What’s the distinction between Google AdSense and AdWords?
If you are new to the world of online marketing, you have probably heard the terms “AdSense” and “AdWords” in very similar contexts. It’s true that both work in a similar way, but there is a difference between AdSense and AdWords.
As a small business owner, understanding this terminology and the difference between Adsense and Adwords is a must in order to take advantage of Google’s online marketing options. But confusing them is a common mistake.
Fortunately, both concepts are easy to understand and you can start using AdSense and AdWords right away. Stop # 1: Find out what they mean and stop messing them up.
How Google AdWords Works: Think Like an Advertiser
Google AdWords is a term for a campaign that a small business can run to advertise on Google. As a business owner, you can open a free Google AdWords account and start creating ads to appear on a Google search engine results (SERP) page. When you start setting up your campaign, the Google AdWords system will help you choose relevant keywords so you can make the right decision about where your ads will be placed in this SERP.
Google goes to great lengths to ensure that your ads are shown to relevant users or users who are looking for something similar to what you are offering. Below is a screenshot of where an ad you created might appear in AdWords:
Setting up your Google AdWords account is free, but creating and running a campaign is not. You set your own budget and can decide how much you want to pay, either based on CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) or PPC (pay per click).
You can set a schedule to ensure that the ad will only run until you reach a certain success rate or run out of money on that particular campaign. It is entirely up to you to manage and track your results through this Google AdWords account / service. Here you can sign up.
How Google AdSense Works: Think Like a Website Owner
Google AdSense is a system that Google uses to distribute ads that are found on AdWords. This includes both the advertisements you have created in AdWords and other advertisements that are not related to your business. In other words, people create new campaigns in AdWords every day and want them to be shown to a relevant audience. Sometimes this means that you will be placed on a relevant website as opposed to a SERP.
An easy way to look at AdSense is to think of yourself as someone who owns a website (as opposed to someone who created a paid campaign as you think about AdWords). As a publisher, you can make money by running Google ads on your website. It is free to use and works as follows:
- Sign up here and submit your website to Google AdSense.
- Google rates your website and approves you as a publisher.
- They then give you some code that you can use on your website to display relevant advertisements on your actual website.
- You then decide where you want to place the code and then place the ads on your respective website.
Google will then start placing relevant ads created in AdWords in the area you selected. Advertisers are bidding for their ad to appear on your website and Google will show the highest bidder.
How are everyone paid?
As hopefully you can see, you can be both an advertiser and a website owner (most of them in fact), which means you can use both AdWords and AdSense. Succeeding with both takes a lot of strategy, but getting involved is a step in the right direction.
Another part of really understanding the difference between AdSense and AdWords and how they work is to first understand where all the money is coming from and why certain companies make certain decisions:
Google will make money because advertisers using AdWords will have to pay to have these ads run on Google and other websites (as described above, this can be done via CPM or PPC).
Publishers using AdSense
They earn a share of what Google makes with AdWords for the ads that run on their website. They make money by either simply placing the ad on their website and / or based on how many people clicked on that ad.
Advertisers using AdWords
These are the people who pay to have their ad run on the web. Hopefully, your ads will get good, relevant visibility, people will click, and then people will convert.
The difference between AdSense and AdWords
Google AdWords enables companies to sign up and create an ad that Google will display on relevant SERPs and content pages. Google AdSense allows publishers to work with Google to get these ads on their pages to reduce profits.
Do you have any questions about the difference between AdSense and AdWords?
Republished with permission. Original here.
Images: Google