The enhanced Referrals 2.0 program of Google Adsense now gives publishers more flexibility in offering a variety of products and services that match a site’s niche, ranging from, say, Computers & Electronics to Cars & Automotive to Beauty & Personal Care.
But one particular thing that webmasters like the most about this program is the fact that they can actually endorse products and even direct site visitors to click on the ads and try the products.
That’s what we have been doing with Adsense’s Referral ads on this site. Last week, we optimized our referral ads and conspicuously placed them at the Top-Center portion of the page, also adding the come-on title “Google’s Freebies.”
The result? Today, our referral income alone has already fetched $71.00++, beating the $23-in -one-day record registered in October — and the day’s not over yet.
Here are some tips to optimize referral ads on your site to help you earn more money.
1. Choose ads that match the topic of your site. If your blog or site’s niche is technology and the internet, it makes sense to offer referral ads about computers, internet tools, web hosting, etc. Doing that increases the click-through rate (CTR) of the ads because, obviously, your audience will click on ads that interest them.
2. But still, don’t be limited by the primary niche. You will also earn more if you offer ads that may be of secondary interest to your readers. How do you find out which these are? Check the traffic history of your site or the search keywords that lead to your site. Were there high-traffic articles that were not tackling your primary topic? Those are your popular sub-topics! (Techies call this the long-tail.) For example, in our case, money and investments are the primary subject, but our off-topic articles on entertainment and technology were also popular. That’s the reason why you can see entertainment- and technology-related products in our referral ads.
3. Optimize the presentation and location of the ads. We’re not going to teach that here because Google already has pages and pages of ad optimization tips. You can read these tips here and here.
4. Utilize attention-grabbing, catchy titles for the ads. Remember, with referral ads you are not limited to using the words “Sponsored Links” or “Sponsored Ads” as opposed to Adsense’s contextual ads. In that case, be creative! How about using “Try these for free — no obligation!” or “Click and You Shall Find!”? It’s time to put those creative juices to work!
5. Lastly, convince your readers to try the referral products by explaining to them the benefits of those products. If, for instance, you are offering the Mozilla Firefox referral product, tell your visitors why Firefox is a better browser than Internet Explorer. If you are recommending a specific web host, provide links to positive testimonials of that host. Users will try a product if they understand the benefits they can derive from it.
Referral advertisements can definitely increase your online earnings so if you still have not added referral ads on your site, it’s time for you do it now.
