Encouraging clicks

Many of you may remember our December post on the placement of images near ads। In that spirit, we'd like to remind you of a general policy issue: encouraging clicks.

As many of you know, our program policies prohibit any means of encouraging users to click on Google ads or bringing excessive attention to ad units। For example, sites may not contain phrases such as "click the ads," "support our sponsors," "visit these recommended links," or other similar language that could apply to the Google ads on your site. In addition, publishers are not permitted to label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements."

In light of this policy, you may be wondering if you're allowed to recommend your referral products to your users. As explained in Dan's post from February, unlike with AdSense for content ads, you can endorse your referral products by calling attention to the button or text link। If you believe in the quality of the product that you're referring, feel free to let your users know.

Generally, visitors should only click on Google ads if they're interested in the services being advertised. Encouraging them to click on your Google ads, either directly or indirectly, can lead to inflated advertiser costs -- and can cause an account to be disabled.

If you'd like to improve the performance of your ad units and attract more interested users, check out our Help Center's optimization tips to take full advantage of what AdSense has to offer.

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog

Everything in its place(ment)

As you may know, custom channels are a great way to track the performance of individual ad units on your pages. Starting this week, with just a few extra steps you can make your site more attractive to advertisers by allowing them to target these channels as ad placements. Creating ad placements for more visible and desirable ad locations on your site increases their value to advertisers using site targeting and encourages those advertisers to bid more.
Thanks to the feedback of publishers who helped us test out this feature early on, here are some answers to a few commonly asked questions that you may also have about ad placements:

How are ad placements different from custom channels?
Think of ad placements as 'enhanced' custom channels. To create an ad placement, you create and implement a custom channel just as you normally would. The only change is the additional step of providing attributes and an accurate description for your ad placement. On the 'Channels' page in your account, click the appropriate 'edit settings' link on the right. As you can see below, there will be a box labeled 'Targeting' on the next page which, once checked, will show this channel to advertisers as an ad placement. From there, you'll just need to provide some details on where the ad unit appears on your site:

Advertisers will see the 'External name' and 'Description' along with the domain on which that placement appears, so a meaningful name and detailed description clarifying where the ads will show can make your placement more appealing. Be sure to highlight your most valuable and best-performing ad units as placements. For example, try a description like 'Ads will appear in a 300x250 rectangle embedded within articles on the Travel section' or 'Ads will appear only in the leaderboard ad unit directly above any page on the site.'



If nobody bids on my placement, does that mean I won't get any money?
Ads that are targeted through ad placements compete in the same auction against all other ads that are eligible to appear in that space, so you'll still be able to generate earnings. For example, suppose you created a 'Homepage, Top center' placement. When we see an impression from this placement, we round up advertisers who match the content of your homepage, as well as those targeting your site and this placement and include them in an auction. We'll then display the ad which our system has determined will earn you the most money, regardless of how it was targeted.

What kind of placements should I create?
Remember that advertisers will rely on your ad placement descriptions in order to decide whether to target their ads to your site. That said, here are a few tips to get started:

If you have multiple ad units on a page, let advertisers target the high visibility ones separately

If you have a wide range of topics on your site and you think certain topics will appeal to different types of advertisers, then break them out accordingly

Break out high visibility pages such as your homepage and any above-the-fold spots.

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog

New pricing structure for referrals

Last year we asked you for your feedback on referrals, and one of the issues we heard quite frequently was that it was too difficult to generate revenue with AdSense and AdWords referrals. To address this, we've just introduced a new pricing structure for both programs, which will be as follows:

AdSense Referrals:

1. When a publisher who signed up for Google AdSense through your referral earns their first $5 within 180 days of sign-up, you will be credited with $5.
2. When that same publisher earns $100 within 180 days of sign-up and is eligible for payment, you will be credited with an additional $250.
3. If, in any 180-day period, you refer 25 publishers who each earn more than $100 within 180 days of their respective sign-ups and are all eligible for payout, you will be awarded a $2,000 bonus (bonus payouts are limited to 1 per year).

AdWords Referrals:

1. When an advertiser you refer spends $5 within 90 days of sign-up (in addition to the $5 sign-up fee) you will be credited with $5.
2. When that same advertiser spends $100 within 90 days of sign-up, you will be credited with an additional $40.
3. If, in any 180 day period, you refer 20 advertisers who each spend more than $100 within 90 days of their respective sign-ups, you will be awarded a $600 bonus (bonus payments are limited to 1 per year).

These rules will also apply to users that you have already referred but who have not yet reached one of the new earning/spend thresholds. For example, if you referred an AdSense publisher who has currently earned $2.00, you will be paid $5.00 if that publisher reaches the $5.00 mark. But, if you have referred an AdSense publisher who has already earned $10.00, you will not be paid $5.00 retroactively for that referral reaching the $5.00 mark. However, should that publisher eventually reach the $100.00 earnings mark within 180 days, you will be paid $250.00.

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog

Referrals, now with Google Checkout

Today we're excited to announce that in addition to AdSense, AdWords, Firefox with Google Toolbar, and Google Pack, you can now refer your users to Google Checkout through AdSense.



Checkout gives your users a faster, safer, and more convenient way to shop online. OK, that sounds great for them, but what do you get out of it? Well, every time you refer a user to Google Checkout, you make a little money. It's a simple process that includes all of three steps:

1.You place the Checkout referral button on your site.

2.Someone clicks on the button, signs up as a buyer with Google Checkout using a valid U.S. credit card, and completes a purchase of at least $10 before shipping and tax through Checkout within 90 days. (The current $10 minimum purchase corresponds to our existing $10 promotion for new buyers, so this amount may change in the future.)

3.You earn $1.

It's that simple. Please note that Checkout referrals are currently only available for U.S. publishers, and Google Checkout is currently only available for buyers with a U.S. credit card. We hope to make both Checkout and Checkout Referrals available in more countries soon.

If you're not convinced, why not try it out yourself? It costs nothing to sign up (actually, you'll even get a $10 bonus) and it'll make shopping online a little easier. And remember, if you're still figuring out how to improve the performance of your referrals, take a peek at our optimization tips for referrals.

You can get started with Checkout referral ads by visiting the AdSense Setup tab in your account. We think your users will thank you for showing them Google Checkout, and your wallet will like having some extra money for you to spend at all of those great Google Checkout stores.

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog

The AdSense API: All grown up and ready to play

If you're a web developer or host, you may remember that we introduced you to the AdSense API last May. With the AdSense API, your users can create their own AdSense accounts on your site, and display ads alongside the content that they have created. They can also manage their accounts and view ad performance and earnings reports, all on your site.

In addition, you can enhance your customers' user experience by helping them to make money from their content and by giving them the ability to perform many AdSense functions without ever leaving your site. For example, they can:

1. Create and manage AdSense accounts
2. Customize and implement AdSense for content ad units and link units, AdSense for search boxes, and referrals for products such as Google AdWords and Firefox
3. Generate URL and custom channel reports

Best of all, you get to make money with the AdSense API through the Revenue Sharing program. Advertisers pay your users and you when visitors click on your users' ads. Plus, you can earn Referral Payments when your users earn threshold amounts within their first 180 days after sign up.

Today, we're pleased to announce that the AdSense API is now open for all developers, with the release of our open development sandbox. This is a replica of the live service with some additional support to help you test and debug your applications. Once you implement the AdSense API in the development sandbox, we can go live with your implementation.

So now it's easier than ever to integrate AdSense into your website or online application. It took the folks over at Hubpages.com less than a week. We’ve expanded our developer’s guide and added more sample code to make seamless integration even easier.

Were you ready to start developing yesterday? Check out our Getting Started Guide and our FAQ. You’ll also find that the AdSense API Developer Forum is a great place to discuss the API and get answers to common questions.

To learn more about the AdSense API and how it can make your users happier while increasing your income, surf over to the AdSense API site.

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog

You've got mail

If you've logged in to your account today, you've probably noticed the new 'Recent messages' section in your AdSense account. We're happy to let you know that this is your personal inbox where we'll send you customized optimization tips. More specifically, our system will automatically analyze your account and ad settings. Based on these findings, you'll receive a notification each month in your AdSense account if there are changes you can make to improve your overall AdSense performance.




While we're not able to guarantee results from implementing these suggestions, we've found that these techniques have been successful for many publishers in the past which is why we've developed this feature for you. If you don't receive a notification during a specific month, don't worry. You've probably implemented all of our current suggestions and we'll be adding more tips in the future.

Happy optimizing!

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog

A fresh, new look for AdSense ads

You may have noticed that some of your ad units have started to look a little different lately -- we’re happy to announce that, just in time for spring, we've given our standard ad units a fresh makeover. After extensive testing and research, we’ve found that the new formats are not only visually appealing to users, but they also perform even better for publishers and advertisers. We're in the process of rolling out this change to all ad units, and you should see that your ad units are automatically updated over the next few days. But, before you rush to make sure all of your ad units still match your site, please be assured that the fonts and colors of your ads won't be changed.



Although it’s not possible to opt out of the new designs, we hope that you and your site visitors will find our new ad formats clearer and more attractive. We're always testing new ways to improve the look and feel of our advertisements, so stay tuned for more format options in the future.

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog

DoubleClick acquisition

We have had a lot of questions about Google's announcement of our plans to purchase DoubleClick. Our goal is, as always, to improve the relevancy and efficiency of online advertising. This acquisition is a big win for you, our publishers, as well as for advertisers and Internet users.

For those of you who are not familiar with the company, here's some background. They have two flagship products: DoubleClick for Advertisers allows advertisers and ad agencies to traffic, serve and measure their online display campaigns; DoubleClick for Publishers provides ad inventory management.

Others of you are long time users of DoubleClick -- for over ten years, they've been working with buyers and sellers of Internet ads to help them plan, serve and measure their Internet campaigns.

Stay tuned to this blog as we will use it to provide you with more information about our plans with DoubleClick, including ways you as an AdSense publisher can benefit from DoubleClick's strong advertiser and agency customer base. You can continue to rely on the products and services from Google and DoubleClick as you always have.

Source: Google Inside AdSense Blog