A common sight during this year’s election was numerous blogs/tweets saying “Why is BJP’s ad running on every site I visit?” or “Why is Advani for PM showing on Wired Magazine website”. Well I’m sure Mr Advani’s Google Ad team found no relation between Wired Mag keywords and BJP’s policies, but the reason these ads showed up everywhere was because of how Google adsense works.
If you’re from India, it’ll show you the ad if that ad is willing to pay the highest bid for that space. It’s a bit more complicated than that. Usually the more vague the keyword, the higher the price.
“India” would be a very expensive keyword, so is “jokes, comedy, sms, ringtones” etc etc. I know because I tried advertising on Google Adsense last year, and quickly stopped once I started loosing Rs 10 or more everytime someone clicked on a FyF ad. And ten Rupees was for obscure keywords like “indian webcomics, webcomics” etc. The popular ones go upto Rs 100 or more.
Rs 10 may not be much for most commercial websites, but for me that’s the price of 2 cigarettes! No way!
First off, a disclaimer: I’m totally in support of all political parties advertising on Google ads. After all it’s publishers like us that benefit, and here’s proof I support both sides
Here’s a few videos about keywords and adsense and stuff. A bit too technical if you ask me, but I couldn’t find a simple video on youtube.
{ 0 comments… add one now }