Contextual Advertising 101

To really understand Adsense and how it can work for you on your content rich sites it is important that you understand a little about how Adsense works.

It isnt necessary to go into every technical detail and the basic concept is really very simple.

You as the "publisher" or the "webmaster" or the blogger are given an individualised java script which you place in your website. Every time the page with the Java script is accessed, the script "pulls" advertisements from the Adsense program. The software that runs the Adsense program examines the content on the web page and targets Ads that are related to that content.

The ads that are targeted therefore relate to the content on the web page serving the ad.
Now if a visitor clicks on an advertisement, the webmaster on whose page the ad appeared earns a portion of the money that the advertiser has paid to the search engine for the click.

Google handes all tracking and payments and so this is a very easy hassle free way for website owners and bloggers to display content-sensitive, targeted ads.

If the process was not automated this way you would have to find advertisers for your own site, negotiate their rates. collect funds from them, monitor clicks on their ads and check statistics - all at the same time you are trying to run your business or website.

Google acts as a "man in the middle". It offers the adsense program to website owners who get targeted ads served onto their pages which can earn them income when clicked by visitors. For the Advertisers Google runs the Adwords program and this allows the advertisers to design their own advertising campaigns and bid for adverts on websites and searches.