Different sites have different optimization needs - where some sites benefit from simple changes like switching to a wider ad format, others see more improvements after changing ad placement or color. Subtle changes can produce significant results. The key is to experiment, measure, and find what works best for your site. That's where channels come in.
Using your channels can help you see a more complete picture of how different types of ads are performing on your site. Do leaderboards perform better than skyscrapers? Or do ads above a navigation bar perform better than ads next to it? Channels help you measure the results. Assign a custom channel to each of the different ad formats running on your site to measure which ones perform best - then you can make changes to maximize your findings.
Here's another tip: include page name, position, ad format, and color in your channel name so you can easily identify what each channel is measuring. 'HomeTopLeaderMotherEarth' tells you the channel is reporting on the leaderboard at the top of the home page with the Mother Earth color palette. These names might look a little funny, but they can help you combine channels into more detailed and valuable reports.
Read more of these tips and learn more from your fellow AdSense publishers who have implemented similar strategies.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Going Mobile with Sitemaps
Back in June, we had Shaluinn from the Product Team tell you a bit about Google Sitemaps, which allows webmasters to directly inform Google about changes and additions to their websites. As you may remember, Sitemaps informs our "spiders," which go out and crawl the web, thus speeding up the discovery and addition of pages to our index.
Many businesses want their sites to be found in Google's search results, but did you know that potential customers may be looking for your product or service from their cell phones? Google Mobile Web Search allows people to search, from their phones, through sites that have been specifically designed for mobile devices.
We add new sites to our mobile web index every time we crawl the mobile web. And just as Sitemaps can help Google crawl your site effectively, webmasters can now use Google Mobile Sitemaps to tell us about their mobile web pages. If you have URLs that serve mobile content, help us add them to our mobile web index. More content for us, more potential traffic for you!
Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew
Many businesses want their sites to be found in Google's search results, but did you know that potential customers may be looking for your product or service from their cell phones? Google Mobile Web Search allows people to search, from their phones, through sites that have been specifically designed for mobile devices.
We add new sites to our mobile web index every time we crawl the mobile web. And just as Sitemaps can help Google crawl your site effectively, webmasters can now use Google Mobile Sitemaps to tell us about their mobile web pages. If you have URLs that serve mobile content, help us add them to our mobile web index. More content for us, more potential traffic for you!
Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew
Maybe they really are looking for a "needle in a haystack"?
What do your site visitors really want? To find out you could commission an expensive six month research study involving focus groups, demographic trending and expert consultants.
Or you could deploy AdSense for Search and use the "Top Queries" reporting feature to see the Top 25 searches performed on your site. It's a peek inside the minds of your visitors (x-ray equipment not included). To see it in action, check out your Quick Reports section or go to Advanced Reports for even more customization options.
Not yet using AdSense for Search on your website? Click on the AdSense for Search tab inside AdSense to get started. With web and site search running you'll begin collecting the data you need to build out your content to match your visitor's interests. And make some money while you're at it.
Posted by Hunter - AdSense Product Manager
Or you could deploy AdSense for Search and use the "Top Queries" reporting feature to see the Top 25 searches performed on your site. It's a peek inside the minds of your visitors (x-ray equipment not included). To see it in action, check out your Quick Reports section or go to Advanced Reports for even more customization options.
Not yet using AdSense for Search on your website? Click on the AdSense for Search tab inside AdSense to get started. With web and site search running you'll begin collecting the data you need to build out your content to match your visitor's interests. And make some money while you're at it.
Posted by Hunter - AdSense Product Manager
Monday, August 29, 2005
From the trenches: a publisher's story
We recently caught up with Dan Hogan from ScienceDaily magazine to learn more about his experiences as a web publisher and how AdSense programs are an integral part of his online business. Dan found it easy to get started and after some experimentation and suggestions from the AdSense support team on ad placement, he quickly saw a 10 percent increase in his effective CPM. "Google provided great suggestions for ad format and placement, which helped us optimize our results," Dan reports.
With these results from AdSense for content, Dan decided to also try AdSense for search on his website in hopes of increasing his revenue potential and perhaps providing another useful service to his visitors.
Since then, Dan says, "AdSense for search performs extremely well. It gives us an exceptional clickthrough rate of 10 percent and generates 10 to 20 times the clicks of a job search service we've tried. Plus, by using Google site search, I can now drive traffic to content on ScienceDaily that visitors might not find otherwise."
Read more about Dan's story and those from other publishers on the News and Case Studies page.
Posted by Christine - AdSense Publisher Support
With these results from AdSense for content, Dan decided to also try AdSense for search on his website in hopes of increasing his revenue potential and perhaps providing another useful service to his visitors.
Since then, Dan says, "AdSense for search performs extremely well. It gives us an exceptional clickthrough rate of 10 percent and generates 10 to 20 times the clicks of a job search service we've tried. Plus, by using Google site search, I can now drive traffic to content on ScienceDaily that visitors might not find otherwise."
Read more about Dan's story and those from other publishers on the News and Case Studies page.
Posted by Christine - AdSense Publisher Support
Friday, August 26, 2005
From the Inside AdSense mail bag
Rowland asks:I signed up for AdSense with my blog URL, but I’d like to paste AdSense on my forum site as well. Do I have to submit a new application?
Inside AdSense says: You don't have to submit a new application to add your code to a new site. As long as your pages comply with our policies, you can put your code on them - whether they share the same domain name as your original site or not. We'll detect the new pages once the code is there, and we'll start serving ads to them almost immediately.
Jackie asks: I added my competitor’s URL to my filter list last week, and ads for this competitor continue to appear on my site. Can you figure out what’s wrong?
Inside AdSense says: Jackie, here are three tips for creating effective filters:
1) Make sure that you have added these URLs to your AdSense for Content filter list rather than your AdSense for Search filter list.
2) As you know, some AdSense ad formats contain a URL within the ad text. However, filtering this URL wouldn’t necessarily block ads from this advertiser. To create effective filters, you should verify that you’re filtering the destination URL of the ad. For instructions on how to determine the destination URL, check out the Competitive Ad Filter Guide.
3) If you're keen on blocking all ads from a particular site, and you've found the destination URL, you can enter simply domainname.com in your filter list (where domainname is, of course, the domain name in their destination URL). Dropping the www. and any folder or file names will ensure that anything coming from that site will be blocked from your pages.
David asks: I recently posted several blog entries about airplanes, but the ads are still targeted to an old post about kites. How can I get AdSense to show ads about airplanes?
Inside AdSense says: Crawling is done automatically by our bots, and we don’t manually control how often your pages get indexed but we’re always trying to improve how quickly we can crawl your pages to display the most relevant ads. When you update a site or add new content, you may have to wait until these changes are reflected in our index before relevant ads appear. During this time, your ads may be targeted to older content.
In the meantime, you may be interested in trying a new feature, section targeting, to improve the relevancy of ads appearing on your blog. 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. Here's more information.
Posted by Suzie
Inside AdSense says: You don't have to submit a new application to add your code to a new site. As long as your pages comply with our policies, you can put your code on them - whether they share the same domain name as your original site or not. We'll detect the new pages once the code is there, and we'll start serving ads to them almost immediately.
Jackie asks: I added my competitor’s URL to my filter list last week, and ads for this competitor continue to appear on my site. Can you figure out what’s wrong?
Inside AdSense says: Jackie, here are three tips for creating effective filters:
1) Make sure that you have added these URLs to your AdSense for Content filter list rather than your AdSense for Search filter list.
2) As you know, some AdSense ad formats contain a URL within the ad text. However, filtering this URL wouldn’t necessarily block ads from this advertiser. To create effective filters, you should verify that you’re filtering the destination URL of the ad. For instructions on how to determine the destination URL, check out the Competitive Ad Filter Guide.
3) If you're keen on blocking all ads from a particular site, and you've found the destination URL, you can enter simply domainname.com in your filter list (where domainname is, of course, the domain name in their destination URL). Dropping the www. and any folder or file names will ensure that anything coming from that site will be blocked from your pages.
David asks: I recently posted several blog entries about airplanes, but the ads are still targeted to an old post about kites. How can I get AdSense to show ads about airplanes?
Inside AdSense says: Crawling is done automatically by our bots, and we don’t manually control how often your pages get indexed but we’re always trying to improve how quickly we can crawl your pages to display the most relevant ads. When you update a site or add new content, you may have to wait until these changes are reflected in our index before relevant ads appear. During this time, your ads may be targeted to older content.
In the meantime, you may be interested in trying a new feature, section targeting, to improve the relevancy of ads appearing on your blog. 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. Here's more information.
Posted by Suzie
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