Date: Mon, Jun 4 2007 10:17 am
From: Inside AdSense Team
Imineo.com is a French video-on-demand site offering a wide variety ofvideos in different formats. In 2005, the site's owners decided to useGoogle AdWords to drive qualified traffic to their site. After settingup their first campaigns, they implemented conversion tracking toevaluate their overall return on investment. More recently, the companyadded AdSense to their site. As co-owner Jean-Baptiste Sers toldus, "Our business model is not based on advertising revenue -- but inorder to increase our AdWords spend, we wanted to use AdSense."For ane-commerce advertiser, this might seem risky. Some might think thatintegrating AdSense could have resulted in a sales drop because ofusers clicking on the ads instead of buying one of the videos. But asImineo team implemented AdSense, they noticed that qualified visitorscame to the site with the intention to buy the videos and did not clickon the sponsored links, while other visitors usually clicked on one ofthe relevant ads.Imineo's strategy highlights how e-commerce sites canuse AdSense to monetize traffic that usually exits the site using theURL address bar. Overall, the use of AdSense can help sites like theseincrease overall revenue without changing their current business model.As Jean-Baptiste put it, "AdSense has helped us monetize the visits ofthese other visitors and therefore increase the overall revenue/clientratio." If you own an e-commerce site, here are a couple ofsuggestions.
- Try testing AdSense first on your exit pages, and then evaluate theeffect it has on your sales.
- If, like Imineo, you find that adding relevant ads on your site doesnot affect your conversions, we encourage you to increase the coverageof AdSense on your site. The additional revenue coming from AdSense canhelp you generate more qualified traffic and therefore increase youroverall sales.Posted by Etienne Jambou - AdSense Optimization Team.
Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 6/04/2007 10:11:00 AM
TOPIC: Help Forums for Italian and Russian
Date: Thurs, Jun 7 2007 11:17 am
From: Inside AdSense Team
Parlate italiano? Вы говорите по-русски? We're happy to let ourItalian- and Russian-speaking publishers know that AdSense Help Forumsare now available in these two languages. Visit Gruppo di assistenza diAdSense or Форум программы AdSense today to ask questions and shareyour AdSense knowledge with other publishers. A Google representativenicknamed 'AdSensePro' will also read and contribute to forumdiscussions.You can also participate in the AdSense Help Forum in 11other languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English,French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish.Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support
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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 6/07/2007 11:15:00 AM
From: Inside AdSense Team
Parlate italiano? Вы говорите по-русски? We're happy to let ourItalian- and Russian-speaking publishers know that AdSense Help Forumsare now available in these two languages. Visit Gruppo di assistenza diAdSense or Форум программы AdSense today to ask questions and shareyour AdSense knowledge with other publishers. A Google representativenicknamed 'AdSensePro' will also read and contribute to forumdiscussions.You can also participate in the AdSense Help Forum in 11other languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English,French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish.Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support
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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 6/07/2007 11:15:00 AM
TOPIC: Inside AdSense now speaks Japanese
We're excited to let you know that we've just launched a 7thinternational AdSense blog -- Inside AdSense: AdSense . There, you'll be able to read up on the latest feature launches andfind answers to your AdSense questions, all in Japanese. Going forward,our Japanese support team will provide optimization advice to help youmaximize your earnings, and will also feature Japanese-speakingpublishers who have found success with the AdSense program.Visit thenew blog today, and don't forget to subscribe to receive posts directlyvia email!Posted by the Japanese AdSense blog team
Inside-AdSense@googlegroups.com
Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 5/29/2007 12:33:00 PM
Inside-AdSense@googlegroups.com
Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 5/29/2007 12:33:00 PM
TOPIC: Accidents happen
As most of you know, our program policies state that publishers are notpermitted to click on their own ads for any reason. For this reason,we've received many emails from publishers letting us know that they'veaccidentally clicked on their own ads. If you're one of thesepublishers, we truly appreciate the efforts you've made to monitor youraccount and keep it in good standing. However, we do understand that anaccidental click may occur from time to time, so there's no need tocontact us each instance this occurs.Because we closely monitor allaccount activity using engineering systems and thorough human analysis,chances are we've already detected your clicks on your ads and discounted them. While these clicks still show in your reports, wefilter out their associated earnings so that advertisers aren'tcharged. However, please keep in mind that we don't ignore the clickscompletely; if it appears to us that a publisher has been clicking onhis own ads to inflate his earnings or an advertiser's costs, we maydisable the account to protect our advertisers' interests.If you'vebeen clicking your ads out of interest or to see who was advertising onyour site, we strongly recommend using the AdSense preview tool as analternative. This tool will allow you to check the destination of adson your page without the risk of generating invalid clicks. You canalso find more ways to view the URLs of your Google ads by visiting ourHelp Center.Discuss this postThis marks the last post of our 'PolicyThursdays' series - we hope you've found the information from the lastfew weeks useful. Thanks for following along and participating in theAdSense Help Forum discussions!Posted by Mike Deeringer - AdSensePublisher Support
TOPIC: Make room for new video ad formats
This week marked the one-year anniversary of the launch ofclick-to-play video ads. To that end, we thought it'd be fitting tointroduce three new members of our click-to-play video ads family: the728x90 Leaderboard, the 120x600 Skyscraper, and the 160x600 WideSkyscraper. Previously, video ads were only enabled for the 300x250Medium Rectangle, the 336x280 Large Rectangle, the 200x200 SmallSquare, and the 250x250 Square.Just like before, users will see a playbutton on these three ad formats when a video ad is available - thisplay button will appear on the right side of the Leaderboard and in the upper half of the Skyscraper formats. Once a user clicks the playbutton, the video ad will begin to play within the ad unit. Here's anexample:Generating earnings with videos ads in these new formats willalso remain the same. If the advertiser has chosen to display theclick-to-play video ad as a cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) ad, youwill be paid for every valid impression of the static image, regardlessof plays or clicks to the advertiser's site. If the click-to-play videoad is a cost-per-click (CPC) ad, you'll generate earnings from validclicks to the advertiser's site rather than clicks on the play button.In either case, you and your site visitors are free to watch the videoas frequently as you like. Please keep in mind that you'll need to beopted into image ads in order to receive video ads, but we aren't ableto guarantee that video ads will always be available for yourcontent.We hope these new click-to-play video ad formats will helpenhance the advertising experience for both advertisers and publishers.For advertisers, this change provides additional options and inventoryfor creating click-to-play video ads. At the same time, publishers willbenefit from the increased competition among text, image, and video adsin these three formats; if a click-to-play video ad appears in one ofyour ad units, this means that it has won the auction against other adsand will generate the maximum earnings for you.If you'd like moreinformation about click-to-play video ads, feel free to visit our HelpCenter.Posted by Sandra Tsui - AdSense Publisher Support
TOPIC: AdSense coming to a video near you
You've heard the expression "Content is king." We completely agree, andwe also realize that these days website content is much more than justtext -- it's also video. That's why we're excited to announce that thisweek, we're launching a pilot with a small group of publishers to teststreaming video ads in their online video content. With this pilot,publishers control when the ads play in their videos and choose whichvideos get the ads.We know there's a lot going on in the world ofvideo, and you may be wondering how this relates to other videoinitiatives we've announced in AdSense. Here's a brief clarification :
- Click-to-play video ads: This is a video ad type on our contentnetwork. Any publisher opted into image ads and using one of thesupported formats may see these click-to-play video ads on their sites.
- AdSense video distribution and sponsorship: We ran 2 pilots thatallowed publishers to choose video channels (short-form video clipsbundled with video ads) to display on their sites.
- In-stream video ads pilot: This is what we're announcing today -we're extending AdSense to online video content. Publishers in thistest will be able to define at what point in their videos thatstreaming video ads will appear.This is a closed pilot, which meanswe're unable to accommodate additional publishers for participation.However, we're looking forward to gathering learnings from this pilotand gaining insight into what works best for ads in video. Just asAdSense adds value to the text content on your website and is usefulfor your users, we think these in-stream ads in video will add value topublishers' video content and help to deepen engagement with userswatching the videos. This pilot represents our continued efforts toaddress the challenges faced by publishers who want to monetize theirvideo content, by advertisers who want access to quality videoinventory, and finally by users who want ads to enhance their videowatching experience, not detract from it.Posted by Christine Lee -AdSense Product Marketing Manage
TOPIC: AdSense for content launches in Catalan
Do you know what language is spoken in parts of Spain, France, andItaly, and is the national language of Andorra? (Ok, we may have madeit too obvious with the title above.) We're pleased to let you knowthat publishers can now display targeted AdSense for content ads onpages in Catalan. Visit the 'AdSense Setup' tab in your account togenerate ad code, then paste it onto your pages and let our system takecare of the rest.Although AdSense for search currently isn't availablein Catalan, stay tuned for future updates on the blog. In addition, weask that you direct any questions related to Catalan pages to ourSpanish team.Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support
AdSense: Traffic exchange programs may get you banned
By Inside AdSense Team
Quote:
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.
Quote:
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.
Verifying your phone number
A number of publishers have asked us about phone verification and
indicated that they're having difficulty with the process. After
investigating these reports, we've discovered that our system is
currently experiencing intermittent outages. We're working hard to fix
the issue as soon as we can and appreciate your patience in the
interim.Not sure if you need to verify your phone number? Find out by
visiting your Payment History page - if you've reached $50 in earnings
and see the 'Please verify your phone number' prompt shown in the image
below, keep reading. If you don't see this message on your Payment
History page, you don't need to verify your phone number.If you're
required to verify your phone number, you can initiate the process by
clicking the 'Please verify your phone number' link and following the
instructions. We'd also like to offer you a few tips for completing the
phone verification process, based on publisher feedback. First, our
automated phone system isn't compatible with rotary phones or certain
types of VoIP technology, so you may wish to double check the phone
line you're using. In addition, if your phone has a Tone/Pulse option,
please make sure it's set to 'Tone'. Finally, you may wish to try a
different phone number if you're having difficulty - for instance, try
switching from your cell phone to a land line.If you're still unable to
verify your phone number after multiple attempts, feel free to contact
one of our specialists through our Help Center or the prompt in your
account. We'll be happy to assist you further with your phone
verification issue.Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support
indicated that they're having difficulty with the process. After
investigating these reports, we've discovered that our system is
currently experiencing intermittent outages. We're working hard to fix
the issue as soon as we can and appreciate your patience in the
interim.Not sure if you need to verify your phone number? Find out by
visiting your Payment History page - if you've reached $50 in earnings
and see the 'Please verify your phone number' prompt shown in the image
below, keep reading. If you don't see this message on your Payment
History page, you don't need to verify your phone number.If you're
required to verify your phone number, you can initiate the process by
clicking the 'Please verify your phone number' link and following the
instructions. We'd also like to offer you a few tips for completing the
phone verification process, based on publisher feedback. First, our
automated phone system isn't compatible with rotary phones or certain
types of VoIP technology, so you may wish to double check the phone
line you're using. In addition, if your phone has a Tone/Pulse option,
please make sure it's set to 'Tone'. Finally, you may wish to try a
different phone number if you're having difficulty - for instance, try
switching from your cell phone to a land line.If you're still unable to
verify your phone number after multiple attempts, feel free to contact
one of our specialists through our Help Center or the prompt in your
account. We'll be happy to assist you further with your phone
verification issue.Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support
A clarification on accidental clicks
We understand that there's been some confusion surrounding our recent
post about accidental clicks. Specifically, many of our publishers feel
that we've been sending mixed messages about placing ads near
navigation controls, particularly where site optimization is
concerned.For those of you concerned about our optimization tips, we
still recommend integrating your ad units and link units with your page
content or navigation, in order to offer your users relevant ads in
addition to the content they normally see. Here are a few examples of
acceptable implementations:However, in some instances we've found that
publishers have placed their ad units so close to interactive
(clickable) content that users accidentally click on the ads instead of
the site content. While this type of ad placement may not inherently
violate our program policies, it could increase the risk of invalid
clicks being generated on the ads, which would be in violation of our
policies.You can understand that increasing the possibility of
accidental clicks on your sites is not in the best interest of users or
advertisers, and we wanted to make you aware of this risk. This is why
we ask that you maintain sufficient distance between your ads and any
elements of your page on which users may often click. Because every
site is different, we can't provide you with the exact amount of space
to put between these page elements. However, we hope you understand our
reasoning, and we ask you to use your best judgment so as to avoid
possible accidental clicks in the future.To help you, here's an example
of an ad placement that could have a high risk of generating accidental
clicks, and which we'd recommend avoiding:Thanks again for your
cooperation and your feedback. If you have any questions about
optimization techniques, feel to visit our tips page.Discuss this
postPosted by Mike Deeringer - AdSense Publisher Support
post about accidental clicks. Specifically, many of our publishers feel
that we've been sending mixed messages about placing ads near
navigation controls, particularly where site optimization is
concerned.For those of you concerned about our optimization tips, we
still recommend integrating your ad units and link units with your page
content or navigation, in order to offer your users relevant ads in
addition to the content they normally see. Here are a few examples of
acceptable implementations:However, in some instances we've found that
publishers have placed their ad units so close to interactive
(clickable) content that users accidentally click on the ads instead of
the site content. While this type of ad placement may not inherently
violate our program policies, it could increase the risk of invalid
clicks being generated on the ads, which would be in violation of our
policies.You can understand that increasing the possibility of
accidental clicks on your sites is not in the best interest of users or
advertisers, and we wanted to make you aware of this risk. This is why
we ask that you maintain sufficient distance between your ads and any
elements of your page on which users may often click. Because every
site is different, we can't provide you with the exact amount of space
to put between these page elements. However, we hope you understand our
reasoning, and we ask you to use your best judgment so as to avoid
possible accidental clicks in the future.To help you, here's an example
of an ad placement that could have a high risk of generating accidental
clicks, and which we'd recommend avoiding:Thanks again for your
cooperation and your feedback. If you have any questions about
optimization techniques, feel to visit our tips page.Discuss this
postPosted by Mike Deeringer - AdSense Publisher Support
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