'Net Features : adsense

Manage All Your Websites in Google AdSense

Michael Garrity — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:35:00 GMT

Good news for affiliates that use Google AdSense to monetize their websites. The service is looking to make monitoring the revenue performance of all your websites (and their respective AdSense campaigns) significantly easier.

That is the basis of the new beta release of Site Management, a feature in the Google AdSense console that allows AdSense users to categorize their various ads by website. They simply have to add websites to their list in the console and then set site-specific actions for each one. Actions can include things like blocking a specific ad from showing on certain sites.

Both domains and subdomains can be added to site lists, but Google warns users that it’s very important to use the correct, complete URL when adding a site to make sure the selected actions work appropriately. So, if a user wants to block actions across an entire domain, they should add them to the list without the “www.” prefix, as subdomains that take that spot won’t be applicable for the rule change.

Have you started testing the Site Management beta feature yet? If so, let us know what you think about it in the replies.

AdSense Adds Half-Page Ad Unit

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:20:00 GMT

As web design trends evolve ( and as the devices users employ to access the Web provide more immersive experiences) the ad units that publishers require to monetize their digital properties must also change.

Google has just announced that a massive 300x600 unit will soon be available in publisher accounts. These half-page units are one of the fastest growing sizes by impressions (according to Google's recently released Display Business Trends - PDF) but while full of promise and pizazz, they are not without their limitations.

Integrating these much larger ad units is likely going to take some creative integration to ensure both advertisers and users receive an optimal experience - but that's only the tip of the digital iceberg. Google has made it known in the past that it does take page layout into account (at least to some degree) when ranking sites and these banners are bound to present some problems - we'll see how much as more publishers integrate them.

For those of you keeping track, Adsense now offers 20 different ad unit types - from leaderboards and skyscrapers to link units and squares.

Block Ads with Google Publisher Toolbar

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:30:00 GMT

Over six months ago, Google launched the Adsense Publisher Toolbar, a browser-based extension that enabled publishers to monitor their earnings and performance directly on their own website pages.

31,000 Adsense publishers now use the Chrome extension, but thanks to a few recent improvements, you can (should) expect that number to skyrocket.

The toolbar, which consequently now supports DoubleClick for publishers, has received new blocking capabilities that are definitely worthy of note. Publishers that have the extension enabled will be able to block ads they deem unsuitable for their audience without needing to navigate to their account or spending time determining which ad or URL to block. Publishers can even indicate to Google if there was a problem with an ad – e.g. the ad in unsafe, the landing page is unaccurate, etc.

Previously, publishers were only able to view account. Now, those ad overlays display additional information about the ad unit including the name of the ad slot, performance metrics, destination and display URLs, as well as a preview of the ad. And, if publishers are using the Ad Review Center, they can now take action on either the ad or the URL, choosing to block the ad directly which adds it to the URL filter list.

Google Retiring AdSense for Domains

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:00:00 GMT

The end of domain parking is near. Google last month indicated that parked domains were in their crosshairs and would be deprecated on the search results pages. And the fight waged against domain parking is continuing as Google has now indicated that its AdSense for Domains (AFD) will soon be going away.

Google published a list of key dates related to the hosted domain product retirement within AdSense. Starting this week (February 22), AdSense publishers will no longer be able to start using the product, and by March 21, existing publishers will no longer be able to create new hosted domains. By April 18, hosted domains will become inactive, and the service will be removed entirely from AdSense accounts by June 27.

A guide to migrating domains to new domain parking providers was put together by Google and is available here.

Adsense Reporting Enhancements - Events and Reporting

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT

Google announced two new reporting and administrative features for Adsense publishers. If you’re focused on identifying the cause of revenue fluctuations and where earnings are coming from, keep reading.

The new Event History feature will show publishers a small flag on reporting graphs which note actions that have been taken that could influence earnings. For example, if you blocked a category of ads and then created a new leaderboard, publishers will see the two actions marked in the reports.

Google also added earnings from tablets to its Platforms report, which shows earnings based on the type of device being used by visitors. These earnings were previously included under “high-end” mobile earnings but with the growing trend towards mobile and tablet devices, having some granular information will be helpful as you optimize a website and ads specifically for mobile users.

Google Now More Rigid on Adsense Approvals

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:00:00 GMT

If the pitch Google gave advertisers this week about the value of affiliate marketing weren't enough to show's the search engine's commitment to the future of the practice, it's about to get much more obvious.

Google is taking the quality of its affiliate network more seriously, adding a two-step review process for Adsense Publisher approvals.

Adsense has long been known in the affiliate marketing space as the easiest (if not most profitable) program of its type to join. The changes may signal the good 'ol days of Adsense (at least for the most rogue publishers out there) are coming to an end.

After a new application is submitted, Google will now run a preliminary check on the site and the site details submitted by the applicant - but you can't start raking in the revenue just yet. If the application passes the first stage, the applicant will then be notified by email and granted account access so they can grab the code and place it on their website. Google is now requiring that the ad code be implemented on the site before the second phase of the review process begins. Live ads won’t immediately appear once ad code has been placed on the submitted site, temporarily showing “blank ads” which blend in with the background of the page instead. Applicants logging into their AdSense account at this stage of the review process will see a reminder that their account remains under review.

Soon after the ad code has been added to the submitted site, a final approval decision will be made by Google and the applicant will be notified by email. Newly approved publishers will see live ads automatically appear in the existing ad units on their pages.

Sites Report Now Available in AdSense

Allison Howen — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:20:00 GMT

Tracking an ad’s performance just became easier with the new Sites Report available in the new AdSense interface.

Manually created URLs won’t be necessary anymore to track your ads. Instead, a detailed report will show your ad’s effectiveness under the Performance Reports tab.

Performance data is tracked for content, mobile content, feeds and domain data. Another feature available is the multi-dimension reporting, which analyzes your site’s performance by topics such as ad type, targeting type and platform.

Data from dates prior to the release of the Sites Report will not be available. Visit AdSense Help for more information.

AdSense Earnings Falling? Here's Why

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:30:00 GMT

Google's Adsense publishers took to the Help forums the past week complaining of falling daily earnings. Before publishers rush off to strip Adsense JavaScript from their pages, know that Google simply changed how it managed the "reporting pipeline."

Since May 14, 2011, earnings for the current day reported in the interface may fluctuate in the Performance reports "due to the lag between gross click counts and invalid click detection" according to Google. More detail was provided in a help center article on fluctuations in estimated earnings:

After clicks occur, estimated earnings are increased based on these recorded clicks. However, processing for invalid clicks is completed after this initial estimate, and the corresponding earnings might then be revised downward in your reports.

Google indicated that finalized earnings, which are reported at the end of every month, might also reflect further adjustments.

Better Adsense Earnings Reports

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:30:00 GMT

Google announced this week that it has begun displaying more earnings data to publishers on the Adsense dashboard.

As you will be able to see in the image below, Google is now showing earnings for the current day, the previous day, the month so far, and the previous month as well as any unpaid finalized earnings and most recent payment information.

Also, alerts will be appearing at the top of the homepage to ensure publishers don’t miss anything too critical.

Adsense publishers can also expect a few more changes in the coming months, including the ability to view the top channels from the home page.

AdSense Gets a New Look for Mobile Users

Linc Wonham — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Google has announced a change to the AdSense interface that optimizes for mobile devices. The upgrades allow for quicker access to accounts by mobile users who, until now, had to use third-party apps such as DuoSense for the iPhone.

Introduced this week, the changes will enable users to check earnings, get important alerts and view reports from their smartphones. Because the new interface is still in beta, Google says there are still more features coming soon.

Users who opt in to the new interface from their desktops will be able to access the simpler and faster mobile version. They will also have the option of switching back and forth from the desktop and mobile versions through a link at the bottom of the screen.

No More PSA’s in Adsense

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:15:00 GMT

Google announced today that it will begin to gradually retire public service ads (PSAs) from AdSense sites.

PSAs are unpaid ads that would appear on publisher sites when Google was unable to serve a paid ad – for example, when relevant ads were unableable or if a publisher exceeded the amount of time to verifity their address by receiving a personal identification number (PIN).

For Adsense publishers this means that if you selected “Show public servce ads” in the AdSesene interface, you will begin to see a blank space appear instead of a PSA. Those Adsense publisher that opted show non-Google ads or to show a solid color will not be affected.

Another small but important side note - Google will continue to support its non-profit partners with free AdWords advertising through Google Grants.

Five Google Announcements for Developers

Mike Phillips — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Google IO kicked off this week, and among their many announcements are a few for developers, designers and publishers. There will be much more news to come, but for now here are five items of interest, currently in development.

Google App Engine for Business:

The Google App Engine has been around for a couple years, but now comes Google App Engine for Business - allowing business to build custom applications and run them in the cloud for greater portability and easier administration. Consider this service a direct competitor to Amazon EC2 and Microsoft's Azure platform. In addition to the centralized management features (a single administrative console) users will have access to Google API's in Java or Python, access to a hosted SQL relational database, and some added security with SSL communications on hosted apps. Each application costs $8 per user, per month, with a maximum of $1,000 per month.

AdSense Upgrades:

New AdSense options look to help publishers and developers better target their users. AdSense for search ads only lets publishers include ads on pages and include them in native search results -- above, below or beside the results. In the past, publishers could only use AdSense for search within Google results.

AdSense for Ajax solves the problem of serving relevant ads when content of a page changes. When a user is on an Ajax-heavy website, they can now be served changing ads based on the changing context within the page. In the past, new ads were only served when the page was refreshed. As Ajax does not require refreshing the page even when the context of the page changes, relevant ads were a problem.

There's an added benefit of AdSense for Ajax. From Google, "In addition to the ads refreshing, you might wonder why the subject of the ads changed since the crawlable content on the page didn't change much when the tab changed. The second benefit of AdSense for Ajax is that it allows you to provide hints about your site's uncrawlable content with each refresh."

Google Font API and Directory:

Google's Font Directory and API are now available, providing "high quality open source Web fonts" for everyone. The fonts are enabled by CSS3 @fontface standard, hosted in the cloud and sent to browsers as needed.

Each font is cross-browser compatible, fully searchable and accessible to users with screen readers. Utilizing search-engine friendly fonts is a nice way to separate your website from others and provide a little "flair" for users to enjoy.

Google Wave (Labs):

Wave might have started slow, but Google's new Wave (Labs) announcement might turn the tide. Wave is now open to businesses, schools and organizations. The focus is on collaboration within organizations. Members of a wave can play back previous developments within the wave and remove the discussion when the project is complete. Also, new extensions (such as maps and voting gadgets) allow for more collaboration, and developers can develop custom extensions within Wave to suit their needs.

More information about Wave is available, as is registration for a webcast that will detail new additions and answer user questions.

WebM:

In addition with other companies, (Mozilla, Brightcove, Skype, Opera and others) Google announced WebM, providing an open, standard video codec that looks to provide high-quality, optimized video under a royalty-free license. It includes:

VP8, a high-quality video codec we are releasing today under a BSD-style, royalty-free license
Vorbis, an already open source and broadly implemented audio codec
a container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container

According to Google, VP8 results in more efficient bandwidth usage (lower costs for publishers) and high-quality video for end users. A developer preview is available at www.webmproject.org.

MyLikes: Fully Customizable, CPC Affiliate Marketing

Mike Phillips — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Looking for an alternative to restrictive AdSense for your website? New start-up MyLikes believes they have a solution, and it's aimed squarely at niche publishers and industry influencers.

In short, it works like this: Publishers sign up for an account then choose among participating advertisers to feature on their website, blog or Twitter feed. The publisher can create custom ads, or "Sponsored Likes" - using their own language and text - then publish those ads to their website or blog, or send the ad as a tweet. Every ad runs on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis and all ads are clearly marked as sponsored content. Sponsored Likes can also be included as a blog post. Advertisers have the option to accept or reject the user-generated advertising.

Here's how the Sponsored Likes CPC model works: Publishers are given a starting CPC, first based on Twitter. The more "influence" you have (determined by a number of factors including data from Topsy and Klout), the higher your starting CPC. You do not need a Twitter account, however, and a starting CPC without an audit of your Twitter influence is usually around $.05. From the start of a new campaign, CPC is constantly tweaked, based on click-through rates on your website or Twitter feeds. The click-through rate model - and not total clicks - is used to determine influence and, therefore, relevance to advertisers.

For publishers, the big advantage is increasing clicks and CPC by offering custom advertising. After all, you know your audience best and what will resonate with them the most. In addition, unlike typical affiliate programs the publisher is paid by the click, not a per-acquisition basis. So, the publisher is not relying on the effectiveness of another person's website or sales strategy. Advertisers benefit by getting highly-qualified clicks from an audience with very specific interests. The ability for publishers to customize an advertiser's message is a key component to targeting the ever-expanding long-tail, and preventing unqualified leads. Advertisers can learn more about Sponsored Likes here.

"From the publisher point of view, these ads are far more engaging than a typical AdSense ad," says Bindu Reddy, MyLikes co-founder. "They can customize the ads to talk to their audience. They get complete creative control to maximize monetization.

"From the advertiser perspective, they get a very engaged audience. It's a much more targeted lead, something that is not just randomized language. AdSense doesn't measure the effectiveness of a website."

To start, MyLikes has 12 advertisers on board, such as Moo Cards and Joylent Cloud Computing. But they will be expanding in short order and look to target several industries outside of the tech field such as lifestyle and food. They will be looking for advertisers where the long-tail is the longest - such as fashion and beauty and mommy bloggers, where there is a surplus of sites to target. And to help gain advertisers, MyLikes is offering an early bird promotion - they will pay 50 percent of the advertiser's budget for the first 50 advertisers.

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YieldBuild Ad Optimizer Drops Fees

Mike Phillips — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:38:00 GMT

YieldBuild is an advertising optimization system that works with several major ad networks to provide the best possible ads - based on performance - for your website. They have just announced that a previous 3 percent fee to optimize ads has been dropped.

Some of the networks included are Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, Tribal Fusion and Blue Lithium. YieldBuild also recently partnered with Microsoft pubCenter. After signing up, publishers choose the sections of their site where they would like to display ads. YieldBuild then provides one snippet of code to install and starts delivering ads. The ads are then tracked and monitored (publishers also get a suite of analytics tools), and the best performing ads are delivered to users. Some of the ways ads are optimized include color, size, format and positioning. And even though the system uses a mix of ad networks, publishers can still monitor ad performance through their existing accounts with those systems, and they still get paid through their current provider.

For the busy Web professional it's not a bad way to see if you could be getting more from your current ad space.

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
Request a professional subscription to Website Magazine,
the most popular print publication on Web success.

AdSense Filters Improved For Greater Publisher Control

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:57:00 GMT

Google announced that as part of its continuing eforts to give publishers more control over ads appearing on their sites, two additional improvements have been made.

Google's competitive ad filter previously took what seemed like forever to block URLs/website affiliates had entered. Now, publishers will see those same sites blocked within 30 minutes thanks to a faster filtering system.

The other improvement is an increased filter list size. You might remember back in April that Google extended the increased filter list size to 500 for only a few as to not overload their system. It's not been opened up to all participating publishers who can now add up to 500 sites to their filter list - double the previous limit. Google did note that adding new sites does impact the possible revenue, so keep that in mind as you add new sites.

What other changes would you like to see on Google Adsense?