The Disadvantages of Google Adsense

So as promised, to continue our two part series on the advantages and disadvantages of using Google AdSense, here is our disadvantages list.

 The Disadvantages of Google Adsense

1. Big Payout: it might not seem like a big number but $100 is the payout you must reach before seeing a cent! Oh and yes it does take a bit of time to see your first $100 (unless you’ve taken full advantage of this site, and used our methods to increase traffic).

2. Too Many Ads?: too many ads can actually get your rejected. If you want to just display ads then don’t bother starting a site. You need to provide content, and then you can add ads

3. Behind a Curtain: you can’t determine how much your payout will be for advertisements. Google may make $1 per click and only pay you $0.01.

4. Not Enough Information: you may have a click and it may have given you $1.25 but how that was determined, why it was so much (or not more); you won’t know, because Google doesn’t provide you with enough information.

5. Easily Banned: if you are doing something that Google finds as illegal (clicking your own links; even by mistake) or they just feel like it, they will ban you from their service. This will suck even more if you are at $99.98 and almost to be paid out.

6. No Sharing: want to show a friend how you’re doing? Well forget about it. You can share stats with anyone.

7. Not Enough Money: if you want to make good money, then you better somehow drive traffic to your site, and get them to click (without saying click on my ads). If readers aren’t clicking, you aren’t earning.

That’s it friends, there is the disadvantages list of using Google AdSense. If you have more, then be sure to add them below!

The Disadvantages of Adsense As adsense becomes the most popular publisher program for Price per Click advertising, flaws and disadvantages still exist. Since its inception advertisers have chosen to advertise in search because they felt that visitors would be less targeted. This is a genuine concern and one that makes perfect sense. If you are visiting a website, and notice an advert then the chances are you are not particularly concentrating on its content.

Adsense has also become so popular that people can distinguish them from other adverts. Therefore people may choose to ignore them without even paying them a thought. This has been a hot topic discussed by Bloggers and one that could contain a lot of truth. Many have blamed Google for this, and their decision to include text that says “ads by Google” beneath the advert.

Many publishers also fail to ever gain the revenues they anticipated when starting the program. Those only gaining 30 – 40 visitors a day to their website would be unlikely to earn even one dollar a day. Many advertisers talk of rates such as 1.5%- 5% for traffic to click conversion, whilst only gaining around $0.10 per click. The maths doesn’t work out great, but you can hardly blame advertisers or Google if you are not bringing enough traffic. The key is to bring targeted traffic to your website that are likely to click on adverts, however it is said that it may be easier on other programs which allow figures such as 75% share of advertising revenues for publishers.

Another disadvantage in adsense is that it has almost become tacky. Its appearance on websites that generally appear to be designed in a DIY fashion has lead people to associate them inextricably. This can only be tackled through adsense evolving to be more attractive to the bigger brands, whilst those who currently use adsense are restricted.

Google Adsense also has to tackle the issue of click fraud which is anticipated to count for over 15% of click through rate in content. This has meant that advertiser’s who have been particularly affected, have moved away to other programs or have restricted their advertising to search.

This has meant that there is less competition in content and therefore smaller revenues for publishers. Publisher’s who previously had high yielding ads, are now having to alter their content to ensure they get any adverts at all. This has largely been the fault of the publishers themselves however the issue is one that; if not addressed could bring adsense to its knees.

Google Adsense also has the disadvantage of not paying enough for their search program. Other similar programs pay higher rates, and if publishers decide to go elsewhere then problems will occur for advertisers and publishers alike. Although Google fail to pay enough for search another major problem with Adsense is that it does not have a powerful database of graphic adverts. Many advertisers prefer showing graphically drive advertisements, however this has yet to materialise. As several other programs exist for PPC graphic distribution problems could occur.

Whilst this may not be a problem for all publishers, many complain that the adverts within their site do not change, so their repeat visitors fail to see fresh adverts so therefore fail to visit them. This is a problem which could be addressed through making adverts rotate. However if adverts rotate then how will that be linked with advertisers paying a rate per click? These are all problems which Google has to address to ensure that Adsense remains the market leader.

Adwords on the other hand also has major advantages, and remains the best in the market. It’s CPC rates can be chosen by the advertisers so that even when they feel that they are not getting the results they expect they can lower their prices whilst still using the service.

Whilst many issues remain with adsense the program still remains the most popular amongst publishers, whilst Google Adwords remains the most popular amongst advertisers; with a database of over 140,000 Adwords will remain on top for the time to come.