Coming up with a good Google AdSense revenue estimate for what a website could make depends on several different factors including traffic, niche, and optimization. For many sites AdSense is how to get started with display ads.
Without a lot of solid data, an educated estimate is the best early option. If you can get a good estimate on the average AdSense revenue per 1000 visits in a niche, then a good Google AdSense calculator can get the rest of the way there
Let’s look at our AdSense calculator and jump more into understanding AdSense ads.
How is Google Adsense Revenue Calculated: 4-Step Process
There is a four-step process that is used for figuring out Google AdSense revenue. It involves finding (or estimating) crucial bits of information that are then used together to get an educated guess on what can be expected from any given website.
Step #1: Estimate Monthly Page Impressions
The first step is to estimate the monthly page impressions. If this is being done on a site where you have the traffic numbers but haven’t monetized yet, this should be easy as you can just use Google Analytics.
Or you can make an estimate of traffic.
Since ad revenue relies on traffic, the monthly page impressions are a crucial part of the formula for estimating potential AdSense revenue from a site at any traffic level.
Step #2: Estimate Page Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
The clickthrough rate tells a website owner how many clicks they can expect. This is a percentage.
This can vary based on niche and optimization, but a general rule of thumb for AdSense is around 2% CTR is considered average.
A Smart Insights report shows the average AdSense CTR rates across many niches and comes up with an overall average of 1.91% on the search and 0.35% on display.
So right around 2% is a good rule of thumb if there is no other relevant data available.
Step #3: Estimate Industry Cost Per Click (CPC)
The CPC represents how much Adsense is willing to pay for 1 click in your industry.
Some industries like legal, dental, or marketing have very high CPC. This makes sense since a single customer in any of those fields can be worth anywhere from a few thousand dollars to more in value.
Other industries where customers aren’t worth nearly as much have much lower CPC because advertisers will pay less.
Step #4: Calculate Revenue
Once all the impressions, CTR, and CPC, are figured out then here’s the formula to calculate revenue from AdSense.
This is how AdSense revenue is calculated. All AdSense revenue calculators are going to use this formula to bring up their estimates when used.
Average Adsense Revenue Per 1,000 Visits
A study done by Wordstream broke down the CTR and CPC for specific industries. We then ran the numbers through our Google Adsense calculator for 1,000 visits to calculate the revenue potential.
Check out the results:
| Industry | CTR (%) | CPC ($/click) | Revenue ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto | 4.00 | 2.46 | 98.40 |
| B2B | 2.41 | 3.33 | 80.25 |
| Dating | 6.05 | 2.78 | 168.19 |
| E-Commerce | 2.69 | 1.16 | 31.20 |
| Education | 3.78 | 2.40 | 90.72 |
| Employment | 2.42 | 2.04 | 49.37 |
| Finance | 2.91 | 3.44 | 100.10 |
| Health | 3.27 | 2.62 | 85.67 |
| Home Goods | 2.44 | 2.94 | 71.74 |
| Legal | 2.93 | 6.75 | 197.78 |
| Real Estate | 3.71 | 2.37 | 87.93 |
| Technology | 2.09 | 3.80 | 79.42 |
| Travel | 4.68 | 1.53 | 71.60 |
These are averages so keep in mind that results can be higher or lower for individual websites. Still, these are really solid averages that give some good numbers you can use to estimate the revenue of any sites in those niches.
How To Increase Adsense Revenue: 3 Battle-Tested Ways
One of the best ways to beat out the averages is to optimize for AdSense revenue. By making sure to implement these 3 tried and true strategies to optimize ads, a website owner can improve their AdSense revenue.
1. Optimize Above The Fold
The space above the fold is considered the most valuable by advertisers. This is because it’s the first bit of a site that people see whether on desktop or mobile. That means any ads above the fold will always be seen by anyone not using an ad blocker.
This is also why above the fold ads are the highest converting ads. This makes them desirable for ad providers and for website owners who consistently make more money from these ads than any other.
Optimizing the space above the fold involves:
- Remove extra whitespace
- Remove featured image (thus pushing ads higher above the fold)
- Do not add TOO many ads above the fold (bad user experience)
Removing extra white space means more text (and ad space) is above the fold when a website loads. This is a small change but it can make a big difference.
Removing the featured image is all about blog posts where the featured image is at the top of the post. This is bad design because it pushes everything else (including ads) further down the page where it’s less likely to convert.
Finally, don’t flood the above-the-fold space with ads. This leads to a bad user experience that looks spammy. One good ad often converts the best without driving visitors away from the site.
2. Improve Ad Styling
If the ad sticks out like a sore thumb it isn’t going to get as many clicks. While a garish color is great for affiliate “Buy Now” buttons linking to an affiliate product, the same is not true with AdSense ads.
Optimize the ad colors by ensuring the background and border of the ad color is the same as the background of the page it will be on. Make the title and text the same color as the hyperlinks on your site (e.g., blue, green).
Making sure your ads match the background, text color, and link color of your site will help to optimize the clickthrough rate of the ads put on your site.
3. Use Best Practices for Ad Placements
Some ads convert better than others, and a lot has to do with where the ad is placed on each post.
For example, the classic 336×280 large rectangle works best for blogs. Blog post text can wrap around these ads easily, allowing them to blend in well without ruining the user experience.
While above the fold ads are considered the best converting, the type of ad put above the fold makes a big difference. Years of testing from many experienced website owners show that the 728×90 leaderboard ad unit tends to perform best above the fold.
Finally, optimize by adding a vertical skyscraper unit on the sidebar.
In Summary:
- Use a 336×280 large rectangle for blogs
- Use a 728×90 leaderboard ad above the fold
- Use a vertical skyscraper ad for the sidebar
FAQs
What is Adsense’s revenue split with publishers?
Google Support states that publishers receive 68% of the revenue for AdSense on content blogs.
This percentage is the same regardless of location or niche. Differences in click value are based on niche, location, and seasonality.
Which Adsense niche pays the highest?
Generally, ads from the law/legal niche pay the highest per click year after year. Other niches that tend to pay well include business, health/medical, dental, and home.
How much traffic do you need to make $100 with Adsense?
This is going to depend a lot on traffic and niche. The formula is (total earnings / total number of page views) * 1,000 = RPM. Then Divide that RPM into 100. That’s how many thousands of visitors you need to make $100.
We covered this in extreme detail, so feel free to check out the article on How Much Traffic Does it Take to Earn 100 Dollars in Adsense for more.
Does Adsense pay for impressions?
Google states here that Google will pay for clicks or impressions depending on the ad type. The majority of earnings will come from CPC ads, which also almost always have a higher RPM.
Is Adsense CPM or CPC based?
The majority of AdSense ads are CPC. An actual click is needed to get payment. Google has offered CPM ads, however the majority of money publishers make from AdSense will be CPC.
Actionable Takeaways
A good AdSense Revenue calculator is a great tool for estimating potential revenue from a website.
AdSense is a good starter option for monetizing and depending on a website owner’s country and the country where most of their traffic comes from, it might be the main option.
Here are the important takeaways:
- Some niches pay much more per click than others
- The average clickthrough rate is 1.91%
- You can increase your CTR and revenue through ad optimization
- Knowing the formula AdSense revenue calculators allow you to most effectively use these tools for estimating potential earnings
Follow the advice in this article, use our AdSense revenue estimator, and you will have the knowledge and tools needed to get the most out of your AdSense.
