adwords.

The statement, "You're doing arbitrage," without knowing the site in question seems a little harsh.

Incidentally, I don't use AdWords myself.

[netmeg]

It's not all THAT harsh, given how often it's done; it's probably more likely than not. And jdegg79, why would you think that anyone would really want to click on an AdWords ad, land on your page, and then click on ANOTHER AdWords ad? If you're spending money to drive traffic just to send them off again, that's kind of a zero sum game. The users aren't going to like it, the advertisers aren't going to like it, and eventually when Google catches on, they might not like it either.

Upping your AdWords traffic is probably a pretty poor choice for deriving AdSense income; I'd look at other methods.

That said - I've driven AdWords traffic to sites that were primarily monetized with AdSense. But the sites also had a lot of content as well, and the landing page had NO AdSense. I was building organics at the time and wanted a jump start, and I might just do it again on some new sites, if the circumstances call for it. It *can* be done (carefully), and with Google's blessing. But if you're driving PPC traffic to a landing page where the focus is on getting them to click on the big fat AdSense block at the top of your (possibly thin) content, well, that might raise a red flag at the Plex.

[cien]

Jaideemaak, Google is not fair. Don't take anything out of that message you see when you log out as it doesn't mean what you think. What you are doing is regarded by Google as arbitrage. It doesn't matter whether your site is MFA or an interesting one. I'd read their Adwords rules carefully as well as Adsense's.

I'm not being contentious. This is a very civilised forum with lots of good advice, but I am just curious as to why something Google is apparently promoting should be seen by some people as a bad thing that could possibly get you banned.

At least I know you are not being contentious. I don't think anybody is saying that Adwords is a bad thing. Mixing Adwords with Adsense is, for obvious reasons. Promotion doesn't mean violation of Google programs/service's rules. Google promotes many services and products. Each product/service has its own own agreements, rules.

[Jaideemaak]

Google isn't fair. Life isn't fair! Thanks for your replies, but I'm still not totally convinced of the argument that (unequivocally) AdSense + AdWords = Arbitrage.

Let's hypothesise that someone has the best site in the world for a certain subject. They want to monetise it and so they use AdSense. However, no one knows about this great site, the search engines haven't picked it up, and consequently there are very few visitors. To try to fix this the owner embarks on an AdWords campaign.

He is using AdSense and AdWords for the purpose the products were intended for, and not for anything sinister or underhanded. He isn't using AdWords just to get visitors to his site so that they immediately leave by clicking on an AdSense ad.

I take all your points and accept that those with experience of AdWords know better (I have none).

Nutmeg's comments about having lots of content and not having any AdSense on an AdWords landing page sound like very sensible ones.

[incrediBILL]

The statement, "You're doing arbitrage," without knowing the site in question seems a little harsh.

Go back and read.

I said it in a cautionary way since Google has cracked down on arbitrage to be careful.

Besides, when the topic is the OP saying if he pumps more into AdWords then his AdSense goes down, what would you call it?

[CMidd]

Jaideemaak

Adwords Arbitrage is cut and dry.

A sites only goal is to grab cheap keywords and push to the a page full of higher paying keywords "Parked domain, extreme MFA sites".

If you have a regular site that is ranking you are probably not doing Arbitrage just trying to bring in my visitors.

Don't worry about it.

Just using Adsense + Adwords doesn't imply Abritage.

Even big brands like Expedia, Trip Advisor etc using Adword, and have Adsense.

If you page was just full of ads and you bid on Adword then you would be in violations. If you have a real site, and want to increase visitor, then that the goal of adword "regardless of you monetization strategy"

You will find that this board favor the side of extreme caution when it come to Adsense TOS.