Success without borders

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

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

Get your ad on the map…literally

Advertisers and users alike know that AdWords ads are a great way to find relevant information. But sometimes you wonder where the businesses that you see advertising online are actually located. Well, we’ve just announced a new ad format -- the local business ad -- which ties targeted ads into a local context. To get the details, we caught up with Sandra, from the Local team:

With local business ads, you can promote your business location within the map on Google Local. Users searching for your products or services will be able to clearly see how close (or far) they are from your business' physical location. In addition to your ad text, you can also include a phone number or add an image of your company logo or one of the products you carry. Whether it’s a hotel or flowers, pizza or plumbing, you can get key information about your business in front of potential customers as they browse or shop locally online.



If your business has multiple locations, you can promote them all within the same Ad Group or campaign using the same keyword lists -- your ads will appear whenever someone is searching for those keywords near any one of your locations. Local business ads are associated with business listings in Google Local, so check to make sure your listings are included and up-to-date. If you want to make changes, simply visit the Local Business Center. And, for those of you with more than ten business locations, you might want to consider uploading a feed.

Ready to let your customers know exactly where you are on the map? Just click the 'Create New Local Business Ad' link from within the Ad Group view of your account to get started. Or, learn more about local business ads first.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords 101: Targeting the right customers (Part 1 of 2)

One of the biggest reasons why AdWords can be so effective for your business is that it provides the ability to target your ads specifically to your prospective customers. AdWords offers a variety of targeting options, such as language, location, distribution (where your ads appear), and criteria (by keyword or by site). Today we’ll cover the first two: language and location.

English? Español? Estonian?
In this increasingly global marketplace, you may find that your customers don’t necessarily all speak the same language (literally). You can take advantage of the language targeting options within AdWords to display ads to users in 56 different languages – everything from English or French to Icelandic and Thai. You can choose your language targeting preferences when you create a new campaign, or change existing preferences under "Edit Campaign Settings." To target multiple languages in a single campaign, hold down the CTRL key and click the languages of your choice.

Note: many advertisers ask if Google will translate keywords and ad text into different languages—and no, we do not. The ads will appear just as you've written them. So, for this reason, if you have, say, German customers but don’t feel comfortable creating campaigns in German, we recommend that you seek help from professional translators in order to come up with the best ads and keywords for your customers.

Advanced example: another question we often hear is whether or not the ad text must be in the same language as the one(s) being targeted, and the answer is no. For example, if you wanted to target French-speaking prospective customers using an ad written in English, you could choose "French" in your language targeting preferences and still submit an English ad. We can't guarantee that the ad will receive a good response, but when Google detects that a user's language preference is French, and he or she types in one of your chosen keywords, your English-language ad may be displayed.

Local, Regional, National or International?
If you sell your products or services to customers in a particular area, you may want to consider creating location targeted campaigns. AdWords allows you to target your ads to potential customers in cities, regions, territories, countries, or any area that you define by points on a map. For more detailed explanations, check out our previous post about location targeting.

Homework: you can learn more about these targeting options by reviewing these resources below.

Learning Center
Language & Location Targeting

Help Center – FAQ
Targeting by language
Targeting by location: Country or Territory targeting
Targeting by location: Regional or Customized targeting

Stay tuned for part 2 of this lesson, in which we’ll tell you how to target the search and content networks, as well as explain the difference between keyword and site targeting.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Hipper than a square

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

Internet Marketing And Import Export Business

If you are to achieve the highest levels of success in your own Import Export Business, you should learn the basics of Internet marketing.

Building small, market oriented web sites can give you and the products you manufacture, sell or represent a huge boost over your competition.

Sending expensive, full color brochures by mail and/or other surface carriers does not even come close to having your own web site for those products or services.

Think about it? Your web site can be your 24 hour marketplace a world of potential buyers for your products or services. Using successful, proven Internet marketing strategies to get your web site in front of those potential worldwide buyers is the fastest method for you to build and grow your import export business.

Your web site does not have to cost thousands of dollars as you may believe. There are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of web sites generating hundreds of thousands (many millions) of new sales for their import export business owners.

Your full color brochures can be placed on your web site and downloaded to a potential customers computer on the other side of the world within minutes (if not seconds) of you placing it on your web site. Imagine being able to provide everything you would normally send by mail or express carrier to an international sales prospect within seconds by giving them a simple web site address or sending them a clickable link in an email.

Suppose your import export business markets a variety of products (diversification is something you really should do). You can establish one web site and have multiple products and your sales information about them posted to that one site.

You can use your web site to qualify your potential buyers. There is a method that is only reveled to our clients that will do just that. Your web site can help you eliminate the wasted time of following up with every person who decides they want to receive more mail or a free sample product.

This method was provided to us by a company that does millions of dollars a year in international business and has saved them thousands of dollars each year in reduced follow up costs and from sending free samples to people who were only interested in getting free stuff and had no real business intentions.

There are many Internet marketing resources available - I know, I have purchased many of them - my wife calls me an internet marketing information junkie (we all have our weaknesses).

Since our first web site was published in 1997, I have found two resources that stand out in the crowd. One is an internet marketing course that will help you discover the hundreds of ways to use a web site to promote your products and/or services to potential buyers around the world.

The publisher of this course provides over 300 pages of valuable internet marketing resources that are available to you free at their web site.

The other resource is a full web site building program that will help you or one of your employees get your web site started and published and promoted to your targeted audience. This proven internet marketing web site building program has helped thousands of small business people around the world to build their own web sites.

Many of these new internet marketers have generated hundreds of thousands in new sales for their businesses from a easy to follow program. Even the 15 year old daughter of the owner of this site building built a successful web site that generates several thousands dollars a month for her - so if a 15 year old can produce a site with it that generates thousands in revenue, you should be able to do the same (or better).

If you would like more details of these two programs, contact me at our web site and I would be happy to refer you to them.

Ron Coble
Coble International Marketing Services
Import Export Business Help Center

Hide deleted campaigns, Ad Groups, and more...

Here's a really short and to-the-point advertiser email that asks a great question:

I'm wondering how to really delete a campaign? You know, make it go away? Not see it any more?... - Make it gone

While everything you create within your account remains there permanently as an historical overview of your account's performance, hiding deleted campaigns, Ad Groups, ad creatives, or deleted keywords is actually quick and easy. And, should you ever decide that you want to see what you've done in the past, you may easily do so.

You may choose to hide deleted campaigns from the Campaign Summary page of your account by selecting "Show only active campaigns" (or "Show all but deleted campaigns" which will still show your paused campaigns) from the drop-down menu located near the top-center of the chart that shows your campaign stats.

Similarly, to hide deleted Ad Groups, go the campaign within which that Ad Group is located. Then, select "Show only active Ad Groups" (or "Show all but deleted Ad Groups") from the drop-down menu. In this case, you'll find this menu above and to the left of your campaign statistics chart. It's beneath the header that shows the campaign's name.

And, if you want to hide deleted keywords and deleted ads, simply make sure the check box that says "Include deleted items that were active in this date range" is unchecked. You'll find the check box above your keyword list, just below the date range tool, in the Ad Group view of your account.

For all of these settings, once you make a selection, that setting will be applied every time you log in to your account until you change it. If you do change your mind later, just select the appropriate option from the drop-down menus and/or the check box mentioned above. Voila!

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Inside AdSense -- now in German

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

Reaching your customers with other Google products

Not long ago, the four of us at Inside AdWords got together for dinner at a local Cuban restaurant after work. While we promised we wouldn't talk about AdWords (we do that all day!), we found it difficult to extend that agreement to other Google products. From locating the restaurant to finding our favorite Cuban recipe online, we were reminded how Google services come in handy not only when you're hungry, but also when you’re trying to maximize exposure to your local business.

First, we found the restaurant using Google Local. Luckily for us, this restaurant was already listed in the local search results. If your business isn’t, be sure to visit the Local Business Center to learn more about how to get listed for free. Next, we performed a quick search on Google.com to locate the restaurant’s menu and ensure that there was something for everyone (check out last week's post for more about search results inclusion). To save paper, we sent the address to Sarah's mobile phone and were on our way.

The next day, both Blake and Vivian found themselves looking for mementos from our team dinner. In an effort to diversify his Google t-shirt collection, Blake searched for one of the restaurant's t-shirts on Froogle. Unfortunately, this didn't lead to what he was looking for, but if the restaurant owners had made their shirts available on Froogle, he would have been able to get pricing information and more online. Meanwhile, Vivian couldn't shake her craving for fried plantains and wanted to make them at home. So it was off to Google Base, where she found relevant recipes -- but none from the restaurant itself. Had the chef of this particular restaurant wanted to share his sweet secrets to success, he could have submitted his own recipe to Base too.

While you're already well aware of how AdWords ads can help people find your business, remember that making it accessible to users doesn't stop there. By using a variety of Google services, you may reach potential customers wherever they're searching, whether they’re looking for an address, a menu, or a t-shirt.

Posted by Arielle and Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

Maintenance tonight at 8PM PST

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

Taking AIIM at Content Management Systems

Ever imagine gathering a whole bunch of Google partners under one roof? Interested in learning more about extending Google-quality search across your corporate network? Want to take home some colorful Google swag? Together with AIIM, the world's largest content management tradeshow, we've created a Google Enterprise partner pavilion at AIIM's annual shindig.

Dave Girouard, VP & GM of Google Enterprise, will deliver the May 17 keynote. In our partner pavilion, attendees will be able to see presentations from us and our partners on topics ranging from integration with CMS to enabling enterprise desktop search. What are you doing May 16-18? Ever been to Philadelphia? We hope to see you there.

System maintenance tomorrow evening -- 3/24/06

A quick heads-up from our tech team:

We will be performing routine AdWords system maintenance from approximately 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST on Friday, March 24, 2006. Please note that, while you will not be able to access your AdWords account during this period, your campaigns will continue to run normally.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Now you can help each other

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

Search results and sponsored links

One of the most frequently heard questions about Google and AdWords is exemplified by this (shortened and paraphrased) post from our AdWords Help group:

We are the only "widget" company in our county. When someone does a search using, for example, "widgets my county" our sponsored link shows up at the top of the list, which is how it should be...How can I get our site to show up in the free search results too? - Not there

We're happy to shed some light on this. To start, here's a brief glossary:

Sponsored links: the paid AdWords ads at the top and/or on the right hand side of a search results page

Search results: the unpaid search results on the left hand side of the page

The most important thing to know is that there is no connection of any sort between the unpaid search results and the paid sponsored links -- so being an AdWords advertiser will neither help nor harm one's ranking within the search results.

This leaves the important question of how to get your site to appear in the search results, since being an advertiser is not a factor in being included. Well, we'd be pleased to help you on your way. You'll find some very useful information on this topic on the Google Information for Webmasters page, including answers to such frequently asked questions as "How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?".

Also, be sure to refer to our past posts about Google Sitemaps, which allows webmasters to give Google information about their sites so that we may index them effectively.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Help us help you

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

Hot in Miami, freezing in Hanover

Remember that bathing suit example from yesterday's post? Well, between the recent vernal equinox and writing about search trends on the keyword 'bathing suit,' we got to thinking...

While it might be a great time to promote a spring bathing suit sale in Miami, where today's high is 85 degrees, people bundled up in winter clothes in 33 degree Hanover, New Hamphire may not quite be thinking summer on the beach.

If the product you're selling will be received differently in different locales, you might want to think about tailoring the message of your AdWords ads accordingly. Running with the bathing suit example, you could target one campaign to warm coastal states (such as Florida) with ad text similar to the following:

Bathing Suit Sale
Spring's here! Get ready for summer
Shop our huge selection of suits
www.example.com

Because AdWords allows you to customize your ad text, you could change the message slightly for another campaign targeting cold states in the Northeast:

Sick of the cold?
Start getting ready for summer with
our huge bathing suit sale!
www.example.com

And the possibilities for ad text customization don't stop there. Once summer arrives, you could change your ad text to be more appropriate for the summer season. At that point, something like this might work:

Summer Swimwear
Look great on the beach in summer's
hottest trends - don't miss out!
www.example.com

Remember, users visit your site when they are interested in what your ad text offers. By making the connection between your target audience, your ad, and your site as seamless as possible, you'll be most likely to turn users into customers.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

Keyword Tool: global trends and other new features

To improve the tools that help you make smarter keyword selections, we recently added some new features to the Keyword Tool. Here's Ann-Lee, from that team, with a quick update:

We hope that you're finding the recently added search performance data useful, because we've added even more! You can now review global traffic trends (all languages, all countries) along with search volume for all your potential keywords (same languages and countries). For example, for the keyword 'bathing suits' you'll see how search volume varies each month for the last 12 months as well as which month (June -- no surprise!) saw the highest volume.



You can access this feature from the AdWords home page as well as from within your account.

We've also added the option to add keywords of any match type, including negative keywords, directly to any Ad Group. We hope that these improvements to the Keyword Tool make your keyword performance estimates easier to understand and use.

Be sure to try out these new additions -- and as always, feel free to let us know what features you'd like to see in the Keyword Tool in the future.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

From the Inside AdSense international mail bag

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

Ken Orr's advice to Java programmers (and the secrets of writing good software)

(Cross posted at my java.net blog)

Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ken Orr (of Warnier-Orr Diagram fame) to discuss his views on software design and on what programmers really need to know.

In the 1970's, Ken Orr expanded on Jean-Dominique Warnier's methodology to develop Data Structured System Design (DSSD).

DSSD is primarilly a data driven methodology for designing systems with (gasp!) direct user involvement. Through the use logic and data charts that are easily explained to the users, the requirements of a project are collaboratively captured in a format from which much of the code and data schemas can be generated... This may sound like "no big deal" today, but Ken published these techniques in his book Structured Systems Development in 1977.

Ever the opportunist, I cornered Ken during lunch one day to pump him for insights (as fodder for this blog)...

John: "Ken... What advice would you give Java programmers?"
Ken Orr: "Don't define yourself as Java programmers."

I am going to have to paraphrase from here on out... both because Ken is from Kansas, and because I wasn't taking notes (and I didn't think to bring a recorder).

Being a good programmer really has very little to do with the languages that you know... Being a good programmer is mostly dependent on the methodologies that you know and on how you employ those methodologies.

Good process design skills and good data modelling skills are the foundations for being a good programmer.

This holds true whether you employ Object Oriented Design, Aspect Oriented Design, or Service Oriented Design. If the process is not well engineered, or the data model is not well engineered, "you are just putting lipstick on a pig".

Process design and data modelling are best done in collaboration with your users (Don't confuse this with letting the users design the process or model the data, both require considerable skills that aren't easily mastered).

Ken offered this advice when developing a new design with a client:

It is better to be clearly wrong than to be obscurely right.

If you have something wrong in your design, and it is clearly wrong, then your client will point it out and you can correct it. If the design is obscure, the client may never know if it is right or if it is wrong.

Tools are the key for communicating with your clients... processes (and data) are expressed well through pictures (flow charts, etc.), and you are missing the boat if you don't adopt tools that map these pictures to code.

I got the feeling that Ken's biggest regret is that Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) seems to have been on hiatus for most of the 90's and the first years of this century. Model Driven Architecture is surely a form of CASE, but Ken feels that the focus isn't quite right.

UML was developed to meet the design needs of programmers. We need tools focussed on meeting the design needs of users.

This led us into a discussion of SOA and BPEL. Ken is very "hype-sensitive", and cautions that SOA must be understood before you take the plunge.

One of the most promising aspects of SOA is that it brings the art of process design back into focus. In many cases, each service can serve as a step in a process, and BPEL can be used to describe the process itself.

My (John, not Ken) own spin on the process/services connection is the following: By viewing each service as a step within a larger process, you can get a "feel" for the correct granularity of the service interfaces...

• If the granualarity of the services is too fine, then the process definition will probably have too many steps.
  
• If the granularity of the services is too coarse, then you won't be able to modify the process without modifying individual services.
  

Ken's parting advice was perhaps the most important thing to remember...

Master more than one design/programming paradigm.

No paradigm is perfect... that's why there are so many of them. Each fills a niche, and in some cases you might need to apply multiple paradigms to solve a single problem.

Ken gave the example of AOP vs. OOP. Objects are very good at solving "vertical" problems... Hierarchies of relationships being the most common. Aspects are very good at solving "horizontal" problems... Cross-cutting concerns require thinking beyond object boundaries.

I suspect this is why Ken has never become too old to program. By mastering the basics of data modeling and process design, and by mastering newer paradigms as they are developed, Ken has remained a vibrant force in the programming world.

I don't want to make Ken blush, but in my book he's a darn good role model.

'My Account' tab temporarily inaccessible

In honor of St. Patrick's day, we turned a quick notice from our tech team into a limerick:

We're doing some work on your billing pages,
So you won't be able to see them (but not for ages!),
Said our tech team, "Hang tight!
From 7 to 10 tonight
While we improve the system in stages."
And in case that isn't clear, here's the original message:

The pages under the 'My Account' tab will be unavailable tonight, Friday March 17th, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm PST for system maintenance. You'll still be able to log into your accounts during this time, but you won't be able to view invoices, change your billing address, or update your credit card during this maintenance period. Rest assured, however, that your campaigns will continue to run normally.

As always, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

Creating new campaigns just got easier

Have you ever wished you could build a new campaign by copying the settings from an existing campaign? If so, then you'll be excited to hear about the new one-page campaign setup feature. Here's Jon D. from the Campaign Management team with more info:

Next time you create a new keyword-targeted campaign, keep an eye out for the yellow box at the top of the page (see screenshot below so you'll know what it looks like).



Simply selecting one of your existing campaigns from this new drop-down menu will allow you to create a brand new campaign pre-configured with many of the advanced settings from your existing campaign.

Try it out and let us know what you think!

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

Even small changes need review

In our continued effort to shed some light on common AdWords misconceptions, let's take a look at another frequently misunderstood nuance, using this paraphrased advertiser email as a starting point:

We run an ad in the content network that normally gets a huge number of impressions daily. However we made a very minor change to the ad and now it is getting 0 impressions in the content network. Why did this happen? We really need this ad displayed in content, and not being there has reduced our sales dramatically! - Confused and curious.

So, why did this happen? Most advertisers are aware that while new ads may run on Google.com rather quickly, they must be reviewed and approved before they may be sent to our search and/or content networks. However, it's not so well understood that editing an existing ad, even if the change is very small, will also require review and approval before the ad may be once again sent to the networks.

Why is this so? Changing a single word (or sometimes even a single letter!) can give a line of text an entirely different meaning. With this in mind, and to ensure that we're delivering appropriate and high quality ads to our search and content networks, even these tiny changes need to be reviewed.

Here's a bonus tip to consider the next time you wish to edit an ad that is already appearing on the networks (it's used by many an expert advertiser):

Rather than editing an ad, consider leaving that ad as-is -- and then create a second ad (with your desired changes) in the same Ad Group as the original ad. Then, let both ads run until the new ad has been reviewed and approved. At this point, if it turns out that the new ad is performing better than the original, it may be time to delete the original.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Enterprise search relevancy - in the eye of the user

There's a common misconception that the single factor in Google's relevancy algorithms is link structure (also described as PageRank). And since the enterprise environment doesn't typically have the same link structure found on the Web, the presumption goes, Google search must not work well in the enterprise environment.

Let's set the record straight. Google's enterprise search algorithms rely on hundreds of factors to determine relevancy. PageRank is one of a number of document quality variables that, combined with factors that measure how well the query matches each document, determine the right result for a user. By no means is PageRank the only (or dominant) factor in determining which results are the most relevant. Those of us on the quality engineering team have been coming up with new ideas since 1998; the best of them have ended up in our ranking algorithms.

But we're not comfortable with theoretical arguments, so don't take our word for it. We surveyed the customers of our yellow box, the Google Search Appliance, and here's what they had to say:

• About 75% of customers responding switched to Google from another search provider's product
• Over 50% of customers responding switched to Google due to poor relevancy from their prior search provider
• Over 90% would recommend the Google Search Appliance to another company like theirs

In case you missed it, some Raytheon search experts presented their findings on an enterprise search evaluation at the Semantic Technology Conference. They ultimately chose Google to provide integrated enterprise search across their desktop and network content repositories. Most impressive was the response from their user base who participated in the survey: 84% found the "right" answer (the answer they were looking for) in the top 3 results.

Let's be clear - there's plenty more to do. We're happy to see that a large majority of users are easily finding what they're looking for. It's just that we believe we can do better. Eighty-four percent still means 3 out of 20 queries aren't optimal, and we're not satisfied with that. But we also believe that asking each customer to write their own relevancy algorithms would amount to surrendering and saying "here, you try!" Instead, we're working closely with customers and partners to assess where and when our algorithms work best, and where they need improvement. We welcome you to join us and help improve enterprise search for everyone.

David Elworthy, Lead Engineer
Enterprise Search Quality Team

Sitemaps for AdSense publishers 101

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

Import Export Agents

In telephone conversations or emails, I often have someone ask me, in a condescending manner, you just provide import export business resources, you do not actually do any exporting or importing?

If I am in a good mood (which I usually am) I will answer them that yes, I am currently and have been involved in international trade deals for more than 16 years now. There is currently one export deal I helped broker in 1997 that still pays me a commission several times a year for just a few hours worth of work almost 10 years ago.

I find it interesting that the people who ask this question would never think about asking a similar question of a professor of international business or a teacher at an actual sit down course. In most instances, these teachers have never actually received a check or been paid for helping bring an import or export business transaction to fruition, they simply teach about how others do it.

After years of being asked this question, I have found that it is basically a means of providing the asking party a reason to not get an import export business course (whether from us or anyone for that matter). They are excuse seekers looking for still another excuse to not act on their hopes and desires to start an import export business.

What most people do not seem to realize, especially in regards to the exporting business, is that you can be involved at many different levels.

The most extensive involvement is by an export management company (EMC as they are called) that actually buys the product from a manufacturer and resells it to their foreign buyer. The markup, after expenses, is their profit.

The EMC has complete financial responsibility for the goods, thus they have the potential for greater profits than others who are involved in an export business transaction to a lesser degree like an export broker or import export agents.

A broker will have much more involvement in the exporting business transaction (and often an ongoing one) than an export agent. An export broker will often carry out the negotiation, help the manufacturer arrange for shipping, insurance and other requirements and often continue to be in the loop of communications between the foreign buyer and the manufacturer that is supplying the goods they are brokering.

Import export agents often provide services similar to a broker but can most often be classified as a finder who brings two parties together (one selling a product and one seeking to buy a product). Import export agents are only paid upon completion of a transaction when their supplier has been paid for the goods they have shipped to the buyer they introduced to them.

Some import export agents work out deals where they are paid by both the buyer and the seller, these type of deals, however, are quite rare. In most instances import export agents are only paid by one of the two parties.

The great thing about being an import export agent or broker is how these type of deals can actually create a residual form of income (if they structure it correctly) as I mentioned earlier in this post regarding our 1997 deal.

Each level of involvement in an import export business deal warrants a different level of payment or profit.

Import export agents generally earn the least of the three levels mentioned above. As an import export broker or an import export agent, you should always have reasonable expectations for your part in the deal and be ready to accept a lower commission if it means the difference between your supplier making a much bigger deal or not. Remember, 5% of something is better than 10% of nothing.

The very best way for a person to become involved in the import export business is as an import export agent. Learn the processes by taking a good home study course so you have a basic understanding of how things work but initially you should focus on bringing buyers and sellers together (with an agreement to get paid by one or the other of course).

If, after a couple of years of working as an import export agent you decide you want a bigger slice of the profit pie, then be ready to get more involved in the import export business process. Ultimately, after these years of experience, if you find there is much more profit available by acting as an EMC, you will be prepared to do so through your self study and actual experience.

Bottom line, don't get hung up on the titles one assigns to you, i.e., broker, agent, finder, etc.. I simply say, call me what you will, but call me when I am at the bank deposting my latest check from a deal made 9 years ago.

Ron Coble
Coble International Marketing Services
Import Export Business Help Center

Invalid click credits

Last week, we answered some common questions about invalid click activity. One question we didn't cover was how we reimburse advertisers affected by invalid activity. Chris, from the Click Quality team, has this info:

In addition to our automatic filters (which will catch and discard the vast majority of invalid clicks), our team proactively identifies invalid activity that may not have been automatically filtered and credits advertisers accordingly. These credits used to appear on your Billing Summary page as 'Service Adjustments.' In the interest of transparency, all credits, past and future, for invalid click activity are now labeled 'Adjustment - Click Quality.'

You may notice these credits appearing more frequently as we work hard to ensure that this advertising budget is returned to affected advertisers as quickly as possible.

As we mentioned in last week's post, if you see suspicious activity on your AdWords account and would like to request a review of clicks within the past 60 days that you believe may be invalid, you can submit them for review here.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

We want to hear your AdSense story!

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

AdWords 101: the building blocks of AdWords

Since the inception of Inside AdWords, we've been fortunate to receive a lot of feedback from our advertisers on how the blog has helped them use AdWords more effectively. One consistent piece of feedback from our newer advertisers is that they'd like us to provide more tips for AdWords beginners. Well, we've heard you loud and clear and today, we're beginning a new regular series called "AdWords 101", where we'll start from the beginning and help our novice advertisers learn more about how to get the most of our their campaigns.

For this inaugural AdWords 101 lesson, we'd like to talk about account structure, which can be thought of as the building blocks of a successful AdWords account. To better explain, we've borrowed a diagram from the AdWords Learning Center:


As you can see, your billing information is stored at the account level, along with your email address and password. An account can be made up of one or more campaigns; daily budgets, targeting and distribution preferences, and start and end dates are all controlled at the campaign level. Within each campaign, you have Ad Groups which contain your ad text and keywords.

Newer advertisers often think that it's best to fill one single Ad Group with multiple ad texts and as many keywords as possible in order to keep account management simple. In practice, however, it is much more effective to create multiple Ad Groups so that you can create targeted ad text for a specific group of keywords.

For example, let's say you sell candy and chocolates. Instead of having one Ad Group with keywords such as candy, chocolate bars, lollipops, truffles, gumdrops, taffy and one generic ad about both candy and chocolate, try splitting up your keywords into separate Ad Groups such as:

Ad Group #1: Novelty Candy
Keywords: gumdrops, taffy, jawbreakers, lollipops

Ad Group #2: Chocolate
Keywords: truffles, dark chocolate, gourmet chocolate, chocolate bars

Ad Group #3: Online Sweets Store
Keywords: online chocolate store, online candy store, mail order candy, mail order chocolate

This way, you can write targeted ad text for each of your Ad Groups that refer specifically to the topic of the Ad Group. This setup also allows you to track your campaigns more effectively because you can see which type of ad text drives more sales to your business -- do you get more clicks and sales from candy ads or chocolate ads?

Homework: to learn more about how to set up your account more effectively, check out these resources in the AdWords Learning and Help Centers.

Learning Center

• AdWords Account Structure


• What is an Ad Group?

Help Center - FAQ

• All about Campaigns


• All about Ad Groups

That's all for the first session of AdWords 101. Stay tuned for more lessons, which will put you on the path to advertiser success!

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Meet Rob Kniaz, AdSense Product Manager

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

New demographic site selection

Looking to show your ads primarily to college age men? Or perhaps you want to focus your advertising budget on parents in their thirties who have a lot of disposable income? If so, you'll be happy to hear that the site tool now provides demographic site selection for advertisers who are targeting users in the United States.

How does this work? We're using comScore Media Metrix panel data to help you find sites in the Google network that have a high audience-base composition of the demographic profile you would like to reach. You can select from 22 demographic options to create the profile of your ideal customer. Use this in conjunction with site URLs and site topics, in our newly updated site tool, to reach more of your target customers.

So, the next time you want to target your ads by gender, age, ethnicity, annual household income, or children in the house, look no further than the site tool for suggestions.

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

Invalid clicks: Q&A with Shuman Ghosemajumder

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

Quick system maintenance Friday evening

This just in:

On March 10, 2006, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. PST due to system maintenance. While you won't be able to log in during this brief period, your campaigns will continue to run normally. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

About invalid clicks

For some time, we’ve provided information for advertisers about invalid clicks on the AdWords site here. We thought the notice of today’s invalid click settlement might prompt some additional questions about this issue, so we had Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety, address them.

What is click fraud? I often hear the term “invalid clicks,” too. What’s the difference -- or are they the same?

The term "fraud" implies deliberate deception. Our aim in fighting invalid clicks is broader and includes clicks that we suspect may have been deceptive or malicious, as well as clicks that we deem invalid for other reasons, such as accidental double clicking on an ad. The usage of the word "fraud" in this context has caused a great deal of confusion, as it's practically impossible to "prove" that an impression or click was caused by deliberate deception. Our servers can accurately count clicks on ads, but we cannot know what the intent of a clicking user was when they made that click. When we identify a click as invalid, it simply means a click we won't charge for, in order to deliver the best ROI to advertisers.


Why not say more about the specific methods used to identify invalid clicks?

There are many things we do to detect invalid clicks, including looking at duplicate IP addresses, user session information, network information, geo-targeting and browser information. These are all important signals for detecting invalid clicks.

The technology we use to detect invalid clicks is highly sophisticated and was developed by some of the world's leading experts -- PhDs in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistics. We’re reluctant to share more about our technology and methods, however, because doing so would make it easier for fraudsters to try to defeat our systems.


How big a problem is invalid click activity?

We take it very seriously and have devoted significant resources and some of our best talent to this. By far, most of the invalid clicks we see are detected and discarded by our automatic filters even before they reach advertisers accounts. If an advertiser is monitoring click activity, these automatically filtered clicks may show up in an advertiser's logs, but not in their bills. When invalid clicks are detected after an advertiser is charged, we reimburse for them. Because of our detection efforts, losses to advertisers from invalid clicks are very small.


But don't advertisers report invalid clicks to Google which weren't detected in advance?

We do receive reports from advertisers and we look at them very closely. When we believe those clicks are invalid, we reimburse advertisers for them. Some invalid clicks do make it through our filters, but we believe the amount is very small.

Also, we often find that the clicks are legitimate, but from unexpected sources such as broader targets the advertiser has set up for their campaign. And, as I mentioned earlier, some of the invalid clicks advertisers see in logs are clicks we've already caught, discarded and not charged. Most investigations we conduct concerning invalid clicks are cleared up with the advertiser after explaining the source of the traffic increase or showing them that the clicks were never charged.


Does Google have an incentive to allow some amount of fraud because it means more revenue?

Actually, it is the opposite of that. We have much more of an incentive to do a better job of handling invalid clicks than our competitors -- and we believe we do. Fighting invalid clicks aggressively is in Google's best interest and essential for us to maintain a viable business. In addition, we offer free tools to advertisers so they can monitor their return on investment -- which is a helpful way to determine whether too many clicks coming through are not resulting in sales. Those free tools help advertisers manage to a bottom line value of their ads.


Some people suggest that click fraud may account for as much as 30 percent of traffic -- what do you say to that?

We believe the methodology behind that particular estimate is flawed -- and that many who have cited the figure have done so irresponsibly by using it differently than it is characterized in the report.

Here's a link to a .pdf version of the study where that figure originated. We encourage you to read the report and evaluate it yourself. Some things we think you will see that undercut those who use this estimate carelessly:

Even the report does not say that click fraud is 30% of all clicks. What it does say is that of three ad campaigns (only three ad campaigns were examined in this study), evaluated over a ten day period, one had questionable clicks of 8%, another 10% and a third 30%.

So, the 30% figure comes from analysis of a *single* ad campaign, not a study of many. This means that the figure of 30% that is used to characterize click fraud for the whole search and advertising industry comes from the analysis of *one* ad campaign looked at for ten days. Even in that campaign, it is not clear what methodology they used to determine which clicks are "bad" and it is possible that they marked legitimate clicks as "duplicate."

Moreover, the study does not indicate whether the advertiser was actually charged for any of the clicks, only that the traffic analysis suggested that the clicks may have been invalid. As I mentioned above, it’s very possible that clicks recorded in an advertiser's logs have already been caught by Google’s detection systems and not charged. (I should also note that when invalid clicks are detected and discarded before they are charged to an advertiser they are also not recorded as revenue.)

When considering the validity of this exaggerated 30% figure, you should also consider who is most aggressively using it: it is those who have the most to gain from hyping the problem. Those who are throwing around this figure are doing so as part of their marketing efforts to sell products they claim detect click fraud. The more they can convince others that click fraud is a problem, the more they hope to see increased sales. In other words, these companies have a huge financial incentive to make people believe invalid clicks are a larger problem than they really are.


What else on this topic should we be aware of?

Whether it’s online or offline, advertising should be about ROI and results. It is in our interest to serve the interests of our advertisers, which means delivering superior ROI. Our efforts to combat invalid clicks are an essential part of that.

What we have seen so far is that advertisers continually increase the amount of money they spend, which suggests that they are pleased with the return delivered by their ads. We encourage advertisers to track ROI and contact us when they see something that doesn't appear to add up. If you see suspicious activity on your AdWords account, please contact our click quality team.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

FREE International Business Resources

Here are a couple of FREE International Business Resources that you may want to mark as favorites on your browser. Some of these I find so useful in my import export business that I have even created shortcuts for on my desktop so all I have to do is double click on them to get there fast.

First is a Free Currency Converter- use this anytime of the day, 24/7, to cross reference what the value of your currency is in relationship to that of a potential customer for your import export business. This is a great international business tool that will help you better develop your pricing when making quotations and for accepting payments from foreign buyers.

Next, if you are ever trying to make a deal in your import export business and it finally gets down to communicating live with the person on the other side of the world, whether by email, phone or fax, you should visit the World Clock to determine what time of the day it is in the country they are located.

It is a common courtesy to try and match a time that your potential customer will be in their office when trying to communicate with them. It also helps get your commincation, whether fax, email or phone call, get attention if the person is in the office at the time it arrives.

Many times over the last 18 years in this business, I would have messages waiting for me from people in other countries who would call between midnight and 6 am. Now, granted, I work in the office about 18 hours a day, I do try to get some sleep sometimes and if you really want to communicate with me directly, please check the world time clock and see if it is a normal time to call. I mean would you be there at 3 am to answer calls? (PS: I would be if I had planned ahead but not every night).

Many times I have had my faxed or emailed messages read immediately and either receive a return call or email or fax within minutes, if I time my communications to the core business hours for the potential customer's country.

The last FREE international business resource in today's post are FREE Trade Magazines.

Many of these Free Trade Magazines cost up and over $100.00 a year if you had to purchase them. If you look over the List Of Trade Magazines available, you will find that there are hundreds and many that probably target your industry or products or services.

One of the most popular free trade publications for international business persons involved in the import export business is the World Trade Magazine.

You must complete a short questionnaire to determine if you are eligible for a free subscription to these magazines and be sure to look if you are eligible to apply based on the country and/or region you are located.

These valuable magazine subscriptions can help you keep up to date with the latest industry news and help you find new potential customers for your products and/or services. Most of publications also offer advertising to their highly targeted audience member/subscribers. So be sure to check them out.

That is is for today. I wish you success in your international business endeavors and hope that you will report back in the comments area if you have found these posts helpful to you.

Ron Coble
Coble International Marketing Services
Import Export Business Help Center

Tell us your feedback on referrals

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?

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

Search your site

You know that AdWords can be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site. But what happens after users arrive there? If you have multiple products for sale or a significant collection of content, it's likely that visitors to your site rely on search to find what they want.

How's your site search? Studies show that most users (85%!) can't find what they're looking for through site searches, and they tend to go elsewhere if a site's search functionality doesn't return relevant results.

So, what can you do about it? This week, the Google Enterprise team launched a lower-cost version of the Google Mini that indexes up to 50,000 documents. If AdWords get users to your site, the Mini helps ensure people have the best experience once they're there by making your site as easy to search as Google.com. Also, be sure to check out the customer map to see what other users are saying about the Mini.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

Channels are made for changing

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

Use Google Video to showcase your products

Recently, we had the chance to catch up with one of the original Inside AdWords bloggers, Jon, to learn more about his new role on the Google Video team. After reminiscing about the old days as part of the Inside AdWords crew, he shared his insights on how Video can also benefit advertisers:

After spending a year learning the ins and outs of AdWords, even though I now work on Video, I often see things from the advertiser perspective. I always loved reading stories from advertisers who had used AdWords to help their businesses become more successful. The surprising thing about Video has been that we get the same type of letters. So here are some things that people have done on Video to help their businesses become successful.

For advertisers with video content, Google Video is a great way to expand your reach into an entirely new segment of the online community. If you have commercials or demos of your product that you'd like the world to see, you can upload your videos now (for free!). As with all things Google, you'll be able to monitor your stats, which are fully broken out for you within your Video account. That way, you can see the results and know exactly how many times a specific piece of content was watched. And, if you really want to improve coverage, you also have the option of embedding the streaming videos on your site, with no download required for your users -- you just copy the 'put on site' code.

If you're selling videos on your site, you can use streaming to provide users with a preview. Use the power of motion -- add an embedded live demo -- to sell a product that words and pictures can't describe. Or, share that funny branding video with the world by placing it in our index. The opportunities are out there; as always, let us know what your experiences are, so we can continue to make Google Video even more useful to you.

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

Advanced site targeting and referrals reporting

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

Google Mini for a mini price

Why do I look so smug? No, it's not because I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. In fact, I just figured out a way to save you a bunch of money on a Google Mini.

OK, in all seriousness (if you can take me seriously now), I'm happy because we're releasing a lower-cost version of the Google Mini that indexes up to 50,000 documents for $1995.

When we launched the Google Mini last year, our vision was to make Google-quality search available to businesses everywhere at an affordable, transparent price. We believe that search is critical for every business, both for customers finding information on a public web site as well as employees finding documents within an organization. Users are now used to navigating information via search, so they tend to expect great search wherever there is information.

Since our launch, we've strived to cut costs and continually pass these savings on to our customers. But, in keeping with our goal to satisfy our users, we've made this change without affecting the quality of the product or services we deliver. Customers will get the same great software, hardware, and support that they have come to expect from us, but at a lower price.

So for the price of a good office chair, you can get great search for your office. Learn more here

Time limit for AdSense referrals earnings is now 180 days

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

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