What is Google AdSense & Can You Make Money With It? [in 2022]

Written by: Emily Anderson
Last updated:

Have you just heard that you can make money with Google AdSense Are you wondering what Google AdSense really is and if it is really an easy way to make money with it?

In this AdSense tutorial, we are going to introduce to the most essential things you have to know about Google AdSense.

Among others we are going to cover:

  • what is Google AdSense
  • Can you earn a living with Google AdSense?
  • two fundamental ways to make money with Google Ads
  • requirements for Google AdSense
  • How much does Google AdSense Pay?
  • Google AdSense alternatives

As we have over 50 tutorials on Google AdSense, make sure to click on the linked articles, if you are interested in more details

What is Google AdSense?

Google AdSense is an advertising platform you can use to make money from display ads on your website, blog, or your YouTube channel.

What is Google AdSense

Advertisers pay for Google to display their ads on YouTube videos or on websites, and Google pays out a percentage of that ad revenue to publishers on the AdSense platform.

If you want to make money online blogging or starting a YouTube channel, the easiest way to start earning good money is via AdSense.

How does Google AdSense work?

First, as we mentioned above, there are two main ways how you can make money with Google AdSense.

If you are a YouTuber and meet the YouTube AdSense monetization requirements you can join the YouTube Partner Program and make money from YouTube ads.

Although if you know what you are doing and know how to get views on YouTUbe these YouTube AdSense monetization requirements are not hard to reach, they still keep a lot of beginner video makers from joining

If you create content for websites or blogs then in most cases it is easier to join Google AdSense and start making money as you don’t need a lot of traffic to be able to eligible for Google AdSense.

Once got accepted to Google AdSense, you have to add some business and financial data to your Google AdSense account (so you can get paid) but in most cases, you don’t really have to do much except turn ads on your YouTube videos.

If you want to make money with AdSense by serving ads on your website, then you have to add a Google AdSense JavaScript code snippet to your website and add ad placements where you want the AdSense display ads to show up.

To learn how to do this depending on your Content Management System check out these tutorials:

  • How to add Google AdSense To WordPress?
  • How to add Google AdSense To Squarespace?
  • How to add Google AdSense To Wix?
  • How to add Google AdSense To Shopify?
  • How to add Google AdSense To Weebly?
  • How to add Google AdSense To Webflow?

You should be able to get your first cheque after the first month of being a Google AdSense member.

To learn more about how Google AdSense works, check out this tutorial:

  • How Google AdSense works?

Google of course also makes money via advertising, so they only pay out a certain percentage of the ad revenue they make on your website.

How much exactly? Let’s discuss this in the next section.

How much does Google AdSense pay?

Google AdSense works with publishers on a revenue share basis. This means that ad the revenue that is generated on your website is shared by Google and the publisher.

When it comes to Google AdSense display ads, the publisher gets 68% of the revenue, while Google keeps the remaining 32%.

But how do you know how much money can you earn with Google AdSense?

It is difficult to say as it will depend on many factors such as the location of the users, the location of the ads on the website, the content of the webpage where the ad is shown, the device type they use, their previous browsing behavior, their age, gender, household income and more.

The advertisers will bid for your display ad placements on a real-time basis, and the highest bidder will be able to display its ads on your website.

You will earn money when a user clicks on any of your display ads and Google will show the exact amount you made on the Google AdSense revenue report after they have already made their cut.

Can you earn a living with Google AdSense?

Absolutely, you can, as many people build businesses solely on making money from display advertising.

You might be wondering how much traffic do you need to make a living by serving ads on your website?

Of course, as we have mentioned above, it depends. If the majority of your website visitors are from the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia then you might need only tens of thousands of visitors to be able to make a full-time living.

However, suppose your visitors are from third-world countries where the advertisers pay significantly less. In that case, you might need millions of visitors to be able to earn a living via Google AdSense.

Best Google AdSense Alternative

Although Google AdSense is great for beginner bloggers to make some money even if they have a small website with little traffic, the RPM (Revenue per thousand pageviews) is usually significantly lower than on other ad networks.

So if you want to make significantly more money from your ads, you should consider the following alternatives.

Is Ezoic better than AdSense?

One of the best alternatives to Google AdSense is Ezoic which can significantly improve your display ad revenues without any additional costs or resources from the publisher.

Sign up for Ezoic by clicking here.

There are many great things about Ezoic but we have to mention the three most important ones.

First, when you join Ezoic, you will be able to make more money with display ads in the majority of the cases without doing much extra work.

Secondly, Ezoic will allow you to join their platform even if you have pretty low traffic numbers as opposed to Mediavine or AdThrive – the other major AdSense competitors.

Last but not least, Ezoic is not just an ad network it is a technology company that has other helpful features like Leap, its speed optimization plugin, free WordPress hosting, Caching plugin and more. (So you will be able to save money with them as well.)

We have just mentioned the biggest and most popular alternatives to AdSense, but there are more, so if you are interested in them, check out the full guide here:

  • Best 21 AdSense Alternatives

Frequently Asked Question – What is Google AdSense?

Is Google AdSense free?

Yes, you don’t have to pay anything to be a Google AdSense publisher, as Google takes a certain percentage of your revenue instead of charging you for their service.

Is Google AdSense Worth It?

In the majority of the cases: absolutely yes. If you don’t have display ads currently on your website, you should do so if you are not operating a service or ecommerce website. However, if you want to make more, you should instead choose to apply for Ezoic.

Will Google AdSense slow down my website?

As it takes extra time and resources to load AdSense ads on the website, yes it can slow down your website. However, if you know what you are doing and optimize your website speed the right ways you should still be able to pass the Core Web Vitals while serving AdSense ads.

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