August 14, 2007
It would seem that the Google AdSense Referrals CPA program must not be generating the levels of impressions and clicks that they had hoped for, since now some publishers are being opted into a new test that would force display CPA ads, despite those publishers not selecting any CPA deals to display. Over the past few weeks, select publshers have been informed that their ad units will display CPA ads mixed with their regular contextual and site-targeted ads… without being able to select the specific CPA ads. Publishers can opt-out of the program, but you have to wonder how many publishers won’t opt-out simply to avoid annoying the company that gives them the highest % of their income…
The variety of current CPA offerings is pretty slim, and when the program launched, it seemed to be filled with mainly lower quality affiliate ads. And many publishers just aren’t getting enough revenue from CPA for those who are giving them ad space, raising concerns if the tracking is working as well as it should, or if advertisers are skimming both Google and the publishers. However, this problem is certainly not unique to Google, it is a problem that is a big concern in any affiliate network . And it would seem that Google is forcing CPA ads on publishers because they haven’t been able to meet the neccessary traffic for those advertisers using CPA.
And no word on exactly how the referral ads are being selected for publishers. It could be contextual-based or category-based, or perhaps someone within AdSense is selecting them as the new publishers get added this test.
They will be shown based on the regular AdSense auction system, meaning that the ads will only display when they are expected to perform better that regular CPC or CPM ads. But they haven’t said what performance data they are using for those CPA deals, since obviously some CPA ads will perform far better than others. If it is based on the publisher account or site, it would be good, but if AdSense is using network-wide data, this could definitely skew a site to display more CPA ads, even when they aren’t performing well on that particular site or account. Fortunately, only 5% of impressions will be given to CPA ads, because you know if suddenly Google implemented a far higher percent, publishers would be screaming about lower earnings since CPA ad earnings will show up days, weeks or even a month or two after that initial click.
But aside from these issues, the actual implementation is pretty clunky. Publishers were required to do generate and upload entirely new javascript in order to display CPA ads, and this is after having to sift through all the available referrals and select which ones the publisher wants to display. A far easier implementation would have been to allow publishers the option to do in within the control panel - perhaps by selecting channels to display specific CPA ads on - that would mean advertisers would not need to go to the trouble of generating and uploading any new javascript. An on-the-fly solution would have been far easier for the many publishers we know tend to be on the lazy side 
I have tested Google AdSense CPA, and sending them significant impressions over several months but earned $0 so I eventually removed them, since I was giving valuable ad space and branding to those CPA advertisers without being compensated for it.
Here is the letter publishers have been receiving:
Dear Publisher,
Your account has been selected to participate in a limited test of an exciting new targeting feature for AdSense. In the next few days we will enable cost-per-action (CPA) ads to compete in your AdSense for content ad units on a limited portion of your traffic, 5% or less of all ad impressions. These ads will look identical to your current AdSense ads, so there will be no visible changes to you or your users.
Your account has been selected because we believe that you’ll earn more by having these additional targeted, high-quality ads competing in your ad units .
Rather than generating earnings for a click or impression, you’ll be paid a larger amount for each conversion with these new ads. A user who clicks on your ad must complete an advertiser-specified action, such as a purchase or a lead, in order for you to be paid. Remember that these ads do compete with cost-per-click and cost-per-thousand impression ads, so a CPA ad will only win in an auction when we expect it to perform better than a CPC or CPM ad.
You won’t notice any change to the way that your earnings are reported. Revenue from CPA ads will appear just as any other contextually targeted ad revenue is reported.
As a reminder, all information about this test is Google Confidential Information under the applicable Google AdSense terms and conditions.
If you have any questions about this test or would like to opt out of this experiment, please email us at adsense-support@google.com.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
I haven’t seen anything on the forums about this test yet since publishers who receive it are being told it is confidential for their account, but I have not received an email as of yet to be included 
From a business perspective, I can understand why they are doing this. But from a user perspective, I think they could have handled this a lot easier. I would be willing to bet that some publishers would have been willing to opt-in to this if there was an option in the control panel that would have allowed them to easily display CPA ads within their regular ad units without requiring them to pick and chose the deals and have to generate new AdSense code. Or even select the deals they want and be able to display them automatically into the ad units. And we all know publishers can be lazy, so I am sure some just couldn’t be bothered to do the work required to get CPA deals up and running.
It will be interesting to see if this is something that becomes standard for all publishers. After all, we know many of these limited tests end up becoming a normal feature. However, I am not all that thrilled with this prospect being done the way it is now, give us some options in the control panel to handle this and many publishers will be much happier to give more impressions to those CPA referral ads.
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June 26, 2007
While creating some AdSense ad unit javascript for a client today, I noticed a new feature in the AdSense control panel, the ability to chose the style of corners in the ad unit. Publishers can now select “slightly rounded”, “very rounded” or “squared” corners on their ad units, which is done by adding a new line to the javascript.
Here is what the slightly rounded looks like:
Very rounded:
And squared:
And here is what the implementation looks like in the control panel (click for larger view):
This is a great stylizing change for publishers who want the ad units to mesh well with a site. Now you can chose the corner styles that best match the rest of the site.
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June 5, 2007
It’s that time again! Google AdSense has updated their Policies… and don’t forget, when you agreed to the AdSense Terms, you also agreed to adhere to the policies, even when they are updated.
The first main issue is the quality aspect of it for publishers.
Webmaster Guidelines
AdSense publishers are required to adhere to the webmaster quality guidelines posted at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Previously the URL references was:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html#quality.
So Google has definitely broadened the scope of the webmaster guidelines that all publishers must conform to all the guidelines (such as the technical ones) and not just quality guidelines. Really no surprise here, though.
Site and Ad Behavior
A new bullet point has been added to this one:
Publishers using online advertising to drive traffic to pages showing Google ads must comply with the spirit of Google’s Landing Page Quality Guidelines. For instance, if you advertise for sites participating in the AdSense program, the advertising should not be deceptive to users.
An interesting decision to just link to the AdWords landing page quality guidelines, I am not sure why they just didn’t create new guidelines just for AdSense publishers. But again, for the majority of publishers, no changes or real surprises here, although some of the, um, less-than-quality publishers could run afoul with this change.
These new quality guidelines, however, are more hand in hand with the June 1st crackdown we saw on arbitrage and “Made for AdSense” sites, particularly now that they reference the new landing page quality score on the AdWords side of things… and that they don’t specify just AdWords traffic sources, but that all your online advertising practices that drive traffic to your site must also adhere to the AdWords quality score.
The Inside AdSense blog also comments on this quality issue:
We’re now requiring AdSense publishers to comply with the spirit of our Page Quality Guidelines. If you’re an AdWords advertiser, you might already be familiar with these guidelines, which are intended to provide a better experience for users, advertisers, and publishers alike. If you use any kind of online advertising, know that these guidelines encourage publishers to, among other things, create sites with simple navigation and substantial, useful content.
This new policy requirement doesn’t mean that you can’t use online advertising; it simply means that if you do, you need to be sure that the way you advertise meets with the guidelines, whether it’s through AdWords or through any other advertising program. However you advertise your site, it can always benefit from significant and relevant content, clear navigation, and the other points in our quality guidelines.
So this definitely clarifies that these guidelines refer to all advertising, not just those driving traffic via AdWords. It is interesting to note that publishers who advertise are required to comply with these rules as per the AdSense terms/policies, yet on the actual quality guidelines, it seems to be more of a suggestion to help improve quality score - rather than hard and fast rules to follow.
Ad Placement
Google added the following:
Up to three link units may also be placed on each page.
This means that publishers are not limited to just a single ad unit, they now can have up to three, so you can now have a link unit in the footer as well as in the navigation.
So really, there were only two major changes, the first that won’t likely affect many quality publishers, while the other will be good news to publishers who find that link units convert very well on their sites.
That’s all folks!
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June 5, 2007
For quite some time, people have wanted to be able to monetize pages that are located behind a login screen, whether it is for premium content, webmail, or just special member’s only pages. But until now, the ads would not be targeted to the page, simply “themed” ads, or worse, display PSAs. But now AdSense allows publishers to place ads on pages behind a login by following an authentication process.
Here is the step-by-step process to authenticate to get contextually targeted ads on those pages:
1. Enter an authentication rule
Specify an authentication URL and a set of parameters that will allow Google’s web crawlers to access your content.
2. Verify your site ownership using Google Webmaster Tools
We will direct you to Google Webmaster Tools, where you can verify that you own the site by uploading a file to it or changing the META tag of a file.
3. View your improved ad targeting
When your authentication rule is verified, you should see better ad targeting on your pages. You can check the status of your authentication rules at any time.
There is also a FAQ for the process as well.
You do need to login to Google Sitemaps using the same login email address as you use for Google AdSense, so if you currently use two differen logins, you will need to set up a new Sitemaps account with the matching AdSense email login.
This is an awesome addition to AdSense by Google, one that people have been requesting for quite some time. It will be interesting to hear back as people authenticate their password protected pages and report on the targeting on those pages.
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June 4, 2007
Those publishers who fled Google AdSense for the Yahoo Publisher Network because of revenues being affected by the impact of smart pricing on EPC will now have to content with YPN’s own version of smart pricing, called Quality-Based Pricing.
Essentially, this means if your traffic that clicks on your YPN ads doesn’t convert for advertisers, your revenues will be negatively impacted. If you tend to have quality traffic, you shouldn’t see a problem, but those with sites with traffic that tends to convert poorly for advertisers could be affected in the same way that Google AdSense smart pricing affected revenues.
But quality of traffic is not the only thing that Yahoo is taking into account when it comes to quality-based pricing. Original traffic source as well as implementation type are considered as well. So Yahoo could discount publishers for specific traffic sources, whether it be from spammy third tier engines or theoretically even taking a competitive stance against Google or MSN traffic while boosting Yahoo referred traffic.
If a publisher is earning less for a click than the same ad on another site would earn, that doesn’t mean that Yahoo is pocketing the difference. The savings are passed on accordingly to the advertiser, just as is done with Google’s smart pricing.
Of course, this does bring up the whole issue surrounding relevancy. If I have a site about hockey yet am seeing ads for mortgages and long distance, those ads are definitely not targeted to those visitors. And as a result, the odds of a successful conversion - and value - for those advertisers is seriously impacted. So publishers who are showing irrelevant ads for their content could find themselves losing revenue through no fault of their own, but simply because Yahoo is not providing ads that are targeted to the content.
It is a gutsy move to make at this time because of the current relevancy issue, although I am not surprised they have decided to follow the path Google set with smart pricing. And the end of the day, Yahoo wants to encourage advertisers to advertise on the content network, and this is one way to give advertisers the warm fuzzies when they know that if a specific site has lower quality traffic that they simply won’t have to pay as much for that click.
Yahoo is going to roll out the new quality-based pricing slowly, where it will first be released for specific market & keyword areas, although the specifics of which ones has not yet been released yet. But they expect to expand it in the coming months.
What do you think about this new quality-based pricing?
For more information, see the YPN Blog (for the publisher perspective) and the YSM Blog (for the advertiser perspective). They also have a new FAQ for advertisers.
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Posted in Yahoo! Publisher Network 4 Comments »
June 4, 2007
Are you a webmaster using the Google Maps API to create some of the cool customized maps or showoff specific places in various city maps? If so, you may be able to integrate advertisements - and your AdSense publisher ID - into your Google maps, meaning you could earn money if any of your visitors click on one of the ads displayed on the maps.
So how exactly would this work? Quite easily, actually. Publishers would not have to go and tag other locations of interest in hopes that there might be an advertisement associated with it. Instead, Google would automate the system of adding AdSense ads to the map.
This would mean that in addition to the points you are displaying on the Google map, Google would also add and display other paid for points of interest on the map. If a visitor moused-over one and then clicked on the displayed AdWords advertisement, they would receive revenue off of each of those clicks… just how Google AdSense currently displays ads that publishers earna portion of the revenue on when the ad is clicked.
When could this possibly be released? Google is not announcing that, at least not yet, according to Andrew Eland, the Google software developer who talked about the program at the Developers Day. But very likely, surfers could see some AdSense beta testers using this new feature on some of the customized Google maps out there in the near future, so keep your eyes open.
More from InfoWorld.
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June 3, 2007
Danny Sullivan’s first non-SES conference - Search Marketing Expo - gets underway tomorrow morning bright and early with a You&A with Matt Cutts. I will be speaking Tuesday afternoon on Give It Up!
No more secrets time. In this session, our panel of noted SEOs all share some of their favorite and largely overlooked SEO tips. Then we turn to the audience for more sharing. Attendees vow not to blog what’s discussed (on your honor now!). Matt Cutts and his mighty notebook might be barred from the room. Alternatively, any search reps found lurking have to give up a secret of their own or head for the hallway.
I will be around now through Wednesday, so feel free to have a quick chat if you see me. I have a few events scheduled in the evenings - including the parties Monday night that all attendees are invited to (both Yahoo & Google), and the one Sunday (tonight) with Microsoft, but afterwards you will very likely find me in one of the hotel’s lounges or bars… which is where all the real networking happens
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May 30, 2007
For years I have been hearing people asking Google AdSense for the option of payments by PayPal. And when Yahoo Publisher Network launched, publishers also asked YPN for PayPal to be included as a payment option. And I always thought it would be one of those things that would never happen…. unless Google or Yahoo bought PayPal, of course!
Well, Yahoo has stepped up and is now offering payments via PayPal for publishers. And even better, the minimum required for publishers to receive payment via PayPal is only $50 as opposed to $100 for check, direct deposit, or transfer of funds to a Yahoo Search Marketing Account.
Here is more about the PayPal payments. And you just need to login to your YPN account in order to switch your payment options over to PayPal, if you prefer to receive your payments that way.
It will be interesting to see if many publishers decide to go for the PayPal option. I suspect it will be especially popular once YPN goes international, as it will save headaches for publishers cashing foreign checks and getting charged for payments in a foreign currency. I wonder if this is one of the steps that was being put in place prior to YPN going international?
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Posted in Yahoo! Publisher Network 8 Comments »
May 18, 2007
Numerous AdSense publishers have been receiving emails from Google the past couple of days stating that their use of their AdSense account is an unsuitable business model and that accounts would be disabled as of June 1st, giving publishers about two weeks notice to prepare for the loss of the AdSense accounts… and since it seems that arbitrage publishers are the ones receiving this account disabled email, to give those publisher enough time to shut down accounts or use an alternative source for their outgoing traffic.
Right now, I have only heard from those doing either “Made for AdSense” style of sites or those doing arbitrage, and it does include publishers making significant money per month ($10,000 USD and higher). So they are not giving a pass to those who are earning above a certain threshold. And it seems that no one who is outside of the arbitrage/MFA area of AdSense earnings has been affected thus far.
And good news is that Google will be paying out earnings to those publishers, so they do not need to worry that they will lose any income earned thus far.
Now, the emails do seem to be staggered, so if you are running arbitrage through your AdSense account, there is always the possibility that you can stop all your pay per click campaigns and hopefully slide through. Likewise, you can try immediately increasing the quality on your “Made for AdSense” style sites or remove them completely, particularly if you do have sites within your account that are non-arbitrage with quality content. But one can assume that account history will play a big part when it comes to these emails being sent out, and having only a couple of non-arbitrage days might not be enough to avoid the email.
There doesn’t seem to be any appeal process, other than the usual one. And I wouldn’t hold my breath that any of these accounts would be reinstated, unless it is a case of some higher quality non-arbitrage sites using the account as well.
From a business perspective, it does make perfect sense for Google to make this move, since so many Google AdWords advertisers refuse to advertise on the content network because there are so many “Made for AdSense” style sites as well as those doing arbitrage. So in the long run, it could mean more money for publishers if/as advertisers return to the content network.
And if you are not doing MFA or arbitrage? The bad news is that you too will be impacted, although not on an account disabling level. A secondary impact to this is that many of those doing arbitrage with AdWords will likely be pulling their AdWords campaigns unless they can find a suitable alternative to AdSense. This could inadvertantly cause a reduction in AdSense earnings for legitimate publishers as well, at least in the short term. But as I said previously, if the advertisers return to the content network, it would mean more eventual money for publishers, depending on how long it takes for advertisers to start opting back in.
Since Google seems to be targeting the whole area of arbitrage (such as the landing page algo for the AdWords quality score that made it harder for arbitrage advertisers to get cheap clicks through AdWords), I think the way they are handling these instances of disabling publisher accounts is much better than what they could have done. Publishers are getting a couple of weeks notice to ensure they aren’t sending paid traffic to pages that will no longer be allowed to show AdSense, and they have also guaranteed to those publishers that they will still receive earnings earned, even though the accounts will be disabled.
It will be interesting to see what happens as of June first. Will the Yahoo Publisher Network see a sudden influx of aribtrage publishers? Very likely, since the majority of disabled US publishers turn to YPN as a new method of monetizing that traffic.
There has not been any kind of official word from Google on this, as of yet, other than the form letter style communications with the publishers whose accounts are being disabled. But it will definitely be something to watch to see how it does all spin out for both the disabled publishers as well as Google.
Feel free to comment below if you have been affected, or if you think it is a good/bad move that Google made by disabling publishers.
Added: Digg it here.
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Posted in Google AdSense 51 Comments »
April 7, 2007
I will be in New York next week for SES New York. I will be speaking on two panels on Wednesday afternoon.
The first panel is Earning Money from Contextual Ads which is a four star rated session once again. I will be presenting for about 25 minutes, followed by Jeremy Schoemaker (AKA Shoemoney). Gavin Bishop from Google AdSense will also be on the panel. There was a Yahoo Publisher Network speaker scheduled on this session who is no longer listed on the site, so I am not sure if YPN has pulled out of the session or if someone else from Yahoo is stepping up.
Following that session, we will both be back for the next session with our Contextual Ads & AdSense site clinic. This one is a lot of fun, since we get to look at a variety of sites and review the ad placement and make suggestions to increase revenue through contextual ads. So if you want a shot at having your site reviewed, be sure to attend this session. Bryan Vu from Google AdSense will also be on this session.
I will be around throughout the week, so feel free to have a quick chat if you see me. I have a few events scheduled in the evenings, but afterwards you will very likely find me in one of the hotel’s lounges or bars… which is where all the real networking happens
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