Inside AdSense: March 2017

AdSense 101: What you need to know

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Over the next five weeks, our blog we’ll be covering everything you need to set up and manage your account to the highest standard. So if you think joining AdSense is right for you, then keep an eye on our social channels.

In this post we’re going to cover the fundamentals of AdSense, and give you clear steps on how you can earn extra income from your content without disrupting the flow of your website.

AdSense is a free, simple way to make money by placing ads on your website.

AdSense is Google’s ad network that does the hard work of bringing together the parties that participate in online advertising, making it simpler for everyone involved to succeed. It builds relationships with businesses looking to advertise, and websites like yours looking to make money by selling ads. Through an ad network, AdWords advertisers can get access to a wide variety of different online inventory at scale. And, they also help publishers find advertisers quickly. By working with an ad network like AdSense, you can spend less time marketing and selling your advertising space and more time focused on creating the best content for your users.

After you sign up for an account with a policy compliant website and are approved by AdSense, AdSense works behind the scenes to manage advertiser bids, inventory, and placements while focusing on increasing your earnings. It’s important to know that in order to maintain ad serving on your website and keep an AdSense account active, it's the responsibility of the publisher to keep up to date with, and adhere to, the policies posted here.

It’s like an automatic car -- it removes most of the manual adjustments, allowing you to cruise along with less effort. You still need regular “tune ups” to get optimal performance, but you won’t need to shift gears to get from point A to point B.

Put AdSense to work for you.

To make money from AdSense, you’ll need a steady stream of website traffic. It’s a best practices to consistently post high-quality content, as it can attract more loyal visitors with fresh, relevant content.

If you have a website that you update regularly, then why not sign up and see if AdSense works for you? The process is completely free and easy to add to your site. See the steps below or visit our help center to learn more.

With AdSense, you’re in complete control of the type of ads that appear on your site.

You call the shots on the ads that appear on your website.

Choose the ad formats you’d prefer (text, display, rich media etc.), then highlight where on your website you’d like them to display.
Block specific categories of ads that you don’t want to display, so only products or businesses relevant to your content can bid on your inventory.
Adapt the look and feel of text ads to match the style of your website.

Measure and optimize performance.

Performance reports provide key insights into how users engage with your content by measuring both your earnings and your performance across key engagement metrics.
Leverage these insights with the Optimization page within your AdSense account. It’s a one-stop shop for improving your account performance, providing you with tailored recommendations and A/B experiments to help you make more informed decisions.

Mobile friendly for you and your users.

For you, the AdSense mobile app provides you with an account overview, as well as access to detailed performance reports on all key metrics.
For your users, AdSense has mobile-friendly ad formats like responsive ad units that automatically adapt to different screen sizes or page-level ads that are displayed at optimal times when they’re likely to perform well for you and provide a good experience for your users.

AdSense is time efficient. Publishers that use our QuickStart feature only need to place a snippet of code in the <head> tag of their policy compliant web pages, then we’ll will take care of the rest.

Here’s how you can get started.

Before you can start earning money from your content, you’ll have to submit your website for approval. Follow these best-practice steps before the application to increase your chances of a quick and easy approval:

Make sure you include an ‘About’ page, ‘Contact’ page, and a ‘Privacy’ page on your site.
Include as much original content as possible; websites that post duplicate content will not be considered.
Make sure you have full ownership of the website you’re submitting, or permission from the owner.
Ensure that your site adheres to the AdSense program policies.

If you think AdSense is a fit for your website, then sign up now. After you’ve signed up you can submit your site to begin the approval process. To begin the approval process, log into your new AdSense account, click on Settings in your account page, then click My Sites and then Add.

Once approved, your final step is to add the a provided snippet of code to your website (find detailed instructions here).

If your site averages more than 300,000 monthly views, then contact an AdSense specialist for help that’s specific to your business. And if you’d like additional support with your account you can join an #AskAdSense support session on Twitter every Thursday 9:30am PT for our specialized guidance, tips and account support.

Once you start earning money with AdSense, you can finally turn your #PassionIntoProfit.

Apply for an AdSense account

Stay tuned for more insights on getting started with AdSense and optimizing your account right here on our blog and on our social channels.

Posted by: Jay Castro @jayciro, from the AdSense team

Global Spotlight: Event-driven engagement strategies for Vietnam

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Seasonal Contentcontent calendar,anticipate when the spikes are coming, then create the right content to capture that crowd

Providing a great example of a viral moment, Haynhucnhoi’s mascots Ms Nhuc and Mr Nhoi appeared in a cartoon showing how children behave when visitors visit during Tet. During the visit the kids, mind their own business. But as the visit draws to its end, they approach guests with puppy-dog eyes in the hope of receiving hong bao money. Inspired by this commonly shared experience, they created their own videos on the brand’s YouTube channel.

Viral Content Google Alertsyour own unique hashtag(1)

Get started today and sign up for AdSense, let’s turn your #PassionIntoProfit.

Posted by: Jay Castro, @jayciro
(1) Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2017. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twentieth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: www.ethnologue.com

Manage the risks associated with user comments

Monday, March 27, 2017

program policiesallStrategies for managing user-generated content.infographicAnother option:

At Google, we believe in fostering an environment where users, advertisers, and publishers can all thrive in a healthy digital advertising ecosystem. By valuing each party equally, we help ensure the sustainability of our industry. We publish Help Center materials, write blog posts, speak at industry events, provide publisher forums and host events at our offices to help our publishers succeed in an ever changing environment.

Posted by: John Brown, Head of Publisher Policy Communications

Global Spotlight: Capitalizing on Vietnam’s digital opportunity

Thursday, March 23, 2017

First let’s look at the bigger picture: there’s no denying that the world becomes more digital each and every day. While global advertising expenditure is expected to reach $573 billion in 2017,(1) the key growth drivers are strong demand for digital advertising, specifically mobile campaigns.

Drilling down on Vietnam, the smartphone continues to pick up pace in this country, where many are mobile-first or mobile-only users. While Asia-Pacific made up 34% of all smartphone users in 2008, it’s expected to leap to 55% in 2017. Some Vietnam-based publishers have already seen mobile account for as much as 90% of their traffic.(2)

With all that in mind, there are seven key opportunities not to be missed in Vietnam this year:

Fast mobile experiences: The most successful publishers in the region are devoting development resources to boost load speeds of mobile sites and ads and to improve the user’s experience. Recent research from DoubleClick indicates that over 50% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load. Invest in increasing your mobile page speed to influence increases in time on site, engagement, and re-engagement.
Native advertising: These ads fit into the look and feel of your website, making it a better and more effective ad experience for your visitors. Native formats include custom sponsored content, content recommendations, and in-feed ad units.
Programmatic ad transactions: Programmatic advertising uses software and algorithms to match publishers’ inventory with buyers in search of ad space. An auction system ensures the ad of the buyer with the highest bid fills each space, which can add up to revenue gains for you and your site. Consider beginning with this short quiz to help you decide if the correct next step for your business is programmatic advertising.
Better ad experiences: Because marketers want to buy ads with a high chance of actually being seen by users, there’s a shift towards valuing viewable impressions over served impressions. Page level ads is an AdSense family of ads that you can use that is optimized to show when ads are likely to perform well and be seen.
Digital ad serving: As you grow as a publisher, you might find you need more control to sell, schedule, deliver and measure advertising deals across multiple digital properties. DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business is an industry-leading platform to consider given its easy to use interface and built-in yield management technology
Video: According to Buffer, visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. Furthermore, YouTube recently announced that over one billion hours of video content is watched on YouTube every day. If you don’t already create, embed, and monetize original video content on your site, now’s the time to incorporate video into your content strategy.
Messaging: Throughout Asia, the commercialization of social media has helped messaging platforms to evolve into central areas of ecommerce. For AdSense publishers, messaging platforms could provide an opportunity to drive mobile users to your content as a channel for content discovery.

Remember, there are 68 million native Vietnamese speakers in the world today who are going online in growing numbers. If you’re a publisher in Vietnam, signing up for AdSense is an easy way to turn your in-demand content into profit. And for publishers already using AdSense, Vietnam presents an exceptional opportunity to grow your site visitors.

To explore the possibilities for your business and site, don’t miss our live stream on 24th March where we’ll share even more recommendations for the Vietnamese market. You can sign up for AdSense here, and start turning your #PassionIntoProfit today.

Posted by: Jay Castro from the AdSense team

(1) eMarketer Worldwide Ad Spend Report 2016

(2) eMarketer Vietnam Online 2016 Report

Help our team help you

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Step 1:Make sure that the email address you've listed in your account to receive communications from us is correct and is one that you’re regularly checking.Step 2:Opt in to receive emails from us.

Customized help and performance suggestions - Includes personalized revenue and optimization tips customized specific for your website.

Periodic newsletters with tips and best practices - Includes general AdSense tips, best practices and product updates.

Occasional surveys to help Google improve your AdSense experience- Gives you a regular opportunity to share your feedback on AdSense.

Special Offers - Includes invitations to events in your country and live YouTube events..

Information about other Google products and services which may be of interest to you - Occasional updates on other Google products like Google Analytics or DoubleClick for Publishers.

Personal settings Step 3: Choose your language preference.Display languagecheck your contact details

Posted by Suzy Headon - Inside AdSense Team

Announcing the Winners of the Certified Publishing Partner 2016 Summer Challenge

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Certified Publishing Partner 2016 Summer Challenge launched in July 2016

Customer Satisfaction Award Winner: AdThrive, USAAbout the award:Why AdThrive:AdThrive

Mobile Champion Award Winner: WOSO, China

About the award: This award recognizes the partner who demonstrates strong expertise in helping publishers capture mobile opportunities with strong user experiences and effective monetization.

Why WOSO: We believe that Certified Publishing Partners should take the lead in helping publishers of all sizes in various markets successfully adapt to a mobile first environment. Our 2016 winner WOSO has done exactly that. They are a leading pioneer in China's online advertising and SEM, WOSO, and in Q3 2016 during the Summer Challenge, they helped publishers achieve a significant year over year growth in driving mobile web monetization. Way to go WOSO!

Business Innovation Award Winner: Ezoic, USA

About the award: This award recognizes innovations that drive real business impact and challenge the status quo. We continually encourage our partners to develop differentiating value-add services and solutions.

Why Ezoic: We received more than 20 submissions for this award showing the breadth of innovation that our partners are bringing to publishers. Our 2016 winner, Ezoic, specializes in automated testing platform for content publishers. In 2016 they launched Ad Tester, a machine learning based solution designed to optimize user experience and ad earnings at the same time.

We look forward to many more innovations from Ezoic in the future.

Thank you to all of the Summer Challenge participants and congratulations to the winning partners!

Posted by Sean Meng,

Global Program Lead, Google’s Certified Publishing Partner Program

About Google Certified Publishing Partnerships:

A Certified Publishing Partner can help when you don’t want to do it alone. Our publishing partners handle everything from setting up to optimizing and maintaining ads, so you’re free to spend more time publishing content on your site. Using Google best practices, our publishing partners are adept at maximizing performance and earnings with AdSense, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and DoubleClick for Publishers. For more information, visit our website.

The inside scoop on native advertising: What is it, why does it matter and do you need it?

Tuesday, March 07, 2017

What is native advertising?

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), native ads are paid ads that have the goal of being “so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong.”

Native ads allow you to have an ad styled to fit within the page and it’s surrounding content, unlike traditional display banners. They are designed to match the look, feel, and function of your site.

Why does native advertising matter?

Since most people access the Internet from a mobile phone, it’s important to prioritize a mobile first user experience. This shift in thinking requires a change in the way we approach our ads too.

You’re likely already putting a lot of effort into shaping your site to meet the high expectations of a clean and mobile-optimized user experience. It’s just as important to experiment with how you deliver ads to meet those user expectations and retain users’ interest in your site. Native ads can open up new earning opportunities on your site where traditional ad formats weren’t appropriate before. Ad formats, like banner ads, are effective but sometimes limited by size and placements. Native Ads can be customized to fit seamlessly within your content’s look and feel.

Do you need it?

According to new BI Intelligence estimates based on historical data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), PwC, and IHS; US native display ad revenue will make up 74% of total US display ad revenue in 2021, up from a 56% share in 2016.¹

Supporting and offering this ad format will provide you with access to a huge portion of the market for advertiser budgets. Additionally, as mobile consumers increasingly drive the publishing industry, native advertising is a key strategy for connecting with that audience and delivering a profitable mobile experience.

Finding inspiration

If you’re looking for a reason to get started on native ads, then take a look at some of our success stories.

Unidad Editorial is a leading multimedia group in Spain with 20 million daily users. See how they achieved a 4X increase in mobile CTR and and 6X increase in desktop CTR using native ads.
The New York Times also saw a huge boost in viewability and ad engagement metrics using native ads. Read their story here.
Leading publishers Aller Media (Scandinavia) and Grupo Expansión (Mexico) both saw serious uplifts in their viewability metrics using native advertising units.

When implementing native ads, consider the following:

Prioritize your audience: Consider your users’ expectations of your site and how they’ll respond to the type of ads you choose. Native ads meet users’ expectations by seamlessly fitting within your site’s user experience.
Test first to optimize for user experience and ad revenue: It’s important to consider how to create the best user experience while maximizing your ad revenue. Strike a balance between content and ads by testing new native ad units and formats to measure their impact on revenue and user engagement.

Next steps

Ready to get started? With 54% of global marketing leaders already using native advertising, native ads are the solution to help grow your ad earnings.²

Our team of experts can offer a personalized consultation to help you offer native ads to your advertisers and grow your publishing business. Book a slot time to speak with one of our experts.

Posted By: Jay Castro, from the AdSense team

1 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-native-ad-report-forecasts-2016-5?IR=T

2 “Current vs. Planned Use of Select Digital Ad Formats Among Marketing Leaders Worldwide, Jan 2016”, eMarketer, 2016.

Understanding account suspensions due to invalid traffic

Friday, March 03, 2017

What is invalid traffic anyway?program policiessuspenddisable#AskAdSense video What is an account suspension?
notsuspended accountsdisabled accounts

Why did my account get suspended?

In addition to monitoring for policy violations, we analyze all clicks and impressions to determine whether they might artificially drive up an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. If we determine that your account has invalid traffic, then we may suspend or disable your account. Please know that we may deduct revenue from your account and may credit advertisers with the withheld revenue where appropriate and possible.

Here are some common reasons for why your account may get suspended:

Clicking ads on your own site and/or YouTube channel: Publishers may not click their own ads or use any means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially, including manual methods. Testing your own ads by clicking on them isn't allowed. Additionally, YouTube publishers should skip ads when viewing their own videos to avoid artificially inflating advertiser costs.

For AdSense ad placements on sites, please use the Google Publisher Toolbar if you want to click the ads to check the landing pages or view more details about the ads. The Toolbar will allow you to check the destination of ads on your page without the risk of invalid clicks.

One or more users repeatedly clicking your ads: Don't encourage or ask your friends, family, co-workers, or general users to click on your ads. This includes asking for users to support your site or YouTube channel, offering rewards to users for clicking ads, and promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior.

We also recommend that you check your associated AdSense email for more information regarding your account suspension.

What steps should I take during the suspension period?

Account suspension gives you time to investigate the sources of invalid traffic, identify and block suspicious traffic, and put measures in place to ensure clean traffic. We recommend learning how to segment your traffic to help you best understand, monitor, and evaluate the traffic to your site. This may also help you identify sources of invalid traffic.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts due to invalid traffic.

How can I appeal an account suspension?

Account suspensions are currently not appealable. You can use this time to investigate your traffic sources and make adjustments to help prevent invalid traffic in the future. Provided that there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will automatically be reinstated once your suspension period is served.

Please don't fill out the invalid traffic appeal form because that form is reserved for disabled accounts, and you will receive an email that says we can't process this appeal.

If you would like to provide additional feedback to help us improve our processes and communications, you may do so using our suspended publisher feedback form.

When will my account be re-enabled?

If there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will be automatically re-enabled after the fixed period (most frequently 30 days).

What happens if after my account was re-enabled, my account continues to generate invalid traffic?

If, after your account has been re-enabled, invalid traffic persists and continues to contribute low value traffic to our ads ecosystem, then we may need to disable your account.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts due to invalid traffic. We look forward to your return to the AdSense network in good standing after the suspension ends.

Posted by: Danielle Chang, Ad Traffic Quality team

How to address 'insufficient content' disapprovals on your AdSense application

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

AdSensesite has insufficient contentThe AdSense program policiesrelevant adsother reasonsre-submit your AdSense applicationAdSense policies: a beginner's guidetipshelp articletroubleshooter for disapproved application

Inside AdSense

AdSense 101: What you need to know

Global Spotlight: Event-driven engagement strategies for Vietnam

Manage the risks associated with user comments

Global Spotlight: Capitalizing on Vietnam’s digital opportunity

Help our team help you

Announcing the Winners of the Certified Publishing Partner 2016 Summer Challenge

The inside scoop on native advertising: What is it, why does it matter and do you need it?

Understanding account suspensions due to invalid traffic

How to address 'insufficient content' disapprovals on your AdSense application

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