Questions and Answers from the AdSense Help Forum

In the AdSense help forum there are hundreds of questions asked every day. Many of them have already been answered dozens of times by helpful publishers and by the AdSense TCs and Rising Stars.  The publishers that come to the forum are often frustrated, or confused or just in a hurry and many don't bother to search the forum for similar questions and answers.

While the forum exists to help AdSense publishers, having to respond to so many similar questions can slow things down a lot, so if you come to the forum and don't get an answer to your post right away you either need to be patient until someone finds your post, or do some searching through the forum yourself. You might find the answer you need in another post, or even in the help center itself.

If there aren't answers that seem like they fit your question, then open your own thread and wait for help.

HOW TO SEARCH THE FORUM



When you land on the homepage for the AdSense Help forum, there is a search box right at the top of the page - type in your query and you should begin to see other threads with similar questions before you even finish typing it.

If you only want to search from a specific category, when you land on the homepage choose the categories option to see a list of the categories (like payments, or getting approved, or AdSense basics) and select the category. When questions/answers from that category load there is also a search box. You can search the category for problems similar to your own and see if there is an answer to your question.

OFTEN ASKED AND OFTEN ANSWERED (in no particular order of importance)

1. How long does it take to get approved?

The simple and fast answer would be anywhere from a few days (3 according to AdSense) to several weeks, and sometimes as long as a month. If it's longer than 5 or 6 weeks, post in the forum for help.

2. How many ads can I put on my page?

This is no longer such a simple answer to this question. With policy changes, AdSense now uses a content based guideline for the number of ads you can use. See my article on AdSense Ad Limits per Page, or see the official guidelines (Valuable Inventory) in the help center.

3. How much money can I make with 1000 views? How many views to earn $100 on YouTube?

Questions like those two really can't be answered with any sort of useful answer. What each individual makes for views/impressions is based on a set of parameters, and those results can be different for each person. Depending on the type of content, the type of ads being shown, the quality of the content, the quality of the traffic, the advertisers who appear ... a person could make anywhere from 1 cent for 1000 views to $100 and it's most unlikely it's going to be $100 for the vast majority of publishers.

There is no simple answer for a question like that. In fact, there is no answer that most of us can give other than a huge range from 0 to infinity. Most of the ads that average publishers get don't pay for impressions, or only pay a fraction of a cent for 1000 impressions. The money is most often made from a click on the ad, since most advertisers pay that way.

4. When do I get paid?

The AdSense payment cycle is monthly, with payments usually being issued or processed from the 21st of the month to about the 25th or 26th of the month (see Payment timelines for more).

The payment threshold (how much you have to earn in finalized earnings) is $100 USD (or the equivalent of $100 US in your local currency), which means you won't have a payment issued if you haven't got that much showing in your Current Balance.

You also must have received and entered your PIN, entered your tax info (where required), and set up your payment method. See the AdSense Payment FAQs and the Payment Thresholds for more information.

5. Today is the 21st and I haven't been paid yet. Why?

Quite probably because it's one minute after midnight on the 21st ...

AdSense has over 2 million publishers all over the globe, so no, payments are not all issued at the same time for all publishers. It's a process that can take several days to complete. If you are due for a payment and there aren't any holds in your account then have a little patience.

And no, payments may NOT always be issued on the exact same day, even if you got your payment issued at 9:00am on the 21st for six months in a row, that doesn't mean it will always be issued then. Stuff happens, even in Google's world. It may come later in the day, or may be the next day.

According to AdSense's OWN words:

If your balance exceeds the payment threshold and you have no payment holds, you'll be issued a payment on or around the 21st of the month.

That little phrase in blue is a key point. That doesn't mean it's going to be issued ON the 21st all the time, it could be any date around that time.

6. Why didn't my PIN arrive?

That's sort of like asking "why is the sky blue?".  Once AdSense issues the PIN it's put in the mail ... snail mail (or, regular postal services). After that it's up the postal services to make sure they deliver it to your address.

As long as the address is correct in your AdSense account the postal service should be able to deliver it to you. (See PIN Problems for additional explanations.)

7. How to contact AdSense through email?

There isn't an easy way to contact AdSense directly unless you qualify for it. If you do, there will be a contact link in your AdSense account under the "help" option in the sidebar. If you don't have a contact link, you can't send them a direct email. Note that the "feedback" section isn't for AdSense help.

If some other publisher gives you an email address to try, most likely what you'll get back is an email asking you to use the forum. They won't respond to a publisher who doesn't qualify for direct email support.

There is, however, also AdSense on Twitter which sometimes has good, quick responses.

8. How to get the old AdSense dashboard back?

If you've recently noticed that the AdSense interface in your account has changed and you can't find a way to change back to the old one ... guess what? You can't. Once it's gone, it's gone for good.

posted by J. Gracey Stinson