How to Insert AdSense Ads Between Posts in WordPress Archives

Your homepage, category, tag and search pages list many post summaries, and the space between them is a natural place for an ad. Here’s how to insert AdSense ads between posts in WordPress archive pages: with a few lines in your theme template, with a plugin, or automatically with Auto ads. This is different from inserting AdSense inside articles, because archive pages loop through many posts.

Quick answer: In your theme’s archive template (index.php, archive.php or the loop template part), add a check inside the WordPress loop such as if ( ( $wp_query->current_post + 1 ) % 4 === 0 ) and output your AdSense ad code there. That shows an ad after every 4th post. Or use the Advanced Ads or Ad Inserter plugin, or AdSense In-feed ads and Auto ads, without touching code.

Method 1: Insert AdSense ads between posts with code

Open your (child) theme’s archive template. Depending on the theme, the loop is in index.php, archive.php, home.php, or a template part like template-parts/content.php. Inside the loop, after each post summary, add:

<?php if ( ( $wp_query->current_post + 1 ) % 4 === 0 && ! $wp_query->is_singular() ) : ?>
  <div class="archive-ad">
    <ins class="adsbygoogle"
         style="display:block"
         data-ad-client="ca-pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
         data-ad-slot="1234567890"
         data-ad-format="auto"
         data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>
    <script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script>
  </div>
<?php endif; ?>

Replace the client and slot IDs with your own from your AdSense account (Ads > By ad unit). $wp_query->current_post starts at 0, so adding 1 and checking % 4 inserts an ad after posts 4, 8, 12 and so on. Change 4 to place ads more or less often.

In the original version of this tutorial we used a manual $postnum++ counter and a fixed 300×250 / 336×280 ad. Today a responsive ad unit adapts to every screen, and WordPress’s built-in loop counter is simpler.

Add the AdSense script once

Load the AdSense script just once in your site’s <head>, not with every ad. That’s faster, as we explained in load the AdSense script once for multiple ads:

<script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

It’s asynchronous, so it doesn’t block your page from loading.

Check how many posts appear per page

Go to Settings > Reading and check Blog pages show at most. With 8 posts per page and an ad every 4 posts, you get 2 ads per page.

Here’s how ads between posts looked on our archive pages:

AdSense used to limit you to three ad units per page. That rule was removed in 2016, but Google still requires that ads don’t outweigh your content, so keep a sensible balance.

Method 2: Use a plugin (no code)

• Advanced Ads: create an ad, then choose the Post lists placement and the position (for example, after the 4th post).
• Ad Inserter: has a Between posts insertion option with paragraph and post counters.

Plugins survive theme changes, which is a big advantage over editing templates.

Method 3: AdSense In-feed ads and Auto ads

AdSense offers In-feed ads, designed to blend into lists of articles: create one under Ads > By ad unit > In-feed ads and use it in place of a display ad above. Or turn on AdSense Auto ads, which automatically places ads on archive pages too. We use Auto ads on this site.

Tips

• Keep ad slots a fixed minimum height with CSS to avoid layout shift as ads load.
• Don’t place ads where they could be mistaken for post links, which breaks AdSense policies.
• Hide unfilled slots cleanly; here’s how to hide unfilled AdSense ad spaces.

Frequently asked questions

Is there still a limit of three AdSense ads per page?

No. Google removed the three-ad limit in 2016. Instead, ads mustn’t exceed your content on the page.

Will these ads show on single posts?

No. The code runs only in archive loops. The is_singular() check makes sure of it.

Do In-feed ads earn more than display ads?

It varies. In-feed ads match your post list style, which can improve clicks on archive pages. Test both and compare RPM.