Thanks to my work helping clients to set up and improve their AdSense ads, I am constantly looking at WordPress plugins for AdSense implementation.
My overview is a bit different than your usual Best WordPress AdSense Plugin article.
I am not adding any WordPress AdSense plugin to the list. Instead, I will focus on different use cases and the best solution for each.
The use cases are:
- A feature-rich WordPress AdSense plugin with a lot of flexibility
- Enabling AdSense Auto ads for users of other Google products
- Not using any AdSense plugin
- Alternative plugins to give a try
To add an AdSense plugin for WordPress, there needs to be some proof that it is a popular solution and can be used to manage AdSense ads.
If suitable, I will also look at each of the solutions based on the user’s persona.
- The publisher: Wants as little work with ads as possible and not get used to “just another tool”.
- The developer: Likes to play around with things and maybe even extend them, but also wants to be able to hand off tasks to users without spending too much time explaining.
- The AdOpt: Manages ads daily and needs powerful tools to do so.
I am not treating paid WordPress AdSense plugins differently than free ones. In the end, I assume that you display ads to make money.
The order of plugins is indeed expressing my preference.
Advanced Ads – The Best AdSense WordPress plugin
Advanced Ads is a powerful WordPress ad management plugin for any ad type, including dedicated AdSense support. This plugin is a no-code solution to manage your AdSense ads with rich options.
Advanced Ads is also the best free WordPress AdSense plugin with a version of Advanced Ads hosted on wordpress.org. The plugin is now installed on over 150,000 websites and covers many tasks to get started with website monetization right away.
Google AdSense users can enjoy the plugin’s convenient AdSense integration, allowing the import of AdSense ads with one click. Do you want to enable Google Auto ads? No problem. The plugin lets you do that with one click, including Auto ads on AMP pages.
Advanced Ads is the only AdSense plugin for WordPress that reports on the ad performance of the whole account, website, or individual ads.
You can also change the size of AdSense banners or, in some cases, even the type directly in the plugin.
Among these special AdSense features, Advanced Ads can automatically inject ads into existing and new content, rotate ads, and target them to specific users.
Publishers like Advanced Ads for the mentioned AdSense integration, which allows them to publish their AdSense ads without touching any code. The convenience goes so far that AdSense ads even work on AMP pages.
This WordPress AdSense plugin fixes common issues and potential policy violations, like placing AdSense on 404 pages. The Ad Health feature catches common problems and helps with their solution.
Finally, the plugin integrates perfectly with the TCF 2.0 consent standard, which is needed to serve Google AdSense ads to visitors from the EU.
A team of publishers developed Advanced Ads, so they know your situation. Their support is rated #1, and their extended manual goes far beyond simple plugin descriptions.
Developers like that the code of the Advanced Ads AdSense plugin follows WordPress standards in both interface and code. More than 100 hooks make it extremely easy to extend the plugin with your own features.
Due to their status in the WordPress community – including being WordCamp organizers and speakers – the team works closely with many other plugin developers. They are open to collaborating on integrations and resolving conflicts.
AdOpts like the scheduling feature to plan future ads, tracking ad impressions, adding frequency capping, and online and email reports. Experienced AdOpts will also like the Google Ad Manager Integration that comes with the same convenience of a no-code solution as the AdSense integration in the base plugin.
Get the free version of Advanced Ads or check out their premium offers.
Google Site Kit – for AdSense Auto ads
Google launched its Site Kit plugin to onboard publishers into various services like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, or even Google AdSense.
One could say that Google Site Kit is not a proper WordPress AdSense plugin because it only allows to place the Auto ads code and shows basic statistics in the backend.
If you don’t know, Google Auto ads is an AdSense feature that places ads automatically on your site. They decide on the amount and size of them.
I am still ranking this plugin fairly high in my listing because placing AdSense Auto ads is enough for many publishers, so they don’t need a specific AdSense plugin for WordPress to do this. Especially those who don’t make a lot of money anyway and use other Google services as well.
Neither publishers, developers, or AdOpts find customization features when using AdSense through Site Kit. It is “set up and forget.”
If you have serious ad revenue, you will want to test different ad positions and even ad networks. Also, publishers from the EU need to implement a proper consent mechanism. This is when a dedicated WordPress AdSense plugin like Advanced Ads is needed.
For those who just started out using AdSense, check out the free Google Site Kit plugin on wordpress.org.
Not using any WordPress AdSense plugin
If you are only using Google Auto ads and don’t use any other Google services, or if you only have the Auto ads code or a single AdSense code on every page, then you might not need to install any WordPress AdSense plugin.
When you decide to use Google Auto ads, they tell you to add the code in the head of your website’s code.
After you’ve generated the AdSense code, you need to paste it between the
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/9274516<head>and</head>tags of your site. We recommend you place the AdSense code on every page across your site to get the most out of AdSense.
This is what plugins like the above-mentioned Advanced Ads do when you enable their Auto ads option.
If you don’t want to use an AdSense plugin for WordPress, you need to edit a theme file, normally the header.php.
The caveat of this method is that any update of the theme files will override this change, and you would need to add the AdSense code again. If you use a constantly updated theme and have the technical skills, you could create a child theme.
For anyone with less technical experience, you could use the Custom HTML block in your sidebar or – when using Full Site Editing, anywhere else in your theme where it shows up on every page.
While AdSense does not recommend this approach, it works and will not be overridden by updates.
The downside of this method is that I have seen many publishers forget where they inserted the AdSense Auto ads code and repeat the process with the same code in multiple positions. This makes it hard for anyone else to find all the code instances later.
As a developer, I used this approach on multiple of my websites. As a publisher, I prefer an AdSense plugin for WordPress like Advanced Ads to enable the Auto ads code or manage individual AdSense codes. This allows my AdOpts to find and adjust them anytime.
While you can manually place specific AdSense ad codes into the content of posts using the Custom HTML block, I’d recommend using a plugin that can auto-inject such codes, like the content placement in Advanced Ads. These plugins automatically add the code to any old and new post, saving you a lot of time.
AdRotate – the plugin alternative
AdRotate is the oldest plugin in the list and might once have been called the most popular ads and AdSense plugin for WordPress. I still remember when people first told me about it in a session I gave on ad optimization in 2012. Since then, the developer has focused on other projects.
The free version offers flexible ad management with basic settings. The interface is simple and clean.
Once you have installed the free version from the WordPress repository, you will notice many disabled options. It seems like 2/3 of the backend content is just a dummy of features from the pro version. I sympathize entirely with a plugin author offering additional paid services. In this case, however, I think he overdoes it a bit. There is surely a benefit in the commercial version, e.g., the advanced reporting and planning. Still, the great usability from the first glance loses a lot when you desperately click dummy checkboxes.
Overall, AdRotate has a nice interface presenting the available options. While not necessary for a WordPress AdSense plugin, the scheduling section is also nice if you decide to publish AdSense ads only for a while. Only the click tracking doesn’t work on AdSense ads. That is a challenge that Advanced Ads has already resolved.
Find AdRotate on wordpress.org.
Quick AdSense – the simplest plugin
Based on the reviews and downloads, the Quick AdSense plugin is slim, simple to use, and comes with an option to experiment with ad placements in posts. For someone who needs only up to 10 ad codes and doesn’t know how to edit template files, Quick AdSense seems to be an ideal solution.
As significant limitations, even for smaller websites, I would mention that placing ads outside the post content or widgets isn’t supported. In most cases, publishers also want to use banners outside the main wrapper or in the header.
Suppose you don’t like plugins that have a paid offer and neither need to inject ads automatically into the content of posts nor need statistics and conditions. In that case, Quick AdSense is the simplest AdSense plugin for WordPress that I can currently recommend.
Find the Quick AdSense plugin on wordpress.org.
Great write up. I find Quick Adsense to be the simplest and quickest to implement though I have also heard good things about Ad Injection.
I’ve used “All in one adsense” (http://linewbie.com/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-adsense-and-ypn) for years, it has always worked good for me, I have tried others, but non are as good as this one. Though I’ve heard good things about premium adsense plugins too (you have to buy them), I haven’t tried them.
Thanks for the tip. I also found the plugin in the WordPress plugin directory, but it was not updated there. I miss some information on their website that motivate me more to give it a try.
Thomas
Hi Thomas! Great article. I’m wondering if anyone has come to you asking about plugins that allow you to split test various adsense positions and ad types in your wordpress blog? I thought that would be useful, so I built a plugin (see my link), but it’s getting little traction at the moment. Do people not care, or do people just not want to pay for anything that could make them more money? Thanks for your insight!
Hi Shane,
thanks for your comment. Indeed I do split tests for adsense ads and there wasn’t a public a working solution, so I developed one. I think such a plugin is needed, but you might not doing the best job in selling it. Maybe I can help you, if you’d like.
Best regards
Thomas
I am using QuickAdsnese and quiet satisfied. Thanks for the post.
Thanks for the nice post. I am also already using QuickAdsnese and thats awesome.satisfied.
What do you like most about QuickAdSense?
Hi, Thomas,
I like the idea to separate the ads on different devices, the only thing is that is it possible to insert the ads into different positions in a single post?
Hi angel, if you are referring to Advanced Ads, then yes, you can inject ads into posts.
Thanks Thomas for the Adsense plugin suggestions, the article is very timely as I want to monetise my blog easily but choosing the best plugin is not so simple.
FYI I found an article which warns people to be careful when choosing a “Free” Google Adsense plugin. Your viewers may wish to take note also!
“Many of the “free” AdSense plugins compensate for being “free” by displaying a small percentage of ads tied to the authors AdSense ID instead of your own AdSense ID.” from Dan Vuksanovich http://websitetrafficincreaserguy.com/beware-of-free-google-adsense-wordpress-plugins/
Hi Traci, thanks for noticing that. The great thing about WordPress is the mass of people watching very closely. I also once found this type of “sharing” mentality in a WordPress plugin. It is generally a good advice to have a look at the support and review section before installing a plugin from wordpress.org. Still, there are a lot of great AdSense plugins out there – free and commercial ones.
I found this an interesting read as I have been having Adsense problems for quite some time. The last I have tried is the Google Adsense plugin and it increases my Adsense views immensely but I still have the same issue with my Vidzoom first or splash page. The adds disappear after a second or 2 and I am unsure how much this is affecting my views and income?
Hi Tad, sure, when ads disappear, there is with certainty an affect on your ad income. So you should definitely have someone find the cause of it.
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Came here looking for some good Adsense plugins for WordPress. There is some good info in this post, but I couldn’t finish reading it – too many usage errors. I wish authors would make a better effort.
Thanks Dino, but what is a “usage error” in your opinion?
Hi Thomas,
I want to know..which Adsense plugin is best…my friends suggest me QuickAdsnese..what you think….i m waiting for reply…
Thanks
Kavinder Bisht
Hi Kavinder,
the answer on this really depends on what you want to accomplish. For simple use of AdSense QuickAdSense seems to be a good choice. For more complex placements and tests, it isn’t.
Great research and writing, Thomas. My site is WordPress hosted, but I haven’t downloaded WP. How do I use Quick Adsense in this situation? I only want three Adsense sidebar widget ads.
Hi Belinda, showing ads on your wordpress.com hosted site is very limited. Please have a look on http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/. If you are serious about earning money with your content, please consider to move to your own domain with WordPress as a CMS asap.
Thomas
Great and helpful posts Thomas, especially for me….a super newby to the world of blogging and Adsense. I started a very simple microniche website using a free WordPress template and got fast Adsense approval. After a bit of back linking my site is earning an average of $2.50 per day already. The plan is to create 100+ microniche sites. Is $2.50/day below average, average, or above average? My CTR is 2.70%.
Hi RobbH, congrats on your projects. I personally prefer to focus on very few projects, but some topics just don’t get enough traction. $2.50/day is a rather neutral number – meaning – not telling me enough. How is your CPC? What is your website about? a CTR of 2.70% is ok for a topic blog.
Thomas
Thanks for the reviews. I considered SimpleAds but found a lot of 1-star reviews perhaps from lack of support. Quick Adsense seems reliable despite some of the limitations you mentioned. Usually I’ll choose something that really works even if it’s missing features… we can often ad features.
Hi Joel, I think there is a solution for every target group here. SAM is great to not only display ads, but do a bit more tricks and tests with them. I didn’t want to miss it in the past even when I had to hack it. Quick AdSense is great to just throw AdSense onto your website without a need to code yourself or spend a lot of time optimizing the ad performance.
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Quick Adsense is not working on website, and you haven’t recommended anything fully. So which plugin to choose. 🙂
I know something that works, because I built it 🙂 http://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-ads/
Thanks for this information. This information very helpful for my blogs. we installed Google AdSense Plugin
I had earlier tried the Google AdSense Plugin which you did not recommend, and I’ve had some bad experience with that one. The reviews on WordPress explains a lot for that plugin.
After reading your suggestions, I tried Quick Adsense and it worked perfectly. It’s lightweight and very flexible in regards to exactly where you want the Ads placed in the post / page areas.
I’m glad I stumbled upon your blog and found the Ad plugin solution I was exactly looking for! Thank you very much
Hi Chandra, I am very glad I could help!
I am delighted that I came upon this website. Thanks God I came throughout on this website. This information will definitely going to help me with adsense.
Thank you!
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which plugin is better?
thanks
Depends on your purpose. Selling ads, using different ad networks, inserting AdSense on few position?
Thanks for notify the useful information. All this plugin very useful for manage the ads in WordPress blogs…
Is there a wp ad manager plugin which is geo compatible bcoz such plugin im looking for my web site Bright Verge. Adrotate gives the ability to target ads via cities and countries. Any one which can target counties and states? Appreciate a reply.
I am using the Google DFP ad server for this. There will be an integration of DFP in Advanced Ads soon.
Hi there great post i have got approved for my adsense a week ago and excited about the ad placement on my blog..
Thank you..
Great to hear. Good luck to you!
Thomas thank you for the great article. I am going to try your adsense plugin. The one I am using seems to have glitched, and is not working. Went from 10 dollars a day off my site to .24 cents. Aggravating.
I wanted to ask you. Do you inject your own ads in order to make money off it for your plugin as it’s a free version. As someone who makes money from adsese, I didn’t think you would.
Also does your plugin support advert? I wanted to give it a try for my blog. Thank you
Hi Jesse, don’t worry, I don’t inject ads. There are some premium add-ons that support the development of the free version as well and I appreciate if people buy them, but I don’t take a cut from the ad impressions.
I don’t know every ad network – even though I test a lot – but until now every network worked with Advanced Ads.
Best Regards
Thomas
How do I add my adsense codes?
You find the manual on http://wpadvancedads.com.
Thomas I reviewed the manual yesterday. Is it possible for you to give me an example of getting two different google adsense ads into all my blog posts? I read ad injection today, but that’s for just one page.
No problem, but please write to support@webgilde.com for this so you are covered by my support system. This would make it easier for me to keep track of the issue. Thanks
Hi Thomas,
Your artical is very useful for me it is very simple artical but covered all topic .
I need some help from you.
i recently applied for adsens and got approved but the problem is i am not getting much which i expected from .
can you suggest me any simple adsens pulgin which help me to boost revenue.
Thanks
Hi Furquah, it is not really the tool that boosts the income, but the methods. There are multiple ways to increase AdSense income, like a smart positioning or testing different ad sizes and the best ad plugins (like of course my own Advanced Ads plugin) are just means to implement what you need. In a lot of my articles I cover some tactics and methods, just keep on reading.
Your income potential also depends on your traffic, location of your visitors and topic.
Good luck boosting your revenue.
Thomas
Thank you Thomas. Will do.
Ad injection is by far the best plugin to add any type of ads in website. I am using it on my websites. A complete review of Ad injection can be read at http://blogging-guide.com/ad-injection-plugin-put-ads-on-website/
I agree, before Ad Injection was abandoned for more than two year, it was a great solution to inject ads. There was recently a minor update, maybe this was a new beginning.
You made a simplest plugin, its so easy to manage ads. thank you thomas. 🙂
Thank you, Dudeja, for taking the time to give me your great feedback.
I tried the ad injection and it wasn’t fitting within my parameters within the post sidebar. I’ve been using the google adsense widget to put the ads in, which has been working fine except the page views don’t correlate with that of which we have in our back-end. If you have time could you take a quick look at http://www.beastvid.com and give me your impression on our placement and whether we should maybe use another plugin to reach full potential? Thanks
Hi Rob, I don’t know the Google AdSense widget plugin, but it seems broken. Your ads are cut off.
Great Plugin for wordpress, i must say and thanks for the information. However, you described it very nicely.
Nice advice, i am trying different plugins for different application ,you suggestion valued added to my word press knowledge.
Which one did you choose?
I like Quick AdSense, but it is outdated now. Use adsense plugin wisely, may be plugin developer will stealing your page views.
Thank you for your comment. I agree that there were incidents where developers did switch codes, but what would you suggest potential users to do against it, resp. how could they test if this happens to them?
i already uses one of the plugins from that i am reading your blog post its really aweome and please share this type of article It also provides information on its promotion events, expected income on first day release and predictions among others.
i use plenty of adsense plugins i couldn’t find perfect plugins for adsense and ctr can u suggest
Hi, I don’t know what you mean by “perfect”, but I am pretty confident that my Advanced Ads plugin is one of the easiest to most reliable AdSense plugins out there.
Congrats for the plugin! It’s really easy to introduce the ads on pages.
Thanks!
Great set of options for managing Ads,
I am writing something like this on my blog as well. I have been using Quick Adsense from last few years and happy with it.
I have recently started using premium plugins like WordPress Ads Pro, it seems promising. But I’ll have to use a few more before deciding on the long term solution.
thank you for this information.
i’m trying your plugin !
Thanks
Even if “Insert Adsense” plugin hasn’t been updated in more than 2 years, it works perfectly for me.
In the last few days I wanted to change my main add on each page from a small one to a big one, and by only changing the HTML at Insert Adsense, all my pages changed at once. The other adds, stayed the same.
It does exactly what it proposes…and works perfectly on my bilingual site.
Simple and great plugin.
Thanks Rodrigo, for taking the time to write. A plugin that wasn’t updated for so long and has no many reviews is hard for me to recommend, but good that you mentioned it to give others the chance to try it out.
Hi Thomas,
Great article.
Got another one for you to test, we just launched our own plugin for creating tests on Google AdSense ad units. It’s called AdNgin and you can DL it here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/adngin-your-adsense-your-traffic-maximized-revenue-for-free/
Interesting idea, but it seems that one needs an account to your service so it is not really something I would recommend right away.
Would you mind elaborating on the issue you see with creating an account? It’s currently free for all users that have less than 50,000 daily pageviews. If you’d prefer, you can email me the response. Always happy to receive feedback.
Hi Thomas,
Thanks to post such a nice article about wordpress plugins. I am still not understood the policies of these tools in term of revenue. I had tried many plugins but didn’t see any improvement.
Hi, these tools don’t take something from your revenue. Some have premium versions you can purchase or others might have sponsors to finance the project. The plugin is also a tool and it is about using it right in order to improve results. I write a lot about ad optimization here on webgilde and it is on you to choose the tool and apply them. Anyway, I believe that my Advanced Ads plugin is made for ad optimization and there is a growing number of tutorials there too.
Thanks for this great adsense plugin. I use google publisher plugin, seem no increase in cpc.. I want to try the adsense target..Do you try this?
I have to believe that my Advanced Ads plugin is the best to increase the performance of AdSense, this is why I built it 🙂 However, I do test other solutions, but don’t want to end up with too many different ones. I prever to have a single solution for all the optimizations I need.
Great article. I would definitely buy one of these. I recently bought Ads-pro which was a total waste of money. It is definitely one of the worst plugins I have come across.
I used Quick Adsense for 3 years, and now they just return error when I install them on my new sites.
It is an old post. The Official Google Adsense plugin for WordPress is now doing much more than the old days.
Please specific what it does more now. Last time I checked, the official AdSense plugin wasn’t much better and I still receive complains about it from users who changed to other plugins.
I used to insert code manually in the theme above and below content as well as sidebars sometimes but you definitly need a plugin to enhance your earnings. I gave a 3 day try to Now! Plugin for AdSense but it’s not that good. I will try All in One Adsense or Ad Injection. Thanks for the tips.
Don’t forget about my Advanced Ads plugin. It does come with plenty of ad injections, especially those you asked for.
Hi Thomas,
I used to have Adsense on my site about a year ago but took it off because I wasn’t making any money. Now I’ve learned more I want to give it another go. Your plug in sounds interesting – I updated WordPress so that I can install it.
I’m interested in the ad rotation aspect because I think many viewers get ad blindness that affects income. How does this affect what you set in Adsense. I understand that if you set custom channels then more advertisers will be able to bid on your space which should increase the click price. If you’ve specifically set the ad as above the fold, how does this work or affect you in terms of ad rotation if the ad is the displayed in a different area on your page. How is it best to set Adsense up so you have full flexibility where you can place and test ad’s.
I used custom channels before so that I could have targeted ads on specific posts. Can I set ads to appear on specific posts with your plug in and am I then able to change or test where they appear on that post for best results.
Sorry for the long question, but I manually added Adsense in the past and now want to set it up in much quicker and easier to change way.
Thanks
Hi Kevin, you can rotate different ad sizes on the same spot using Advanced Ads and also target specific posts, categories or page types. I have a rotation-position feature on my todo list too, but it is not yet ready.
Thomas
Great write up. I find Quick Adsense to be the simplest and quickest to implement though I have also heard good things about Ad Injection
Great job. I haven’t used used all of them but still found the official google AdSense plugin to be the best . I am currently using it and getting a better impression and ctr.
Good to know that it works. Many people don’t like that it takes over your site without them seeing what it actually does – because most code it executes is not visible. And it injects a lot of code into your sites html and blows it up too.
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A hugely motivated and insightful article for bloggers who are willing to monetize their blog through AdSense. My domain Puzzle Duniya just crossed 6 months barrier and now i am going to apply for AdSense account. This article is going to help me a lot for my future monetization strategies. I also like the other comments made by specialists. Can anybody tell how Google’s own AdSense plugin works? Has anyone used it?
I did indeed test the plugin and was not happy with the implementation. You can’t extend it and it injects plenty of additional code. It is also easy to spot that it was not written with compatibility in mind. However, for many small publishers it might work without problems.
Wow…so helpful ! Thank you for sharing this adsense plugins.
Great article.according to you which of the plugin is best?
Well, since I am the developer of Advanced Ads I would definitely vote for it 🙂
Advanced Ads used to be good . Even it is best according to me it has many addons but you’ve to spend some bucks
i’m still trying to get adsense account, may i’ll be try Google AdSense Plugin when i’ve got the account. thanks
Thanks a lot Thomas,
Have been struggling with other plugins untill i discovered urs – Advanced Ads,
Simply awesome, i am using it for my new website – http://steptoinbound.com
One observation i have is sometimes, its difficult to get option to decide ur ad placement ones u want to add a new one after first ad…
But thanks, it really works like charm otherwise.
Regards
Thank you!
Hello Thomas,
I am regular reader of your blog site.
Can you please suggest best adsense revene sharing plugins for my multi author blog?
I am fed up by searching too much and tested almost all plugins.
Sure, you can use Advanced Ads for this following the instructions on https://wpadvancedads.com/manage-revenue-share-on-mulit-author-blogs/.
Hi Thomas, I am Mehedi Hasan, very new in the blogging world. I have taken my blogging project for 5 years. I have an approved AdSense account. I think all the Adsense plugins you have discussed are good enough to implement into the site. Definitely, this list of best Adsense plugins helps both the newbie and advanced users to get the best out of their AdSense income. Once again Thanks for this nice and effective list.
You are right, all of them can help with the basic implementation of AdSense.
Hello Thomas, i think it’s better to add some more free adsense plugins here which will let the user choose the right one for their blogs.
The biggest challenge of any professional blogger is to increase the income from the blog. And Adsense indeed is one of the most useful ways of increasing your income.
A great way to boost your income here is to install a good plug in. This three given here are really awesome and I would definitely try this out.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice day!