It's hard to believe, but the beginning of the holiday season is right around the corner, and you don't want to get caught without ads for your spooky ghost candles or turkey basters. So, we're encouraging you to plan ahead. Yes, it's early, but now's the time to come up with a schedule for your seasonal advertisements and to start putting it into place.
As part of the process of creating a new campaign, you can set the campaign start date for a time in the future. It's located in the 'Set pricing' section, right under your daily budget setting. Setting your start date ensures that if your shipment of pilgrim plates doesn't arrive until October 15, you can start your campaign on that date.
As we mentioned in our blog way back in July, you can also set a specific end date for each of your campaigns on the Edit Campaign Settings page. This allows you to stop your ads for spooky ghost candles from running at midnight on the day of your choice, without your having to remember to do it. If your campaigns work out so well this year that you'd like to implement them again next year, you can easily resume your campaign when you're ready, and then simply set a new end date in the future.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Bye, bye, beta...
If you've logged into your account in the past couple days, you might've noticed that Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT for short) is officially out of beta. So what's changed? Our process for verifying bank account information has improved.
After you submit your bank account information, we will place a small test deposit into your bank account for you to keep. Once you see this test deposit credited to your account, just input the amount of the deposit into your AdSense account to help us verify your bank account information.
Testing your bank account before we make your payments means a greater chance of an error-free deposit. From now on, if you choose to use EFT, you can rest assured that we're taking the steps to make your payment successful.
We're excited about this launch and want to thank all of you who took part in our beta testing phase. We appreciate your help.
After you submit your bank account information, we will place a small test deposit into your bank account for you to keep. Once you see this test deposit credited to your account, just input the amount of the deposit into your AdSense account to help us verify your bank account information.
Testing your bank account before we make your payments means a greater chance of an error-free deposit. From now on, if you choose to use EFT, you can rest assured that we're taking the steps to make your payment successful.
We're excited about this launch and want to thank all of you who took part in our beta testing phase. We appreciate your help.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
And many more...
While we work to support you, we always appreciate your support, too. On Tuesday many of you sent us some very cheerful birthday wishes and we thought we'd share one of them with you:
Hello! Dear Sirs,
First of all we would like to congratulate you on Google's 7th Birthday. We wish all the best and wish you to stay on the top as world's Best search engine! Keep on this good work!
Best regards,
HITECHHOST.NET Team
A warm thank you to all of you who wrote in and granted our birthday wish: to keep making our users happy for many more years to come. Now, who wants some leftover cake? ;-)
Hello! Dear Sirs,
First of all we would like to congratulate you on Google's 7th Birthday. We wish all the best and wish you to stay on the top as world's Best search engine! Keep on this good work!
Best regards,
HITECHHOST.NET Team
A warm thank you to all of you who wrote in and granted our birthday wish: to keep making our users happy for many more years to come. Now, who wants some leftover cake? ;-)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Bloggggggger
We've just made it a lot easier for Blogger users to make money with their blogs. Our new integration with AdSense lets you sign up from within Blogger. And we've added a tool for inserting the ads in your blog (so you don't have to mess around with HTML). There are even built-in options that will analyze the colors on your blog and choose a recommended color scheme. Check out the mad science, why don'cha.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Google turns seven
To celebrate our birthday, here’s our gift to you: 7 AdWords tips -- tried, tested, and true:
1) Identify your goals
Decide what you want to achieve so that you can build effective campaigns for your business. For example, a party supply store might decide to drive sales of their birthday candles.
2) Build a relevant, targeted keyword list
Choose specific keywords, like ‘dripless birthday candles,’ rather than broad ones such as 'candles.'
3) Use the right keyword matching
Take advantage of our various matching options to choose the ones that make sense for you. Use negative keywords like ‘wholesale’ to filter out unwanted party store traffic.
4) Organize your campaign
Create separate Ad Groups based on theme. Put all of your party hat keywords in one Ad Group and all of your birthday candles keywords in another.
5) Write clear, compelling ad text
Write separate ads with targeted text for each product line. Emphasize unique aspects of your product or service and include a strong call-to-action such as “Check out our wide selection” or “Buy party supplies today.”
6) Choose useful destination pages
Send users to landing pages that relate directly to your ad text to help turn prospects into customers. Make it easy for someone looking for purple crepe streamers to find them.
7) Track results frequently and modify your campaign
Assess your stats; measure your successes. Use Google’s tools to help you.
Monday, September 26, 2005
‘Dear Inside AdWords…’ – More subscription options
We’ve received a few emails recently from Inside AdWords subscribers requesting to be unsubscribed from our mailing list because they were receiving too many emails from us. While we have and will continue to honor your requests, we wanted to tell you a little bit more about how our mailing list is set up, and how you can change your subscription options to suit your own preferences.
Our mailing list is powered by Google Groups. By entering your email address into the subscription box on the right side of our blog, you become a member of the “Inside AdWords” Group on Google Groups. While the mailing list functionality eliminates the need to sign up for the Groups services itself (we wanted to make it simple and straightforward for you to join our mailing list), you can sign up for Google Groups in order to harness the power of everything Groups has to offer, such as the ability to change your email preferences or subscription options for a particular Group.
To sign up (it takes less than a minute), go to http://groups.google.com/ and click the “Join” link. You’ll then be asked to create a Google Account. In order to manage your mailing list preferences, use the same email address that you used to sign up for Inside AdWords. You’ll then receive a verification email at your email address, and once it’s verified, you’ll be automatically logged into Google Groups. You’ll see that “Inside AdWords” is already listed in your list of Groups. Click on that link, and you’ll see the “Unsubscribe or change membership” link at the top (see screenshot below). You can then choose if you want to receive full text emails, digest emails, abridged emails, or no emails at all.
Of course, you can now join the various Groups available out there – including one of our favorites, AdWords Help (as mentioned in our recent post).
Our mailing list is powered by Google Groups. By entering your email address into the subscription box on the right side of our blog, you become a member of the “Inside AdWords” Group on Google Groups. While the mailing list functionality eliminates the need to sign up for the Groups services itself (we wanted to make it simple and straightforward for you to join our mailing list), you can sign up for Google Groups in order to harness the power of everything Groups has to offer, such as the ability to change your email preferences or subscription options for a particular Group.
To sign up (it takes less than a minute), go to http://groups.google.com/ and click the “Join” link. You’ll then be asked to create a Google Account. In order to manage your mailing list preferences, use the same email address that you used to sign up for Inside AdWords. You’ll then receive a verification email at your email address, and once it’s verified, you’ll be automatically logged into Google Groups. You’ll see that “Inside AdWords” is already listed in your list of Groups. Click on that link, and you’ll see the “Unsubscribe or change membership” link at the top (see screenshot below). You can then choose if you want to receive full text emails, digest emails, abridged emails, or no emails at all.
Of course, you can now join the various Groups available out there – including one of our favorites, AdWords Help (as mentioned in our recent post).
Tuning in to your feedback
As a member of the AdSense support team, I help publishers with everything
from optimizing their ad implementation to understanding the AdSense payment schedule. With the wide range of incoming inquiries and concerns, we are always looking for ways to better understand what's most important to our publishers.
Recently, I had the opportunity to work on a team with engineers and product managers to help redesign our "Ads by Google" page – the feedback page users land on when clicking on the "Ads by Google" link on each ad unit. Using your feedback and aiming to improve our response time, we added categorization buttons so that users can tell us if they are providing feedback about Google ads, AdSense publishers, or something entirely different, like how they enjoy exploring the Grand Canyon with Google Earth.
So far, we're seeing positive results with the new Ads by Google page, and we hope you like it. The new page allows us to quickly know if you love the Little Bow Wow Rap ad on your site, or if you are interested in a new feature. This helps us to understand and prioritize what is most important to web users and our publishers, and what features we should focus on implementing in the future. From time to time we may experiment with new designs to continue making this a more useful page - stay tuned.
from optimizing their ad implementation to understanding the AdSense payment schedule. With the wide range of incoming inquiries and concerns, we are always looking for ways to better understand what's most important to our publishers.
Recently, I had the opportunity to work on a team with engineers and product managers to help redesign our "Ads by Google" page – the feedback page users land on when clicking on the "Ads by Google" link on each ad unit. Using your feedback and aiming to improve our response time, we added categorization buttons so that users can tell us if they are providing feedback about Google ads, AdSense publishers, or something entirely different, like how they enjoy exploring the Grand Canyon with Google Earth.
So far, we're seeing positive results with the new Ads by Google page, and we hope you like it. The new page allows us to quickly know if you love the Little Bow Wow Rap ad on your site, or if you are interested in a new feature. This helps us to understand and prioritize what is most important to web users and our publishers, and what features we should focus on implementing in the future. From time to time we may experiment with new designs to continue making this a more useful page - stay tuned.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Preventing leaky filters
Creating effective Competitive Ad Filters is easy as long as you follow a few simple guidelines. Here are some quick tips to improve your filters:
Tip 1: Don't use "www" in your Ad Filters
Ads should be blocked at the domain level. Frequently, publishers append "www" to their filters, such as using 'www.example.com' instead of 'example.com'. If you filter 'www.example.com' and the ad points to landingpage.example.com, the ad will continue to appear on your page. However, filtering 'example.com' will block ads from 'landingpage.example.com', 'example.com/subdomain', and 'www.example.com'.
Tip 2: Don't believe the myth about blocking 'low-paying advertisers'
Our auction system automatically selects the best performing ads for each page to help you earn the most possible money. This is especially true with our new expanded text ads. By filtering ads you think are low paying, you could actually be cutting out the most optimized ads and decreasing your revenue potential. Each ad that is filtered is one less bid in the auction, lowering the price for the winning ad on your site. You benefit most when there is a larger pool of advertisers competing for a place on your site. Additionally, when we calculate the auction, we take ad clickthrough rates (CTR) into account - an ad with a $0.25 cost-per-click (CPC) with a 5% CTR is more valuable than an ad with a $1.00 CPC but a 0.1% CTR.
Learn more about how the auction works.
Tip 3: Don't go overboard with filters
Only filter URLs when absolutely necessary. As mentioned, each URL you add to your filter list may cut into your AdSense revenue potential, so it's important to think carefully before deciding what to block.
Some publishers worry that competitive ads will affect their bottom line and they may overuse filters, limiting the ad inventory available for their site. Our advice? Test it. Some publishers don't use filters and sell at the same levels after adding AdSense to their pages. This might not be true for all publishers, but you should test first so that you know the actual effects before unintentionally reducing your AdSense revenue.
Tip 1: Don't use "www" in your Ad Filters
Ads should be blocked at the domain level. Frequently, publishers append "www" to their filters, such as using 'www.example.com' instead of 'example.com'. If you filter 'www.example.com' and the ad points to landingpage.example.com, the ad will continue to appear on your page. However, filtering 'example.com' will block ads from 'landingpage.example.com', 'example.com/subdomain', and 'www.example.com'.
Tip 2: Don't believe the myth about blocking 'low-paying advertisers'
Our auction system automatically selects the best performing ads for each page to help you earn the most possible money. This is especially true with our new expanded text ads. By filtering ads you think are low paying, you could actually be cutting out the most optimized ads and decreasing your revenue potential. Each ad that is filtered is one less bid in the auction, lowering the price for the winning ad on your site. You benefit most when there is a larger pool of advertisers competing for a place on your site. Additionally, when we calculate the auction, we take ad clickthrough rates (CTR) into account - an ad with a $0.25 cost-per-click (CPC) with a 5% CTR is more valuable than an ad with a $1.00 CPC but a 0.1% CTR.
Learn more about how the auction works.
Tip 3: Don't go overboard with filters
Only filter URLs when absolutely necessary. As mentioned, each URL you add to your filter list may cut into your AdSense revenue potential, so it's important to think carefully before deciding what to block.
Some publishers worry that competitive ads will affect their bottom line and they may overuse filters, limiting the ad inventory available for their site. Our advice? Test it. Some publishers don't use filters and sell at the same levels after adding AdSense to their pages. This might not be true for all publishers, but you should test first so that you know the actual effects before unintentionally reducing your AdSense revenue.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Advertise smarter
We’ve written about using data to automatically show your better performing ads more often and using Urchin to make data driven decisions about your site itself. Now, for a little bit about metrics that can show which of your keywords are actually driving sales:
Although clickthrough rate (CTR) is a great measure of the relevancy of your keywords (a keyword with a high CTR indicates that users searching for that word are interested enough in your ad to want to visit your site), it doesn’t tell you what happens after the user gets to your site. That's where tracking your conversions comes in. Using Google's free conversion tracking, you can see which clicks lead to purchases and thus more intelligently decide which of your keywords are worth investing in. So how does it work?
After placing a snippet of code on your site’s confirmation page (usually the “Thank you for your order” page that users see after they purchase something), when a user clicks on your ad, a cookie is placed on their computer. If, when they visit your site, they end up on this confirmation page, the cookie is recognized and a conversion is reported. In your account, you’ll be able to view conversion data all the way down to the keyword level or run custom reports to view additional conversion statistics.
With the more advanced conversion tracking, you can not only learn which keywords are generating sales but also understand the revenue generated by each of your keywords. If you're spending more on clicks for the word “granny smith apples” than you are selling as a result of that spend, you’ll want to consider refining that keyword or adjusting your maximum CPC accordingly. Similarly, if you find that “mail order apples” is bringing in more revenue than it’s costing you in clicks, you might want to consider expanding your keyword list with similar words (“mail order fujis,” “mail order granny smiths”) or possibly increasing your bid on that keyword. By spending less on poorly converting keywords and increasing your spend on high conversion ones, you’ll optimize your overall ROI.
And if this all sounds a bit complicated, check out the conversion tracking setup guide (.pdf) or ask your webmaster to help you add the snippet of code to your site to get you started.
Although clickthrough rate (CTR) is a great measure of the relevancy of your keywords (a keyword with a high CTR indicates that users searching for that word are interested enough in your ad to want to visit your site), it doesn’t tell you what happens after the user gets to your site. That's where tracking your conversions comes in. Using Google's free conversion tracking, you can see which clicks lead to purchases and thus more intelligently decide which of your keywords are worth investing in. So how does it work?
After placing a snippet of code on your site’s confirmation page (usually the “Thank you for your order” page that users see after they purchase something), when a user clicks on your ad, a cookie is placed on their computer. If, when they visit your site, they end up on this confirmation page, the cookie is recognized and a conversion is reported. In your account, you’ll be able to view conversion data all the way down to the keyword level or run custom reports to view additional conversion statistics.
With the more advanced conversion tracking, you can not only learn which keywords are generating sales but also understand the revenue generated by each of your keywords. If you're spending more on clicks for the word “granny smith apples” than you are selling as a result of that spend, you’ll want to consider refining that keyword or adjusting your maximum CPC accordingly. Similarly, if you find that “mail order apples” is bringing in more revenue than it’s costing you in clicks, you might want to consider expanding your keyword list with similar words (“mail order fujis,” “mail order granny smiths”) or possibly increasing your bid on that keyword. By spending less on poorly converting keywords and increasing your spend on high conversion ones, you’ll optimize your overall ROI.
And if this all sounds a bit complicated, check out the conversion tracking setup guide (.pdf) or ask your webmaster to help you add the snippet of code to your site to get you started.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
The site exclusion tool just got bigger and better...
In the spring, we launched the Site Exclusion tool to give you more control to determine where your ads will show on the content network. This tool allows you to prevent your ads from showing on specific sites in the content network in the same way that you can add negative keywords to stop your ads from showing for specific keyword searches.
Recently, we increased the number of sites that you can exclude using this tool to 500. This gives you the ability to further tailor your AdWords account to the needs of your business. Remember, excluding a site in the content network will prevent you from showing on all of the pages that fall under that site's domain. We suggest that you review these sites carefully before you decide to exclude them. After all, the content network allows you to reach a targeted audience across a broad range of sites, and we wouldn't want you to miss any customers!
Recently, we increased the number of sites that you can exclude using this tool to 500. This gives you the ability to further tailor your AdWords account to the needs of your business. Remember, excluding a site in the content network will prevent you from showing on all of the pages that fall under that site's domain. We suggest that you review these sites carefully before you decide to exclude them. After all, the content network allows you to reach a targeted audience across a broad range of sites, and we wouldn't want you to miss any customers!
How to keep your programming job
(Cross posted at my java.net blog)
In Chris Adamson's blog entry "Why don't you get a job?", he suggests that
In Chris Adamson's blog entry "Why don't you get a job?", he suggests that
"In the future, you may be not just a J2EE developer, or even a J2EE web app developer, but instead a J2EE financial web app developer, or a J2EE medical web app developer, or a J2EE media web app developer, etc."
Fear not my business adverse readers, there's another option...
It is not necessary that you choose a business specialization like "finacial" or "medical" or "media" to retain your employability. If you learn to treat your business owners with respect, they will be delighted to explain their business to you. You'll have to do your homework to learn their lingo, but if you make the effort to deal with them in their own terms, you will find that business Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are every bit as worthy of respect as you think you are.
What business people crave from programmers (and technical people in general) is respect.
Brief history recap:
The popular role model for programmers during the dot com boom was that of the heroes in "Revenge of the Nerds". Demand exceeded supply, salaries got high, and the benefits that companies had to provide to simply keep programmers from leaving got fairly ridiculous (capaccino machines and free chair massages were the norm).
When the dot com boom went bust, some business folks took their own revenge, and we saw a bit of gleeful outsourcing to India and Eastern Europe... not just because great programmers were available at cheaper rates, but because the business guys felt slighted. During this phase the role models for programmers morphed into the heroes from "Office Space".
Both role models were faulty; two wrongs don't make a right. It's spilled milk and we need to get over it.
CIOs do want developers with more business skills. They would be absolutely delighted if you knew the minutiae of their industry, but what they really require is developers who can understand the relationship between the company's business needs and the software that the developers produce and maintain.
Software is expensive to write, and it is expensive to maintain. Your CIO wants to be confident that the software you are producing (and the hardware that it requires) really does map to an important business need.
Your business people will not grasp your excitement for the latest Java technology unless you can explain to them how that technology relates to their business. To really communicate, you'll need to learn their language and to express yourself in terms of their world view.
If you learn to communicate with your business people, and you treat them with respect... your odds of keeping your job will dramatically improve (and you might even make a few more friends).
Please plan ahead
This just in, straight from our tech team:
On Friday, September 23rd, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. PDT [?] due to system maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this short downtime, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Tools of the trade
They say you learn something new every day. Today, maybe that something can be a new way to improve your website. Google has more tools for website publishers, so you can focus on creating content while we help with everything else. Recognize traffic trends on your site with Urchin. Or, add some interactivity with Blogger. Have some video content? Give Google Video a try to get the visibility it deserves.
If you're hungry for more ideas, visit our publisher tools site. Take advantage of the tools that make sense for your site, and you just might learn something in the process.
If you're hungry for more ideas, visit our publisher tools site. Take advantage of the tools that make sense for your site, and you just might learn something in the process.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
See things before they happen
Wish you could see your AdSense ads before pasting the code on your pages? With the Google AdSense preview tool for Windows Internet Explorer, you can. Even publishers who use the preview tool aren't always aware of all its useful features, so we decided to highlight a few gems:
Filter more efficiently – You don't have to wait until AdSense ads are on your page to block any unwanted ads from appearing. It’s quick and easy to preview your site’s ad inventory and add URLs to your Competitive Ad Filter list.
Test color schemes – You can preview your ads using a selection of color schemes, helping you to visualize how AdSense will look on your pages.
Experience geotargeting – Do you wonder whether your users in India are seeing the same Google ads as users in France? With geotargeting, AdWords advertisers choose specific countries they want to target. Then, AdSense determines where your users are located based on their IP address and serves geographically targeted ads accordingly. The preview tool allows you to see your site's ad inventory for a variety of locations.
Please note that if you're a newly approved AdSense publisher, the preview tool may not display relevant ads until your site content has been indexed by our crawler. This means you may have to run the AdSense code on one or two pages of your site before trying out the preview tool.
Filter more efficiently – You don't have to wait until AdSense ads are on your page to block any unwanted ads from appearing. It’s quick and easy to preview your site’s ad inventory and add URLs to your Competitive Ad Filter list.
Test color schemes – You can preview your ads using a selection of color schemes, helping you to visualize how AdSense will look on your pages.
Experience geotargeting – Do you wonder whether your users in India are seeing the same Google ads as users in France? With geotargeting, AdWords advertisers choose specific countries they want to target. Then, AdSense determines where your users are located based on their IP address and serves geographically targeted ads accordingly. The preview tool allows you to see your site's ad inventory for a variety of locations.
Please note that if you're a newly approved AdSense publisher, the preview tool may not display relevant ads until your site content has been indexed by our crawler. This means you may have to run the AdSense code on one or two pages of your site before trying out the preview tool.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Advertisers helping advertisers...
From time to time, we love to get a group of advertisers together and ask them to talk about their experiences with AdWords. It's a great way for us to learn, right from the source, what's working with our program and what could use some improvement.
One thing we've noticed during these forums is that when you get a bunch of advertisers together, they often begin to bond -- and they just naturally start helping each other. It's a real pleasure to see advertisers begin to swap tips and tricks and to share their hard-won knowledge in order to help each other advertise more successfully with AdWords. I think more than a few of our advertisers are natural born teachers.
Just thinking about this puts a smile on my face. And, if you find yourself feeling the same way, then I've got good news for you!
Recently, the AdWords team built an online forum in which AdWords advertisers may search or browse for answers, ask questions, and assist others with AdWords -- 24/7. It is our fondest hope that a strong and vibrant community of AdWords advertisers will grow there and enjoy each other's company while sharing their knowledge and skill.
This new forum, called AdWords Help, may be found on Google Groups. And if the idea of helping others -- while also learning from them -- excites you at all, you're cordially invited to join. We've quietly grown to just over 125 members now, and we thought it was time to mention AdWords Help to a wider audience. You'll be getting in right at the start of something good, should you decide to join us.
We hope that you'll stop by and take a look. Maybe during your visit, you'll even decide to ask a question. Or exercise your inner-teacher, and answer one or two. ;)
Have fun!
One thing we've noticed during these forums is that when you get a bunch of advertisers together, they often begin to bond -- and they just naturally start helping each other. It's a real pleasure to see advertisers begin to swap tips and tricks and to share their hard-won knowledge in order to help each other advertise more successfully with AdWords. I think more than a few of our advertisers are natural born teachers.
Just thinking about this puts a smile on my face. And, if you find yourself feeling the same way, then I've got good news for you!
Recently, the AdWords team built an online forum in which AdWords advertisers may search or browse for answers, ask questions, and assist others with AdWords -- 24/7. It is our fondest hope that a strong and vibrant community of AdWords advertisers will grow there and enjoy each other's company while sharing their knowledge and skill.
This new forum, called AdWords Help, may be found on Google Groups. And if the idea of helping others -- while also learning from them -- excites you at all, you're cordially invited to join. We've quietly grown to just over 125 members now, and we thought it was time to mention AdWords Help to a wider audience. You'll be getting in right at the start of something good, should you decide to join us.
We hope that you'll stop by and take a look. Maybe during your visit, you'll even decide to ask a question. Or exercise your inner-teacher, and answer one or two. ;)
Have fun!
From the Inside AdSense mail bag
Amy asks: I just pasted the Google code into my travel site, but the ads I'm getting are public service ads. Why is that?
Inside AdSense says: If you’ve just pasted the code on your site, our crawlers need some time to gather information about the content of your page. For the first 48 hours after you put the code on your site, public service ads (PSAs) might show up, but you should expect ad relevance to increase over time.
If you do not see your ad relevancy improve within 48 hours, check that your page has enough text-based content for our crawlers to determine relevant ads to display.
If these tips don’t seem to apply in your case, you may find it helpful to learn more about PSAs so you can determine other reasons you may be seeing these types of ads.
Clarence asks: Why won't the ads show up on my site? I copied and pasted the Google ad code from my account, and I could see the code appearing between the tags in my site's HTML source code. When I looked at my live website, though, no ads showed up at all. I tried to paste the AdSense code into my site a second time, but the AdSense code appeared as text on my live page. Help!
Inside AdSense says: If you can see the code within the tags of your site's HTML source code but no ads show up on your site, you’re still on the right track.
First, double-check that you’ve copied the ad code exactly as it appears on the Ad layout code page of your account and pasted it into your source without any modification. Some web design programs automatically insert extra line break tags into the HTML code, or you might’ve accidentally removed a piece of the AdSense code when pasting. If the ad code is altered in any way, ads may not appear.
The second time you tried pasting the code, it sounds like something else might’ve happened involving the HTML editor you used to create your web page. If you’ve pasted the code into a 'what you see is what you get' (WYSIWYG) editor, this will often result in the Google ad code appearing as text on your live site.
For the ads to appear correctly, you'll need to copy and paste the AdSense ad code into the HTML code view of your page rather than into the WYSIWYG view. In your editor, this might be labeled as 'Code view', 'HTML view', or something similar. Some editors don’t have an HTML view and use an 'Insert HTML' function to paste HTML instead. If you're unsure where to paste the code, we recommend using our HTML troubleshooting guide or contacting your HTML editor's customer support center for assistance.
Inside AdSense says: If you’ve just pasted the code on your site, our crawlers need some time to gather information about the content of your page. For the first 48 hours after you put the code on your site, public service ads (PSAs) might show up, but you should expect ad relevance to increase over time.
If you do not see your ad relevancy improve within 48 hours, check that your page has enough text-based content for our crawlers to determine relevant ads to display.
If these tips don’t seem to apply in your case, you may find it helpful to learn more about PSAs so you can determine other reasons you may be seeing these types of ads.
Clarence asks: Why won't the ads show up on my site? I copied and pasted the Google ad code from my account, and I could see the code appearing between the tags in my site's HTML source code. When I looked at my live website, though, no ads showed up at all. I tried to paste the AdSense code into my site a second time, but the AdSense code appeared as text on my live page. Help!
Inside AdSense says: If you can see the code within the tags of your site's HTML source code but no ads show up on your site, you’re still on the right track.
First, double-check that you’ve copied the ad code exactly as it appears on the Ad layout code page of your account and pasted it into your source without any modification. Some web design programs automatically insert extra line break tags into the HTML code, or you might’ve accidentally removed a piece of the AdSense code when pasting. If the ad code is altered in any way, ads may not appear.
The second time you tried pasting the code, it sounds like something else might’ve happened involving the HTML editor you used to create your web page. If you’ve pasted the code into a 'what you see is what you get' (WYSIWYG) editor, this will often result in the Google ad code appearing as text on your live site.
For the ads to appear correctly, you'll need to copy and paste the AdSense ad code into the HTML code view of your page rather than into the WYSIWYG view. In your editor, this might be labeled as 'Code view', 'HTML view', or something similar. Some editors don’t have an HTML view and use an 'Insert HTML' function to paste HTML instead. If you're unsure where to paste the code, we recommend using our HTML troubleshooting guide or contacting your HTML editor's customer support center for assistance.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Reports done your way
You can customize hamburgers, search results, and the ring of your cellphone whenever your mom gives you a call. But can you customize your AdSense reports? You bet. Even better, you can view the customized reports at any time with just one click. Here's how:
On your Advanced Reports page, create a report with a variable date range (e.g. "yesterday", "today", etc.). Choose any combination of channels or just aggregate data to view all channels, then make a selection between page impressions or ad unit impressions.
Generate the report, and you'll notice a new text box appears above it. Type a name in the box and click "save". That's it - the report you've named will appear on your Overview page in the Custom Advanced Reports section and you can view it at any time with one click.
We hope this will free up the time you used to spend selecting the same set of channels over and over, so you can spend it doing other things - like customizing your AdSense ad color palettes.
On your Advanced Reports page, create a report with a variable date range (e.g. "yesterday", "today", etc.). Choose any combination of channels or just aggregate data to view all channels, then make a selection between page impressions or ad unit impressions.
Generate the report, and you'll notice a new text box appears above it. Type a name in the box and click "save". That's it - the report you've named will appear on your Overview page in the Custom Advanced Reports section and you can view it at any time with one click.
We hope this will free up the time you used to spend selecting the same set of channels over and over, so you can spend it doing other things - like customizing your AdSense ad color palettes.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Deleting disabled keywords
To give you the chance to review and activate previously disabled keywords after the launch of our new keyword evaluation system, disabled keywords have remained in your account for the past several weeks. Next week, they'll be deleted.
So, what should you do? You don't have to make any changes to prepare for this --- your previously disabled keywords will show up as deleted in your account, and you can still choose to re-enable them. However, if you'd like to keep a list of your previously disabled keywords on hand, you can create and save a custom keyword report.
So, what should you do? You don't have to make any changes to prepare for this --- your previously disabled keywords will show up as deleted in your account, and you can still choose to re-enable them. However, if you'd like to keep a list of your previously disabled keywords on hand, you can create and save a custom keyword report.
Feeds fixed
Recently, we received emails saying that our feeds were not working properly – thank you for letting us know. We looked into it with a cool tool called, Feed Validator. It seems that we goofed and had added some invalid HTML. We’ve gone back and cleaned up those posts, and we have confirmed that the feed is now fixed.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Testing the (ad text) waters
Want to test out different ads, but not sure how to compare their performance? Here’s a tip from Emel M., an AdWords specialist:
First, create two or more ads within the same Ad Group. Try out different headlines or highlight different offers—the sky’s the limit. Our automatic ad optimization will then show ads with a higher clickthrough rate (CTR) more frequently. The served percentage number, located under your other ad statistics in each Ad Group, will show you how often each ad is being shown. You can then refine the text of ads which are being shown less often, or delete them from the Ad Group entirely. To make sure you have this feature enabled, follow the instructions here.
Mobile Sitemaps answers the call
Back in August, we recommended using Google Sitemaps to help Google crawl your content pages. Since then, Sitemaps has been updated to support mobile website URLs. We know that more users are searching the web from their cell phones and more publishers are creating web pages designed specifically for mobile devices. So, you can now use Google Mobile Sitemaps to tell Google about your new and changed mobile web pages, and increase your coverage in our mobile web index. (Incidentally, you can search through these mobile-specific websites using Google Mobile Web Search on your phone.)
Monday, September 12, 2005
Good news for HTML newbies
You've signed up for AdSense. You've activated your account. You've chosen your ad format and colors. Now you're ready to paste your AdSense ad code into your site. Or are you? If you're new to HTML, you might find it a bit challenging to add our code into the HTML source of your pages. ("HTML source--what's that?")
Have no fear - our new Troubleshooting Demo is here! I've worked with other members of our support team to create an HTML Troubleshooting Demo that should help clear up the confusion so you can see the ads on your site without delay. The demo addresses many common issues new publishers face when adding the code to your site, including instructions for pasting the ad code using two common types of design software. It also provides a background on HTML, information on viewing your page source, and tips to address the top four problems faced by new publishers.
If you've used our demo, we welcome your feedback.
Have no fear - our new Troubleshooting Demo is here! I've worked with other members of our support team to create an HTML Troubleshooting Demo that should help clear up the confusion so you can see the ads on your site without delay. The demo addresses many common issues new publishers face when adding the code to your site, including instructions for pasting the ad code using two common types of design software. It also provides a background on HTML, information on viewing your page source, and tips to address the top four problems faced by new publishers.
If you've used our demo, we welcome your feedback.
‘Dear Inside AdWords…’ – Quickies
Some of the emails that we receive from Inside AdWords readers contain straightforward questions that have short and sweet answers. I’ve gone through some of these to pull out the “quickies” that may of interest to the rest of our readers.
Absolutely. The AdWords API is available for all of our advertisers who want to manage their campaigns programmatically. You can read more about it in our earlier post, or go straight to the AdWords API home page to sign up.
Yes, ma’am. The Find/Edit Ad Text tool on the Tools page will allow you to make bulk changes to any portion of your ad texts, including the display or destination URLs. You can read more about the details here.
Well, we can help you do one of the two things that you mentioned. The handy dandy search box in the upper right corner of your AdWords account allows you to search within your campaigns. For example, if your tracking code is “X834s-11”, simply type that into the search box and it will locate all the relevant campaigns, Ad Groups, keywords, and ads that contain that term. As for searching for ads that don’t contain a certain term, that’s a good suggestion that I’ll pass on to the product team. :-)
Whether you have a quick question or a lengthy problem, send them to us and we’ll try our best to share the answers with all of our readers.
“Is there an API that I can use to somehow add and delete my ads dynamically as I need to rather than continually having to do it manually?” – Clint W.
Absolutely. The AdWords API is available for all of our advertisers who want to manage their campaigns programmatically. You can read more about it in our earlier post, or go straight to the AdWords API home page to sign up.
“Is there an easy way to change all the URL's in my ads at once for any given campaign? I have 1-5 ads running for any given campaign and find that I have to update each ad URL individually. How can I do this more quickly?” – Paula B.
Yes, ma’am. The Find/Edit Ad Text tool on the Tools page will allow you to make bulk changes to any portion of your ad texts, including the display or destination URLs. You can read more about the details here.
“It would be nice to search for campaigns by URL. For example, I want to see all ads that have tracking code 'x', or all ads that don't have tracking code 'x' in the URL.” – Brandon H.
Well, we can help you do one of the two things that you mentioned. The handy dandy search box in the upper right corner of your AdWords account allows you to search within your campaigns. For example, if your tracking code is “X834s-11”, simply type that into the search box and it will locate all the relevant campaigns, Ad Groups, keywords, and ads that contain that term. As for searching for ads that don’t contain a certain term, that’s a good suggestion that I’ll pass on to the product team. :-)
Whether you have a quick question or a lengthy problem, send them to us and we’ll try our best to share the answers with all of our readers.
Friday, September 9, 2005
Prescription for G.A.S.S. relief
Now that stats are back up again, your G.A.S.S. is probably flaring up as well. We'd like to use this opportunity to introduce a "cure" to the syndrome. The new version of Google Desktop has a plug-in called 'AdSense Status'. This feature allows you to continuously monitor your AdSense earnings and avoid the hassle of logging in to your account every 15 minutes.
Of course, in order to treat your G.A.S.S. you'll first need to download the new version of Google Desktop. Then you'll need to go to the plug-in page (see example above) to download the AdSense Status feature. It's fast, easy and fun – and we hope it will cure your G.A.S.S. permanently.
Of course, in order to treat your G.A.S.S. you'll first need to download the new version of Google Desktop. Then you'll need to go to the plug-in page (see example above) to download the AdSense Status feature. It's fast, easy and fun – and we hope it will cure your G.A.S.S. permanently.
Thursday, September 8, 2005
My Change History
Ever tried to remember the date you changed that keyword's max CPC, created that new campaign, or started to target ads to Canada? Now you can find out.
The My Change History tool, a new feature you'll find located on the Tools page of your AdWords account, allows you to see a log of the changes you've made to your account over the past three months. Some advertisers who helped us test this tool used it to understand what account modifications led to a bump in their sales. Other advertisers, whose accounts are managed by multiple people with different logins (an MCC login and the account login), used the tool to see who made certain changes.
Have another cool use for the tool? Let us know! Who knows, your idea might very well appear in lights right here on Inside AdWords.
The My Change History tool, a new feature you'll find located on the Tools page of your AdWords account, allows you to see a log of the changes you've made to your account over the past three months. Some advertisers who helped us test this tool used it to understand what account modifications led to a bump in their sales. Other advertisers, whose accounts are managed by multiple people with different logins (an MCC login and the account login), used the tool to see who made certain changes.
Have another cool use for the tool? Let us know! Who knows, your idea might very well appear in lights right here on Inside AdWords.
Distorted Images
I’ve heard some ugly rumors circulating about image ads, and I want to separate the myths from the facts so publishers don’t miss out on an important revenue opportunity.
Myth: Image ads take too long to load and I hate those ‘Shoot the Duck’-type ads
Fact: We have strict guidelines for both animated and static image ads restricting them to a maximum size of 50 kb, so they’ll load quickly on your site – and no Shoot the Duck ads allowed!
Myth: Image ads don’t pay as well as text ads
Fact: All ads served by AdSense – whether image or text, contextual or site-targeted – go through the same auction process. Opting into image ads maximizes your site’s revenue potential by allowing a greater pool of advertisements to compete for space on your site. Image ads will only appear if our technology determines they will be more effective than any other ads for a particular page.
Myth: Image ads aren’t relevant.
Fact: When serving contextually-targeted ads, we use the same algorithm to match ads to your content whether image or text ads appear. With site targeting, an advertiser has determined that their ads are specifically relevant to your users (see example below).
So, here are some recommendations:
1) Under your ‘My Account’ tab, make sure that ‘Ad Type Preference’ is set to ‘Display text and image ads in all ad units’. Then, when generating your code on the ‘Ad layout code’ page, I recommend checking ‘Use my default account setting’ under ‘Ad Type’ (see example below).
2) Check the HTML source code for each page where you are running the AdSense ad code to make sure you have opted into both text and image ads (i.e., google_ad_type should be set to “text_image”)
3) Make sure you are using an ad format that supports image ads to take full advantage of this option.
4) Test the image ad option on a small subset of your pages for at least 2 weeks and track the progress using URL channels or a custom channels. This will allow you see whether image ads are effective for you. More data means that you can make educated decisions about your site. Try image ads and see the results for yourself.
Myth: Image ads take too long to load and I hate those ‘Shoot the Duck’-type ads
Fact: We have strict guidelines for both animated and static image ads restricting them to a maximum size of 50 kb, so they’ll load quickly on your site – and no Shoot the Duck ads allowed!
Myth: Image ads don’t pay as well as text ads
Fact: All ads served by AdSense – whether image or text, contextual or site-targeted – go through the same auction process. Opting into image ads maximizes your site’s revenue potential by allowing a greater pool of advertisements to compete for space on your site. Image ads will only appear if our technology determines they will be more effective than any other ads for a particular page.
Myth: Image ads aren’t relevant.
Fact: When serving contextually-targeted ads, we use the same algorithm to match ads to your content whether image or text ads appear. With site targeting, an advertiser has determined that their ads are specifically relevant to your users (see example below).
So, here are some recommendations:
1) Under your ‘My Account’ tab, make sure that ‘Ad Type Preference’ is set to ‘Display text and image ads in all ad units’. Then, when generating your code on the ‘Ad layout code’ page, I recommend checking ‘Use my default account setting’ under ‘Ad Type’ (see example below).
2) Check the HTML source code for each page where you are running the AdSense ad code to make sure you have opted into both text and image ads (i.e., google_ad_type should be set to “text_image”)
3) Make sure you are using an ad format that supports image ads to take full advantage of this option.
4) Test the image ad option on a small subset of your pages for at least 2 weeks and track the progress using URL channels or a custom channels. This will allow you see whether image ads are effective for you. More data means that you can make educated decisions about your site. Try image ads and see the results for yourself.
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Temporary G.A.S.S. Relief
Speaking to AdSense publishers at face-to-face events and in reading emails and forums, we on the AdSense team have seen a phenomenon develop that's probably best described as G.A.S.S. - Google AdSense Stats Syndrome. The primary sign of affliction is the compulsive need to check AdSense stats every 15 minutes or so to see how much you've earned since your prior login. Sufferers face strong withdrawal when separated from a PC with Internet access and have been known to experience mild abdominal discomfort and general irritability.
So for you G.A.S.S. sufferers, we will offer a bit of temporary summer relief this Thursday. For some scheduled maintenance, our reports will not be (visibly) updated for around 6 hours beginning at 12 noon PST (GMT -8 for you international folks). Your earnings will of course be unaffected, but you won't see any change in stats during this time as we work to improve the AdSense system.
Please enjoy the day and rest assured that things will be back to normal as soon as possible.
So for you G.A.S.S. sufferers, we will offer a bit of temporary summer relief this Thursday. For some scheduled maintenance, our reports will not be (visibly) updated for around 6 hours beginning at 12 noon PST (GMT -8 for you international folks). Your earnings will of course be unaffected, but you won't see any change in stats during this time as we work to improve the AdSense system.
Please enjoy the day and rest assured that things will be back to normal as soon as possible.
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Playing a small part
Echoing the sentiments Kim posted last week, a member of our team recently suggested that we use PSAs to increase awareness of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Our team agreed that this was a great idea and we worked together to make it happen. Starting last Friday, all of our PSAs began directing help to specific charities aiding those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Friday, September 2, 2005
A note for the weekend
This Labor Day weekend I’d like to send my best wishes to all those affected by Hurricane Katrina. This is a part of the country I visited often growing up and have always loved. Please know that we at Google are thinking of everyone in the region.
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Get Inside AdSense too
We knew this blogging thing was going to be huge, and sure enough, when our AdSense friends found out about Inside AdWords they decided to create their own AdSense counterpart, Inside AdSense.
So if you're also an AdSense publisher, or you're interested in staying up to date on the information the Inside AdSense team is sharing with our publishers, we hope you'll take a look.
So if you're also an AdSense publisher, or you're interested in staying up to date on the information the Inside AdSense team is sharing with our publishers, we hope you'll take a look.
Link up
If you'd like to offer your readers something different in the way of relevant content, give link units a try. Link units offer a unique design and implementation that can adapt to your site and your readers' interests.
Each link unit displays a list of topics relevant to the content of your site, and when users click on one of these topics, they're brought to a page of AdWords ads related to that topic. Though you won't receive earnings for clicks on the topics, you'll be paid for user clicks on any of the AdWords ads on the resulting page.
Link units are available in several adformats designed to complement your site's layout. You might wish to place a horizontal link unit near a horizontal navigation bar (see the example above). Or, you could use a vertical link unit near a sidebar navigation menu (see example below).
For even more effective placement, we suggest creating a color scheme for your link unit that blends with the background of your site.
UPDATED: formatting
Each link unit displays a list of topics relevant to the content of your site, and when users click on one of these topics, they're brought to a page of AdWords ads related to that topic. Though you won't receive earnings for clicks on the topics, you'll be paid for user clicks on any of the AdWords ads on the resulting page.
Link units are available in several adformats designed to complement your site's layout. You might wish to place a horizontal link unit near a horizontal navigation bar (see the example above). Or, you could use a vertical link unit near a sidebar navigation menu (see example below).
For even more effective placement, we suggest creating a color scheme for your link unit that blends with the background of your site.
UPDATED: formatting
Blake's hidden gem o' the week #7
Many newer advertisers wonder how they should structure their account to maximize success. Often unaware of the powerful options that AdWords offers to create a range of very targeted ads, new advertisers sometimes just create a single ad to promote all of the products or services they offer. Here's an example of an "all-purpose" ad:
Joe Smith's Footwear
All kinds of footwear on sale
Specials for the whole family!
www.example.com
This tends to provide moderate results at best. By creating separate (and very focused) ads for each product or service, though, advertisers generally enjoy much better results. So, Joe might break up his product offerings into more targeted ads like this:
Women's Leather Sandals
Super comfy sandals for summer
Find a huge variety at Joe Smith's
www. example.com
Men's Clogs
Enjoy the comfort of clogs
Now on sale at Joe Smith's!
www.example.com
Kid's Tennis Shoe Sale
Just in time for back to school!
The styles they want at Joe Smith's
www.example.com
Baby Booties Sale
Shoes & booties for the little one
Great fall colors at Joe Smith's!
www.example.com
While creating multiple Ad Groups with targeted keywords relevant to each is a bit more time consuming, the improved results are more than worth it. It's also quite simple to do once you have an understanding of how an AdWords account is structured.
Yep, you guessed it. We've finally gotten to this week's hidden gem, entitled "How is an AdWords account structured?" It'll give you the basics you need to build an account structured for success, complete with targeted Ad Groups like Joe's.
Joe Smith's Footwear
All kinds of footwear on sale
Specials for the whole family!
www.example.com
This tends to provide moderate results at best. By creating separate (and very focused) ads for each product or service, though, advertisers generally enjoy much better results. So, Joe might break up his product offerings into more targeted ads like this:
Women's Leather Sandals
Super comfy sandals for summer
Find a huge variety at Joe Smith's
www. example.com
Men's Clogs
Enjoy the comfort of clogs
Now on sale at Joe Smith's!
www.example.com
Kid's Tennis Shoe Sale
Just in time for back to school!
The styles they want at Joe Smith's
www.example.com
Baby Booties Sale
Shoes & booties for the little one
Great fall colors at Joe Smith's!
www.example.com
While creating multiple Ad Groups with targeted keywords relevant to each is a bit more time consuming, the improved results are more than worth it. It's also quite simple to do once you have an understanding of how an AdWords account is structured.
Yep, you guessed it. We've finally gotten to this week's hidden gem, entitled "How is an AdWords account structured?" It'll give you the basics you need to build an account structured for success, complete with targeted Ad Groups like Joe's.
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