Creating Your First Google AdSense Ad

On 06.18.09, In Getting Started, by Tim

So the time has come. The lesson where you get to learn how to create your very own Google AdSense ad. Keep in mind everything you have read so far and don’t forget a quick refresh with the official Google AdSense Terms of Service never hurt. Let’s get started.

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So the time has come. The lesson where you get to learn how to create your very own Google AdSense ad. Keep in mind everything you have read so far and don’t forget a quick refresh with the official Google AdSense Terms of Service never hurt. Let’s get started.

For this example we are just going to get down and dirty and create an ad. Nothing special when it comes to strategically planning our ad content. This way you can get a feel for the process and then learn how to make those clicks come in. Below is the process on how to create an AdSense ad.

Choose Your Ad Product

The first thing we want to do, is determine which ad product we would like to use, as you remember reading in a previous lesson, there are quite a few to choose from. Since I am going to go under the assumption that this is your first ad, lets do an ad for content. You want to click on “AdSense Setup”, then choose “AdSense For Content”. We then then want to decide if we want that content ad to be a link unit or a regular ad unit. Let’s choose “ad unit”. This content type gives us three options, “Text and Images”, “Images Only”, or “Text Only” – lets choose “Text and Images”. Now that we have the ad product, and ad type chosen, the next step is the customization.

TIP: By selecting Text and Images, we are not limiting our ad content. This way, we are increasing our chances to get relevant content. If you have a very common niche, then going specific shouldn’t hurt getting relevant ads.

Customize Your Ad

Ah, the customization. This is what really can drive those clicks and make you a fortune if done right. I wish there was a magic formula to this but each website is different. So lets just take a look at what we can customize first, then later on I will strategically help you see what works best for your scenario. The first thing we need to do is determine the ad format. This is basically the size and shape of the unit. This will determine where we want to place it, but for this example lets choose a 300×250 square unit.

TIP: Analytical history from Google AdSense them-self say, that the larger the ad, the better it performs, only because there is a larger area to hit, but that is not the case all the time. Depending where your ad will live, that will determine your size.

Time to get colorful. Here we can pick and choose our colors. Pick some, make them wild for this example. You can customize the border color, the title, url, text and the background color.

Just recently Google AdSense added some more features to customization. Being able to change the font (including its size) and also if the ad has rounded corners or hard edges. And finally, the last step is a few radio buttons to decide what to do if, in the rare occasion AdSense can not find an ad for you.

That’s it for customization, only a few more things to do untill we can get this ad on our website.

Next hit continue. This will bring us to something called channels. You can think of a channel, as a folder label in a massive filling cabinet. Channels allow you to be able to track what ad was impressed and clicked on. So name it something identifiable.

TIP: Be as descriptive as possible using as few words as you can. I typically use this format. “Website-Location-Size-Misc”. wait what? Let me explain. lets see if this makes sense: “myrev-300×250-header-right” this way, I know what website it is on, I know the ad size, the location, and to be more exact an even more exact position. I use the misc area to get a little more finite, because what if I had two 300×250 ad units in my header? one on the left side, and one on the right? I want to know what one was clicked on.

So at the bottom , click “add new channel” and create your own. Next, hit continue. Once the next page loads, it will create a name for that ad, this is for if you want to make changes to it in the future. Now the last step is to “Submit and get code”

Once you hit that button, in about 10 minutes it will be ready. Don’t worry, by default, the ad will be set to inactive while Google generates it for ou. After 10 minutes pass, it will be set to “NEW” and you can then place your code.

The next lesson will teach you how to insert that Google ad into your website.

Next Lesson: Adding A Google AdSense Ad To A Website

Previous Lesson: Understanding Ads – Google AdSense Lingo