Google Adsense Revenue

I never thought Google would ever disclose what the official percentage of “our” share was but this week this finally did.

Through their official Inside Adsense Blog the big “G” has disclosed that Adsense for publishers receive 68% of the total revenue collected from the advertiser for any particular click.  The take for Adsense for search is 51% (I never use Adsense for search and think it is a waste of time personally).

Website owners who use the Adsense program have been trying to get Google to release this number for a long time. There has always been the curiosity of all of us who make any real money with this company to know exactly what our cut of the pie was.  Until now I have always thought we got 25% of the total cost per click.

Boy, was I off! or was I?

First, I would like to state Google’s motives behind this “revelation.”  They did not wake up one morning and decide that the public “had a right to know.”

Anyone familiar with Google knows how secretive this company is and for good reason.  They have a systems, algorithms, and formulas that put them at the top and they do not want anyone to fully know how they work.

But, Apple has come up with iAds, its own version of “adsense,” and was attempting to entice publishers to use it because their payout was 60%.  Today this advertising program is no threat to the dominance of Google but tomorrow it very well could be.

So to build faith and transparency Google released something I never thought they would.

Question is do I believe the number we were given?

Yes and no.

Keep in mind that there are so many factors that come into how Google calculates adsense earnings and you can bet its in their favor.  I have adsense ads on numerous websites I own, in many different niches, and I rarely get anything close to 68% of the take.

Conversion rate, niche you are in, and quality of the click still mater and all will higher or lower the percentage you get.  Adsense rewards you for sending targeted traffic to Google’s advertisers and punishes you via smart pricing when you do not.

Still, its nice to know the official number we are supposed to get.  Its not a bad deal to me.  No matter what that number is I still believe this form of monetization is the best out there.