Google shuts down the AdSense Plugin for WordPress – and now?

The official AdSense plugin (aka Google Publisher Plugin) for WordPress is being closed for good. Current and new users of the Google AdSense plugin are forced to find another solution soon. In this article you will learn what to do next.

Since March 2017 it is already impossible for new users to connect the plugin with Google AdSense. When you want to get started with Google on a new site, you will take a look at other AdSense plugins already.

Even existing users need to prepare for changes and find another plugin for AdSense within the next few weeks.

AdSense Plugin being removed in 3 phases

Google removes the AdSense plugin in three phases:

Since the beginning of March, the plugin can still still be installed on new sites, but no longer connect to your AdSense account. New users already have to look out for another plugin (see below).

The second phase will start in April 2017. Current users will no longer be able to manipulate their ads and ad settings through the plugin. Existing ad units will still work and get paid, but you can’t even change their position.

With May 3rd 2017, support for the AdSense plugin will completely shut down by Google. The ads set up through the plugin might no longer work.

Important Deadlines:

• Beginning of March 2017: New users can no longer connect the plugin with their AdSense account.
• April 5th, 2017: Settings and positions of ads can no longer be changed through the AdSense plugin.
• May 3rd, 2017: Google AdSense shuts down support for the WordPress plugin completely. Your ads will no longer work.

An alternative AdSense Plugin or Google QuickStart?

Webmasters who are using the official Google Publishers plugin by Google should not hesitate to look out for an alternative AdSense plugin. You have more or less two choices.

Google suggests to use two of their in-house solutions to integrate ads. Page-Level Ads with layers and vignette ads and a plugin-free integration called QuickStart.

The latter solution automatically injects ads in your site, based on where AdSense thinks they would fit best. Compared to manually placing ad units you don’t have influence on the position or size of the ads though. It is also not possible to combine this method with manual placements to optimize the setup on your own.

With the official AdSense plugin gone, it will no longer be possible to select a position of the ad in the frontend of your site, which seemed interested to less tech savvy users. There is no exact solution like this in the WordPress repository. The most similar is the Custom Position placement in the Pro version of Advanced Ads.

Aside from the flexible ad code management and a dedicated interface for AdSense, Advanced Ads also comes with plenty of pre-defined ad placements like content injections or a one-click option to enable page-level ads in the right place in your code.

Advanced Ads does not only serve as an AdSense plugin alternative, it also allows to run campaigns from other networks or custom ads in order to increase the overall revenue.

Conclusion

Google forces AdSense publishers on WordPress to act fast. You can not just sit this one off.

If you want to continue with AdSense, you should use this chance and switch to a more flexible and better supported AdSense plugin anyway. With a poor rating of 2.7 out of 5 in the wordpress.org repository there are definitely better candidates and there is definitely none better in support than Advanced Ads.