--- title: "How do you verify AdSense earnings before buying a website?" url: https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-verify-adsense-earnings-before-buying-a-website/ updated: 2026-10-12 publisher: FirstPass Memo (hello@firstpassmemo.com) --- Answers # How do you verify AdSense earnings before buying a website? Short answer: Ask for three things from separate systems: the AdSense payments history, a per-site report for this domain covering 12 to 24 months, and the bank or PayPal deposits those payments landed in. Use finalised payments, not estimated earnings, ask about invalid-traffic deductions, and plan for the income gap while your own account is approved. Updated 12 October 2026 · Figures checked against their sources on 12 October 2026 ## Check a listing now, free FirstPass Memo offers a free red-flag checker for business-for-sale listings and, during the beta, a free first-pass memo on a specific listing you send. Paste any listing below for payback, the asking multiple and its red flags. Nothing you paste leaves your browser. Open the full checker (https://firstpassmemo.com/checker/) to unlock every flag with its seller question. ## What proof of AdSense earnings should you ask for? Ask for three things that come from different systems: the AdSense payments history (what Google actually paid), the bank or PayPal statements those payments landed in, and AdSense reports broken down by site and month. A seller who runs several sites on one AdSense account must show the earnings for this domain, not the account total. - Payments, not estimated earnings. Estimated earnings can be reduced later for invalid traffic; finalised payments are what you can rely on. - Per-site reports. Filter by the listed domain for at least 12 months, ideally 24. - Deposits. Match each monthly payment to a bank or PayPal deposit. - RPM against traffic. Revenue per thousand pageviews should be stable and plausible for the niche and country mix; a sudden jump in RPM with flat traffic needs a reason. ## Why do invalid-traffic deductions matter? Google's AdSense help page on invalid traffic says it covers any clicks or impressions that artificially inflate earnings, including accidental clicks, and Google can deduct earnings it judges invalid. Ask whether the account has had deductions, policy warnings or ad serving limits, and look for months where finalised earnings came in well below estimates. ## Can the AdSense account move to you? Generally no: AdSense accounts belong to the publisher and you will need your own account for the site, and Google allows one account per payee in most cases. Flippa's help centre covers transferring AdSense on a sale, and our page on transferring an AdSense account (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/can-you-transfer-an-adsense-account-when-buying-a-website/) works through the gap in income while your own account is approved. Price that gap in. ## What red flags show up in the listing itself? Paste the listing into the free checker (https://firstpassmemo.com/checker/). For display-ad sites the usual flags are search over half of traffic (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/organic-search-over-half-of-traffic/), platform dependence (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/depends-on-a-platform/), earnings averaged over a short period (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/earnings-averaged-over-short-period/) and no connected data source (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/no-connected-data-source/). ## Questions to send the seller - Can you screen-share AdSense payments and the per-site report for this domain, for 24 months? - Is this site on an account shared with other sites? If so, how do you split the earnings? - Have you had invalid-traffic deductions, policy notices or ad serving limits? - Do you use any other ad network, and which share of revenue is from each? ## Sources - Google AdSense Help, Invalid traffic (https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/16737), read 12 October 2026 - Flippa Help Center, About transferring AdSense account (https://support.flippa.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000921895-About-transferring-AdSense-account), read 7 October 2026 - Google AdSense Help, Change your payments profile name and address (https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/2628816), read 7 October 2026 - FirstPass Memo, red-flag checker rules (https://firstpassmemo.com/flags/), our own rules, published as /rules.json ## Related - Can an AdSense account be transferred? (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/can-you-transfer-an-adsense-account-when-buying-a-website/) - How to tell if revenue is fake (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-tell-if-a-website-listings-revenue-is-fake/) - Is buying a content site worth it? (https://firstpassmemo.com/buy/content-site/) - Traffic-drop test (https://firstpassmemo.com/tools/traffic-shock-test/) - Glossary of listing terms (https://firstpassmemo.com/glossary/) - More questions buyers ask (https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/) Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice. ## Looking at a specific listing? Get a free first-pass memo. Paste the link, we reply within 24 hours of acceptance. Free during the beta, then pay what it was worth ($0 is fine). After the beta, your first memo is $79; human quick reviews cost $199–$390. --- FirstPass Memo is informational screening, not investment, legal, tax, accounting or valuation advice, and not an audit. Seller figures are not independently verified. HTML version: https://firstpassmemo.com/answers/how-to-verify-adsense-earnings-before-buying-a-website/