AdSense is perhaps the biggest online advertisement network
that is available to publishers from all over the world! It allows online
publishers, such as blog owners, to monetize their websites by putting up text,
image, video as well as rick-media advertisements that are relevant to the
site’s content, as well as being targeted towards its audience.
So while it might be the biggest ad network out there, is it
the best? That is debatable, at best. Yes, it does have its advantages, and
offers certain features that other ad networks or alternatives don’t (such as
having the biggest base of advertisers behind it).
However there are instances where I genuinely believe
AdSense falls short, here are 10 of them:
No.1: Clicks aren’t really worth a lot
Small blogs, especially those with less than 500 daily
visitors, might find that it is a struggle to really earn a lot of money with
AdSense. Initially, it’s a real struggle to make even a few dollars, and it
might make bloggers question whether it’s even worth it or not. In fact, it
might not even be enough to pay for your domain-name renewal or hosting
expenses! Seriously, how many times have you heard someone tell you that
they’re making a killing off AdSense?
No.2: The CPMs are weak
AdSense CPMs are pretty weak. Yes, the CPMs have pretty much
dropped universally, however AdSense offers the lowest in the industry today –
while CPCs as an advertiser being extremely high. When you consider the fact
that AdSense refuses to publicly share the percentage of revenue that they
share with publishers, you cannot help but wonder if AdSense users are really
getting what they should be.
No. 3: AdSense ads look pretty terrible
I’ll be honest here, AdSense ad, at times, look absolutely
hideous. You cannot customize the ads beyond choosing the size of the ad, or
the background color of the ad space, and some of the ads look pretty
out-of-place and downright distracting – making the blog or the website
unprofessional. With the resources available at Google’s disposal, you would
thing that they would be able to come up with something that is perhaps a bit
better designed!
No. 4: There really is no approval criteria, is there?
While AdSense might seemingly be extremely strict and stringent
about who they let into the program, and are adamant that only if a website
complies with the company’s terms of service will it be allowed into the
program, that really doesn’t seem to be the case – what with a plethora of
low-quality website using AdSense out there! What’s really surprising is that
most of these websites seem to be littered with ads and are clearly violating
AdSense rules and regulations.
No.5: The payout rate is very high
The payout rate currently is a $100, and that is a problem –
most small blogs and small publishers, with low traffic, will either take ages
to get there, or won’t reach the payout limit and simply give up on AdSense
altogether (what happens to the money already in the account in this case?).
No. 6: Irrelevant or untargeted ads
This is one of the big problems with AdSense; often times,
your website will be end up with ads that are unrelated to its content or its
subject matter. These untargeted ads are not related to your website at all,
and hence have extremely poor CTRs.
No. 7: Some visitors might not like ad-littered website
And this isn’t an AdSense-specific problem, it’s a general
problem with any website that has advertisements on it. Too many ads, or ads
that might prove to be a nuisance may put drive visitors away from your blog.
No.8: Account termination remains a real possibility
AdSense is notorious for terminating accounts for seemingly
no good reason (or odd reasons), and there have been plenty of cases where
accounts were terminated right before reaching the payout rate. Once you’ve
been banned, there’s little or no chance of getting it revoked (even if you
appeal), so you’re essentially out of luck, even if it’s through no fault of
your own.
No.9: No money for impressions
AdSense is strictly a CPC-based (per-click based) service,
which means you earn exactly $0 if your AdSense ads are not clicked. Other ad
networks usually give you money for impressions, as well as per-click, but
AdSense doesn’t. Well, apart from the occasional couple of cents or so, which
doesn’t happen very often.
No. 10: Alternatives
There are some great (better?) AdSense alternatives
available out there, that might be worthwhile to explore or look into. Some of
these ad networks are much better suited to blogs belonging to specific niches,
and some might even get you targeted ads, better CPM/CPC, lower payout rates
and more money!
Disclaimer: I’m not looking to hate on AdSense, and the fact
is that it has worked well for probably thousands of blogs and publishers out
there. But as we’ve seen, that is not to say that it doesn’t come with its set
of flaws or disadvantages, and it might be worthwhile to look at other
alternatives in order to monetize your website.
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