Saying thanks to our AdSense Top Contributors

Last month, hundreds of Top Contributors (TCs) from around the world joined us at the Googleplex for the annual Top Contributors Summit, including some of our very own Top Contributors. 

Every day, these 95 volunteers (84 AdSense Top Contributors and 11 Rising Stars) answer questions and help publishers find the resources they’re looking for by responding in the Help Forum. We want to say thank you to all of these individuals for their consistent help and dedication. 

If you’re interested in becoming an AdSense Top Contributor, we encourage you to get involved in the AdSense Help Forum and learn more about the Top Contributor program on this website. 

Posted by Ayaka Nishino - Inside AdSense Team

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Building an Audience: Making Social Media Work for You

Looking for a way to grow online engagement with your users?

Social media is a great way for you to build an audience and increase traffic to your website, which can help you earn more revenue. Learn how other people just like you are using AdSense and Wildfire to do just that.  If you haven’t yet perfected a way to utilize social media, you should tune in to our Hangout on Air on December 12th.  

In this Learn with Google Hangout on Air, you’ll hear directly from successful AdSense publishers and a Wildfire social media expert to learn their perspective on best practices for attracting and growing an audience through social media. They’ll also share their tips on how to increase your revenue by monetizing with AdSense.

Join this event page to live stream the Hangout on Air on December 12th from 11:00-11:30am PDT.

Hope to see you there! 

Posted by Felicia Rosado - AdSense Strategic Partnerships Team

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Improving the user experience with new mobile anchor ads

Over the past few months, we’ve regularly talked about the growing number of users accessing publisher content via mobile devices, and the importance of creating a positive user experience across all devices. In this same spirit, we’re happy to let you know about mobile anchor ads for smartphones, a new feature we’re starting to make available that’s focused on giving users a better experience with ads on mobile devices. 

Mobile anchor ads work by allowing a 320x50 banner ad unit to be anchored to the bottom of the smartphone screen, staying there when your users scroll up or down the page. At the same time, users remain in control -- they can dismiss an ad when they find it’s not relevant or want to free up the screen space, simply by swiping the ad left or right. When this happens, the anchor ad will fade and be dismissed and no other anchor ad will display unless the user reloads or visits another page.

The mobile anchor ads experience reflects our continued focus on providing users with control. As we’ve seen from our TrueView video ads and Mute this ad feature, users prefer having choice and control when it comes to viewing ads. In addition, the prominence of mobile anchor ads will give advertisers enhanced visibility while helping improve performance for you, and also remove the need to overload your mobile pages with ads. 

We’ve started enabling this feature for a select group of publishers today, and will gradually roll it out to everyone over the coming months. 

Thanks for all of the feedback you’ve provided to date on adapting to the multi-screen environment. Please do continue to share your suggestions so we can keep improving AdSense for you. Watch this space for more news and updates in the near future!

Posted by Pasha Nahass - AdSense Product Manager

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Got an app? Increase revenue by building a website too

At some point most app developers will be faced with the question: ‘What’s the best way to monetize my app?’. There are many business models, but many don’t think about the additional opportunities to earn revenue from content they’ve already created. Izumi Artisan is a Japanese developer who’s been successful in earning money from his app, then using the content to create a website to earn additional income. We will explore his strategy in this post.

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[Goal]

• Maximize revenue from the web
• Improve user experience
• Expand business overseas

[Approach]

• Monetize both website and app
• Create an environment where the users can help each other to finish the game

[Results]

• 40% of the total revenue came from the website 
•  Improved profitability and usability with low overhead

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‘Old Offender was the very first app that we made’

At the time of building our first app, my brother and I didn’t have engineering skills. So I went to a local book store and bought "Java for the First Time", and taught myself how to make a mobile app. I chose to make escape games because the programming needed to build one was relatively simple. Also, there were not many other similar apps for smartphones in that category. So we worked together and published ‘Old Offender: Escape from Prison’ as our first gaming app.

‘Ads are better than a paid business model’

When considering the monetization method, we chose ads. At that time, paid apps were not that popular in Japan. Now, we’re using multiple ad networks using a mediation tool, and for foreign countries we’re only using AdMob.

‘We saw a 60% revenue increase by using Google AdSense’

After we launched the app we had feedback from users asking for hint-and-tips, so I immediately decided to take action. We chose to make a bulletin board website where users can interact with each other to find the answer to a challenge in the game. My brother designed the website and had it ready within a week. We also signed up for Google Adsense to post ads on the website. Signing up and implementing AdSense did not take more than 2 days and we were able to stat monetize our website with the least resource but high impact. Furthermore, we saw a 60% revenue increase by using Google AdSense and the web business is now 40% of the sales of the company.

Posted by Yuya Sumida - Account Manager
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Get the right insights quickly with the new AdSense homepage

As the first thing you see when you log into your AdSense account, your homepage is an important source of information on how your site is performing. We know it’s essential that this page gives you access to the most relevant and actionable information possible. With this in mind, we’ve been gathering and closely analyzing your feedback; today, we’re happy to share our newly-designed homepage and invite you to give it a try!

Some publishers have let us know that they want more insights from Google on ways to increase revenue, while others who log in to their accounts throughout the day want to be able to quickly access the right performance data. The new homepage has been designed to give you easier access to our recommendations and insights, not only to increase your monetization but also improve the user experience on your site. At the same time, it emphasizes the key information you need to know and any immediate actions to take.

Here are some of the main enhancements you can expect to see:

• The new Insights stream on the right-hand side of the page provides personalized recommendations for your account, such as monetization opportunities and tips to enhance user experience, which can be put into action in just a few clicks.
• Your key account stats for today are quick and easy to view and now provide comparison data such as earnings so far this month versus the same period last month.
• The new Performance Today section gives you quick access to more detailed information like your countries and platforms reports, without requiring additional clicks.
• Your Scorecard will continue to be prominent on your homepage, providing quick benchmarking information on how your site is performing relative to the sites of other AdSense publishers.

Try out the new homepage directly from your account. You’ll still be able to revert back to your old homepage layout if needed. We encourage you to share your feedback on these updates with us so we can continue to improve the homepage for you. Head over to our AdSense +page to let us know if you’ve enabled the new homepage, and stay tuned for additional account improvements we’re working to develop. 

Posted by Matt Goodridge - AdSense Product Manager

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Tune in to our Hangouts On Air on going multi-screen

We’ve recently been sharing a lot of information about how user behavior is changing in our multi-screen world, and the importance of having a multi-device strategy. To continue the conversation and help you find the right multi-screen strategy for your site, our team based in Asia-Pacific will be hosting three online Learn with Google Hangouts On Air. 

During these sessions, we’ll also take a look at some of the most common questions around implementing a multi-device strategy, share some examples, and provide tips on how to get started. 

See below for more information about these sessions.

Introductory: Go Multi-Screen - Principles & Recommendations 

Date: 26th November  Time: 14:00 - 15:00 SGT (GMT +8)**

• Gain insights into the most common mobile consumer behaviour and learn about the most common approaches to building a mobile solution. 
• Hear insights on user experience, content optimization, and page speed. 
• Recommended for all publishers. 

Advanced I: Responsive Design: What, Why & How

Date: 28th November   Time: 14:00 - 15:00 SGT (GMT +8)**

• Hands-on session to learn more about going responsive.
• Followed by a Q&A session and best-practice sharing with the AdSense Team.
• Recommended for those who are considering designing a responsive website.

Advanced II: Building a Mobile Application

Date: 5th December   Time: 14:00 - 15:00 SGT (GMT +8)**

• Building an app can be an alternative to building a mobile solution or can be created as part of your multi-device strategy. Learn why and how to build a great app for your content. 
• Find out how to promote and monetize your apps.
• Recommended for those who have built or are considering building a mobile app.

Interested in live streaming the Hangouts On Air?

Click here to RSVP

** Can’t watch the sessions live? Don’t worry, a recording of each Hangout On Air will be added to the event pages shortly after the live broadcast so you can watch the material when it’s most convenient for you. 

Posted by Fouad Howayek - Inside AdSense Team 

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Make the most of the holiday season - tune in to our e-commerce Hangout On Air

As one of the busiest times for e-commerce publishers approaches, make sure you’re ready to optimize for a holiday bump in traffic. There’s a couple of critical key factors to consider. First, is your site as user-friendly as it could be? Your site should provide a great experience for your users across their devices — this will help you maintain relationships with your returning visitors and engage new ones.

Another important area to look at is whether you have a complete monetization strategy in place. On average only 1-5% of traffic on an e-commerce site will convert to a sale, so it’s important to know what options are available to monetize the visits that don’t convert.

Tune in to our e-commerce Hangout On Air on Tuesday, November 26th, where we’ll talk through some of the steps you can take to ensure your site is well set up to capture the seasonal opportunity. We’ll also answer a few of your questions, which you can submit when you RSVP to watch the live stream. During this session, we’ll cover the following topics:

• Principles of user experience for e-commerce publishers
• The importance of a user-friendly mobile site
• How to maximize your non-conversion revenue with advertising solutions

Click here to RSVP

Register to watch the Hangout On Air today and don’t forget to check out the AdSense +page for the latest updates.

Posted by Anntao Diaz - Inside AdSense Team
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