Monetizing your mobile site

As a part of the multi-device series, we previously looked at the importance of going multi-device as well as three different structures for building multi-screen websites. Regardless of which approach you choose there’s a monetization solution to help you optimize revenues through your digital content. 

Google AdSense is the main Google product for monetizing mobile sites, while AdMob is the Google product for monetizing mobile apps. Today we will focus on using AdSense for content, (AFC) and Custom Search Ads, (CSA) to fit your mobile solution. Both AFC mobile and CSA mobile can be implemented inside your existing AdSense account. Mobile websites that supports older, feature phones still using WAP will need to use the older solution, AdSense for mobile. However, it’s more likely that your site has been designed for iPhone, Android, or another high-end device, in which case you simply use standard AFC ad units that fit your mobile site. 

The AFC ad code you use with your desktop site is the same code used for your mobile site, the only difference is that you’ll want to choose ad sizes optimized for mobile. As you can see here, the ad-size we've selected is ‘320 x 50’ Mobile banner:

What’s even easier is that most of the same optimization tips used for desktop, also apply with mobile. We’ve found that the 320x50 and 300x250 tend to monetize best on mobile. Here we’ve listed some initial optimization tips to get you started: 

• Try different ad sizes (320x50, 300x250, 200x200, 250x250) and note that you can now also create ad units to fit your responsive site.
• Try different ad positioning 
• Change the look and feel of the ad (color, font, borders)
• Implement up to three ad units 

If your site contains a proprietary search functionality, you’ll be able to monetize with CSA mobile. However, if you use the Google search bar then this won’t be the solution for you. Some verticals that tend to be good candidates for CSA are job search, classifieds, travel, real estate, and e-commerce sites. Along with the monetization benefits, CSA ads are highly customizable so it’s very easy to modify the look and feel of these ads, to align them to your mobile site.

Next week we’ll look more at AdMob, our mobile solution for apps. In the meantime, don’t forget to keep an eye on our Google+ page to find out what’s going on as well as staying up to date with product enhancements in our Help Center. If you missed the first posts in the multi-device series, you can find them here: 1. Get your multi-device strategy off the ground, 2. What’s the best mobile solution for you?.

Posted by Federico Gomez Kodela - Mobile Specialist
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