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Inside AdSense
Google's official blog for news, tips and information on AdSense.
Success without borders
Friday, March 31, 2006
When we visit our favorite websites, we have very little insight into the person who created them other than recognition of our shared interests. A publisher in India might own a website about his penchant for classic American cars, and the majority of his readers might reside in the UK. The beauty of the Internet is that each web page could have been created by anyone, anywhere in the world -- and the site's readers are often as demographically diverse as they are a group of like-minded people.
This is where AdSense comes in -- publishers can earn money for something they probably would have done for free, i.e., writing about subjects they love. Since ads are targeted both to the content of the page and the location of the user, there are no geographic limitations on who can succeed. This puts
publishers in the developing world
on a near-level playing field with publishers in the developed world when it comes to
earning money from their interests
.
We've heard stories
from publishers in all parts of the world about how AdSense earnings are being reinvested into creating better websites and content, or spent on life improvements including new cars, vacations, education and even engagement rings.
While there are of course still barriers to entry in some parts of the world, like
high hosting costs and access to the Internet
, one of our biggest motivators in improving the AdSense product is hearing your success stories -- so please,
keep them coming
!
Posted by Brian Axe - AdSense Product Management
CPM ads: Knowing the facts can pay off
Friday, March 31, 2006
We've received lots of questions asking for clarification about the relationships between ad type (text vs. image), bidding method (CPM vs. CPC) and targeting type (site vs. contextual). To clear up any confusion, we've separated several myths from the facts.
Myth:
All text-based ads are paid on cost-per-click (CPC) basis, and all image-based ads are paid on a
cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM)
basis.
Fact:
Both text and image ads can be paid on either a CPC or CPM basis. AdWords advertisers can choose which type of ad they'd like to create -- e.g., CPM vs. CPC or text vs. image. In order for a CPM ad or an image CPC ad to
win in the ad unit auction
and appear on your site, it has to produce an effective CPM greater than the sum of the individual text ads that would otherwise appear.
Myth:
If I set my ad unit to 'image only', I'll get exclusively CPM ads.
Fact:
As mentioned above, image ads can be either CPC or CPM ads, so you could also see CPC image ads. You might also see public service ads if there is a limited inventory of image ads relevant to your site content. As a rule of thumb, we recommend
opting into both text and image ads
. Doing so expands the pool of advertisers competing to display on your site – both on a CPC and CPM basis – therefore maximizing your site's revenue potential. It also helps to choose an ad format that
supports both text and image ads
.
Keep in mind that currently, all CPM ads are
site targeted
, meaning that your site will only display CPM ads if an AdWords advertiser has decided your content is relevant to their ad campaign. To increase advertiser bidding on your site, you may wish to
customize your Onsite Advertiser Sign-up landing page
.
Myth:
I can't participate in
Onsite Advertiser Sign-up
because I only want to display text ads on my site.
Fact:
Since site-targeted CPM ads can be either text-based or image-based, you can still take advantage of this program even if you only want to show text ads. Advertisers who want to display on your site can create text-based site-targeted ads.
Posted by Theresa Chow - AdSense Publisher Support
Hipper than a square
Thursday, March 30, 2006
We caught up with one of our favorite
AdSense ad formats
, the 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle, to learn more about how it can help you maximize your site's revenue potential.
What distinguishes you from other ad formats?
I'm one of the ad formats that currently
supports image ads
. This is a strong trait because it increases the pool of ads competing to show on your site -- and the more ads competing to display on your site, the more revenue potential for you.
What are your hobbies?
I really enjoy integrating with content --
nestle me into an article
and I'll be a happy camper. I also like being
above the fold
where I tend to perform best for you and your site users.
Do you work out to enhance your performance?
Sometimes I can get out of shape just sitting immobilized on your pages. You can help keep me sharp by
testing my performance with channels
to make sure I'm doing my best. Try moving me to
different locations on your page
to see where I'm most effective; try giving me a makeover with
different color schemes
to see if it boosts my revenue performance. Like people, ad units get bored if you're not constantly challenging us to do better.
So you don't bike like
Mike Gutner
?
No, it's one of the limitations of having corners. I think a round ad format would be better suited to that.
Posted by Suzie Dewey - AdSense Publisher Support
Inside AdSense
-- now in German
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
For all of our German speaking readers who wish you could read
Inside AdSense
in your own language, we're pleased to announce that we've launched a sister blog,
Inside AdSense: Das offizielle deutsche AdSense-Blog
. In addition to covering optimization tips, features and announcements, the new blog will post information especially for German publishers.
Subscribe today so you don't miss a post! Just send a blank message to
inside-adsense-de@googlegroups.com
. You'll then receive an email with instructions for completing your subscription.
Posted by Michaela Tomberger - AdSense Publisher Support
Maintenance tonight at 8PM PST
Friday, March 24, 2006
Tonight at 20:00 PST, we'll be performing some routine AdSense maintenance. This means you may not be able to access your account for a few hours, but your AdSense ads will still serve properly and all your stats and earnings will be recorded as usual.
We appreciate
your patience
during this period and in the meantime, we hope this will allow you to get a head start on the weekend. :)
Posted by Shirin Oskooi - AdSense Product Management
Now you can help each other
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
We're excited to announce that the
new AdSense Help Group
has launched. In this community, you can discuss all things AdSense with people who'll understand exactly where you're coming from -- i.e., other AdSense publishers.
Whether you want to share AdSense expertise, bounce your
ideas for improving referrals
off your peers, or just want sympathy about your
latest bout of G.A.S.S.
, the AdSense Help Group is the place for you.
Join today
and start sharing all your stories, advice, questions and feedback with fellow AdSense publishers.
Posted by Suzie Dewey - AdSense Publisher Support
Help us help you
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
It's the middle of the night and you're tooling away at your website. After making a few updates, you realize you've got a question about your Google ads. It would be great to get an answer right away -- but it's 2 A.M., and chances are the AdSense team is ... fast asleep. What do you do? You turn to the
AdSense Help Center
, open 'round the clock to answer your AdSense questions.
We've redesigned and reorganized the Help Center so that you can find the information you seek more quickly and easily. Go
take a look
and let us know what you think. Do you learn best with
demos
? Did a
troubleshooting wizard
help you resolve an ad issue? Can you easily find information on your
EFT payments
? We'd like to know -- since we're always working to develop new resources and improve the answers we provide, it's a great help to get your
feedback on what works for you
.
Posted by Julie Beckmann - AdSense Publisher Support
From the
Inside AdSense
international mail bag
Monday, March 20, 2006
Varun asks:
I requested a replacement Personal Identification Number (PIN) yesterday, but the original PIN arrived this afternoon! Can I still use it or do I have to wait for the replacement PIN?
We say:
Yes, you can still use the original PIN. All replacement PINs issued for your account will be exact duplicates of the original, so you can enter any of the PINs that you receive, regardless of which one arrives first.
Müge asks:
I have Turkish characters in my name. Will this be a problem when receiving payments?
We say:
When you apply for AdSense, you can input your payee name using special characters (e.g., the Turkish characters ç, ğ, ü, ö, ş). However, please note that if you receive payments by check, those characters may be printed slightly differently on your checks. For example, 'ö' will be 'oe'. This doesn't normally cause problems when cashing the check.
Nevertheless, if you'd like to change the characters you've entered for your payee name, you can
email us
and we'll be happy to assist.
Sylvie asks:
I receive my payments by EFT into my account in France -- how do you determine the exchange rate from US dollars to euros?
We say:
Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
payments are converted on the day they're wired from Google's account. For
local currency checks
, the exchange rate is converted on the day the check is cut.
The exchange rate is calculated using the prevailing bank rate at the time of conversion. You can view the exchange rate by clicking the month's earnings line item in your Payment History page.
Posted by Uladzimir Hrapelman - AdSense Publisher Support
Sitemaps for AdSense publishers 101
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Using AdSense to generate revenue from your site is important, but that's not why you built it -- you built it so people could take advantage of all the great content you've created. That makes it even more important that users are able to find your site. We caught up with Shaluinn Fullove, Product Marketing Manager for
Google Sitemaps
, to find out how Sitemaps can help.
I have a Wiki/blog/forum site and frequently add new content -- how can I help Google index my newest content?
If you're looking for better coverage in the Google crawl and fresher search results to help people find your pages,
get started with Google Sitemaps
. It's a free service and provides an easy way to submit URLs to the Google index and automatically keep Google updated when changes are made to your pages. In addition, Sitemaps gives you
detailed reports
to keep track of other search-related statistics for your site.
Also, you might want to check for tips on Google's
Webmaster FAQ
and
guidelines
.
Can I find out which search queries people are using to find my site?
Yes, Sitemaps provides an easy way to see which queries people are using to find your site and which queries lead users to click through to your site from the Google search results. Additionally, you can see the average highest position your pages rank for the associated search query.
Sitemaps also offers a report that shows you the most common words linking to your site from other websites, and the most common words found within your own site content.
I just discovered my robots.txt file was blocking Google from crawling my pages. How can I make sure this doesn't happen again?
We recently released a
robots.txt analysis feature
. This feature shows you when our crawlers last accessed your robots.txt file, the status returned, and whether your robots.txt file blocks access to your homepage. You can use this feature to test changes to your robots.txt file against several of the
Googlebots
or the Robots standard.
Posted by Suzie Dewey - AdSense Publisher Support
We want to hear your AdSense story!
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Maybe you've seen some
our recent posts
profiling the
people behind AdSense
. While we love talking about the great things everyone is doing over
here
, what we're really interested in is what
you're
doing.
So please
share your AdSense story
with us. Has AdSense made an impact on your life? Has it changed the way you do business? How have you been able to optimize your earnings? We'd love to hear about all the ways AdSense has worked for you so that we can continue to improve our program. We look forward to hearing from you!
Posted by Guru Prabhakara - AdSense Publisher Support
Meet Rob Kniaz, AdSense Product Manager
Friday, March 10, 2006
What is your role on the AdSense team?
I work in product management, focusing on
referrals
. Product managers help in determining the product roadmap, strategy, and general improvements to the AdSense program.
What projects/features have you worked on?
Over the last year, I've worked with engineering to lead a redesign of the AdSense site. We launched a ton of new features including the overview page,
custom reports
,
emailable reports
, and
more EFT options
. Right now I'm focused on referrals and some other interesting projects that are not quite ready for prime time.
What are some of the surprising things you do every day at Google?
I usually check what's new on AdSense-related forums like
WebmasterWorld
and
DigitalPoint
-- Google is genuinely interested in getting fresh feedback and hearing your opinions. One recent example of implementing your feedback was
changing the time line for referrals
. Several publishers
emailed us
and posted on forum threads that they thought 90 days was too short. We met to discuss an extension, and decided to make engineering changes to lengthen the time frame to 180 days.
In between meetings, I read blogs as well to keep up on other industry news and gossip. In particular, I like
Om Malik
,
Guy Kawasaki
,
Malcolm Gladwell
,
Fred Wilson
,
Jenstar
, Yahoo's
Jeremy Zawodny
, and our own
Matt Cutts
-- they all offer good industry insight. Occasionally, I also sneak in fun things like
Gawker
.
Why should publishers opt into referrals?
Referrals are a great way to generate more revenue without affecting any of your current AdSense earnings. It's an easy, no-risk way to augment your AdSense revenue.
Any tips on implementing referrals?
Experiment with different sizes and designs to figure out what's right for your own site. Different referral button colors and sizes perform differently for every site, so it's worth trying lots of combinations to see what works in your layout.
What's in the future for referrals?
You tell us
. I love reading your feedback on what works and what doesn't, and we have other exciting plans in the works as well.
Posted by Suzie Dewey - AdSense Publisher Support
Invalid clicks: Q&A with Shuman Ghosemajumder
Thursday, March 09, 2006
In light of the
recent proposed invalid click settlement
, our friends at
Inside AdWords
interviewed Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety, to answer some of the most important questions. We thought you would also be interested in reading the Q&A -- so make sure to check out
this post from
Inside AdWords
.
Posted by Suzie Dewey, AdSense Publisher Support
Tell us your feedback on referrals
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
One of our goals on the
referrals team
is to continually give you new and improved features. Now we'd like to hear
more of your feedback
.
Anything and everything is welcome -- this is your chance to tell us if there's
a new button design
you want us to create or a cool new feature idea you've been dying to tell us about. So, whether you simply want to share your success story or you have suggestions to help us improve your 'referrals experience', please feel free to
send us a note
!
Posted by Mohammed Abdoolcarim - Referrals Product Marketing
Why the lower eCPM?
Friday, March 03, 2006
Now that site targeted and contextually targeted ads can be
displayed separately
in AdSense
Advanced Reports
, there seems to be some confusion about site targeted ads with lower eCPM. We'd like to explain why you should always feel assured that you're getting the best paying ads for your pages.
Site targeted ads
compete in the same auction as contextually targeted ads. They will only appear on your site if they represent a
higher eCPM
than any combination of contextually targeted ads competing to display in the same ad unit. The AdWords auction process takes into account factors such as bid price and clickthrough rate in calculating
Ad Rank
, the ranking system determining which ads will appear on your page. Opting into site targeted ads should only improve your overall revenue potential by deepening the pool of advertisements competing to display on your sites.
So why is the eCPM associated with site targeted ads sometimes lower than the eCPM associated with contextual ads in your
Advanced Reports
? The answer is that site targeted ads are most likely appearing on lower performing pages within your account – in other words, pages requiring a lower eCPM to win the AdWords ad auction. For example, say your ad unit on 'PageA.com' has an eCPM of $5.00, and a combination of contextually targeted ads are displaying. Your ad unit on 'PageB.com' has an eCPM of $1.00, and a site targeted ad is displaying because it represents the highest revenue potential for this page.
If these are the only two pages on which you are displaying AdSense ads, your
Advanced Reports
will show an eCPM of $5.00 for contextual ads, and an eCPM of $1.00 for site targeted ads. However, all of your ad units are automatically optimized to display the highest paying ads available at that moment.
Lastly, please remember that site targeted ads pay on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis, not on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, so you will be paid whether or not your visitors click on them. For site targeted ads, clickthrough rate does not affect eCPM since advertisers bid on a cost-per-thousand impression basis rather than a cost-per-click basis.
Posted by Suzie Dewey - AdSense Publisher Support
Channels are made for changing
Friday, March 03, 2006
If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- or so the saying goes. But when it comes to your AdSense account, toss that adage out the window and you could be on your way to earning more. Experimentation is the watchword, as we've highlighted in the new
Optimizing with Channels
guide.
This down to earth refresher will ease you through the seemingly daunting process of
testing with channels
so you can realize the best AdSense implementation for your site. Been using a
leaderboard
for months? Try switching to a medium rectangle. You know that funky eye-grabbing color scheme you've been using for your ads? See what happens when you
blend your ads
into the rest of your site.
With a little trial and comparison, you'll know which formats, colors, and placements earn the most money for you. Implement your findings on a site-wide basis, and bingo -- suddenly you're making more money than before. And all because you spent a few moments schooling yourself in the art of channels.
Posted by Evan Blaser - AdSense Publisher Support
Advanced site targeting and referrals reporting
Thursday, March 02, 2006
You've worked hard to create site content that's valuable to users and appealing to advertisers. But how do you know if any advertisers are targeting their ads to your specific site? With the latest improvements to your
Advanced Reports
, you can find out with the check of a box. Just follow these steps to view separate reports for contexual targeting and
site targeting
:
1. Visit your
Advanced Reports
page
2. Choose AdSense for content as the product
3. Select to show data by 'Individual Ad Unit' from the drop-down menu
4. Click the checkbox marked 'Show data by targeting type - contextual or site'
5. Generate your report as usual
Now, you can be in the know about how much of your traffic is viewing
site-targeted CPM ads
and how much is viewing contextually-targeted CPC ads.
We've also added
advanced reports for referrals
. This will allow you to track referrals clicks, sign-ups, conversions and earnings over a more flexible date range.
Posted by Julie Beckmann - AdSense Publisher Support
Time limit for AdSense referrals earnings is now 180 days
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
You may have noticed today that the time limit for AdSense
referrals
is now 180 days. Based on
the feedback we heard
, we agreed that 90 days may not provide enough time for your referred publishers to complete earning $100. Therefore, we decided to double the window. This change is retroactive, so it will also apply to AdSense signups that occurred more than 90 days but less than 180 days ago.
Posted by Rob Kniaz - AdSense Product Management
AdSense gets a facelift
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
As your website grows, it's important to take a step back occasionally and make sure your users' needs are still being addressed. We do the same thing here on the AdSense team. Over the past year, we've added lots of features and we're pleased to unveil a new account interface so it's easier to use them.
You can now access all AdSense products from the
AdSense Setup
tab within your account -- edit your color palettes, get code snippets, access your channels, and more. As we add even more products and features, they'll all share a consistent style to keep AdSense easy to use. For example, try out the new AdSense for content color picker for choosing and
customizing new color palettes
on the fly. Explore the
link unit
wizard with its new live preview feature and expanded explanations of this unique advertising option. These are just a couple of the many features we're planning to offer, so keep an eye out for new options soon.
We also wanted to improve the experience for new publishers, especially those who signed up through our new AdSense
referrals program
. These changes should help them get to their first $100 even faster, which in turn helps experienced publishers earn their referral bonuses, too.
We hope you'll enjoy using the new interface, and we look forward to making it even better with
your feedback
!
Posted by Bob - AdSense User Interface Design
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