What’s the Difference Between Google AdSense and AdWords?

A common question from business owners or those new to digital marketing is: 

“What is the difference between Google Adsense and Adwords?” 

This distinction can be quite confusing.  As a Google Adwords consultant, I will explain the difference between the two. 

Google Adwords Overview

Google Adwords, also known as Google Ads, is Google’s advertising platform. This allows businesses and individuals to advertise their products and services. Although not only limited to search ads, the ads people are most familiar with are the search ads seen at the top of the Google search results. When users types in a search looking to “buy shoes,” they will likely get served an ad to multiple websites looking to sell shoes. The search network is not the only advertising network available to those that use Google Adwords. Other networks include Display, YouTube, and Shopping. 

The Google Display Network allows businesses to show image and banner ads across the web. Google has parented with millions of websites, which then enable companies to pay to show their ads. It’s likely that Google and Google Adwords power the ads you see across the web. This leads to the perfect segue into Google Adsense. 

Google Adsense Overview

Google Adsense are sites where businesses provide space to advertise. By enrolling in this program, website owners can show Google Display ads on their site. Now when people click on these ads, the website owner gets paid a percentage of the revenue. The publisher provides, and when someone clicks on the ad, they split the commission with Google. 

When to Ask the Help of a Google Adwords Agency? 

If you are looking for help on your Google Adwords account itself, many Google Adwords Agencies can help you hear. They will optimize your campaigns, keywords, ads, etc..so you can get the best ROI on your advertising. Google Adwords Consultants and Google Adwords Agencies can be of great help here. 

But where you may want to look elsewhere is if you need help on your Google Adsense account. This falls outside the domain expertise of most Google Adwords consultants. For assistance in this area, you may want to consult an SEO expert. They can help you drive the amount of traffic required to create profits using Google Adsense. Although with Google Adwords, you can drive high-quality traffic to your website, likely the volume is not there. Since each click is such a low payback from Google, being profitable requires immense volume. With SEO or organic traffic, you will not need to pay for every click. This creates the high traffic volumes and low price required to produce significant profits on Google Adsense. If you are not running a very high volume website, you will unlikely make much from a Google Adsense account. And it may deter users. The more banner or display ads that show on a website, the bulkier it becomes. This will distract or annoy your users, taking the focus away from your actual content. Every website owner must weigh the balance of showing ads.