Form Group Insede Adsense Team

TOPIC: Terms and Conditions clarification and TOPIC: Working with the Ad Review Center

Date: Wed, Mar 19 2008 9:35 am
From: Inside AdSense Team

TOPIC: Terms and Conditions clarification

http://groups.google.com/group/Inside-AdSense/browse_thread/thread/585d24526adde976?hl=en

Since updating our Terms and Conditions a few weeks ago, we've received
a number of questions related to the new privacy policy and the display
language within accounts. We'd like to address those two areas below --
but please keep in mind that as with any legal terms, you may consider
consulting legal counsel if you have law-related questions about our
Terms and Conditions.Privacy policyUnfortunately, we can't suggest any
privacy policy language for your specific site, as all sites are set up
differently and laws may vary across different countries. You might
want to review online resources such as the Network Advertising
Initiative (NAI), which suggests language for data collection of
non-personally identifying information such as:We use third-party
advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These
companies may use information (not including your name, address email
address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web
sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of
interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice
and to know your choices about not having this information used by
these companies, click here.Further examples can be found in Appendix A
of the NAI Self-Regulatory principles for publishers (PDF). Display
languageAt this time, the Terms and Conditions are only available in
one language per country -- whatever is determined as the legally
binding language. As such, you might see that the Terms and Conditions
are displayed in a language different from your Google interface.You
can read our updated Terms and Conditions in a different language, but
please keep in mind that the Terms will vary according to the country
or territory of your payment address. If you select a different
country, the Terms and Conditions you see may not be identical to those
appearing in your AdSense account, and therefore may not apply to you.
Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/19/2008 09:35:00 AM
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Date: Mon, Mar 17 2008 8:48 am
From: Inside AdSense Team

TOPIC: Working with the Ad Review Center

http://groups.google.com/group/Inside-AdSense/browse_thread/thread/bc0168d30e13e044?hl=en

As you may remember, we started enabling the Ad Review Center for
publishers back in December to let you review ads placement-targeted to
your site. We've recently enabled the Ad Review Center for more
accounts and will continue rolling it out over the upcoming weeks. To
get a publisher's perspective on the new feature, we chatted with
Richard Tribe, Director of ski.com.au.Australian snow enthusiasts can
visit ski.com.au to learn about resorts and travel deals, as well as
news and photos of conditions. The site also serves as a skier
community, with videos, forums, wikis, and several blogs. Richard has
been using the Ad Review Center to ensure relevant, high-quality ads
appear alongside his content. He explains that "the Ad Review Center
allowed me to see who was targeting my site, and I saw a wonderful
array of high-quality advertisers in there... The Ad Review Center is a
great way of managing the quality and style of advertiser you would
like to have associated with your publication."To highlight specific
inventory, Richard has turned his custom channels into ad placements.
For instance, he found that his live camera feeds of snow conditions
drove significant advertiser interest, so he created specific snow
camera ad placements. He elaborates, "That extra choice helps make my
site look more attractive and allows advertisers to place their ads
exactly where they want to place them." With targetable custom
channels, Richard has given advertisers more control over where their
placement-targeted ads can appear, and using the Ad Review Center, he
ensures those ads are relevant to his site's audience.To check if the
Ad Review Center has been enabled for your account, visit
the 'Competitive Ad Filter' page under the AdSense Setup tab and look
for a green notification box.When setting up the Ad Review Center in
your account, we strongly recommend you keep your review preference set
to the default of 'Run ads immediately', and review placement-targeted
ads after they have run. Ads don't participate in the auction while
they are awaiting review, and ads that you have blocked can't compete
in the auction either. We ask that you consider the revenue
implications before blocking ads or switching from the 'Run
immediately' setting.Happy skiing (and reviewing)!Posted by Katie
Mandel - AdSense Product Marketing

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/17/2008 08:48:00 AM

TOPIC: Working with the Ad Review Center and TOPIC: Introducing Google Ad Manager

Date: Mon, Mar 17 2008 8:48 am
From: Inside AdSense Team

TOPIC: Working with the Ad Review Center

http://groups.google.com/group/Inside-AdSense/browse_thread/thread/bc0168d30e13e044?hl=en

http://groups.google.com/group/Inside-AdSense/browse_thread/thread/e69f30da6362ec38?hl=en

As part of our continuing commitment to provide publishers of all sizes
with tools to improve revenue opportunities and productivity, we're
excited to announce Google Ad Manager.If you operate a site with
remnant ad inventory as well as reserved ad inventory that you sell
directly to advertisers, then Ad Manager is for you. It can help you
sell, schedule, deliver, and measure directly-sold and network-based
inventory. Google Ad Manager offers a wealth of features, including an
intuitive user interface, automated yield optimization, and proven
Google speed and reliability. Best of all, Google Ad Manager is free.Ad
Manager currently addresses the ad management and serving needs of
publishers with smaller sales teams and effectively complements the
DoubleClick Revenue Center, which is focused on publishers with large
sales teams. We're excited to add DART for Publishers to our suite of
products,and we're committed to the continued development and
enhancement of DoubleClick's offerings.To learn more or apply for
Google Ad Manager beta, visit our website.Posted by Anuj Srivastava -
AdSense Product Marketing

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/13/2008 10:09:00 AM

TOPIC: Google closes DoubleClick acquisition

Date: Tues, Mar 11 2008 10:38 am
From: Inside AdSense Team

http://groups.google.com/group/Inside-AdSense/browse_thread/thread/42cd74ad600cb5b5?hl=en

You may have seen today's announcement that Google has completed its
acquisition of DoubleClick. The combined company will offer more tools
for publishers, enhance productivity and provide additional revenue
opportunities so you can focus on creating more relevant content and
improve the user experience on your websites. We will also work with
our existing publishers to better monetize their inventory by combining
DoubleClick's and Google's strength in inventory management, ad
serving, and optimization.If you have a DoubleClick account, rest
assured that everything will continue to operate as usual, and that
you'll receive the same support you're used to. For more information,
please read our press release.Posted by Kim Malone -- Director Online
Sales & Operations, AdSense

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/11/2008 10:38:00 AM

TOPIC: Diagnosing and treating revenue fluctuations (Part II)

Date: Fri, Mar 7 2008 11:27 pm
From: Inside AdSense

Welcome back to the second part of our series designed to help you
better understand revenue fluctuations. If you're just joining us now,
or if you'd just like to brush up on those reporting terms before we
dive in again, feel free to visit our previous post from earlier in
the week.

Choose the right treatment

You're finished investigating the cause of the revenue fluctuations,
and it's time to take action. Find the symptom you identified below
for suggested treatments.

Page impression changes

* Check for AdSense technical issues or public service ads (PSAs). If
ads aren't being served on your site, we aren't registering page
impressions.

* Don't miss out on search traffic. Use Webmaster Tools to make sure
that Google is properly crawling and indexing your site.

* Consider the promotions you have running for your site. Did an ad
campaign end, causing a drop in traffic? Has a popular site linked to
you, causing a spike in page impressions?

CTR changes

* A drop in CTR can be caused by a user interface (UI) that's not
optimized or by poor targeting. Readers won't click on ads they don't
see or find irrelevant. To improve the relevance of your ads, you
might want to try section targeting.

* Check for crawl problems. If our system can't crawl your page, we
can't serve relevant ads.

* If you've implemented or changed your ad server, check that there
are no new targeting problems.

* Have you changed the look and feel of your site? Follow our
optimization best practices whenever launching a site redesign. An
easy way to start is to match the ad colors to the design of your site
and choose a top performing unit such as the 300x250 medium rectangle.

* If your CTR has been in a slow decline, your readers may be
experiencing ad blindness. Try testing new ad formats, placements, or
colors.

CPC changes

* CPCs are determined by advertiser bids and are not directly under
publisher control. Most large CPC changes are seasonal. For example,
certain ad verticals attract more spending during the holiday or back-
to-school seasons.

* CPCs can also fluctuate as advertisers begin and end their
advertising campaigns.

* You can always improve your CPCs by choosing ad formats that support
all ad types: text, image, video, flash, and gadget ads. More
competition means higher advertiser bids.

Placement targeting revenue changes

* If overall targeted revenue is changing, determine what your average
placement-targeted revenue has been for the past few months. Your goal
is to determine if the changes in your recent earnings are part of a
trend or a short-term earnings fluctuation.

* Publishers can experience spikes in placement-targeted revenue when
advertisers run limited-time campaigns. For example, an advertiser may
run a large placement-targeted campaign only during the opening week
of a summer blockbuster movie.

* If you want to increase placement targeting over the long term, set
up ad placements. This will make it easier for advertisers to find and
target your site.

Finally, two more things...

Where are the changes happening?

Many AdSense publishers run multiple websites or have site sections
that perform very differently. For example, the article section of a
cell phone review site may have a higher eCPM than the forums.
Whenever you notice revenue changes at the account level, always
determine which of your sites or sections is causing the change. You
can set up URL and custom channels to track all the important parts of
your account separately. Knowing exactly what is changing and where
will allow you to make the smartest decisions about what to do.

Taking seasonal fluctuation into account

Take a broader view and look for historical fluctuations in the
metrics described above. Over the same time period last month or last
year, you may find similar volatility in your eCPM, revenue, or page
impressions. For example, you can compare the Mother's Day performance
of a flowers and gifts site for 2006 and 2007. Is your current account
performance consistent with the previous time range? If so, the
revenue change you're investigating might reflect a recurring pattern.

I hope this series will help you get the most out of AdSense, and the
next time your revenue changes, I hope it's for the positive.

Posted by Christian Ashlock - AdSense Optimization Team
Friday, March 07, 2008 at 9:08:00 AM

TOPIC: Diagnosing and treating revenue fluctuations (Part II)

TOPIC: Diagnosing and Treating Revenue Fluctuations (Part I)

Date: Wed, Mar 5 2008 3:25 pm
From: Inside AdSense Team

You love your website and you want it to thrive. You create content,
manage your community, and keep an eye on your AdSense performance. If
AdSense revenue is down, you're understandably concerned. If AdSense
revenue is up, you're happy, but you want to know why. Revenue
fluctuations are obvious enough when they occur, but the root cause
isn't equally clear. It can be challenging for both new and experienced
publishers alike to analyze their AdSense data and respond effectively
to changes.The goal of this post, and our follow-up later this week, is
to help you understand the AdSense revenue model so you can diagnose
and treat revenue fluctuations like an experienced MD.Study upThe first
step is knowing how the figures reported in your account (such as eCPM,
CTR, and page impressions) interact to describe your total revenue.
Think of each number as a variable in the revenue formula for your
site. At the highest level, you can calculate revenue by multiplying
your page impressions by the effective cost-per-thousand impressions
(eCPM) and dividing by 1000.Revenue = Page Impressions * eCPM /
1000eCPM = Revenue / Page Impressions * 1000The eCPM metric provides an
estimate of how much revenue you can expect to earn for every 1000 page
impressions. For example, if you serve 10,000 page impressions and earn
$40, your eCPM is $4. If page impressions increase to 30,000, you can
predict that you'll earn $120 given the $4 eCPM.Most AdSense ads pay on
a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, so eCPM is really a measure of your
average ad performance. Breaking eCPM into the click-through-rate (CTR)
and the average cost that advertisers pay per click (CPC) gives you a
more accurate measure of performance.Revenue = Page Impressions * CTR *
average CPCOnce you know your average CTR and your average CPC, you can
predict how much revenue you'll earn for a given amount of page views.
You can also analyze your revenue by looking at placement-targeted ads
versus contextually-targeted ads.Total Revenue = Revenue (contextual) +
Revenue (placement-targeted)While contextually targeted ads always pay
per click, advertisers can pay for placement-targeted ads by impression
(CPM) or by click (CPC). To account for both of these bid types, you
should look at the average eCPM for placement-targeted ads. More
simply, you can just add placement-targeted revenue to your
contextually targeted revenue.Revenue = (Page Impressions
(contextual) * CTR * average CPC) + (Page Impressions
(placement-targeted) * eCPM (placement targeted) / 1000)Revenue = (Page
Impressions (contextual) * CTR * average CPC ) + Revenue
(placement-targeted)Even though we're looking at contextual and
placement-targeted revenue separately, don't forget that these two
types of ads compete against each other in the auction. We'll always
show the best performing ad, regardless of targeting type, so more
competition creates higher winning bids.Identify the symptomsNow you're
ready to diagnose any revenue fluctuation. Just like the revenue
formulas above, let's start simple and gradually get more complex.The
first question to ask is: Did either your page impressions or your eCPM
change? You can compare trends in both page impressions and eCPM using
the Advanced Reports in your account.If your AdSense page impressions
have declined, you should determine if traffic to your entire site is
declining as well. A web analytics tool such as Google Analytics can
provide you with this information. In addition, you should check your
pages for unpaid public service ads (PSAs).If your eCPM is down, you'll
need to dig one level deeper and find out if your contextual or
placement targeted ad performance has dropped. You can also find this
data in the Advanced Reports tab using the options shown below.Let's
consider your contextual ads first. The two key metrics to investigate
are CTR and average CPC. CTR is given in your reports, but you'll need
to calculate your average CPC using your favorite spreadsheet. (My
favorite goes without saying). Please keep in mind that this is still
an average CPC for your account and doesn't necessarily correspond with
the price paid by any specific advertiser. Once you've narrowed the
change to CTR or average CPC you're ready to start treatment.For
placement-targeted ads, you should analyze how much total
placement-targeted revenue you are receiving and the average eCPM.
Changes in either of these metrics usually indicate that advertisers
are beginning or ending campaigns targeted to your site. Again,
placement-targeted campaigns are more likely to be short-term than
contextual campaigns.That's all we have time for today -- now that you
have a better understanding of what factors can affect revenue, don't
forget to check back later this week for the second part of this
series. We'll be treating ways to treat revenue fluctuations based on
the symptoms you've discovered.Posted by Christian Ashlock - AdSense
Optimization Team

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/05/2008 03:25:00 PM

TOPIC: Building with AdSense

Date: Mon, Mar 3 2008 11:04 am
From: Inside AdSense

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoZ9eFuIMzQ

When Les Kenny and his family launched their do-it-yourself (D.I.Y.)
website www.buildeazy.com in 2001 solely as a hobby site, they had no
idea of the impact Google AdSense would have on their lives.

Les had spent most of his life building in both Sydney and Auckland,
but his hobby was designing projects and writing about them. This
inevitably led to the Buildeazy website, where he posts D.I.Y.
woodworking and building projects. He caters to a universal audience
by using general terminology and incorporating both metric (mm) and
imperial (ft and inch) measurements into all his projects. Les and
daughter Roseanne also wrote two successful kids D.I.Y. books
published in Australasia. They had intended to write more books, but
AdSense proved to be more lucrative.

In early 2004, Les incorporated AdSense into his website. Around March
2005, to his amazement, optimisation of the AdSense ad units
throughout the site doubled the earnings overnight. The income from
AdSense allowed both Les and his wife Jenny to give up their day jobs
and work solely on their passions and hobbies. It has also allowed all
of the family to get involved.

Les has spent a lot of time experimenting with his ad layout and
colour, making use of the Manage Ads feature and custom channels. He
found that the 300x250 medium rectangle was overwhelmingly the best
performing. Using custom channels, he was also able to remove some
units which weren't performing as strongly to reduce clutter on his
site.

"Most of my pages now consist of only two ad units -a 300x250 medium
rectangle at the top of the page and a 336x280 large rectangle at the
bottom of the page. I have found that a couple of well placed ads on a
page do better than a cluster of ads all over the page - and I guess
it is also more pleasing for the visitors."

Once the AdSense units are placed and optimised, everything takes care
of itself -- leaving Les and family to get on with what they enjoy
most.

Posted by Tim Egan - AdSense Australia Optimisation Team
Monday, March 03, 2008 at 10:58:00 AM

TOPIC: Updated Terms and Conditions

Date: Mon, Feb 25 2008 2:40 pm
From: Inside AdSense Team

Every now and then, we update the AdSense Terms and Conditions to make
sure they're in line with policies across Google, and to prepare for
future changes to the products and services we offer. As part of these
regular updates, you'll soon sign in to your account and see that the
Terms have been updated, prompting you to read through and accept them.
This time around, most of the changes to the Terms and Conditions fall
into two broad categories: 1) future products and features and 2)
privacy requirements. Specifically, one of the main changes is that the
terms anticipate future products that may become available in other
advertising formats and mediums, for example Gadget Ads. As we look
forward to monetizing more online and offline content, we've re-worded
some portions of the terms to make them applicable across a broader
array of media and formats -- anticipating, for example, that future
products may be priced, paid, or managed differently than current
ones.We've also added some specific requirements that make it necessary
for publishers to post and abide by a transparent privacy policy that
users see. According to this policy, publishers must notify their users
of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad
serving process. This change relates to advertisers' use of innovative
products and features like Gadget Ads and other offerings in the
future.The changes aren't limited to the areas above, however; we've
made small changes throughout, so it's a good idea for you to review
them thoroughly before accepting.Posted by Julie Beckmann - AdSense
Publisher Support

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 2/25/2008 02:40:00 PM

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TOPIC: Fueling creativity in online video - with AdSense for video beta

Date: Thurs, Feb 21 2008 5:37 am
From: Inside AdSense

We know that publishers are quickly adding video to their sites and
looking for ways to earn additional revenue. If this sounds like you,
look no further than AdSense for video, our solution for qualifying
publishers. You may remember that we announced AdSense for video as a
pilot last May.

Since then, we've tested a variety of ad formats with the interest of
users, publishers and advertisers in mind. As a result, we've decided
that AdSense for video will use the InVideo ads adopted on our own
property, YouTube, which enable advertisers to make a single buy at
scale. Also competing in the auction - and unique to AdSense for video
and AdSense video units - are text overlay ads which are contextually
targeted to signals in your videos and on the page where the video
lives. The InVideo ads are paid on a CPM basis, while the text overlay
ads are paid on a CPC basis. You can see ad demos at
http://www.google.com/ads/videoadsolutions/demos.html . While we'll
continue to test a variety of ad formats, we believe that overlays are
the best way to balance user experience with the needs of our
publishers.

AdSense for video is now available to publishers who, at a minimum,
serve one million video streams each month and are based in the U.S.
with English language sites. In the near future, we do plan to expand
the program to more publishers of various sizes and locations.

You may be wondering how this offering differs from the other video
advertising solutions that AdSense (and YouTube) have rolled out in
the last year. To give you an overview, we've launched a site at
www.google.com/videoadsolutions .

To apply for AdSense for video beta, please visit the AdSense for
video page on the Google Video Advertising Solutions site at
http://www.google.com/ads/videoadsolutions/publisher.html . You can
also learn about the various ways to earn revenue from video content
by watching this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2hPslGRBfQ

Posted by Ryan Hayward and Lilly Wolfson - AdSense Product Marketing/
Publisher Support
Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 5:28:00 AM
-----****2***-----
Date: Thurs, Feb 21 2008 6:53 am
From: Inside AdSense

We apologize for the extra email -- the previous message contained an
incorrect URL that isn't yet functioning. For an overview of our video
advertising solutions (referenced in the 4th paragraph of the original
post), please visit:

http://www.google.com/ads/videoadsolutions/

Thanks for your understanding.

The Inside AdSense Team

On Feb 21, 1:37 pm, Inside AdSense wrote:
> We know that publishers are quickly adding video to their sites and
> looking for ways to earn additional revenue. If this sounds like you,
> look no further than AdSense for video, our solution for qualifying
> publishers. You may remember that we announced AdSense for video as a
> pilot last May.
>
> Since then, we've tested a variety of ad formats with the interest of
> users, publishers and advertisers in mind. As a result, we've decided
> that AdSense for video will use the InVideo ads adopted on our own
> property, YouTube, which enable advertisers to make a single buy at
> scale. Also competing in the auction - and unique to AdSense for video
> and AdSense video units - are text overlay ads which are contextually
> targeted to signals in your videos and on the page where the video
> lives. The InVideo ads are paid on a CPM basis, while the text overlay
> ads are paid on a CPC basis. You can see ad demos athttp://www.google.com/ads/videoadsolutions/demos.html. While we'll
> continue to test a variety of ad formats, we believe that overlays are
> the best way to balance user experience with the needs of our
> publishers.
>
> AdSense for video is now available to publishers who, at a minimum,
> serve one million video streams each month and are based in the U.S.
> with English language sites. In the near future, we do plan to expand
> the program to more publishers of various sizes and locations.
>
> You may be wondering how this offering differs from the other video
> advertising solutions that AdSense (and YouTube) have rolled out in
> the last year. To give you an overview, we've launched a site atwww.google.com/videoadsolutions.
>
> To apply for AdSense for video beta, please visit the AdSense for
> video page on the Google Video Advertising Solutions site athttp://www.google.com/ads/videoadsolutions/publisher.html. You can
> also learn about the various ways to earn revenue from video content
> by watching this video.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2hPslGRBfQ
>
> Posted by Ryan Hayward and Lilly Wolfson - AdSense Product Marketing/
> Publisher Support
> Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 5:28:00 AM

TOPIC: In for a penny, in for a pound key

Date: Tues, Feb 19 2008 10:15 am
From: Inside AdSense Team

As more publishers are being asked to complete the phone verification
process, we've received a number of puzzled emails from our
international community asking about the prompt to 'press the pound
key'. To clarify, the 'pound key' refers to the '#' symbol (also known
as the hash key), and not the '₤' symbol. The pound/hash key can
typically be found below the '9' key.We're working on perfecting our
non-US English, and we apologise for any confusion caused ;) Posted by
Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 2/19/2008 10:15:00 AM