What is the difference between Google Ads and AdSense?
Google has two main networks for advertisers that you may have heard about, Google Ads and Google AdSense. In this blog, we’ll discuss exactly what each of them is and how they differ from each other.
What do they do?
The main difference between Google Ads and Google AdSense is what they do and what they’re made for. Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is for advertisers and marketers who wish to place ads on Google and Google’s partner websites. These ads can be text ads on the search page, display ads on other websites and shopping ads on Google Shopping.
AdSense is used by website owners and content publishers to allow ads from Google Ads to appear on their website, which allows website owners to be paid for having adverts on their website, creating another source of income.
Can I use Google Ads and AdSense together?
You can run Google Ads for your website and have AdSense ads on your website at the same time, yes. However, there are strict rules in place by Google to ensure users aren’t using Ads to direct users to a page dedicated to making money from AdSense. As such, your Google Ads landing pages are not allowed to display any AdSense ads. This is an important rule as it could result in the loss of both your Google Ads and AdSense accounts, leaving you to finding an alternative result for both services.
There are further rules from AdSense similar to this to combat aggressive ad placements. For instance, AdSense suggests landing pages to show no more than 1 ad above the fold as this will hamper user experience and decrease ad clicks.
Can I use the same account?
You can use the same Google account login to access AdSense and Google Ads, but these are completely separate and independent accounts and not linked to each other. That means you can have your Google Ads account disapproved or deleted, and still have access to your AdSense account and vice versa.
How are payments made?
In Google Ads, you can set a daily budget for how much you want to spend daily (on average for the month.) However, you can actually end up spending up to double your daily budget depending on traffic for your search terms. You also set a desired bid for each keyword in your campaign, which sets how much money you are willing to spend on each click for that search keyword. Payments are automatically made every 30 months or until you reach your payment threshold within 30 days. You can also make payments manually. Your account’s payment threshold can increase up to £500 a month if you tend to hit lower thresholds before the 30 month period.
There are 2 payment methods for AdSense: pay per click or pay per impression. The AdSense user has no control over this, and it is generally pay per click. The user also has no control over how much click/impression is worth (for obvious reasons.) AdSense users accumulate their money, which is visible to the user at any time, which is then paid at the end of the month usually between the 21st and 26th of each month.
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