Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Your ad targeting questions answered

Andre asks: We are an online travel agency and recently put some Google ads on our site. Is there a way to make our ads more targeted to topics such as airlines, hotels, and etc.?

We say: Andre, this is a good question. As you may know, AdSense technology automatically determines which ads to display on your pages based on the overall content of that page; we can't manually target ads to specific keywords or categories. However, if you'd like to display ads related to topics like airlines or hotels, you can add more text-based content about these topics to your site. Make sure to include complete sentences and paragraphs to help our crawlers gather information about your pages and determine relevant ads to display. Also, if you do make changes to your site, keep in mind that can take a week or two before those changes are reflected by your ad targeting.


Mike asks: I have a blog with posts on different topics. How do I ensure that my ads are always targeted to the most recent post?

We say: Mike, have you tried section targeting? Section targeting allows you to suggest sections of your text and HTML content that you'd like us to emphasize or downplay when matching ads to your site's content. We want to make sure you're always receiving your maximum revenue potential, so our technology automatically detects whether your targeting suggestions will improve your revenue and adjusts accordingly.


Jessica asks: I’ve noticed some dating ads recently, which are not really appropriate for our site. How do I filter all the ads that contain word ‘dating’?

We say: Jessica, we don't currently offer the option to filter ads by keywords or topics. However, you can prevent unwanted ads from showing on your site by using the Competitive Ad Filter in your account. You can filter ads from up to 200 URLs from advertising on your site.


Jonathan asks: We have a commerce site that sells kitchen appliances. As soon as we implemented AdSense, ads from our direct competitors began to appear. We're using the Competitive Ad Filter list, but do you have any other tips that might benefit a site like ours?

We say: Jonathan, first, we recommend testing AdSense on a few pages to see how it performs. Some commerce publishers find that AdSense complements their sites by adding an additional revenue source without affecting their bread and butter businesses.

If you find that's not the case for you, there are still ways you can use AdSense strategically. For example, you might want to place Google ads on checkout pages or sales confirmation pages to provide your customers another action to take when they've completed shopping. If you're an AdWords advertiser, you can place ads on the pages where you normally place your conversion tracking code. However, if you use this placement, please make sure you're in compliance with our program policies regarding non-content pages. You should only place the AdSense code on checkout or sales confirmation pages if they contain signficant text-based content, which ensures that we're able to serve relevant ads.

You can also use a web analytics tool to figure out from which pages your visitors exit your site. If you're losing traffic without sales on a few specific pages where your users aren't finding what they're looking for, AdSense might provide a good 'next step' to help you monetize this traffic without compromising your business objectives.

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