Key policy takeaways from AdSense in Your City

If you follow our AdSense blog you may have heard about our AdSense in Your City events. We love the opportunity to meet publishers in person, hear first-hand feedback and gauge reactions to new AdSense features. At one of the most recent events in our Zurich office, we offered workshops on the Google AdSense program policies where we gained a deeper understanding of your concerns and questions around our policies and policy enforcement processes. To help spread the message to those unable to attend, we wanted to share a few things from the workshops on the Inside AdSense blog:

• We enforce our program policies on a site and account level. It’s definitely worth reading this ‘AdSense Facts & Fiction: Program Policies’ post to learn more about our policy enforcement processes.
• We have a lot of information in our help center regarding some of the notifications we send publishers. These help center entries also contain links to forms, which you can use to get in touch with us:
  
  • Received a notification asking you to make changes within three business days: Here is a detailed overview on what you need to do and know. Please keep in mind that you don’t need to let us know if you have simply fixed the violation.
  • Ad-serving has been disabled to your site: Read our Help Center article for more information on why this may have happened.
  • Received a notification stating your AdSense account may be disabled: By reading this information you may be able to get your AdSense account back in good standing.
  • Your AdSense account has been disabled: AdSense accounts can be disabled for different reasons. If you’d like to appeal the decision, be sure to use the right appeal form.
  • You’d like to report a policy violation: Our team is happy to investigate any policy violations submitted through these forms.
• We send email notifications whenever we need to enforce our program policies, so make sure to check the email address associated with your AdSense account regularly. Alternatively, you can also view all policy notifications by visiting the Messages page, under the Home tab when you sign in to your AdSense account.
• Some publishers have been contacted because AdSense ads had been placed next to comment spam entries on their blogs and forums. While we understand that no publisher intentionally allows their blogs and forums to be spammed, we ask that you ensure no ads are placed on these pages - as you can imagine advertisers don’t want their ads shown in this context. Check out the Webmaster Central blogpost and this help center article to learn how to combat comment spam effectively.
• Make sure you use the right AdSense product! We have a range of AdSense products these days, from the traditional AdSense for content to AdSense for feeds. This might seem obvious, but in the past, for example, we’ve seen publishers use AdSense for content ad code within mobile applications. If you’d like to understand why this is important, please read this blog post. Here is a complete overview of all of our current AdSense products.

We’d like to thank all of your for your great feedback and questions, and look forward to meeting many more of you. Make sure that you’re opted in to ‘Special Offers’ in your email preferences under the ‘My Account’ tab within your AdSense account so we can let you know about future events in your area!

Posted by Dan Zilic - AdSense Policy team

AdSense is in town: Join our publisher event in the UK

How can I make the most out of my AdSense revenue potential? Which opportunities are coming from current trends on the online market? How can I improve the user experience on my website?

We’ll be addressing these questions and many more at our upcoming AdSense publisher event, taking place in the London area the first week of June. We’d love to see you there. Sign up through the form below until Friday, May 27th and we’ll follow up via email with additional details if there's still room. Scheduling will be done on a first-come, first-served basis, but we’ll do our best to include as many of you as space will allow.

Sign up now!

During the event we’re offering many interesting workshops and presentations on website monetization. You’ll also have the opportunity to meet our optimization specialists for one-on-one optimization consultations.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted by Sophie Emmerich - Google AdSense Optimization Specialist

AdSense for mobile content in 15 new countries

We’re excited to announce the launch of AdSense for mobile content in 15 new countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Slovenia, Thailand, and Turkey.

AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile webpages using targeted Google ads. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches ads to the content of your site -- in this case, your mobile site. You'll earn money whenever visitors to your mobile site click on the ads they see.

For mobile websites, AdSense will automatically detect the type of phone viewing your site and deliver ads to match. For example, if someone views your site through an iPhone, we'll deliver ads specifically designed for high-end phones.

Please note that AdSense for mobile content ad units may be used in mobile websites only, not in mobile applications -- our policies don't permit placement of AdSense for mobile content ads in a mobile application. If you’re looking for an advertising solution for your mobile application, sign up for AdMob, Google’s leading mobile advertising display product.

Posted by Emanuele Brandi - Product Sales Lead

Happy summer holidays

It's that time of year again! The seasons are changing and our Dublin team is ready for the heat. Sending all of our publishers around the world the best wishes for the months ahead!


Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense Team

Tell us about your experience with our customized suggestions

Many of you have opted in to receive our customized suggestions about your AdSense implementation. When publishers opt in to this communication, we regularly send them best practice tips that are relevant to their specific site, to help them optimize and earn more with Google AdSense.

Take a look at how publisher Johnny Hayes now earns 51% more with AdSense on his site, funcheapsf.com, as a result of implementing one of the tips we sent him. You can also learn how publisher Eric Bort’s AdSense revenue increased by more than 200% on his site surgerysquad.com by making a change we recommended via email.

How do you sign up to receive personalized performance suggestions?
Step 1. Go to your account settings, and in the Personal settings section, click "edit"
Step 2. Check the box next to "Customized help and Suggestions"
Step 3. Click "Save"

For the publishers who’ve already opted in:
We'd love to hear your story as well. Tell us about your experiences with the tips we’ve sent you and the increase in AdSense revenue you’ve seen. Also, let us know any feedback you might have regarding our customized suggestions, so we can keep improving how we provide you with tips and advice.

If you haven't yet opted in, don’t miss out on additional earnings - opt in today! Make sure to check that the contact information in your account is up-to-date, so we'll be sure to reach you.

Posted by Nathaniel Kolenberg - Inside AdSense Team

One week left to Doodle 4 AdSense

With only one week left to submit your very own AdSense logo for our Doodle 4 AdSense showcase, we wanted to highlight the amazing submissions we’ve gotten so far. Take a look at our Facebook album featuring entries from creative publishers across the world. We’ll be posting the submissions as they come in waves for the next few weeks, so keep checking back for more awesome doodles!

Inspired to create your own? Get doodling and submit your logo before May 20th. We’ll post all submissions that adhere to our Terms and Conditions on the Facebook page, so the world can see what AdSense looks like to you.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense team

Site maintenance on Saturday, May 14

This Saturday, our engineers will be performing routine site maintenance from 9am to 5pm PDT. Your stats reporting may be delayed at that time, but we'll continue serving ads to your pages and tracking your clicks, impressions, and earnings as usual. Your ad targeting won't be affected and you will be able to log-in to your account.

We've converted the maintenance start time for a few cities around the world:



London - 5pm Saturday

Alexandria - 6pm Saturday

Hyderabad - 9:30pm Saturday
Jakarta - 11pm Saturday
Perth - 12am Sunday



To learn more about what goes on during these maintenance periods, check out this Inside AdSense post.



Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense Team

How integrating new ad sizes helped CareerPlanner.com increase revenue by 165%

In 1997, CareerPlanner.com founder Michael Robinson decided to pursue his passion of helping people discover their true career directions. He initially wanted to go into high schools and work directly with students, but decided instead to start a website so that he could keep his day job. Today, CareerPlanner.com helps high school students, college students, and adults alike discover their optimal career paths and learn how to start careers or make career changes.

In 2007, Michael and CareerPlanner.com's top graphic designer realized that 2.5 million visitors per year weren't purchasing any CareerPlanner.com products. "These visitors were clearly looking for something, but it was not anything we offered," says Michael, so they decided to give AdSense a try. Today, AdSense is on over 95% of CareerPlanner.com’s pages and the site receives over 5.5 million visitors a year. The revenue from Google AdSense now helps fund CareerPlanner.com’s Research and Development efforts, IT expansion, as well as special marketing projects that they always wanted to try but could never afford.

Getting more out of AdSense

Following advice from the AdSense team, Michael decided to update his AdSense ad units with the goal of increasing performance. Instead of the three 120 x 600 skyscrapers that had been running one on top another down the right side of each page, Michael began running one 160x600 wide skyscraper on the left column, one 300 x 250 medium rectangle in the center, integrated into his content below the fold, and one 160 x 600 wide skyscraper on the right column. Michael also changed the color scheme of the ad units to match the color scheme of his webpages. Initially, Michael made these changes to 75% of his pages. Within one month, his AdSense for content revenue increased 80%.

The initial revenue growth CareerPlanner.com saw in the first month inspired Michael to take the time to implement the same changes on more of his pages. Today, Michael has optimized 99% of his pages and increased his AdSense for content revenue by 165%.
"The best news," says Michael, "is that since we have made the optimization changes, our Google AdSense revenue has been setting new records every month."

Sign in to your account to upgrade your ad units like CareerPlanner.com today!

Posted by Jane Brinkley - AdSense Optimization team

Got 2 minutes? Learn how to allow and block ads

Last week, we walked you through the Performance reports tab of the new AdSense interface. In the final two videos of this series, we wanted to highlight the key controls available in your account so that you’re empowered to make smart decisions about the ads that appear on your site. Take a look at the videos below to learn more about the ad review center and the additional features that enable you to allow and block ads:

We hope you’ve enjoyed our six videos walking you through key activities in your account, and that it has enabled you to be more comfortable with the new AdSense interface. If you haven’t started using the new interface yet, we hope you'll check out these demo videos and give it a try today!

Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense Team

Western Union now in available in 13 additional countries

Good news! We’ve expanded Western Union Quick Cash® as an AdSense payment method to 13 additional countries: Georgia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Libya, Senegal, Mauritius, and Cameroon.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this form of payment, Western Union Quick Cash payments are free and will reach you faster than checks. Payments follow our normal payment schedule and are available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

A couple of things to note: We can send Western Union payments only to publishers that have an individual account at this time. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

For those of you who do not yet have Western Union Quick Cash as a payment method in your country, we appreciate your patience as we work to make this available. Keep checking in on the Inside AdSense blog for future launches!

Posted by Julia Peppiatt - AdSense Payments team

New Interface Wednesdays: Chart custom channels

We understand that many of you analyze how ad units or channels perform compared to each other to help you decide whether you should make changes to improve performance. Now, in the new interface, we provide you a new way to analyze individual items against one another.

The chart feature will allow you to see custom channels or ad units as their own line on the graph, so you can easily identify spikes or dips. To see how your channels perform compared to each other, visit the Performance Reports tab, and click Custom channels. Depending on the number of channels you’re using, you might be asked to filter the list and then click Update report. Once your selected channels are listed below the graph, you'll see the Combine and Chart buttons.

Select a few channels and hit ‘Chart.’ Now you can see each specific channel in it’s own color on the graph. You can use the buttons next to the graph to change the metric for which you’re comparing the channels. Using this feature, you might notice that discrepancies between channel performance are more obvious on the graph than they are just viewing the numbers in the table.


Try it now! Navigate to the Performance reports tab, and select any report for which you want to chart items.

Help us figure out what you need and want in your reports by sending your feedback through the ‘Report issue’ link in the upper corner of your account or joining the conversations in our forum.

Posted by Guillaume Ryder - AdSense Engineer

Got 2 minutes? Watch our Performance reports videos

We know the Performance reports tab of the new AdSense interface can seem a little overwhelming. With all that data at your fingertips, it’s hard to know where to start! To help you learn more about the reports you can run and how to customize the graphs, we’ve created two new videos that walk you through navigating our reporting features:

Check out some of our previous posts on the new AdSense interface to learn more about the different reports you can run to gain even more insight into your performance. If you missed last week’s videos on creating an ad unit and custom channels, be sure to check them out. We’ll see you next week for our last two videos on the Allow & block ads tab!

Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense team