There are plenty of website owners, who don’t know how to add AdSense to a WordPress site. This is very unfortunate because you can earn up to $1000 per month! If you’re one of those people that are missing out on AdSense, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to register to AdSense and how to add AdSense ads to your site. I promise you, it’s not as hard as you thought it would be.
What Is Google AdSense
- Google AdSense is an advertisement platform that allows bloggers and website owners to earn money by displaying ads on their sites. They will be paid based on the number of times their visitors click on the ads.
- Want to make a great passive income? AdSense is the answer. It’s very easy to use and you practically don’t have to do anything. Publishers only need to sign up on the AdSense program, put the given code on their websites, and Google will automatically assign an ad that is related to the site’s content.
- If you have multiple websites and want to put ads on all of them, there’s no need to create multiple accounts. Google makes it simple so you can manage, monitor, and organize everything within one place.
- It’s completely free! No hidden fees, no catch. Just a purely free program that can help you make money
How to Add AdSense to WordPress Easily
Ready to turn your WordPress website into a money-making machine? Sit tight, I’ve got you covered. Everything you’ll need to know to add AdSense to WordPress is here, from registering to the program to the ad placement.
Step 1: Create a Google AdSense Account
In the world of Google, a Gmail account gives you access to other services — AdSense included. So go ahead, open AdSense and sign up using your Gmail account.
Please be careful when filling out the application form, especially the payment details. It’ll be tough to edit it in the future once you’ve applied.
After making sure all the details are accurate, submit the application and wait for approval (could take up to 48 hours).
Step 2: Create Your First Google AdSense Ad
Head over to the My ads tab on your AdSense dashboard and click New ad unit. This menu will take you to create a new ad unit.
First, you’ll be asked to choose between four types of ads: text & display ads, matched content, in-feed ads, and in-article ads.
Next, name the ad and choose the ad size, type, style, and colors. Customize it to your liking and create one that suits your site.
Once you’re done, click save and Google will give you an Ad code. Copy and paste this code into a text editor.
Step 3: Add the Google AdSense Ad to Your WordPress Site
Open your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance >> Widgets and click Custom HTML widget.
Below the Custom HTML menu, you can choose where to place your ads (sidebar, footer, etc). Most people usually prefer to place their ads on the sidebar.
Drag and drop the widget to your preferred area and paste the code into the widget. Click Save.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully added your first ever AdSense ad to your WordPress site!
Step 4: Track Your Ad
Now, your task doesn’t end after adding ads to your site. You’ll have to monitor them, check whether they perform well or not.
I recommend using Google Analytics or a plugin like Monster Insights to get detailed reports on your AdSense ads. From there, you can search for high-performing ads that can be optimized, or look for low-performing ones that need to be removed.
Add AdSense to WordPress with Plugins
I’ve explained how to add an AdSense ad to your WordPress site manually. Pretty easy, right? But what if I tell you that it will be much easier with the help of plugins? Yep, check out some of the best advertisement management plugins below.
1. Ad Inserter
The Good
- Easily add ads anywhere in your site. The free version offers 16 ad blocks — the place where you put the ads — while the pro version has 64-96 blocks. You can insert ads within a post (top, bottom, between paragraphs), above the header, between comments, in the footer, and many more!
- Control ad placement for different devices. This feature is super useful because you can decide whether the ad will be displayed on all devices, desktop only, mobile devices only, and so on.
- Ad blocking detection. Every time a user with ad blocker visits your website, this plugin can redirect them to a static page with some information or show a pop-up message telling them to turn off the blocker.
The Bad
- Some of the more advanced features can be a little tricky for beginners. Although there’s complete documentation, lack of screenshots makes it quite difficult to understand.
- There are no settings in the interface to exclude Woocommerce posts from displaying ads. Fortunately, the developer had provided a code solution to resolve this issue.
The Verdict
People just simply love this plugin — it has more than 200,000 active installations and a 4.9 average ratings. What’s more, the developer is also very active in the support forum so you can easily get a response if there are any problems.
And speaking in terms of the feature, Ad Inserter undoubtedly has the most extensive features, even for the free version.
Aside from the most outstanding features I’ve mentioned above, this plugin allows you code preview with CSS editor, rotate ads, insert Google Analytics, avoid insertions near images and headers, and so on.
2. AdSense Plugin WP QUADS
The Good
- A beginner-friendly advertisement plugin. Easily add up to three AdSense ads per page, display ads within posts, or disable certain ads with tags.
- The ability to display ads on Google AMPs (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for the pro version. If by chance you don’t know what an AMP is, it’s basically a very simplified version of your web page so it can be loaded faster. AMPs often do not display ads, so it can hurt your business.
- The pro version also supports responsive ads. It will automatically decide the best ad size to be displayed according to the device’s screen size.
The Bad
- WP QUADS is packed with advanced features, but unfortunately, most of them are only for the pro version.
- The free version only allows you to create up to ten ads.
The Verdict
If your main goal is to quickly get AdSense up and running and you don’t need lengthy features, this plugin is the one for you. All basic features to set up AdSense are covered and easily understandable, and WP QUADS is more light-weight than Ad Inserter.
WP QUADS is currently used by more than 80,000 users and has 4.9 out of 5 ratings.
3. Advanced Ads
The Good
- Display an unlimited number of ads, even for the free version.
- It has a variety of premium extensions to add more functionality to the plugins. Some add-ons include tracking, selling ads, responsive ads, geotargeting, etc.
- Deliver ads from other plugins like Ad Inserter, Quick Adsense, and Ad Rotate by using shortcodes within the ads.
The Bad
- Has a bit of learning curve because there are so many options available.
The Verdict
With a lot of additional extensions, Advanced Ads is a great option for webmasters that have to manage a lot of ads on their websites. Like other previously mentioned plugins, it also has a high rating and great support. Currently, it has 100,000+ active installations and a 4.9-star rating.
Google AdSense Best Practices for 2019
It’s quite confusing sometimes to figure out what you should do to make the most out of AdSense. But don’t worry, that’s why I compiled a list of AdSense best practices to ensure that you’re actually getting some money from this advertisement service:
- Experiment with placement. Try different placements for a week and then compare the results later on. You can also look out for sites that are similar to yours as a reference and see where they place their ads.
- Consider responsive ads. If you have a lot of traffic coming from mobile devices, consider having responsive ads to boost your revenue.
- Experiment with different ads. Different users have different preferences, so find out what your visitors like. Do they prefer links, banners, videos? Google provides many different ad styles, so take advantage of that and run some experiments.
- A/B test your ads. AdSense now has a feature that allows publishers to run A/B testing on their ad unit. You can find the tool under My Ads -> Content -> Experiment. Read this helpful article to find out more about doing A/B testing for AdSense.
Wrapping Up
In this article, you’ve learned what AdSense is, how to sign up to the program, and how to add AdSense to your WordPress sites — both manually and by using plugins.
There are so many advertisement plugins available, but I truly believe these three plugins below are the best ones:
- Ad Inserter — has many features, even for the free version
- AdSense Plugin WP QUADS — best for newcomers due to its simple interface
- Advanced Ads — lots of additional add-ons, suitable for experienced publishers
I hope this article will help you to use AdSense properly and monetize your website to the fullest. Good luck!
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