Author Archive

In our continuing efforts to find a cure for G.A.S.S., we now enable publishers to have your AdSense stats emailed directly to the recipient of your choice. Daily, weekly, or monthly relief from G.A.S.S. is just a few easy steps away:

Step 1: On your "Report Manager" page, under your Reports tab, choose a custom report from the list. (If there aren't any listed, create a new custom report with the settings you want.)

Step 2: Select the frequency, recipient, and format of email reports from the dropdowns. To add a new recipient, click "edit addresses" and enter a new email address.

Step 3: Click "Save changes" to schedule your report for mailing.

We hope this new feature will provide you with the freedom to be away from your AdSense account. There's a whole world outside your AdSense account - one that you can explore for new content for your site. ;)

Posted by Julie - AdSense Publisher Support

When we launched site-targeting in June, we created a new way for AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers to benefit from each other. Advertisers use the Site Tool, a site-targeting feature, to choose specific sites from the Google content network on which to place their ads. This makes it possible for advertisers to spend more of their marketing budgets on specific sites. For publishers, it's a great way to increase coverage and eCPMs.

Many publishers have asked why we decided to lower the minimum CPM bid required for advertisers to run site-targeted campaigns. As you know, we're constantly working to improve the experience for our users, advertisers and publishers. To this end, the lowered minimum CPM for site-targeted ads allows advertisers to more accurately price their ad placements on a wider variety of sites.

Sounds like a bad deal for publishers, right? It's not. By lowering the minimum CPM we've increased adoption of the product and competition for placements on your site(s). This leads to higher payouts and better coverage. Remember, CPC and CPM ads compete against each other to display on your site, and we'll only show the ads with the highest eCPM. So you can be assured that increased competition will only help you improve monetization of your site.

Posted by Sarah - AdWords Advertiser Support

We're always looking into better ways to communicate with you to help you get the most of AdSense. So on Wednesday, December 21st we held a webinar to provide an overview of some recently launched AdSense features including Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, referrals, section targeting, themed ad units, and custom and emailable reports. We also discuss each in our previous blog posts -- feel free to browse through these.

Satya Patel from product management, Mohammed Abdoolcarim from product marketing, and Phoebe Ho from account management were on hand to provide information about their areas of expertise. Their presentations concluded with a live Q&A session you might also find useful.

If you missed it, be sure to watch a recorded version of the New Features Webinar here (Firefox users, you will need to view this in Internet Explorer).

Posted by Suzie - AdSense Publisher Support

To celebrate the holiday season, we thought we would share with you some of the letters we have received from publishers. Here is one from Germany:

We greatly appreciate your service and feel deeply honoured to be playing amongst Google's Top Leagues now - for us it really is an honour. The whole team here is enthusiastic and motivated to optimise AdSense earnings based on your recommendations as soon as possible. Last year your AdSense program saved us from being taken over by a competitor - we will never forget that. -moonchild media AG (Germany)

We really appreciate hearing from publishers, and of course are very glad when they're happy as this publisher is. But whether your experience is positive or not, we want to hear from you too. Email us here.

Posted by Susan - AdSense Product Marketing

Over the past few months, we've written several posts about site targeting, but given the questions we've received, we thought this might be a good time to review the details of site targeting, what it means for you as an AdSense publisher, and how site-targeted ad campaigns fit into the AdSense model.

First, a bare-bones explanation of the program. Using site targeting, AdWords advertisers can enter their CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) ad directly into their site's ad auction. That CPM ad will compete against the CPC (cost-per-click) ads in the auction -- and if it wins, it will run in place of the CPC ads that would have otherwise appeared. As an AdSense publisher, you get paid for each impression on that ad, rather than for each click.

So what does this mean? It means AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers can connect in a way not previously possible. AdSense publishers can now offer advertisers the opportunity to bid directly on their site through Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, and advertisers can pull up a list of sites in the content network, large or small, that falls under any vertical or content theme. Advertisers and publishers of all sizes can find each other in the same virtual forum.

Site targeting also means more money for you. Period. If a site-targeted ad (text or image) appears on your site, it means that that ad is paying you more than any CPC ad that would appear in that ad unit. Many publishers have seen dramatic revenue increases as a result of these site-targeted ads appearing on their pages.

Some of you have asked, "How is an ad for an off-road vehicle targeted to my pages about hiking?" Excellent question! Contextual targeting, or targeting the text on your site (the primary targeting mechanism of AdSense), is only one form of targeting. With the launch of the site targeting program, advertisers can select sites that are relevant to their prospective visitors, thereby targeting an audience, not just content. So although the ad campaign may not be targeted directly to your site's content, it will be relevant to the specific or general interests of your readers. AdSense has always been, and will always remain, a targeted advertising system -- we're just implementing new targeting approaches to help you monetize.

Some advertisers target many AdSense sites to reach a broad set of users and interests. Others use site targeting campaigns to target only a handful of sites and a very specific interest niche. And many fall in between these two. Regardless of the level of reach, site targeting campaigns all work to provide higher network CPMs, effective monetization, and fresh, dynamic content rolling through our system.

Remember, you maintain control over the types of ads that are appearing on your pages. So if you ever see an ad on your site that you'd rather not show, simply add the destination URL of the ad to your competitive filter list, and with a snap of our fingers (well, ok, it might take a little longer than that -- but no more than 5 hours), the ad will stop appearing. Your filter list works for both keyword-targeted and site-targeted ads.

We really appreciate all of your feedback about these campaigns. We say this a lot, but it's true: we take your comments very seriously. Never hesitate to send them to us.

Here's to a safe and happy New Year, from all of us here at AdSense.

UPDATED with accurate waiting time

Posted by Mike - AdSense Publisher Support

The New Year is a great time to try new things - such as link units. You may find that, pixel for pixel, link units provide the best return on your investment of all our ad formats.



Not convinced? Read how Tim Carter increased his revenue 18% simply by adding link units, or see our previous blog post here.

See our handy help center topics to learn more.

Posted by Dobromir - AdSense Publisher Support

The year may be new, but the resolutions aren't. Eat healthier, get organized, learn a new language -- haven't we heard these before? Instead of trying the same old resolutions, why not try one (or all) of the top ten AdSense resolutions we've suggested below?

1. No more clicking on my own Google ads (tempting though they may be!).

2. Subscribe to Inside AdSense to get updates and suggestions sent straight to me. (You can subscribe by entering your email in the text box to the right of this post.)

3. Broaden my vocabulary of AdSense terms and features: link units, referrals, Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, section targeting, AdSense for search, and more.

4. Use the features above to earn more.

5. Try something new -- like customizing my AdSense for search box using the new options.

6. Filter in moderation.

7. Channel my energy into creating channels for better tracking and testing.

8. Sign up for EFT payments to receive my AdSense earnings more quickly and securely.

9. Provide detailed descriptions of my problems in any emails I send to Google AdSense Support. Well, at least my technical problems.

10. Quadruple my revenue, retire at a young age, and buy an island in Tahiti.

What can we say? One of our resolutions this year is to think positively. :-)

Posted by The Google AdSense team

Mircea from Romania shared his story with us, and we'd like to share it with you.

What can I say about Google AdSense. They SAVED my BUSINESS. On the days when no one helped me, and no one wanted to advertise on my site, I introduced Google AdSense. When I thought I would never make any money with my site, AdSense saved me, and showed me the way. I am happy to be doing business with Google. From the first day I made revenue, I realised that this is the way to really boost my site's income, so I can give free quality content and free access to users. At this moment I am wearing a white "I love Google!" t-shirt. This is just one of many. I wear them anywhere and anytime I have an occasion. Google AdSense really saved my business. Thank you Google! Mircea Alexandru (Romania)

As we've mentioned before, we really appreciate hearing from you. Whether your story is positive or not, email us here to tell us about your AdSense experience.

Posted by Susan - AdSense Product Marketing