Speed and time are the two vital factors to achieving success in the complex adtech industry. While some choose slow and long processes, others want a quick alternative approach to earn money with websites. One such way is AdSense arbitrage.
Arbitrage is a tricky and short process! You can see profit only if you are smart. That is why this blog gives the ultimate guide on AdSense arbitrage, along with actionable tips and suggestions to do better arbitrages. So, let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What Is AdSense Arbitrage?
AdSense arbitrage is a process where website owners buy traffic via ads from different sources and then monetize it by showing AdSense ads on their websites. You can purchase traffic from sources like social media platforms, search engines, or ad networks and then redirect it to your website.
But what is arbitrage in the first place?
What Is Arbitrage?
Arbitrage is the process of buying an asset or product at one price from one group and selling it to another group at another price. Arbitrage is a general term for buying and selling something in two different markets.
Ok now…
What Is Adtech Arbitrage?
Adtech arbitrage is buying ads from various platforms to drive traffic to your website at a lower price and monetize that traffic by placing ads on your website. You should make the bought traffic see the ads on your website to earn money.
You should buy traffic at the lowest possible cost and advertise your website at the highest possible cost. The difference is the profit you get.
As a publisher, you can drive traffic by doing paid ads, such as pay-per-click (PPC), search ads, social media ads, etc., and you can show ads on your website using any adtech means such as ad networks, SSP, ad exchange, header bidding, and direct deals.
In this article, we are talking about AdSense arbitrage. AdSense is an ad network, and using it is one of the ways with which you can do adtech arbitrage. Besides this, you can do adtech arbitrages with SSPs, ad exchanges, direct deals, and other programmatic ways.
Suggested reading: AdSense vs Google Ad Manager – Everything You Need to Know
Also, when doing adtech arbitrage, the publishers become an advertiser too. But how? They buy ads from various sources, such as advertisers. Then, they advertise their website with adtech platforms and earn money as a publisher.
For instance, in AdSense arbitrage, publishers buy ads from platforms like Google Adwords. There they are an advertiser. While putting ads on their website with the help of AdSense, they are a publisher. Overall, doing adtech arbitrage demands publishers to be an allrounder.
Google AdSense revenue share
The revenue share is 68% and 32% for you and Google, respectively.
For instance, if you place ads on an accord of $1 per click, you get $0.68, and Google gets $0.32 for a click.
Update: The 68 and 32% revenue share is also going now as Adsense has updated its revenue share structure. They are splitting the revenue share into separate rates for buyers and publishers, where publishers will get 80% of revenue after Google’s buy-side or third-party platform takes their cut.The update is expected to go live in the first half of 2024.
Related read: Update in AdSense’s Revenue Share Structure.
How Does AdSense Arbitrage Work?
The process of AdSense arbitrage consists of three sequential steps, which include:
- Buying ads from the potential traffic source that includes PPC ads, display ads, and social media ads (You put ads on the other website that redirect the traffic to the landing page like the blog page of your website)
- Placing AdSense ads on your website, specifically on the web page that receives the traffic from bought ads.
- The traffic redirected from ads bought to your web page views or engages or clicks the AdSense ads, and you get the money.
The difference between the money you spend on buying ads to drive traffic and the money you get from placing AdSense ads on your webpage is your profit.
Must Do’s in Arbitrage
The main theme of AdSense arbitrage is that you acquire traffic at a low cost (via ads), redirect the traffic to your website, and make them engage with the AdSense ads that are placed for a high cost and gain profit.
You can go for arbitrage if your SEO efforts on getting organic traffic are not giving good results or when you want to see quick results. Also, while doing arbitrage, publishers need to make their website a place that gives value to the users with responsible website layout, quality content, frequent posting, and adequate engagement.
You have to be a reliable website that complies with privacy regulations to make the redirected traffic engage with ads and increase the CPC and CTRs.
Traffic Sources to Buy Traffic
Publishers can buy traffic via ads by various popular means. Many tech giants offer paid ads since paid traffic is a big part of digital advertising. You need to know which source to choose and how much to spend to make the arbitrage successful.
A few of the popular means to buy traffic include:
Search advertising:
These ads are displayed on the search results of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. It is the best way to buy traffic because it is more intentional.
For instance, if you have a website about tourism, you can buy tourism-related keywords like family travel, honeymoon places, best campaign spots, and cultural tourism to be listed in SERP.
If a user intends to look into cultural tourism searches, Google provides the most relevant response along with your website link. The user clicks the link, and you pay for traffic.
The paid search on Google is highly likely to get clicked by users, which is 63%, and Bing gets 5% of total clicks.
People use Bing as it is more focused on organic search, and it is easier to display relevant ads because even now, many users use Windows. It helps website owners reach targets and get more traffic.
Social media advertising:
It is the finest way to buy ads for driving targeted traffic. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc., are some social media networks where you purchase traffic.
But the ideal choice would be Facebook. Why because? It always tops the chart regarding buying quality and targeted traffic. 75% of the Facebook traffic comes from mobile devices. So, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is important in getting more traffic and, thereby, high revenue.
As people look out for the most resourceful ebooks, blogs, online courses, and case studies, you can do content ads with the help of service providers like Outbrain, Taboola, and RevContent. They will help you roll out your best content to the targeted market through native advertising, which gets high CTRs and traffic to your website.
Native ads are highly non-intrusive and are popular for matching the look and feel of the content. That is why it outperforms social media ads and display ads with high CTR.
Traffic sources are abundant. So, you need to be careful in checking the legitimacy and reliability of it before buying ads.
Bonus tips to buy low-cost traffic
- Buy more specific keywords on search ads because general keywords cost more. For instance, instead of buying the keyword “Clothes,” which is expensive, you can buy more specific keywords like women’s clothes, western wear, traditional wear, etc. It will also be useful in getting more targeted traffic.
- When getting high traffic is the aim, target countries other than the U.S., like Germany, Singapore, New Zealand, France, the UK, Spain, etc. CPC can be less expensive.
- Have a stellar landing page with exceptional UI and UX and a good quality score to help lower your CPC.
- Also, do a competitor analysis, get the keywords they run ads for, and copy that.
Is AdSense Arbitrage Legal?
Google never said that AdSense arbitrage is illegal. In fact, according to its privacy policy, it welcomes publishers to buy traffic. But it insists that the publishers must be cautious and responsible for the traffic they buy.
- If the bot sends fake traffic and the website gets full of invalid clicks, you need to be ready to get your account suspended.
- Also, if you are considering creating a “made for AdSense (MFA)” website, be prepared to get your application rejected or your account suspended.
- MFA sites are the ones with poor quality, without any content or giving any value to users, and filled with piles of ads.
These are the wrong ways to approach AdSense. Buying traffic and then monetizing it on your website will never be a problem for Google if:
- You have a high-quality website with incredible content that gives what the user wants.
- Google will like you if you have serious business and consists of all vital legal pages with privacy policy terms, about us, terms of user, contact, and disclaimers. You can add other details like social media pages, email lists, and sign-up forms.
- While doing arbitrage, it is also important for you to generate organic traffic with genuine SEO efforts. It might help in the long run.
Is AdSense Arbitrage Profitable?
It is always a puzzle for publishers: “Is AdSense arbitrage profitable ?”. The truth is you can’t see the profit when you don’t know where to focus more and put effort.
First thing is first. In that sense, you need to have a basic investment to start arbitrage, and you should also be ready to lose it at any time because it is risky.
To achieve high ROI, you must first select the legitimate traffic source that sends legitimate traffic. Don’t fall for unknown third-party websites that send bot traffic and invalid clicks.
Along with seeing the legitimacy of the traffic source, it is also important to see what the niche of the traffic source is. For instance, if you have a website that focuses on mental health and you are selecting the traffic source that promotes the same. Users will not be interested in clicking on the ad as they get similar information on the source page. Putting ads on that website is an utter waste.
So, in this case, you should select traffic sources related to your niche but not the same one. For instance, if you work on mental health, select the traffic sources that are broader and related to health, like health and wellness and self-care blogs.
If you do this, the chances are that users at the traffic source website might triggered by the content related to the one they are reading and click your ads to increase the traffic. You need to check this only when pulling traffic for landing pages and blogs from other websites through native advertising. You don’t need to worry about this in search and social media advertising.
Last but not least, you also have to buy ads at a low cost, i.e., low CPC, and then display AdSense ads on your website that get high CPC and profit from the margin.
Overall, realizing the ROI in AdSense arbitrage depends on choosing legitimate and suitable traffic sources and buying them at the lowest possible cost.
Revenue Model of AdSense Arbitrage
CPC (Cost per Click) and RPM (Revenue per thousand impressions) are the revenue metrics used in AdSense arbitrage.
CPC:
Most publishers use CPC to measure revenue on AdSense ads. For instance, if you are getting $0.05 per click for U.S. users, you should pay $0.0.1 for clicks from the traffic source. In that sense, it is enough for 1 in 50 visitors of the traffic source website to click the ads, redirect to your website, and click the AdSense ads. What you spend and earn will now become even. If you get two or more visitors, you will come in the profit zone.
RPM:
RPM gives publishers a clear understanding of how much they spend and how much they have actually made. When you calculate RPM for your AdSense arbitrage and keep track of it, you gradually learn where to spend to realize high ROI and earn more profit points.
Related read: What is RPM? How to Calculate it?
Examples of AdSense Arbitrage Websites
The websites that can do AdSense arbitrage and earn money are:
Content aggregation site: The website collects up-to-date news, articles, and blogs from various sites and aggregates all under common topics.
Niche website: The website gives informational content and resources to users in different content formats like blogs, e-books, product reviews, etc.
Coupon or deal websites: Websites that show offers and promotions of different products and services and attract people looking for cost-effective deals.
Job boards: Website that connects job seekers and employers.
Product review website: A website that reviews, compares and recommends products and services.
Tips to Do Effective AdSense Arbitrage
Choose a niche with high interest:
Usually, people choose a niche with a high CPC in AdSense, like mortgages with an average CPC of $36.76. But that is not always the right way in arbitrage when you aim to pull traffic. Your focus should be on the volume of the people.
Since you buy traffic from various resources, there will be no targeting. Hence, selecting the niche that interests most people to earn high is good.
Because you can’t expect high traffic on high CPC niches like insurance, lawyers, and loans daily, the niche with high interest reaches many possible people and gets you high traffic. Such niches include travel, humor, celebrity news, viral news and stories, health and wellness, gardening, cars, etc.
The suggestion to choose a low CPC niche is ideal only when your aim is to pull traffic. It is not for publishers who target certain groups of people because they obviously select a niche of their own interest.
Website and content
Creating a high-quality website that provides value is the first step. It has to be user-friendly with an easy interface and less latency. The next most important is content creation. AdSense will not accept your application if you don’t have great content on your website.
So you need to ensure that you have a solid length (1000 to 1200) and a count of blogs, a minimum of 30 on the website. The content should be genuine and should not be AI-made or plagiarized. Also, always use royalty-free images in the content.
Don’t cross the limit with AdSense ads.
You must show ads on the AdSense arbitrage website with the correct combination of content. Google used to have a three ads-per-page rule, but it removed that.
Despite that, you can show a maximum of five ads per page, and it should not disturb content in any way. If Google finds ads overdoing the content, it shows blank space instead of ads.
Tracking paid traffic:
You buy ads and drive traffic by various means. So, you should monitor each traffic source to prevent getting bot traffic and invalid links. This prevents your AdSense account from getting suspended. You can monitor traffic sources with Google Analytics.
Disclaimer: Successful AdSense arbitrage requires a strategy that not only attracts enough visitors but also ensures that the traffic is of high quality and complies with Google’s policies. Google AdSense has strict rules against artificial or low-quality traffic, and non-compliance can lead to account suspension.
What Is Ahead?
AdSense arbitrage is a wise method to earn money only when you know how to buy ads from various traffic sources and put AdSense ads in a way that your revenue should cross the investment. It doesn’t suit all. In the initial stages, there might be a risk of losing investment or getting the AdSense account suspended.
Hence, successfully doing AdSense arbitrage depends on your effort and witty approaches. While doing arbitrage, increasing organic traffic with good content and SEO efforts is also advisable because it helps in the long run.
The correct organic and paid traffic level increases the website’s authority and keeps revenue flowing.
FAQ
What is AdSense arbitrage?
AdSense arbitrage is a paid approach for website monetization, i.e., you buy traffic from another website or source, redirect it to your website, make them engage with the AdSense ads on your website, and get profit from the difference ( between the money you spend in buying traffic and earned through AdSense ads).
Is AdSense arbitrage worth it?
AdSense arbitrage is worth it, depending on your choices in choosing the traffic source and putting ads on your website. You also need to be wise in buying traffic at a low cost and place AdSense ads with high CPC to get higher ad revenue.
How do I start arbitrage?
To start AdSense arbitrage, you need to have a website of fine quality and content along with an AdSense account. After that, you need to buy traffic from a legitimate source cheaply.
Simultaneously, you place AdSense ads on your website. The traffic flows from the traffic source website to yours and engages with AdSense ads. You make a profit from the difference.
