AdSense Referrals - where you introduce visitors to products like Google Pack, Google Apps, Firefox, etc. - can be an excellent source of revenue if you get them right.
In the last three months, our income from AdSense Referrals has nearly tripled (see graph) and is now at par with revenue generated from AdSense for Search program. Want to learn the trick ?
There aren’t any secret recipes - you first need to find products that will appeal more to your visitors. For instance, photography blogs will have better ore success with Picasa while technology blogs will get more conversions with Google Pack and Firefox.
Use Text Links: Google provides Referrals in both image and text format but I would recommend using the text format as they fit any area and blend extremely well with the content. You can even change the font size of AdSense units.
Now comes the part that will help you significantly boost your AdSense income from Referrals:
Pick the Right Text Link: For every Google Product, you have a variety of text links to choose from. For example, Google Pack is available in six variations.
Since it is nearly impossible for anyone to guess which of these six text links will work best on their blog, you should create individual channels for each of them. The channel names can be constructed using the words in the text link to avoid confusions later.
Here’s a snapshot from my "Manage AdSense Channels" page - the "google-pack-get-essential-sw" channel name corresponds to - "Get Essential Software with Google Pack" - and so on.
The next step is AdSense Split Testing where we rotate all these text links (same product but different language) at one place. Here’s a sample code to help you implement an AdSense split test for referrals:
google_ad_output = "textlink";
google_ad_format = "ref_text";
google_ad_client = "pub-1234";
google_cpa_choice = ""; // on file
var labnolcpa = Math.random();
if (labnolcpa <= .3) {
google_ad_slot = "1234";
} else if (labnolcpa > .3 && labnolcpa <= .6) {
google_ad_slot = "7890";
} else if (labnolcpa > .6) {
google_ad_slot = "5583";
}
After you run this test for few days, go to your AdSense Reports (Advanced), choose Referrals in the product and show performance by Channel data. Find the text links that aren’t working so well and eliminate them from your slip test. Repeat.
And after three such iterations, you will find the right ad(s) that convert best on your website. That’s how it worked for me.
Related: More AdSense Optimization Tips
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/blogging/adsense-referrals-tips-increase-revenue-with-firefox-google-pack-picasa/2815/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
HI !
Thanks for this nice post .
Hoping for more Adsense Tips in future !!
Written by ArpitNext on 04.03.08
But Adsense sent an email sometime back that Adsense referrals are not available in India.
Then how do you earn via these referrals ?
Written by Network Weblogs on 04.03.08
This is awesome..I have one question out of this post.If possible please answer it.If somebody searches in my blog and he does not get any post he is looking for then how will i know what he was trying to search for .I want to know the exact keywords entered by him.Is there any way to do it?Please help.
Written by Technology Hacker on 04.03.08
Thanks Amit, I will give it a try..
Written by Ganesh Shenoy on 04.03.08
Thanks Amit, Very Good Article.
Written by Shodan Nayak on 04.03.08
I heard the same that Adsense Referals are no more available in india.
Written by Abhishek Goyal on 04.03.08
The referrals are probably not available for users visiting the sites from India, and if your blog is visited by people outside India, it would still show referral ads (I think).
Also, all these tips are nice but for you make any significant analysis like these, you need traffic which most of us don’t have. I get only about 100 visitors a day on my blog.
Written by Vaibhav on 04.03.08
Well talking about traffic, how much traffic do you actually need to generate X amount of revenue from such programs?
Amit do you have some statistics on traffic Vs Adsense revenue generation?
thanks for your great tips!
-Shweta
Written by Careerbright on 04.03.08
Clever piece of applying adsense for optimization. But would this approach count as one ad or two? Since Google, I think only allows 3 ad units per page…
Written by pcsourcepoint on 04.03.08
Hi Amit,
In last month or so google has dropped the price of the these referrals significantly.
Earlier a google pack download could fetch us anthing between $1-$2 but now on avg it fetches us $.20 - $.40.
I am not sure how your earnings have gone up, when the actual download price given by google has been reduced by 75%
cheers
Written by Bhangu on 04.03.08
#2,#6 - The Referrals for “AdSense” are not available but there are other products like Google Pack, Firefox with Google Toolbar, etc.
#3 - If you are using GET parameters in the search query, they should show up in your Google Analytics report.
#7 - Traffic does play a role but if you can integrate referrals in very targeted articles (like the advantages of Firefox over Opera or IE), you can get good results with even a small amount of visitors.
#8 - It really depends because CPM rates are different for every niche. For instance, a food blog may have a different CPM rate than say a political or a career blog.
#9 - This will be treated as only 1 unit
#10 - Price for Google Referrals varies depending on the country where that product is downloaded and installed. So Google Pack could fetch you anywhere from 10 cents to $2.
Written by Amit Agarwal on 04.03.08
Google Adsense dosen’t allow modification of any of its code. It is against their T ‘n’ C
Written by udkl on 04.03.08
Hi Amit,
this is the email they sent back in jan.
We’d also like to let you know about upcoming changes to the referrals programs for Google Pack and Firefox:
Google Pack: Currently, you can earn up to $2 when a user downloads and runs Google Pack for the first time after being referred through your link or button. Starting the third week of February, each successful Pack referral will earn up to $1. This change will apply to all referrals for Google Pack and is independent of user location or publisher location.
So the max amount u can earn now is $1 not $2 and they have nearly reduced the price to 60-70%.
I am saying this cause i have large amount of such downloads, nearly 1500 google packs every month.
So the amount i used to make has gone down 60-70% since these changes have been introduced but the no of downloads are same.
Cheers
Written by Bhangu on 04.03.08
Dear Amit,
just to clear my point
in Dec i had 1812 conversions of google pack which made me $1154, whereas in Mar the no of conversions jumped to 2274 but the earnings were reduced to $636.
so the earnings have become 1/3rd i guess.
for proof :
link
link
Can you please confirm this with Adsense.
Cheers
Written by Bhangu on 04.03.08
Bhangu,
How do you manage to get such huge conversion rate despite low traffic?Your Alexa rank seems to be around 29 lakhs..can you give me the tip?
Written by Technology Hacker on 04.03.08
#15 I own number of blogs.
Sorry can’t disclose their name though
cheers
Written by Bhangu on 04.04.08
Hi Amit, great post, did you use Adsense for API? as I saw your adsense ads looks different from what I put on my blog. Thanks
Written by Tinh on 04.04.08