Google advertising: AdSense vs AdWords

Recently Google opened AdSense service for the Estonian market. New advertising channel may cause some confusion about the differences of AdSense and AdWords that seem quite similar by name. Both networks offer internet advertising but they actually represent different sides of a coin.

The difference between AdSense and AdWords

• AdSense is an advertising sales channel, AdWords is a media buying channel.
• AdSense is shown on webpages, AdWords is on Google SERP (search engine result page)
• AdSense enables adaption of the ad with the page content, AdWords ads are shown on specific search result

Google AdSense is advertising network that automatically shows text, image and video format ads in a specific webpage that correspond to the content of an ad. Google administers the ads itself and a webpage owner can earn profit based on CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-impression). On the other hand, Google AdWords represents ads on Google search that companies buy in PPC (pay-per-click) principle. The ads are shown according to search results that ensure the ads are targeted.

Google takes into consideration the geographical location of a user and other factors when showing AdSense ads. The ad content must be relevant to the webpage where the ad is shown. AdWords ads are shown in search engines only when somebody makes a search about a specific keyword. Learn more about how AdWords bidding system works.
AdSense adjusts the ad according to the page content. Webpage owners don’t have to make any separate agreements with advertisers. And advertisers have no need to search all the webpages that correspond to their ad content. Similarly to AdWords the advertisers must choose keywords that are related to their ads.  Google automatically matches webpage keywords to ad keywords and shows ads that are relevant to both sides. You can order AdSense advertising through Google AdWords display-network.

See the video that shows the difference between AdSense and AdWords

The similarities of AdSense and AdWords

• Free accession
• Measurable results
• Directed to target group

Both AdSense and AdWords don’t require any extra fees for registration. There are no long term contracts. You can easily give up from the service at any time desired.
AdSense and AdWords are easily measurable with statistics. AdSense account includes different reports that help you optimize ads better and follow the results. AdWords allows you to keep track of the amount of clicks and other important indicators that help to improve your ad texts.
Both ad channels are oriented to target group based display. Google shows AdSense ads in webpages that are relevant to the ad content. AdWords results are shown to those who search information about a specific subject. This guarantees the ad relevancy to users and the adsare less disturbing.