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Inside AdSense
Google's official blog for news, tips and information on AdSense.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Happy Halloween from all of us on the Google AdSense team!
Posted by 'The Long Tail' - Google AdSense Team
The facts about smart pricing
Friday, October 28, 2005
We've noticed a lot of talk recently about the phenomenon commonly referred to as 'smart pricing'. There are some misconceptions out there about this, so we wanted to provide a few facts about smart pricing and how to ensure you're maximizing your revenue.
1. Many factors determine the price of an ad
More than conversion rate goes into determining the price of an ad: the advertiser's bid, the quality of the ad, the other ads competing for the space, the start or end of an ad campaign, and other advertiser fluctuations.
2. Clickthrough rate doesn't affect advertiser return on investment (ROI)
The percentage of clicks that convert for an advertiser is the most important factor in an advertiser's ROI, so it's not only possible, but common, to have a low CTR and a high advertiser conversion rate. It's also possible to have a high CTR and a low conversion rate. Don't remove the AdSense code from your site just because it has a lower CTR - it may be one of your best converting sites.
3. Google doesn't make money from 'smart pricing'
In fact, we make less money, since the cost to advertisers is reduced in order to provide a strong ROI. Ultimately, this leads to higher payouts for publishers by drawing a larger pool of advertisers and rewarding publishers who create high quality sites.
4. Remember the old chestnut: "Content is King"
The best way to ensure you benefit from AdSense is to create compelling content for interested users. This also means driving targeted traffic to your site -- advertisers don't gain as much ROI when paying for generic clicks as they do for quality clicks that come from interest in your content. Good content usually equals a good experience for user plus advertiser, which can be much more valuable than CTR.
Keep in mind that like most Google technology, our system for calculating advertiser pricing gets updated regularly. We're constantly improving our ad products to benefit both the publisher and advertiser communities; what benefits one side ultimately benefits the other.
Posted by Suzie - AdSense Publisher Support
Where is that PIN?
Thursday, October 27, 2005
You've earned your first $50 through the AdSense program and your account pages say that a PIN was mailed to you two weeks ago. But where is it?
We understand that this is a concern for many publishers, and what we've noticed is that PINs often take longer than 2 weeks to arrive in the US (and between 3-4 weeks for international PINs). To help set realistic expectations, the AdSense team has changed the PIN request wait period to 3 weeks instead of 2 weeks.
After waiting 3 weeks, you're welcome to request up to two additional PINs, and as before, you can enter any of the PINs that you receive, regardless of which one arrives first.
Just a friendly announcement from AdSense Support. If you're still curious about PINs, feel free to stop by the
Receiving Payments help section
.
Posted by Dan - AdSense Publisher Support
Make the most of your ad units
Monday, October 24, 2005
By placing multiple ad units on your pages, you give users more relevant ads to choose from, and you may reap the rewards from more clicks as a result.
Here's where to go
to see if your pages can benefit from additional ad units.
Already placed the code but are showing fewer units than expected? This is because our multiple ad unit system works best for pages with highly targeted ads and therefore may only display the first few units (
See how a first ad unit is defined
).
For publishers who are familiar with HTML, here are some advanced tips:
1) Create a channel (
see AdSense Help
for creating channels) for each ad placement. For example, if you have a leaderboard on the top of the page, a skyscraper on the right hand side, and another leaderboard on the bottom of the page, make sure you have a channel for all the top leaderboards, a second for the right skyscrapers, and a third for the bottom leaderboards.
2) Test the channels for at least a week to compare which position has the greatest clickthrough rate.
3) Make sure the the ad unit with the
highest
clickthrough rate is the
first
instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.
Posted by Phoebe - AdSense Publisher Support
Work some magic with the new troubleshooting wizards
Friday, October 21, 2005
For Halloween season we thought we'd highlight some of the AdSense wizards that can help you create a little magic of your own.
Are public service ads showing on your site? Need some help filtering ads from appearing on your site? The new AdSense
troubleshooting wizards
can help you solve these issues quickly. Almost like magic.
Posted by Laura - AdSense Publisher Support
AdSense 101
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Recently, we've received some emails from readers who are looking for more information about program eligibility and how to get started. To answer your questions we thought you might find some of our online tools and information helpful.
If you're wondering what AdSense is all about, the AdSense
Quick Tour
is a great place to start.
No matter how much or how little traffic your site gets, you're welcome to
submit an application
. And once you're approved, you can add your AdSense ad code to any of your websites that meet our
program policies
.
Ready to get started? Don't miss a step - review the
Quick Start Guide
, or for a more interactive tutorial check out the
Getting Started with AdSense Demo
.
Posted by Suzie - AdSense Publisher Support
We get letters
Friday, October 14, 2005
Shortly after our
"Distorted images"
post, we received a letter from
Recipezaar
publisher Gay Gilmore:
What a surprise today!
I would have loved to comment on what great results we have seen since we implemented image ads, but you guys don't allow comments -- I understand why ;-) -- so I thought I'd pop an email.
Well, nothing makes us happier than to hear about publishers seeing great results, so we followed up with Gay to learn a little more about their success:
We've seen a 34% increase in AdSense revenues by allowing image ads in our ad codes and implementing
section targeting
on key pages. These technologies by their nature mean that impressions may initially drop, however, we have still seen increased revenues because our
eCPM
has doubled. Making more money from fewer impressions is a GREAT thing.
Of course Google doesn't give us all the stats yet on image v. text v. site-targeted ads, so we can't be sure exactly what the cause is ;-).
AdSense now offers us a more competitive eCPM than other ad publishing networks (without the annoying banners or attention-grabbing layer ads), so we are sending more and more traffic to Google. Our users are happier too. Because our AdSense ads are super-targeted, our customers tend to view them as "additional content" rather than diversionary advertising.
Thanks for the Link Love ;-)
Gay, thanks for sharing this part of your AdSense success story - and how additional reporting will be useful for you. No promises, but we'll keep doing our best to give you what you need to maximize your AdSense earnings.
Posted by Sandra - AdSense Publisher Support
Spotlight on . . . Weblogs, Inc.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Recently, we caught up with Jason Calacanis from
Weblogs, Inc.
who shared with us how he's taken his AdSense earnings to a new level. We really enjoyed speaking with Jason, and knowing how much you enjoy hearing from your fellow publishers, we're featuring him as our newest case study.
Check it out
and find out how he went from making a few hundred dollars a day to $3,000 a day with AdSense.
Jason is enjoying success on other fronts these days -
Weblogs, Inc. was just acquired by AOL
last week. Our congratulations to the team.
Posted by Cherie - AdSense Product Marketing
Searching for flexibility
Monday, October 10, 2005
We often hear the following question -
"In
AdSense for search
, how can I change the default search from Google to my own site?"
Many of you already know that you can add up to three sites alongside the google.com search when generating your AdSense for search code. Now that you have added your own site(s), you also have the flexibility to select one of these to be the default search.
The simple key is to select your site in the example box on the "Search code" page on the AdSense for search tab, so that the selected radio button is next to the site you would like to appear as default. Then the code will automatically reflect your selection.
Posted by Phoebe - AdSense Publisher Support
Six AdSense optimization tips for forums
Friday, October 07, 2005
1. Format is important for multiple ad units
Placing a
skyscraper
above the fold on the left side of your forum seems to produce slightly better performance than other positioning. However, when using multiple ad units throughout the page our horizontal bias still favors the leaderboard. See the Forum Heat Map below for more details.
2. Display your ad units wher
e repeat users will notice them
A leaderboard at the very top fits nicely next to the logo, but forum regulars tend to skip the header and go straight to the meat of the thread. Placing your ad unit above or below the first post can be more effective.
3. Place a leaderboard immediately after the last post
This provides users who make it to the end of a thread with a ‘next step’ when the content ends. If you place it after the footer, though, folks will move to the next thread before they even see the ad!
4. Use horizontal link units
Link units
offer a wider range of relevant topics for users to browse. A horizontal unit can be placed near the top of your forum just below the header.
5. Opt-in to image ads
Supporting image ads increases the pool of ads –particularly
cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) ads
– bidding to display on your site. Since forums tend to have lower click-through rates (CTRs) than other types of sites, CPM ads can improve revenue without the need for clicks. Please remember, however, that CPM ads come in both text and image formats.
6. Be sensitive to your forum community
Forums are highly interactive, so be sensitive to your users when implementing your AdSense ads. Be sure to blend the ads nicely, so they don’t appear overly intrusive – but don’t blend them so well they mislead your users! Every forum site is different and you know your community best, so as always use your own judgment to create the most positive experience for your users.
Posted by Sandra - AdSense Publisher Support
A day in the life of Spencer
Friday, October 07, 2005
When you write to AdSense - whether it's for help with payments, troubleshooting or general feedback - I might be the guy who writes back. Since so many of you have shared your stories with me, I thought it was only fair to tell you a little bit about my role here at AdSense.
I try to roll into the office fairly early to beat the Bay Area traffic. Then, fortified with extra strong coffee, I spend most of my day responding to publisher emails and working on projects to improve AdSense publisher support. Somewhere in the noon range I break for lunch at one of the Google cafes - my favorite menu item is the carne asada burrito with guacamole. Since the California weather has been nice, I've been eating outside with friends. In the afternoon, I sometimes take a break for a game of foosball. Our office is filled with world class foosball players, of which I am not one. So the games don't tend to last very long.
Most of my time, though, is spent writing to publishers over email. It's a good feeling when I've helped publishers get paid, or can troubleshoot a problem so that ads start to appear on their pages. Our publisher base has a lot of energy and is incredibly diverse. I can be working with a publisher from Oregon one minute, and the next minute I might get an email from Lebanon. The best part about my job is being able to help people all over the world. Plus, I get to see a lot of cool websites every day. :)
Posted by Spencer - AdSense Publisher Support
Money talks
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
If you could talk to your AdSense earnings, you'd probably give them a pep talk ("Grow, baby, grow!"). If your AdSense earnings could talk to you, they'd want you to get to know them a little better. Though your earnings can't talk, we're happy to talk for them - just watch our updated
Payment Demo
. This video presentation will help you get personal with your earnings by learning more about how our payment process works and what payment methods are available to you.
The Demo walks you through the steps you'll need to take to receive payments, including submitting your tax information, entering your PIN, and selecting a form of payment. And it also guides you through the EFT sign-up process we highlighted
last week
.
Maybe after you've watched our Payments Demo, you feel like you've had a good long heart-to-heart with your AdSense earnings. You can even provide feedback about your bonding experience through our Payment Demo
feedback form
.
Posted by Suzie - AdSense Publisher Support
From the Inside AdSense International mail bag
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Vladimir asks:
Do you have any plans to offer other payment options to Russian publishers?
Inside AdSense says:
We’re working hard to provide additional payment options to a wider set of publishers, but we don’t currently have a date for when new options may become available in Russia or any other location. At this time, publishers in Russia are only eligible to receive payments in US Dollar checks.
Publishers in some other locations may have additional payment options available to them:
local currency checks
or
Electronic Funds Transfer
(EFT) .
We appreciate the patience of all our publishers while we work to expand our payment options.
Mark asks:
European publishers have been experiencing pretty big delays with PIN deliveries. I was wondering why you have to send it by post and not by email?
Inside AdSense says:
We mail each publisher a Personal Identification Number (PIN) in order to help verify publisher addresses, protect the personal information of our publishers, and ensure that payments can be received. We anticipate publishers will receive PINs 2-4 weeks after they are mailed, but it may take longer depending on your location.
We’ll always mail your PIN to the payment address in your account, so make sure that information is correct. If it’s not correct, you can always
update your information and
request a replacement PIN. Although your payments will be held while you’re waiting for your PIN, please rest assured that you’ll still be able to access your account and continue to accrue earnings.
If you don’t receive your PIN, or if it has been lost, you're welcome to request up to two additional PINs.
Deepak asks:
My website is built for India and targets the Indian population, but I’m based in Canada. Is there any way that I can ensure the ads are targeted to India?
Inside AdSense says:
AdSense uses geo-targeting to ensure that your Google ads are always targeted to your audience wherever they are located. AdWords advertisers choose which countries they’d like to target, and AdSense serves appropriately targeted ads based on the IP address of your users. This means that your users in India will see a different pool of ads than you will see in Canada.
To preview what ads your users in India or many other geographic locations are seeing, we recommend reading
our
previous post
on the
AdSense preview tool
.
Posted by Uladzimir - AdSense Publisher Support
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