Customize to Maximize

Besides all the other things you have been told so far about how to create and maintain your website in order to make the most from AdSense, you still have to learn how to customize AdSense to make it work for you to get the click thru.

The customization features of AdSense allow you to turn the AdSense ads into something that fits right into your website and allows you to control the ads so they work for you and not against you.

Remember the big draw back to banner ads was that they often worked against a website since they were not controlled at all by the website owner. With AdSense you are in control and you have to make sure that you take advantage of that.

Customizing AdSense will help you to encourage the click thru so you can make money. Through customization you will be able to get to the customer in the way you need to in order to get them to click your ads.

Through customizing your AdSense ads you can set up your website to encourage click thrus without being tricky or breaking any rules.

There are several points about AdSense customization that you need to focus on. The following sections explain more about how you can use each customization option to make AdSense earn you more money.

Formatting

The ability to format your AdSense ads is what makes AdSense so special. Rarely do you get the opportunity to say what an ad looks like that is displayed on your website. You usually have little or no control. With AdSense you get to choose the way the ad looks so it fits in with your website and does not stand out as an ad.

There are various areas of an AdSense ad that you control. You can customize the following formatting:

• size
• color
• border style

Size:

You are given choices in the sizes of the ads. The three top size choices are 300x250, 160x600 and 728x90. To give you an idea of how these display on your website here is a brief description of each:

• 300x250: Fits within content with the same size from right to left.
• 160x600: Sets either to the left or the right of the screen running up and down along the screen.
• 728x90: Can be within content or at the top of the page. Runs like text.

The reasons that you want to focus in on these three sizes are that they are the most popular so you will have more advertisers offering ads in these sizes, all three allow for text, image and video ads and they have proven to perform the best.

Color:

You get to format the color of everything of your ad. You can choose the text, border and background colors. You want to choose colors that work with your website.

It is smart to actually format the colors to make the ad look like it is part of your website and not an ad at all. Choosing colors that work can be a little technical. You have to really think about your web page and think about what works. You want to try to match the colors as best as possible,but you also do not want the ad to just fade away and become more words on the screen.

When you choose colors you should choose colors that match with the colors on your site. You can try the following color combinations:

• - match the background and border of the ad to the backgroundof your page
• - match the link color of the ad with the link color on your page
• - match the color of the ad text with the text color of your page.

As you can see you are creating the color in the ad to make the ad appear like it is part of your page. You want to give the illusion that the ad is not an ad at all, but a part of your website.

Border Style:

You get border choices with AdSense but there are two styles that seem to work the best – borderless or rounded. Borderless works best when you are trying to integrate the ad into the website.

If you want to have some sense of separation then you can go with a rounded boarder. The sharp edged, square style borders do not tend to perform as well.

You can also choose how many ads you want to run on each page. Google limits you to using three. The number of units you use is completely a personal choice. Some people choose to maximize their abilities and use all three. Other people find that one ad works just fine.

You should experiment and see what number of ads works best with your website. It never hurts to give each option a try. Ultimately, though, you want to avoid having your website turn into an ad packed site. It is always best to go with less and add more if you feel you need it.

Keywords

Another customization option and something that makes AdSense stand out is that AdSense ads are targeted to the content on your website. Usually with ads you get what you get. You can not make sure that the ads work with your content, but with AdSense that has changed.

Being able to target ads to your website allows you more control and more ability to make money. When you are showing ads on your website that work with the content on your website you

know the ads target your audience. There is more chance that a visitor will click an ad, thus more chance you will earn money.

Google uses keywords to help target the ads to your content. That is why there is such a focus on choosing the right keywords and doing so much research to find the best keywords.

No matter what you read about AdSense you will always hear about choosing keywords and get tons of pointers and tips on how to choose the perfect keywords.

There are many schools of thought about choosing keywords, but as mentioned earlier you have to choose the keywords that will offer you the most pay. This does not mean the highest paying keywords, but the keywords that pay out the most.

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