Jenstar and Shoemoney presents the best tactics for generating revenue from Google Adsense an the Yahoo! Publisher Network.
All right, we admit that we followed this Search Engine Strategies session as much for our own sake as for the benefit of our readers. We make active use of contextual pay-per-click ads to cover our bills, and listening to experts like Jennifer Slegg and Jeremy Schomeaker is always a pleasure.
We were not disappointed. Jennifer gave a poplar and to-the-point presentation of what to look out for when using Google Adsense or Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN).
Below are some of the points
Guard your title tags an metatags
Make sure that you use different title tags on your pages, as Google do make use of them when determining what you pages are about. The more correct their analysis is, the more targeted the ads will be, and the more targeted the ads are, the better the click-through rate will be.
It seems that Adsense make use of the metatags as well, Jenstar said, so you should not skip them.
Here’s one we didn’t know about: Google is also making use of the anchor text in inbound links to determine the content of the page. You may consider getting inbound links with the relevant keywords (which is a good thing anyway).
Make use of image ads
Adsense allows you to choose whether to stick to text ads only or allow image ads as well. Jennifer recommended allowing image ads. If not you will be loosing a lot of revenue. People that are becoming blind to text ads, may see and click on an image ad, or in her words: “Image ads a perfect for sites wanting to avoid looking Adsense-heavy.”
You should definitely track and test your ads, and Google helps you to do that by allowing you to tag ad units with different channels.
You may compare the effect of text and image ads by setting up a separate channel and unit for image ads.
New ad types
Google is experimenting with so-called CPA ads (Cost per action — by invitation only). These are more similar to affiliate programs, as you get paid a percentage of each sale made. They give good money for a conversion, Jennifer said.
She also drew attention to the new video ads which show good promise revenue wise. You need to enable image ads to get such ads, and use one of the video ad friendly ad sizes.
Check the HTML code
Ensure that the ad unit with the highest click through rate (CTR) appears first in the HTML code. This ad will have the highest earning.
Don’t confuse appearing first on the page with appearing first in the HTML, Jennifer said. Blog software and content management systems are using CSS (cascading style sheets) which means that the order of elements in the HTML code may be different from the order on the page.
Vary the look of ad units
Most experts will argue that you should avoid borders on ad units to make the ads blend in with the rest of the site, the argument being that ads that look like regular site content are more clickable. Jennifer argued that this is not always the case. “Sometimes borders are best,” she said, and gave another argument for testing different versions of the ad units.
Sometimes labeling the ads as such actually helps. Choose a different color and form for the ad and label it “Sponsored links” or any other text that is acceptable to the ad provider.
However, you should not limit your testing to ad units. You could also split test Adsense versus YPN.
In any case, YPN is worth testing. Yahoo’s program is still in beta, and is continuously improving. Some blogs can earn significantly more with YPN despite the huge number of run of network ads. http://www.jensense.com/archives/2005/10/ypn_does_away_w.html
You may also mix up different version of the ad units to prevent banner blindness, Jenstar said. You can achieve this by using one of the ad rotation scripts available on the Net.
Jenstar recommended that you remove on page clutter. Everything you have on a page influence the ads, including javascripts and CSS. Put such code in external files, if possible. Place navigation, headers and footer at the end of the HTML code.
Optimize ad title colors. Two tactics seem to work well: Make the hyperlinks blue or use the same color as other links on the page.
Avoid the filterAlthough Jennifer understood the wish to filter out some types of ad, she said that using the filer list may cost you a lot of money. Use the filter to block competitors or grossly mistargeted ads only.
Reduce the number of ads per page
Do not go overboard when it comes to the number of ad units on a page (and even if Google recommends you to do so). One ad unit on a page can make more money for a page than three combined. The reason for this is that that one ad unit get the best paying ads.
Watch your syndicated content. Use feeds from quality sources, and apply family friendly filter if possible. One wrong word may trigger a ban from Google or Yahoo!
Forums are hard to monetize, and people following forums do not see ads. Here you definitely should make use of a color scheme rotator, Jennifer said. You can also change the position and size of the ad unit frequently.
If you want to put ads in your RSS feed, got to Yahoo!; Adsense is just testing such ads at the moment. If you do, try to avoid common blog terms in the text and links, as such words will attract ads for blog software and services.
Corporate sites
Business and corporate sites should be careful with using contextual ads, if they want to sell their own products and services. People clicking on such ads will leave your site and you are loosing a potential customer. Sites with such ads may also seem less respectable, Jennifer said. Moreover, competitors’ ads will show up.
When you are caught
If your account is suspended, you will usually have three days to comply before ad serving is suspended. Do whatever you can to fix the problem as fast as you can.If your account is suspended
To avoid being banned, stay away from bad traffic sources and any content that is against policies. Do not incite clicks. Don’t blab specific stats without permission.Keep contact info up to date. And never click on your own ads!
Shoemaker says it all
Jeremy Shoemaker had a lively and frank presentation of his own experience as a publisher using contextual ads. He has a policy of informing Google of all “grey area” tactics he may be testing, which is probably also why he was so open – in spite of the fact that Gavin Bishop, GBS Sales Manager of Google Adsense sat next to him.
Anyway his tactic of having an open and transparent communication with Google probably pays off. Google will not always give a clear answer as to whether they find a tactic to be kosher, but they will tell you if they find it questionable.
You don’t want to have repeating issues, but if you solve a problem that is ok.
Gray areas
As an example of a grey area he pointed to having images next to ads. That use to be a successful way of enticing visitors to click on ads, and this is no longer allowed. Still, some people are experimenting with putting graphic layout elements nest to ads to see if that is accepted.
Complete the functionality of the site before you add ads, Shoemaker said You should have at least 1000 unique visitors a day.
Another grey area is contextual arbitrage or search engine arbitrage. You buy traffic cheap from one search engine and sell it to another. He presented Bearshare, a site that have had 20 million downloads of its software. Installing the software forces you to select a Google Adsense driven search engine as you default home page. They probably earn a lot of money this way, Shoemoney argued.
Shoemoney was not too impressed with YPN. The targeting is horrible, he said, and the service is too focused on advertisers and not on publishers. Moreover, there are many false alarm compliance issues.
When developing a site for Adsense, you can make use of different tools. Shoemoney loves Google Analytics. He also recommended the Crazyegg.com’s heatmap service, which shows you what part of a page people are clicking on.
Gavin Bishop of Google Adsense argued that testing is the key to get most out of contextual advertising. “We are always looking of feedback and on how the program can be improved,” he said.
This session was moderated by Dana Todd of SiteLab International, Inc.
More of Pandia’s Search Engine Strategies coverage.