Adsense Teminologies

Below are some frequently used terms / abbreviations related Adsense:

• Page impressions - the number of pages viewed by your site visitors
• Page CTR - the ads click rate, i.e. #clicks / page impressions
• CPC - cost per click, usually used from advertisers' perspective
• EPC - earning per click
• MFA - make for adsense, usually used to describe sites that is without real content but just have adsense ads... those sites may join the adWords program in order to acquire traffic.
• click dump - sometimes, google will hold up some click earnings from your account (some people said those clicks are higher pay clicks and google has to run some test to verify if those are click fraud). Those clicks will be added back to your account some time later which resulted in a sudden adnormal high earning on a particular day.
• PSA - Public Service Ad, those are for charities and clicks on them won't earn you any cents.
• G.A.S.S - Google Adsense Stats Syndrome, describing people who keep logging into their adsense account to view the earning stats.

Cost-per-Click (CPC) and Cost-per-Impression (CPM) Explains

When you are putting up your adsense in your web site, you may have some question in your mind in regarding to ad types (text vs image), bidding methods (CPC vs CPM), and targeting type (site vs contextual). In here, I would like to explain to you.

For the ad types and bidding methods, people may asked does any bidding methods (CPC or CPM) ties up to different ad types? Actually, both text-based ads and image-based ads can either be paid on cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM). Adwords advertisers can choose any types of ad they would like to create.

So when you are putting up adsense in your web sites, you are advised to set the ads type to both - text-based and image-based. It can definitely maximize your potential revenue in your web site.

For the targeting type, all CPM ads are site targeted, meaning that your site will only display CPM ads if an AdWords advertiser has decided your content is relevant to their ad campaign. To increase advertiser bidding on your site, you may wish to customize your Onsite Advertiser Sign-up landing page.

Publisher Tools

There are a couple of handy tools for publishers:

• Overture Bidtool - you can type in keywords and see the corresponding bidding prices. although it is not the CPC in adWords, but that give you a rough idea about the CPC.
• Alexa site ranking - Want to check out a site's info? Alexa can tell you the traffic ranks, site reach and related sites... etc
• AdWords - What is better than acting as an advertiser and get the data about keyword biddings?
• Google Search - Using google to check about your own site, e.g.
  
  search for: site:www.mydomain.com + "www.mydomain." + ".com"
  
  will show you how many pages of your site have been indexed by google. Or you can try our tool (to save u from remembering the exact syntax).
• Google Toolbar - you can view the Page Rank of the site your are visiting (including your pages).

Google Jail

Did you ever heard of the "Google Jail". There are discussions about penalties that Google put on new sites to prevent them ranking high in the search results. This is essentailly a "jail" that google put new sites in. The period can be 3 to 6 months.


We don't have definite answer about whether the above is true or not, but it is true that new sites usually don't rank high in search result pages (even if they've been optimized for search engine ranking). So, may be google do have put some penalities on fresh new sites ? Anything one can do to minimize the penality? Below is a few tricks/tips:

• build your new site on a sub-domain of an existing site. Since the main domain is there for a while, your new site will not be treated as brand new.
• roll out your site as soon as you have enough content. You don't need to complete everything before go online. Roll out a few pages first and keep adding to your site content gradually. The theory behind is: the earlier you get jailed, the earlier you will be released.
• Try not to target your pages for the hottest keywords. Those keywords have a lot of competition, with the extra penalty, a new sites is almost impossible to rank high.

Tracking channel performance

Channels are something that you definitely need to setup for monitoring your adsense performance. There are 2 types of channels provided by Google:

• Url Channels - as its name suggest, this type of channel is on per url (or more accurately, per url pattern) basis. You can setup a channel to monitor the performance of a particular page, or a group of pages under a folder.
• Custom Channels - for this type of channels, you have to assign them unique channel names. When you create your ad src code, you can specify which custom channel the ad should associate with. The custom channel name will then be included (as the google_ad_channel variable) in the final ad source code. This type of channel provide a finer gain of monitoring.

So, how can channels help you? By tracking different channels' performance, you can have better idea about which types of ad (e.g. skyscraper, banner or large square... etc), what color scheme and which ad position works best for you. You can also spot out problems more easily, e.g. pages with low click rate may indicate irrelevant ads appearing, pages with low EPC may due to MFA ads... etc.

Try to setup some channels and pay attentions to the statistics. Take corresponding actions when you spot out problems; you will see your adsense revenue improves afterwards.

Smart Pricing

What is Smart Pricing?

Basically that is what Google introduced to help advertisers to pay less for a click (in case of potential click fraud, the pay will be near to zero).

How does that work?

Google introduced a parameter when calculating the CPC (cost per click). That parameter is a number <>

The exact equation is not opened to the public. However, below is some hints about it:

- if the same person clicks on an ad multiple of times or the clicks act like potential click fraud, the parameter will move to near zero.

- the higher the page rank of your page, the higher that parameter will be

- the higher the conversion rate the higher that parameter will be, however the conversion rate is calculated in per adsense a/c basis. So, if some of your ads is having low conversion rate, it will pull down the whole figure. You may want to spot them out and filter those ads (using the competitive filter on your adsense control panel).

Site targeting ads

Site targeting ads was introduced by Google to acquire the more traditional CMP advertisers user base. Advertisers can select sites (sites under the adsense network) to display their ads on CMP basis (i.e. on page impression basis). Advertisers still need to place their bids which compete with other CPC ads. According to Google, there is algorithm to select which ad to display on publisher's page which in theory should yield the best revenue to the publisher. However, the exact mechanism is unknown to the public.

Recently, Google has added a new option on the adsense report to allow publisher to check the site targeting ads performance apart from the contextual (CPC) one. Some publishers reported that the site targeting ads performance is as bad as only 10% (or even lower) of the contextual one. e.g.

with 1000 page impressions, the contextual ads yield $10,

but the site targeting one give less than $1.

Comparing the performances, there seems no good reason to waste the ad space for site targeting ads. However, according to google:

"... Through site targeting, pay-per-impression ads compete with pay-per-click ads to be displayed on any page. Site targeting will work to your benefit, as more competition among ads will lead to higher potential earnings for you... "

If you trust google's algorithm (about when to display site targeting ads verses contextual ones), you should just keep the site targeting ads running. Otherwise, you should opt-out from the program. However, you cannot control site targeting from your adsense control panel. You need to send an email to adsense support to opt-out.

From our experience, getting rid of site targeting ads does not have much impact on the revenue. Click rate on contextual ads remain more or less the same as before and the total click rate dropped a bit since all site targeting ad clicks are gone. This suggest that google is doing well in the ads selecting algorithm?

If you want to run an experiment on this, please share to us your result afterwards.

High paying keywords

Keywords, almost every activities around search engine are about keywords. Search engine takes keywords (in the query) as input, publishers optimize their pages around keywords for better search result ranking and for more relevant ads, advertiser bid on keywords for their ads... etc.

Keywords also play an important role in your adsense earnings. How much you get for a click depends on what keywords the ad is associated with. The pay for a click can varies from as low as $0.01 to tens of dollars (or even more?). If you are planning to build a site, building it around some higher pay keywords would be a good idea. Of course the topic need to match your interest/expertise, otherwise, your may not have real good content.

Below is a snapshot of high paying keywords for your reference:
(the list may not be that update now, but you can still get an idea about what terms are having high paying rate and verify them using some online tools, e.g. overture's bidtool. OR you can take a look at our keyword tracking tool)

15 year mortgage
21st century insurance
2nd mortgage
30 year mortgage
aa car insurance
aa insurance
aaa insurance
aarp
adjustable rate mortgage
adult web site hosting
affordable web hosting
america mortgage
american equity
american equity mortgage
american equity mortgage
american express credit card
american insurance
american mortgage
ameriquest mortgage
asp web hosting
att cellphone
att credit card
auto insurance
auto insurance quote
auto insurance quotes
automobile insurance
baby sign
bad credit mortgage
bellsouth web hosting
bellsouth web hosting
bellsouth web hosting
best interest rate
best mortgage
best mortgage rates
boat insurance
boston web design
budget insurance
buildings insurance
business cards
business credit
business insurance
business insurance
business loans
business web hosting
buying stock
california mortgage
car insurance companies
car insurance quote
car insurance quotes
car insurance rates
care insurance
caribbean cruise line
cellphone plans
cellphone services
century insurance
champion mortgage
chase credit card
chase home equity
chase manhattan mortgage corporation
chase manhatten mortgage
cheap auto insurance
cheap car insurance
cheap domain name registration
cheap insurance
cheap travel insurance
cheap web hosting
cheap web hosting
cheapest domain registration
cheapest web hosting
checking accounts
christian web hosting
christian web hosting
churchill insurance
circus casino
citi bank credit card
citi credit card
city mortgage
classic car insurance
cobra insurance
coldfusion web hosting
coldfusion web hosting
commerce web hosting
commercial insurance
commercial web hosting
compare credit card
compare mortgage
compare web hosting
computer rentals
contents insurance
craftmatic bed
credit card account
credit card approval
credit card balance transfers
credit card companies
credit card company
credit card comparison
credit card comparisons
credit card instant
credit card offers
credit card payments
credit card rates
credit card reward
credit card rewards
credit card search
credit card terminals
credit cards
credit mortgage
current mortgage
current mortgage interest
current mortgage interest rates
current mortgage rate
current mortgage rates
dedicated web hosting
dental insurance
diamond insurance
direct insurance
discount web hosting
discover credit card
domain name registration
domain names
domain reg
domain registering
domain registration
domain registrations
domain web hosting
e commerce web hosting
earthlink web hosting
earthlink web hosting
elephant insurance
equity bank
equity calculator
equity line
equity line credit
equity line of credit
equity lines
equity lines of credit
equity loan
equity loan calculator
equity loan rate
equity loan rates
equity loans
equity mortgage
equity mortgage
equity rates
family insurance
farm insurance
fixed mortgage
florida insurance
fortis insurance
front page web hosting
health care insurance
health insurance
health insurance quotes
high interest bank account
high interest savings
holiday insurance
home contents insurance
home equity
home equity calculator
home equity credit
home equity credit line
home equity interest
home equity line
home equity line of credit
home equity lines
home equity lines of credit
home equity loan
home equity loan calculator
home equity loan interest
home equity loan rate
home equity loan rates
home equity loans
home equity rate
home equity rates
home insurance
home mortgage
home mortgage calculator
home mortgage interest
home mortgage interest rates
home mortgage loan
home mortgage rates
home owners insurance
homeowner insurance
homeowner's
homeowner's insurance
homeowners insurance
horizon mortgage
hosting web
house insurance
houston web design
how to design a web site
how to make money easy
individual health insurance
inexpensive web hosting
inexpensive web hosting
insurance california
insurance company
insurance comparison
insurance policies
insurance policy
insurance quote
insurance quotes
insurance rate
insurance rates
insurance texas
insurances
interest only mortgage
interest rates
internet domain registration
internet web hosting
irwin home equity
jsp web hosting
jumbo mortgage
kemper insurance
kosher vitamins
laptop rental
laptop rentals
life assurance
life insurance
life insurance company
life insurance quotes
long term care insurance
low cost web hosting
low mortgage
low mortgage rates
lowest credit card
lowest credit card rates
lowest mortgage
lowest mortgage rates
luxor casino
mac web hosting
macintosh web hosting
make money with website
malignant mesothelioma
malignant pleural mesothelioma
medical insurance
mercury insurance
mesothelioma attorneys
mesothelioma cancer
mesothelioma chemotherapy
mesothelioma compensation
mesothelioma diagnosis
mesothelioma information
mesothelioma lawsuits
mesothelioma lawyer
mesothelioma lawyers
mesothelioma prognosis
mesothelioma symptoms
microsoft web hosting
mortgage companies
mortgage company
mortgage insurance
mortgage insurance
mortgage interest
mortgage interest calculator
mortgage interest rate
mortgage interest rates
mortgage leads
mortgage lender
mortgage lenders
mortgage loan
mortgage loan rates
mortgage loans
mortgage rate calculator
mortgage rate comparison
mortgage rates
mortgage refinance
mortgage refinance rates
motor insurance
motorcycle insurance
mysql web hosting
national mortgage
net web hosting
nextel cellphone
no equity
now vitamins
one way car rentals
online banks
online car insurance
online insurance
online mortgage
owners insurance
pericardial mesothelioma
peritoneal mesothelioma
personal web hosting
phone rentals
pleural mesothelioma
porn web hosting
private health insurance
progressive auto insurance
progressive insurance
projector rentals
prostate cancer treatment
public liability insurance
rate mortgage
real estate license
rebate credit card
refinancing mortgage
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renters insurance
renter's insurance
reseller web hosting
reverse mortgage
royal caribbean cruise
royal caribbean cruise line
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san diego web design
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state farm insurance
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stock online
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suncoast casino
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tahoe vacation rentals
term insurance
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texas home equity
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today's mortgage
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top 10 web hosting
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trading stock
uk car insurance
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va mortgage
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vehicle insurance
venetian casino
vineyard rentals
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Ad filtering

Ad filtering is a mean for you to get rid of some un-desired ads appeared on you pages. After logging in your adsense account, under the "Adsense Setup" tab, you should be able to find the "Competitive Ad Filter" sub-menu. There you can put as many as 200 " ad urls" that you want to filter.

So, what kind of ads should you get rid of? and why ? Below are a few examples:

• ads from your competitors - if your site is running some sort of business, sure you want to avoid ad from your competitor.
• irrelevant ads - the resonale is that if the ads are irrelevant to your page content, most likely your visitor will not click on them, so why wasting the space for them?
• MFA ads - MFA ads are usually low paying ads (due to their biz model), so it may be a good idea to get rid of them. Another argument is that driving your site users to those "empty content" site is hurting your user's interest and your site's reputation.

Improve Ad relevancy

If you found irrelevant ads displaying on your pages, that probably is because google's search engine "mis-understand" your page content. You probably need to spend some time on SEO (e.g fixing your page title, adding meta keywords / description... etc). However, Google's algorithm is not 100% bullet-proof and sometimes it may still assign ads that is not exactly what your page is about. The ads may match some parts (or some particular keywords) of your page, but not the main topic of it.

To work around the issue, you can try the section targeting tags introduced by Google. It allows you to suggest which part of your content you want to emphasize or ignore when google do the ad matching. You can use the following tags to wrap arond the content that your want to emphasize:

or use the following to wrap around the part that you want to ignore:

How much this can help? You have to try it out on your pages. But don't expect the ads will become relevant shortly after your changes. It usually takes time (days or weeks) for google to crawl your site and update its search index. So be patient.

Pick the right colors for your ads

When you create your ad source code on Adsense panel (under the Adsense Setup tab), you are allowed to specify the color scheme for your ads. You can customize the color for the followings:

• Border
• Title
• Background
• Text
• URL

You can pick the colors that fit your page styles. But there are 2 major directions for the color styles:

• make your ads stand out - i.e. using colors that is different from your page colors, try to make the ads as eye catching as possible.
• blend the ads into your page - i.e. make the ads look just like your page content. Use the same text and link color as your page content, make the ads borderless... etc

Some publishers reported that the standing out ads worked better for their sites, while some claimed that the blending way boosted their revenue. There is no definite conclusion on which one is better, you probably need to run some experiments to see which one is better for your site.

From our experience, blending seems to work better. Some how, we think that which color scheme is better is related to whether your site has mostly new users or recurring users. Thus, we've set up a polling to gather some concrete data. Please join our polling.

Ad Position and number of ad units per page

Ad Position

Where to put the ads is another factor that affect your adsense revenue. Of course, the ad positions available on your pages are governed by your page layouts. However, if you don't have your site built yet, you may work from anothor way round; design your page layout to optimize your adsense revenue.

Studies shows that the following positions are where users pay most attention to (and thus resulted in higher click rate) :

• Top Left corner - this is where your site logo or your site navigation (veritical one) appear. Depending on whether you weight your site usability or your ad reveneu more, you may consider putting your ad unit here (below your logo maybe). There are sites doing so and put their site navigation on the right hand side.
• Top of the page - this is usually where most ad banners appear
• The space between your horizontal navigation bar and your main content - This position is where your users are looking for the information they want, so a location with good attention.
• The space follow your main content - the reasonale is that after reading your main content, your user is looking for the next thing to move to, so ads at this location can have high click rate.

Number of Ad Units

Depending on the length of your page, you can decide how many ad units to put on it. If you have a long page, you can consider putting ad units in the middle of your content. However, please be noted that more ad units don't necessarily yield higher revenue. According to Google, ads with higher CPC are having higher display priority. If your page has less ad units, in theory, most of the ads displayed would have higher pay. If your have more ad units, essentially, your are mixing higher pay ads with lower ones; which ad being clicked by your user is more or less by chance.

So, displaying an ad unit in a prominent position and a link unit at the end of your content may be a good enough combination.

Different Ad Types

There are different ad types provided by Google. Basically, Ads can be divided into 2 main categories:

1. Ad Units - these are the most commonly seen ads, then can be in pure text or in the form of images. The number of ads in an ad unit base on the size of the ad unit.
2. Link Units - these are groups of keyword links which is kind of like a site's navigation links. You can choose either 4 or 5 links to be shown for a link unit. When your visitor click on the links, a landing page with the actual ads will be displayed. Those ads are baed on the keywords on the links.

For both category, different sizes (and thus the number of ads/links) are available. You can pick the ones that fit your page's layout:

	Ad Units	Link Units
Horizontal	728 x 90 Leaderboard	728 x 15
	468 x 60 Banner	468 x 15
	234 x 60 Half Banner
Vertical	120 x 600 Skyscraper
	160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper
	120 x 240 Vertical Banner
Square	125 x 125 Button	200 x 90
	300 x 250 Medium rectangle	180 x 90
	250 x 250 Square	160 x 90
	336 x 280 Large rectangle	120 x 90
	180 x 150 Small rectangle

Frankly speaking, it is hard to tell which type works best. It should be on a site by site basis. But in general:

• 728 x 90 Leaderboard works well as a horizontal banner
• 160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper works well in the vertical series
• 336 x 280 Large rectangle works best when embedded inside the content text

It looks like the more space you allocate to the ads, the better is the click performance... seems a very straight forward explanation?

If you don't have your site built yet, you probably need to take into account of the ad dimensions when designing your page layouts.

What is Adsense?

"Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads on their website's content pages and earn money.

Because the ads are related to what your visitors are looking for on your site — or matched to the characteristics and interests of the visitors your content attracts — you'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages."

In a short sentence, Adsense allow you to display ads easily (with almost no effort at all) and monetize your site traffic.

To apply for an Adsense account is pretty straight forward, you just need to follow the instructions from Google.

However, there are a number of tips that will make a whole lot of difference to your adsense revenue if you know about them from the very beginning.

Those are what we will discuss in the following articles...