'Net Features : google 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.

Five Non-Google PPC Programs

Michael Garrity — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:30:00 GMT

Yes, we get it, Google does everything. Ask an affiliate marketer what they think the best Pay-Per-Click (PPC) program available is and they'll likely say Google AdSense.

Why? Because it's free, easy-to-use and comes with a very popular and proven name attached to it. And while AdSense is a great program, it's also expensive and it's not necessarily for everyone, so what are some of the alternatives out there?

Many other PPC programs offer things like a return on investment (ROI), faster payments and other features that rival or surpass Google's product. But with dozens upon dozens of different options out there, where does an affiliate start to look for the PPC program that is right for them? Well, at Website Magazine, of course!

Without further ado, here are five non-Google AdSense PPC programs to consider:

Bidvertiser
As the name suggests, this is an auction-based PPC program. Payouts with Bidvertiser are based on an advertiser's bid for your ad space, as opposed to things like keyword popularity. This makes it possible for more popular sites to make more money than their unpopular counterparts who use the same keywords. The upside here is that flash, low content or other application-heavy sites that are typically difficult to crawl much easier to monetize.

AdBrite
One of Google's biggest competitors in the field is AdBrite, largely because they accept many sites that Google doesn't, making it the sort of go-to program if you're rejected by AdSense. This PPC and Pay-Per-Impression (PPI) program rakes in over 330 million impressions and operates on approximately 100,000 websites. Members get paid based on how many clicks an ad gets or how many times an ad is viewed. Sites are monetized by AdBrite when the company pulls ads from top brands, keywords, demographics, location and over visitor targeting metrics. It's also free to sign up.

7Search
7Search, though smaller in their reach than Google, has one of, if not the, highest ROI measures in the industry based on their high quality search traffic sources. They provide solid analysis, such as letting you see how many searches were done on each of your keywords in the last month and then comparing those numbers to how many clickthroughs you got and where you're ranked. You can then see what happens if you raise or lower your bid. 7Search provides affiliates with multiple opprotunities to for revenue through their affiliate program such as standard and white label search boxes, Pay-Per-Text, an advertiser referral program, AccessoryAds and XML partnerships with other search engines, portals and directories. They also proudly claim to pay affiliates faster than any other ad network, with those who earn just $25 a month receiving their chekcs in the first ten days of the following month. Having operated since 1999 means that 7Search is a tried and tested network for affiliate marketers.

Ad:Dynamo
This PPC program is said to be the "fastest paying ad network." One leg up that they have over Google AdSense is that they show contextual ads. They also launched a mobile advertising platform earlier this year. The program offers an array of features like geo targeting that allows you to target customers in specific locations, dynamic text insertion into text ads and URLs, the ability to configue an ad to only show to the same unique user only a specific number of times and, perhaps most importantly, conversion tracking that lets you follow leads, acquisitions and sales in real-time to evalute the performance of an ad campaign. Though it's a young program (it started in South Africa in 2009 and went global even later than that), Ad:Dynamo is already considered a serious AdSense competitor by many users and reviewers.

Chitika
As a direct competitor to Google AdSense, Chitika is probably the most well known and highly regarded program on this list, and that is largely because of its proven record of success. Many who use both AdSense and Chitika have reported that they see a higher clickthrough rate with Chitika, though this is largely because the ads are product related, so they greatly outperform Google on niche blogs and sites. They have an interesting 1-tier referral program that allows you to earn 10% of the income generated by publishers that you refer. Their site claims that they are the only network that "knows when not to show an ad," which makes for a positive user experience. The compatibility with AdSense has, ironically, been the biggest boost to Chitika, and makes it a great option for those who are already using Google, but would like to add to it with another program.

What other PPC progams do you use? What do you think should be on this list? Let us know in the comments section below.

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?

Adsense: Google Ups the Font Size

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:39:00 GMT

Google announced they have increased the default font size for AdSesnse ad units.

Should you have not customized your font sizes (Google announced last week the launch of font size controls), or if your ad units are set to 'AdSesese default font size', you'll notice that the text in your ad units is now the equivalent of 'medium' instead of 'small'.

Google said that it decided to make this change based on publisher feedback and its own internal testing, which showed that this increased font size improved performance. I personally don't have any doubts that it increases CTR (click-through rate) and ultimately earnings, which of course benefits Google the most. Let's see how well the default fonts perform and monetize, because at least to me it's actually quite aggressive visually.

The default, increase font size can be seen in the image below:

Adsense Link Units With Image (Display) Ads

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Google Adsense publishers that have placed link units on their pages will now have an image added to the search return list (which are generated upon a click from a user).

The display advertisements that appear are contextually targeted according to Google, based on the link topic that users clicked to reach the ads. If no image ads are available for the selected topic, no image will be shown (that means no PSA or blank space). Currently the display ad is placed at the bottom of search result pages but you can bet the farm that those images will be shifted around over time as historically, bid prices for display ads are higher and both publishers and Google are looking for additional ways to monetize these often underperforming units.

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Advertisers can bid on these image ads on a cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) basis, so publisher/affiliates will generate earnings for valid clicks and impressions. We had a little trouble locating one of these ads in the wild, so I went ahead and placed a link unit on a test domain I use for personal purposes. You can see how it appears here:

Google Analytics and Adsense Get Married

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Publishers using both Google Analytics and Google Adsense can now officially integrate their accounts.

Marrying the accounts takes just a few minutes. Publishers need to log into AdSense, select the "Integrate your Adsense account with Google Analytics" on the Reports > Overview tab and simply follow the on-screen instructions. Once complete, publishers will find an AdSense-specific menu under the "Content" section of Analytics containing reports on the top Adsense Content, top AdSense referrers and AdSense Trending. The last reports lets publishers analyze how a site generate revenue during different times of the day and different days of the week.

The Adsense overview shows you ten metrics that summarize the Adsense activity on your site. The total revenue made, revenue per CPM, total ads clicks, the Adsense CTR, the eCPM (estimate cost per thousand page impressions, or the revenue per thousand impressions), the total number of impressions (and impressions per visit).

Adsense Competitive Ad Filter Increase

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:46:00 GMT

Google informally notified Adsense Publishers that the number of competitive ad filters that could be put in place per account has now doubled to a maximum of 500.

Per Adsense Advisor in a Webmaster World thread, Google chose not to announce it on the main blog because "we don't want to overload our system with everyone filling their filters to capacity at once."

Competitive ad filtering works (in theory) in this way. Publishers filter out any URL that they believe is not relevant to their audience - a buggy whip ad on a auto-classified site, for example. Removing the ads that users don't click on results in a higher click-through rate (CTR), because the ads are more relevant, which in turn leads to an increase in earnings. The clicks might pay less, but since there are more of them, everything works out - happy advertisers and happy publishers.

Adsense Expandable Ads Available

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Google announced that a new type of rich media advertisement is available for Adsense publishers.

Expandable ads expand beyond the original size of the ad unit, following a user-initiated action. (If it sounds like an disruptive experience it's certainly being perceived that way by some.)

Expandable ads will be served as third-party ads and will be created by Google-certified rich media vendors for display advertisers in the network. If you're an advertiser, this presents an excellent branding opportunity.

Publishers generate earnings from a CPC-priced expandable ad when a user visits the advertiser’s landing page, rather than when a user clicks to expand the ad. I for one can not believe that publishers will be excited about the possibility of not knowing what payout they will receive on these type of ads.

Adsense publishers are eligible to receive expandable ads if the Adsense code has been added directly to the source code and image ads have been enabled. It's important to note here that these new ads are only being tested by a handful of U.S. advertisers - those that bid on sites where they want their ads to appear.

Should one of the expandable ads be way too annoying for your users, publishers can use the competitive ad filter to block the ads.

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Adsense: Now with Font Control

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:29:00 GMT

Google announced that Adsense publishers will have more control over the look of ads appearing on their sites. Publishers can now change the font face of text in ad units in pages to Arial, Times, or Verdana.

There are two ways for publishers to set custom fonts. One option is to set a custom font as the default for all Adsense content units within the Ad Display Preference section of the account setting page.The other option is to set custom fonts for individual units. When creating a new ad unit, all that is required is selecting the font you want from the fonts drop-down menu. Changing the default font for all Adsense content units will affect all ad units - so choose wisely.

By default, ads are currently set to Standard AdSense Font Family, which Google has found performs well across browsers and displays - although you may want to do some testing to prove it to yourself. With the new choice of the three fonts, many publishers are already asking for Trebuchet also - right out of the gate.

An additional quick note to publishers: Google will be perfoming site maintenance tomorrow, February 21. Publishers will not be able to log into their AdSense or Google Ad Manager accounts between 10am and 2pm PST, but clicks, impressions, and earnings will continue to be tracked.

Which Adsense Formats Perform Best?

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:29:00 GMT

If you're wondering which AdSense advertising formats perform best and which one you should use on your website, look no further than Google for the answer.

Google suggests that wider ad formats tend to outperform their taller counterparts. But why? Taller formats have a more reader-friendly format, as readers (your website visitors) absorb information in what are referred to as "thought units" or several words at a time. Publishing wider format lets consumers read more text at a glance without needing to skip a line and return to the left margin every few words as they would need to do with a narrower ad.

Google has found the most effective formats are the 336x280 Large Rectangle, the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, and the 160x600 Wide Skyscraper. Keep in mind that while these ad formats typically perform well, you should use the format that best complements your pages.

AdSense for Domains Open to All

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:07:00 GMT

Google has formally announced the expansion of AdSense for domains, a program which allows publishers to earn advertising revenue from undeveloped (read parked) domains. As you might imagine, the many domain parking companies are not so pleased.

Google by all accounts is going to be turning the world of domain parking on its head. Presenting not just advertising, but links, search results and according to the post "other useful information" which will provide a much better experience for both users and, most importantly, advertisers. Google apparently believes in the opportunity for advertisers so much, they are touting a case study with SEM solution provider Efficient Frontier.

Publishers and domainers will need to abide by the policies outlined by Google in relation to site and ad behavior, trademark issues, etc. Adsense for Domains will be rolled out in phases to English-language publishers located in North America. Current publishers can check to see if their account has been enabled via the AdSense Setup tab.

Ad Filtering/Blocking Improved at Google

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:39:00 GMT

The Google Adsense team will be making some improvements to the speed of Adsense's competitive ad filter (ad targeting) and make some enhancements to the blocking capabilities of the Ad Review Center in the next few weeks.

Google will be reviewing and expanding material available in its Help Center and exploring alternative methods to explain the information (webinars, videos) to demonstrate how publishers can optimize their sites to take advantage of ad targeting.

In relation to publisher ad control, Google is planning to improve the speed of filters, and they are working towards making sure they take effect in less than one hour. Advertisers will soon also be able to block entire categories of ads in addition to individual ads.

Adsense Coming to GA?

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Reports are circulating that Adsense Publishers might soon have acess to detailed statistics through Google Analytics reports.

Amit Agarwal has posted screenshots that indicate reports for which pages get the most clicks, the revenue generate per page, CPM rates, top referring sites, etc. These sites are going to be excited for Adsense publishers and provide a good view into how users interact with Google's Ads on site and how they have performed over time.

Opt-out of Google Adsense For Domains

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:14:00 GMT

Google will be spending some time in court (or at least writing checks to their lawyers) soon, defending itself against lawsuits for fraud stemming from its parked domains program. My experience with Adsense for domains (or any advertising campaign on parked domains) is really suited for those with massive budgets that use the opportunity to secure brand recognition and mind share as opposed to generating a return on advertising spend through sales or leads.

If you're not looking to advertise directly on parked domains, consider opting out of the Adsense for Domains program by using the Site and Category Exclusion tool. To exclude parked domain sites:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Make sure the Campaign Management tab is selected.
3. In the shaded area beneath the tab, click Tools.
4. Select Site and Category Exclusion.
5. Choose the campaign whose exclusions you'd like to edit from the Campaign drop-down menu.
6. Select the Page Types tab.
7. Check Parked domains.
8. Click Save all exclusions

Google Adsense for Search Upgrades

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Google Adsense for Search users now have access to several new features. Publishers will be able to select the location of advertising appearing on search results pages (top, bottom, or the right side of the page, refine searches with keywords (see the video here), benefit from improved indexing of pages (more pages will be indexed), have the ability to limit search to only the site the tool is featured on and, and perhaps the most interesting, is the vertical search feature, which allows Web users to search across multiple sites.