An Introduction to the Google AdSense Affiliate Program

Google AdSense is an easy affiliate program to set up on HubPages and can be an excellent source of revenue for those that write useful and informative Hubs. Before setting up Google AdSense with your HubPages account, we recommend you read the following overview of how the program works and what you'll have to do to sign up.

Google AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google which offers a PPC (Pay Per Click) revenue model, meaning that every time an ad gets clicked, you or HubPages (and Google) make money.

Where does the money from from?

There is a yang to this yin. The money comes from Advertisers. Advertisers use Google's AdWords program to set up ad campaigns in the hope that people will click through.

They can narrow down their target audience by picking keywords. These words are what Google AdSense uses to choose the pages of content that is the right fit for the ad. This is 'contextual advertising'. And is the other big reason why Google AdSense works so well. The geographical location of the surfer can also be taken into account. That way a dentist in Dallas can have their ads showing only to web surfers in Dallas. It's a lot better than the shotgun approach to online advertising that was around before Google AdSense rode into town.

To read more about Google's methods for targeting ads, check out their FAQ entry on the subject.

With this sort of specialized targeting it's no wonder Google AdSense ads perform so well. And it's the reason why people publish content on 'niches'. A narrow field of a topic that they know well. The more specific the content, the more targeted the ad.