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.
Discuss this post
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Monday, 23 April 2007
Korean AdSense Help Forum
To complement the recent launch of our newest AdSense blog in Korean, we’re happy to announce the launch of our 11th AdSense Help Forum: AdSense 도움말 포럼 If you speak Korean, head over to the new forum to ask questions and share your AdSense knowledge with other publishers. A Google employee with the screen name of ‘AdSensePro’ will monitor the forum and offer assistance if necessary.
If you’re still brushing up on your Korean, you can try one of our other forums in the meantime:
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
English
French
German
Japanese
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Turkish
If you’re still brushing up on your Korean, you can try one of our other forums in the meantime:
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
English
French
German
Japanese
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Turkish
Thursday, 19 April 2007
If it ain't broke...
We know how important it is to maintain the quality of your site and the experience your users have there, and we often receive email from publishers asking about specific ad implementations. While we encourage you to tailor your ads to fit the look and feel of your sites, we'd like to remind you to only use the options provided within the AdSense Setup tab of your account. As you may know, our program policies strictly prohibit altering the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of Google ads or AdSense for search boxes for any reason. Some examples of these modifications include:
- Implementing the AdSense ad code in a "floating box script"
- Manipulating the ad targeting using hidden keywords or IFRAMEs
- Altering the height or width of an ad unit
- Pre-populating the AdSense for search box with specific queries
- Creating direct links to AdSense for search results
Once you've generated the ad code in your account's AdSense Setup tab, we ask that you incorporate it into your pages exactly as it was generated, without altering any portion of the code. Doing so will also help ensure that you're properly credited for valid clicks and impressions.
For more information on working with your ads and improving their performance, feel free to visit our Help Center.
Discuss this post
- Implementing the AdSense ad code in a "floating box script"
- Manipulating the ad targeting using hidden keywords or IFRAMEs
- Altering the height or width of an ad unit
- Pre-populating the AdSense for search box with specific queries
- Creating direct links to AdSense for search results
Once you've generated the ad code in your account's AdSense Setup tab, we ask that you incorporate it into your pages exactly as it was generated, without altering any portion of the code. Doing so will also help ensure that you're properly credited for valid clicks and impressions.
For more information on working with your ads and improving their performance, feel free to visit our Help Center.
Discuss this post
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Ήρθαμε! Am sosit!
We're happy to announce that we've just expanded our product offerings for two long-awaited languages: Greek and Romanian. Starting today, Greek and Romanian publishers can monetize their content by displaying targeted AdSense for content ads on their pages. As an added bonus, Romanian publishers can now implement AdSense for search as well.
If you're ready to get started with these languages, just log in to your AdSense account and follow the wizard located under the AdSense Setup tab. You can also contact the Greek team at adsense-el@google.com and the Romanian team at adsense-ro@google.com with additional questions.
If you're ready to get started with these languages, just log in to your AdSense account and follow the wizard located under the AdSense Setup tab. You can also contact the Greek team at adsense-el@google.com and the Romanian team at adsense-ro@google.com with additional questions.
Monday, 16 April 2007
Spicier support for India
If you're an Indian publisher, you may have noticed some familiar-sounding names responding to your support questions regarding policies, payments, PINs, and other AdSense related issues. That's because we now have a team based in Hyderabad, and we're looking to improve the AdSense experience for Indian publishers.
We know many of our readers are Indian, so be on the lookout for case studies and tips specifically for you!
We know many of our readers are Indian, so be on the lookout for case studies and tips specifically for you!
Friday, 13 April 2007
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: DART for Advertisers allows advertisers and ad agencies to traffic, serve and measure their online display campaigns; DART 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.
For now, you can find out more in our Official Google Blog and in our press release.
For those of you who are not familiar with the company, here's some background. They have two flagship products: DART for Advertisers allows advertisers and ad agencies to traffic, serve and measure their online display campaigns; DART 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.
For now, you can find out more in our Official Google Blog and in our press release.
Thursday, 12 April 2007
A note on traffic exchange programs
We understand that our publishers are always looking for ways to attract interested users to their sites. But using third-party tools or services to increase your site traffic may lead to invalid clicks or impressions and result in your account being disabled. For this reason, we'd like to provide you with some guidance about this.
As many of you already know, our program policies strictly prohibit any means of artificially generating ad impressions or clicks, including third-party services such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, auto-surf, and click-exchange programs. These programs offer incentives for users to view web pages or click on ads, resulting in activity that is harmful to our advertisers.
We occasionally receive questions from publishers interested in using traffic exchanges to bring traffic to their site. While these services may help advertise your site, we don't recommend using them, as they may also result in similar invalid activity. We realize that you may have questions about a specific traffic service and whether it could potentially create invalid impressions or clicks. However, please understand that we're unable to comment on any particular third-party service.
As a parting note, we encourage you to read through our tips and guidelines and Webmaster Guidelines to help keep your account in good standing. These guidelines advise publishers to "Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first," and we feel this is ultimately the best way to attract more visitors to your site and build a truly loyal audience.
Discuss this post
As many of you already know, our program policies strictly prohibit any means of artificially generating ad impressions or clicks, including third-party services such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, auto-surf, and click-exchange programs. These programs offer incentives for users to view web pages or click on ads, resulting in activity that is harmful to our advertisers.
We occasionally receive questions from publishers interested in using traffic exchanges to bring traffic to their site. While these services may help advertise your site, we don't recommend using them, as they may also result in similar invalid activity. We realize that you may have questions about a specific traffic service and whether it could potentially create invalid impressions or clicks. However, please understand that we're unable to comment on any particular third-party service.
As a parting note, we encourage you to read through our tips and guidelines and Webmaster Guidelines to help keep your account in good standing. These guidelines advise publishers to "Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first," and we feel this is ultimately the best way to attract more visitors to your site and build a truly loyal audience.
Discuss this post
Wednesday, 11 April 2007
Must-read policy Thursdays
Flossing. Wearing sunscreen. Eating leafy greens. Intellectually, we know we're supposed to do these things, but it can be hard to actually buckle down and do them. The same thing is true for the AdSense program policies. You probably know the policies exist, and you know you ought to be complying with them. Still, making sure that your site stays squeaky clean policy-wise can sometimes take a little more mental effort than most of us might be willing to spare.
That's why we're beginning a weekly series of posts to help bring AdSense policies to the front of your minds -- and your sites. On coming Thursdays, you can look forward to information about:
- steering clear of possible invalid clicks
- nurturing harmonious relationships between ads and images
- why asking visitors to click your ads is a bad idea, even if you say please
We believe every publisher has the potential to be a model publisher. It's our aim to get you on the right track with some helpful tips and explanations.
After we begin our series, you might want to talk AdSense policy with your fellow publishers. So we'll be starting threads for each post in the AdSense Help Forum -- head on over after reading each post to share your thoughts.
That's why we're beginning a weekly series of posts to help bring AdSense policies to the front of your minds -- and your sites. On coming Thursdays, you can look forward to information about:
- steering clear of possible invalid clicks
- nurturing harmonious relationships between ads and images
- why asking visitors to click your ads is a bad idea, even if you say please
We believe every publisher has the potential to be a model publisher. It's our aim to get you on the right track with some helpful tips and explanations.
After we begin our series, you might want to talk AdSense policy with your fellow publishers. So we'll be starting threads for each post in the AdSense Help Forum -- head on over after reading each post to share your thoughts.
Monday, 9 April 2007
Keep 'em separated
UPDATE: Sorry, the Onsite Advertiser Sign-up feature is no longer available.
Have you ever thought of your users as potential advertisers? If you think about it, advertisers are constantly trying to find sites tailored to the audience that they are trying to reach.
Now let’s assume an advertiser comes across your site and feels it would a good site to advertise on. You don’t want to lose this advertiser, right? That’s where Onsite Advertiser Sign-up comes in: Advertisers can create site-targeted campaigns directly from your site.
Although the ‘Advertise on this site’ link will no longer appear on your ad units following last week’s ad format change, you can still display a separate Onsite Advertiser Sign-up link on your site, such as within the sidebars or footers of your pages. This method offers you more flexibility as far as the placement, the font, and the color of the link, and can help you retain interested advertisers who visit your site.
If you'd like to create such a link on your site, just follow the detailed instructions in our Help Center and then add your link into the HTML source of your pages. If you use CSS on your site, you can create a nice rollover and make your link even more visible to potential advertisers:
Once you've created a separate link, don't forget to customize your Onsite Advertiser Sign-up page. Please keep in mind that it's currently only possible to customize one landing page per account. In other words, advertisers can target each of your sites individually, but they'll see the same landing page when they click an 'Advertise on this site' link from any of your sites.
We encourage you to give this new method a try and to experiment with various placements. Having more interested advertisers bidding on your site means increased competition -- which in turn translates into higher revenue potential for you.
Have you ever thought of your users as potential advertisers? If you think about it, advertisers are constantly trying to find sites tailored to the audience that they are trying to reach.
Now let’s assume an advertiser comes across your site and feels it would a good site to advertise on. You don’t want to lose this advertiser, right? That’s where Onsite Advertiser Sign-up comes in: Advertisers can create site-targeted campaigns directly from your site.
Although the ‘Advertise on this site’ link will no longer appear on your ad units following last week’s ad format change, you can still display a separate Onsite Advertiser Sign-up link on your site, such as within the sidebars or footers of your pages. This method offers you more flexibility as far as the placement, the font, and the color of the link, and can help you retain interested advertisers who visit your site.
If you'd like to create such a link on your site, just follow the detailed instructions in our Help Center and then add your link into the HTML source of your pages. If you use CSS on your site, you can create a nice rollover and make your link even more visible to potential advertisers:
Once you've created a separate link, don't forget to customize your Onsite Advertiser Sign-up page. Please keep in mind that it's currently only possible to customize one landing page per account. In other words, advertisers can target each of your sites individually, but they'll see the same landing page when they click an 'Advertise on this site' link from any of your sites.
We encourage you to give this new method a try and to experiment with various placements. Having more interested advertisers bidding on your site means increased competition -- which in turn translates into higher revenue potential for you.
Friday, 6 April 2007
We heart NY (and SES)
The AdSense team will be taking a bite out of the Big Apple next week, as members of our team attend the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York City on April 11-12. We hope those of you in New York (or just in a New York state of mind) will join us there. If you do attend, there are a number of informational sessions, including two with speakers from the AdSense team. (Check out the full schedule for Wednesday.)
You're also welcome to stop by the Google booth to chat with our team, including me! I'm looking forward to meeting Inside AdSense readers and hearing your feedback and questions about the blog or AdSense in general.
Interested in attending? Before you sign up, visit our friends over in Analytics for a coupon you can use towards buying a pass. See you in NYC next week!
You're also welcome to stop by the Google booth to chat with our team, including me! I'm looking forward to meeting Inside AdSense readers and hearing your feedback and questions about the blog or AdSense in general.
Interested in attending? Before you sign up, visit our friends over in Analytics for a coupon you can use towards buying a pass. See you in NYC next week!
Wednesday, 4 April 2007
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.
(Note: Screenshot has been updated since initial post.)
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.
(Note: Screenshot has been updated since initial post.)
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
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!
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!
Monday, 2 April 2007
Introducing Google Apps referrals
Following our recent series of referrals announcements, we're happy to announce that you can now earn $5 per referral for Google Apps.
With Google Apps, we've taken Google's most powerful communication and collaboration tools, and packaged them together so businesses, schools and other organizations can work more effectively while spending less time and money on IT systems. Google Apps provides customized email addresses (powered by Gmail), Google Calendar, Google Talk, Docs & Spreadsheets and Page Creator, all for free. Best of all, everything is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software to download, install or maintain.
So how do these referrals work? Just visit the AdSense Setup tab in your AdSense account and click the link for Referrals. Select the Google Apps option and then choose how you want the referral ad to look on your site. (The Google Apps referral ads are available in English right now, but we'll be adding more languages soon.) Copy the code provided into the design of your web pages, and voila!
You will be credited $5 when someone clicks the referral ad from your site and signs up for Google Apps with a domain that has not already been signed up for the service. That person's domain must then have one or more Google Apps email accounts in use for four consecutive weeks. It's that simple.
If you're new to AdSense referrals, you might want to check out our referrals optimization tips.
With Google Apps, we've taken Google's most powerful communication and collaboration tools, and packaged them together so businesses, schools and other organizations can work more effectively while spending less time and money on IT systems. Google Apps provides customized email addresses (powered by Gmail), Google Calendar, Google Talk, Docs & Spreadsheets and Page Creator, all for free. Best of all, everything is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software to download, install or maintain.
So how do these referrals work? Just visit the AdSense Setup tab in your AdSense account and click the link for Referrals. Select the Google Apps option and then choose how you want the referral ad to look on your site. (The Google Apps referral ads are available in English right now, but we'll be adding more languages soon.) Copy the code provided into the design of your web pages, and voila!
You will be credited $5 when someone clicks the referral ad from your site and signs up for Google Apps with a domain that has not already been signed up for the service. That person's domain must then have one or more Google Apps email accounts in use for four consecutive weeks. It's that simple.
If you're new to AdSense referrals, you might want to check out our referrals optimization tips.
Inside AdSense launches in Korean
We're happy to introduce the newest member of the AdSense blog family -- Inside AdSense: AdSense 공식 한국 블로그. Korean-speaking publishers can now look forward to reading the latest AdSense news and announcements in their own language. This new blog will also provide Korean-speaking publishers with localized case studies, answers to commonly asked questions, optimization tips, and posts from the Korean support team.
Subscribe to the new Korean blog today, and receive posts directly in your email inbox!
Subscribe to the new Korean blog today, and receive posts directly in your email inbox!
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