Adsense vs. Affiliate products

which nets you more profit?

[kellyandsummer]

I'm debating on whether or not to add Adsense ads to our site which features links to sites we are affiliated with. We currently receive all visitors via PPC, and push the traffic to the sites we are affiliated with.

I'd like to know the experience of others who have this type of site and use (or have used) adsense. Do you lose affiliate revenue by displaying adsense banners, or do you see an increase in overall revenue?

Just trying to weigh whether or not to push both, or just stick with affiliate sites.

Thanks.

[diamondgrl]

What kind of site do you run? Is it text-heavy? What theme is it? That can have a huge influence on the decision.

[europeforvisitors]

Do you lose affiliate revenue by displaying adsense banners, or do you see an increase in overall revenue?

I've found that AdSense has the lowest CTR on the pages of my site that generate the most affiliate sales. And when I've tested sctions of my site with and without AdSense, I haven't been able to discern any difference in affiliate sales.

Certainly I'm earning far more with a combination of affiliate links and AdSense than I ever did with affiliate links only. That's probably because I have an editorial site with diverse content: Because many of my pages don't have related affiliate links, AdSense lets me monetize subtopics that normally wouldn't produce revenues on their own.

[david_uk]

I didn't make much from affilliates, so I removed them from the site. Google however, does me proud!

My site topic doesn't have many related products (apart from maybe one or two books) that could be sold, therefore affiliates don't work work for me personally.

[Custodian]

I'm in a similar situation as europeforvisitors. I have a large site with diverse content.

AdSense Gives me revenue I wouldn't have otherwise. I haven't detected a loss in affiliate sales.

Custodian.

[lammert]

If your site attracts a lot of international visitors adsense can also be a benefit. Google displays advertisments based on geographic location of the website visitors so you might be able to generate profit in countries which would not have been possible with static affiliate links.

As you were saying that most visitors are comming through PPC this might not have a large effect in your specific case.

For me adding adsense caused a huge revenue increased as I am in Europe and used only Europe based affiliate links until now.

[wrgvt]

Last year I made 20 times more in affiliate sales than I made from AdSense. That was profit after subtracting AdWords expenses for driving traffic to my web sites.

[hunderdown]

I added AdSense to my site a little over a year ago. Up till then it had only had affiliate links, mainly to Amazon.

My affiliate income has gone up, AdSense has done very well, and I've more than doubled my income. You can have both--and sometimes on the same page.

Of course, as others have said, it depends on your site and your visitors. But why not give it a try?

[Tutorialized]

I run both, and at times I've made both my featured ad. What I've discovered with my site is I do much better with adsense (about 10 to 20x better). Each site is different, and your approach to affiliate ads are different to adsense ads. Meaning, with adsense, your goal is to get a click, with affiliates, your goal is to get a sale (cpa). 1,000 affiliate clicks don't pay unless they convert, 1,000 adsense clicks will pay every time.

[Rodney]

Adsense vs. Affiliate products

I've never fully understood the reasoning for this question.

There's no reason to put one "versus" the other when you can do both at the same time and get profit from both.

[kellyandsummer]

Thanks for all of the input.

I run a site that reviews the top 10 "widgets", and then includes an affiliate link to those sites. Placing an adsense ad on my site may redirect my visitors to the adsense ad instead of my affiliate links, thus resulting in a decrease in affiliate commissions. In this case, it would only make sense for me to do so if the adsense revenue over-compensated for the loss of affiliate commissions.

That is why I'm asking if people notice higher revenue from their affiliate commissions or from adsense ads, or both. My site is text heavy and only reviews 10 products. I'm currently doing $2K profit daily with this site, with 12,000-14,000 daily unique visitors.

I have never considered adsense until now.

[europeforvisitors]

Every situation is different, so why not do a test? Google doesn't require a minimum number of impressions or a long-term commitment, so you can pull the AdSense code from your pages if you aren't happy with the results.

[diamondgrl]

If I had to guess, it sounds like you are doing pretty well with affiliates and that you are not likely to do as well with Adsense. But it's not so clear a case that I wouldn't run a test.

With that number of users, you may be able to get a good sample in two or three days. Try to design it so that you are running Adsense on 50% of the pages and no Adsense on 50%. Then you can compare revenues.

If your conversion rate for the affs is not high but you get paid a large amount per conversion, it might take longer to get a good sample, though. Calculate the margin of error and make sure the revenue difference is outside the margin of error.

[kellyandsummer]

I agree, it seems a test it necessary.

Can I ask what some of you out there are making monthly in adsense revenue?

Thanks,

Kelly

[diamondgrl]

Some out here are making tens of thousands a month and some are making dollars per month. All depends on niche, ad placement, targetted content, etc.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful but none of us are supposed to be based on TOS.

[danny]

These days I make around 3x as much from Amazon (US, UK, and DE) as I do from AdSense. But I'm a book reviewer, I don't think those figures are typical!

[kellyandsummer]

After 2 full days of using adsense text ads in the middle of my review pages, I'm seeing a $300-$400 drop off in daily revenue, while only earning $100-$150 per day from adsense. I'm going to try placing them at the bottom of the page instead.

[diamondgrl]

Sounds like a potentially wise move given the large difference. But be sure to keep in mind a couple of things.

First, unlike some other forms of advertising, you can optimize Adsense with precise formatting. Making the border of the ad the same color as your background. Optimizing other colors.

Second, your ad targeting might grow over time as Google figures out what ads should go on the site.

It probably is wise to move it down lower for now, but once the ads are well-targeted and once you have a little more experience playing with other variables, then run it back where you had it and see if that improves things.

[FromRocky]

Kellyandsummer,

Based on your information, I know what the product you're reviewing is. This product offers through both CJ (& BeFree) and Clickbank. You said:

I'm currently doing $2K profit daily with this site, with 12,000-14,000 daily unique visitors.

That means you got over 150$ net profit per 1000 unique visitors. It's an exceptional high. I won't be supprised to learn that most of these unique visitors are from the PPC engines such as AdWords and Overture. If this is true, forget adding AdSense to your review site. You can not expected to receive the same level you're getting. This is my experience with this type of return.

[CalArch90]

I think you need to try out both to see what works for your site. It may be that one works better than the other, or that the combination of the two together works best for your site.

You should be able to determine what works and doesn't within a few months of trying them out.

As for me, I find affiliate earnings to be so minimal that it's not even worth it for me. On the other hand, I've been very successful with Adsense.

I have the feeling that in most cases, this is typical, but there are some who say they do well with affiliate programs, so you won't know until you test them out.

[rfung]

I'm currently doing $2K profit daily with this site, with 12,000-14,000 daily unique visitors.

This is obviously pretty good money. Is it organic SERPS or PPC, or both?

If it's PPC, mind sharing what's the profit percentage on expenses?

[kellyandsummer]

rfung,

Typically we spend $2,000-$2,500 daily on ppc to bring in a revenue of $5K.

Kelly

[FromRocky]

I won't be supprised to learn that most of these unique visitors are from the PPC engines such as AdWords and Overture.

Typically we spend $2,000-$2,500 daily on ppc to bring in a revenue of $5K.

So my suspicion is correct.

[rfung]

Kelly,

in your experience, do you find Overture more profitable (i.e cpc/conversions) vs Adwords? any take on that?

[kellyandsummer]

We've found that Overture gives us a better ROI, but that Adwords is much easier to work with. Sometimes, getting legitimate keywords approved w/ Overture is like pulling teeth. And we're a platinum Overture advertiser. About 70% of our expense goes to Google.

[rfung]

so, which one posts to these threads, is it Kelly or Summer? :)

[kellyandsummer]

Both! :)

[ItsInThePost]

What are you doing to track the sales made via Overture or Google?

Did the Ad at the bottom of the page workout any better?

[kellyandsummer]

The only way I've been able to test the affiliate sales from Google versus Overture is to turn off adwords for a day and see the sales, then vice versa.

Regarding the adsense ad now at the bottom of the page, something interesting has happened. Its now making us close to $200/day, and affiliate sales are back to normal, actually better than normal. So, we'll leave it at the bottom for now. We may try it back in the middle or top again in another week or so, once we're sure google has calculated serving the best ads for our site.

[Fred Mercury]

Does anyone know what products Kelly and Summer are reviewing?

FromCocky said on the Jan 15 th
"Based on your information, I know what the product you're reviewing is. This product offers through both CJ (& BeFree) and Clickbank"

I mailed FromCocky asking him and he hasnt got back to me yet.