PubTalk: AdSense publishers discuss adding content ad units to their pages

Welcome to the second video in our publisher feedback series. Hopefully you’ve been able to test ad sizes and placements since our last post!

During the same Hangout, publishers Al Gross of infosports.com,  Katie and Gene Hamilton of diyornot.com, and Voitek Klimczyk of simplyadditions.com discussed how adding additional content ad units to their pages significantly helped increase their AdSense revenue. In the past, we’ve seen publishers increase their earnings by 400% by adding a maximum of three content units to their pages.

Watch this video to see why these publishers made the change and continue to check our blog for more optimization tips. To hear what other publishers have to say and to get involved in the conversation, follow AdSense on Google+.

Visit our Help Center to learn more about best practices for balancing ad units and page content, and to learn how to measure the effect of multiple ad units.

This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with publishers.

Posted by Julia Eckstein - Inside AdSense Team

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PubTalk: AdSense publishers talk about testing ad sizes and placements on their site

Many of you have opted in to receive our customized suggestions about your AdSense implementation. Wonder what publishers have to say after they’ve implemented one of these suggestions? Now you can hear from the publishers themselves in our new Google AdSense optimization series.

Five publishers recently participated in a Google+ Hangout with AdSense to share their stories and some of their top optimization tips. In this video, publishers Gene and Katie Hamilton of diyornot.com, David and Jan Moncrief of txantiquemall.com, and Voitek Klimczyk of simplyadditions.com discuss how changing ad unit sizes and placements has increased their AdSense revenue and clickthrough rates.

Visit our Help Center to learn more about recommended ad formats and placements to help you decide which changes you’d like to make next.

Check out this video and keep an eye out for the rest of the series!



This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with publishers.

Posted by Julia Eckstein - Inside AdSense Team

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PubTalk: Docstoc’s Jason Nazar says ads can complement e-commerce

When Docstoc was launched in 2007 as an online destination to help small businesses grow, advertising was the only source of revenue. As the company grew, the business model evolved to include premium subscriptions. We recently spoke with Jason Nazar, CEO of Docstoc, on the impact of advertising on their e-commerce business.

Jason says that as subscriptions grew, there was significant internal debate at Docstoc on whether ads were distracting users and limiting subscriptions. A strong believer of testing and making data-driven decisions, Jason removed all ads across the site for a single day to see if this created uplift in subscriptions.

With more than 600,000 daily visitors, the results of the experiment were definitive: removing ads did not have a noticeable impact on subscription conversions. In fact, user engagement metrics like time on site and page views per user didn’t improve either, debunking the myth that ads were alienating users.

Jason concluded that there could be a harmonious balance between running an e-commerce business and having ads on the site because a site’s audience isn’t homogeneous. In Docstoc’s case, while some people are looking for the high quality content behind the pay wall, others want quick information. When Docstoc is unable to provide information to users in the second group, contextually relevant advertising helps answer their questions – thus, Docstoc is able to earn revenue from users who are unlikely to convert to paying subscribers. Users invested in the service and the content sign up for the subscription service even with the AdSense ads. “From an overall revenue standpoint, we’re clearly much better for having both advertising and e-commerce on the site,” he says.

Jason advises publishers to be aggressive about testing any product they use on their site and to make decisions that are driven by data, rather than subjective opinions and whims. “If you’ve got a content site with a lot of traffic, AdSense and products like it are a fantastic way to drive revenue, even if you have opportunities like lead gen, e-commerce and subscription, you shouldn’t be taking off the ad products - you should be figuring out how they can live together in harmony, because you’ll make more money for it.”

Read the full case study on the ‘Success Stories’ section of our Help Center. Have you had similar results on your website? Share your story with us on the Google AdSense +page.

This blog post is part of “PubTalk”, a series of conversations with publishers.

Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Manager

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The Financial Times focuses on engagement and grows followers on Google+

When you think of The Financial Times, you might envisage bankers in bowler hats and pinstripes clutching furled umbrellas and a sheaf of pink newsprint. But that’s a pretty dated version of the FT, which is in fact a leading business news and information organization with a hefty digital presence. The average daily print and online readership is 2.2 million, while FT.com has more than 4.5 million registered users.

For the FT, maintaining a leadership position in the dissemination of news and information online has meant a company-wide commitment to encouraging and embracing social media. With this focus on achieving a high-quality social media presence, Google+ was a natural choice for the organization. “We decided to create a Google+ page to add another touch point for our readers,” says FT Community Manager Rebecca Heptinstall. “We want to allow people to read our content where and however they choose.”

In developing its Google+ page, the FT opted to emphasize captivating content and exclusive reporting. As early adopters quickly took to Google+, it might have been easy to just push tech and digital content on the platform, but the FT has gone far beyond this narrow remit, sharing a wide variety of content including a rich stream from correspondents around the world.

Part of the team’s Google+ strategy has also been to play up to the highly visual nature of the platform. Rich media content has been particularly successful. “Google+ is a hugely visual platform for the FT and that is where we see the highest degree of engagement. Whether it’s a video, image or infographic, the interface of Google+ just works well.”

With its combination of rich, unique content and a personalized approach, the FT has reached a significant milestone, recently achieving over 1 million followers -- making their Google+ audience one of the largest and fastest-growing among all newspapers.

“The Financial Times is now read by more different types of people than ever before and Google+ plays a key role in terms of reaching new readers.”

Want to emulate their success? Read the full case study.

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

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How Mashable is growing with Google+

Mashable is an independent news site devoted to digital culture and technology and was one of the first publishers to join Google+. Since joining, Mashable has been building their audience on the platform, growing Google+ into one of their top 10 sources of referral traffic. We chatted with Mashable’s Community Manager, Meghan Peters, about their first few months on Google+ and what’s made them so successful.


Mashable has used their Google+ page to expand their audience and deliver content in new ways. As Meghan says, “A lot of news organizations I think fall under the trap of just seeing social networks as broadcast platforms for their content... With Google+, I think that we have a lot of opportunity to take advantage of the cool features that the platform has, and really do more engaging projects rather than just posting our stories.”

For example, Mashable has been using Hangouts, a live multi-person video chat tool, to meet their audience face to face, creating deeper interactions. “I haven’t seen anything else like Hangouts in terms of crossing that barrier of really making a connection,” Meghan says. “I feel like it’s the deepest connection you could get.”

Hangouts has also connected Mashable employees with each other. With their headquarters in New York City and editors scattered across the U.S. and Europe, Mashable now uses Hangouts as a virtual meeting tool. The screenshare feature even helps Meghan train remote staffers who can follow along with her presentations.

Mashable has learned by doing, and that all started by creating a Google+ page. “We tried a lot of things early on, and were able to catch on quickly to what was working and what wasn’t, and have been able to shift our strategy pretty well from there,” Meghan says. Some of what she’s learned is below:

• Be active Meghan credits Mashable’s success in part to its strong and persistent presence on Google+. “We’re pretty hands-on. We have someone in there posting and moderating every day... which I think has been really important for us to maintain a presence there.”
• Add Google+ plugins When Mashable added the Google+ badge to their homepage, they increased their Google+ page audience by 38 percent. Mashable also uses the +1 button on articles and across the site to empower sharing to Google+.
• Co-create Another key to keeping Mashable’s fans engaged is its innovative approach to audience interaction and brand co-creation. A contest run via Mashable’s site to design their Google+ page sparked a wave of enthusiasm. As Meghan recalls, “We got really good feedback once we posted [the winning design]. A lot of people thought it was really cool – not only that the design was good-looking – but also that we did a contest like that and let people have the opportunity to participate.”

We think people can learn a lot from how Mashable has built a strong audience on Google+ through its use of in-depth posts, interactive Hangouts, and creative promotions, including the Google+ badge and +1 button. As Meghan notes, “Our community was very excited about this network, and we told them, let’s connect and let’s figure out...how we can both, you as a user and us as a brand, get the most out of it.”

Follow Mashable on Google+ and download the full case study here.

Posted by Rico Farmer, Product Marketing Manager

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Adding a new ad unit helps Concertboom boost revenue 400% while maintaining site quality

With a background in database and computer science, Internet marketing, and search engine optimization, Kooshiar Azimian is a self-described wearer of many hats. In early 2011, he channeled his diverse expertise to create Concertboom, a comprehensive concert database. Concertboom is monetized through ticket sales and Google AdSense, serving more than four million ad impressions monthly. “AdSense creates the least amount of ad waste — the advertiser gets the most value out of their ads, and the publisher gets the most money,” says Kooshiar, recalling his decision to use AdSense. As traffic increased to one million unique visitors per month, Kooshiar was looking for new ways to increase revenue from AdSense. 

A simple change brings booming revenue
Initially, Kooshiar showed just one 300x250 ad on some of his pages. A few months later, he received a personalized email from the Google AdSense team, who periodically share optimization tips to help publishers maximize revenue. The email suggested adding an ad unit or two, for a maximum of three units per page.

This surprised Kooshiar, who had previously thought one ad unit per page was the maximum allowed. “I was also a little skeptical about losing page quality, and I didn’t want to have to change my interface to serve another ad. But I said, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ I added one unit and the result was shocking. My revenue more than quadrupled in the first week,” he recalls. 

Quality matters most
Given the benefits of this simple implementation, Kooshiar recommends other publishers give it a try, but not at the expense of site quality and user experience. “A quality site serves the right content, especially if your audience comes from search engines. Don’t trick your audience into content you don’t have. Provide content that is accurate, updated and served in a timely fashion with nice, clean graphics. Be sure to maintain page quality and a quick load time. Know your audience and consider which ad formats work best with your content. Also, make sure you’re not compromising your site aesthetic, so your website doesn’t just look like ad junk,” he advises.

Kooshiar also points out that since he maintained his focus on quality, he did not experience any change in his search ranking after adding a new ad unit.

A solid venture
After witnessing his revenue quadruple, Kooshiar is seeing Concertboom in a new light. “Before, this site was just extra cash for me, and now it’s a growing business. I can start hiring people to help me create more content,” he says. “This AdSense optimization has changed the whole dynamic of Concertboom.”

Posted by Caroline Halpin, AdSense Optimization Specialist

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Meet Australian AdSense publishers Tim and Victoria van Brugge

Husband and wife team Tim and Victoria van Brugge run i-do.com.au, an Australian wedding directory. Their original business plan was to sell diamonds online, but in creating the wedding directory to build an audience of potential customers they discovered that media and advertising was an easier business model, and they've never looked back. Recently we sat down with Victoria and Tim to learn about how they use AdSense on their website. Watch this video to learn more.



Posted by Amelia Walkley, Strategic Partner Manager

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AlloExpat thrives with Google AdSense

‘PubTalk’ is a new program highlighting publishers’ perspectives on display products and industry trends. In this installment, we hear from Theresa Giovagnoli, co-founder of AlloExpat.com, on the site’s 10th anniversary, about why they’ve worked with AdSense for 6+ years and how they’ve benefited from implementing simple optimization solutions.

AlloExpat.com is a worldwide expatriate social portal. It addresses the growing global expatriate community by being a one-stop information center and by connecting expats with professional expatriate service providers.

Inside AdSense (IA): What role does AdSense play in your business?

Theresa Giovagnoli (TG): We’re a very large portal and have dedicated websites and discussion forums for each country in our global network. We need a solution that effectively targets ads to a wide international audience. AdSense is simply the best and most efficient solution to do this. Thanks to a consistent revenue steam from AdSense, our web development team has been able to dedicate its attention to growing our global audience and content.

IA: What is the one success you’ve had with AdSense that you’d like to share with other publishers?

TG: One successful tactic we employed was recategorizing targetable custom channels. We are a global site with multiple regions. Earlier, all our regions were combined under one custom channel, but once we defined targetable channels by region, we saw CPC increase by 20%.  I would highly encourage publishers to set targetable custom channels at the level that best defines their site because it allows advertisers to specifically target their website by segment or region which may lead to performance uplift.

IA: Why do you love AdSense?

TG: We have managed to implement AdSense in a non-intrusive way, generating a fair amount of revenue over the years. AdSense has played a key role in our development over the years and still does today. We’d never have come this far without it.

Posted by Jennifer Chan, AdSense Team

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Gold Star Partner Showcase

Over the past month, we highlighted homebuyinginstitute.com and govisitcostarica.com as the first two AdSense publishers in the Gold Star Partnership Showcase.  To recap, the showcase is an opportunity for us to publicly recognize some of our AdSense partners.

We asked publishers to submit their sites for consideration if they clearly demonstrate the following:

• Exhibit original, engaging and useful content for users
• Adhere to AdSense policies
• Test and try new ways to optimize AdSense ad placements

Today we'd like to highlight Max Levitte, founder of cheapism.com:

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Name: Max Levitte
Site: Cheapism.com
Vertical: Shopping
AdSense Partner for:  5+ years


Tell us about your site:
Called by The New York Times ‘a Consumer Reports for the cheap’, Cheapism.com is a budget-products review site, serving consumers who can only afford/wish to buy inexpensive products, but still want the best value for their money. Cheapism is the only review site that focuses exclusively on low-price products, a part of the market that is rarely reviewed by the experts.

What we do at Cheapism is research the low price products and services in various categories and then create a thorough buying guide on how to buy budget products in that category. Our editorial process involves defining the low-price range for each category, identifying must have features, summarizing key performance attributes, and then analyzing relevant reviews and recommending the best budget buys and what to avoid. We follow strict journalistic editorial guidelines when creating our content and take great pride in our articles.

What makes cheapism.com a great AdSense publisher?
We implement AdSense in a non intrusive way yet generate high eCPMs.  We also manage to generate a significant amount of our AdSense revenue from a link unit.

Why do you love AdSense?
Because it targets exactly what our visitors are looking for.
Because it saves us from having to deal with advertisers.
Because it generates most of our revenue.

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Finally, thank you again to everyone who submitted their sites for consideration!

Posted by Julia Riley, AdSense Partnerships

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Gold Star Partner Showcase

Last week, we highlighted homebuyinginstitute.com as the first publisher in the Gold Star Partnership Showcase.  The showcase is an opportunity for us to publicly recognize some of our amazing AdSense partners.

Out of hundreds of submissions, we selected three publishers who clearly demonstrate the following:

• Exhibits original, engaging and useful content for users
• Adheres to AdSense policies
• Tests and tries new ways to optimize AdSense ad placements

Today we'd like to highlight Todd Sarouhan, founder of GoVisitCostaRica.com:

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 Name: Todd Sarouhan
 Site: GoVisitCostaRica.com
 Vertical: Travel
 AdSense Partner for: 5+ years

Tell us about your site:
“GoVisitCostaRica.com is a very informative travel website dedicated to traveling to and within Costa Rica. You can plan your perfect Costa Rica vacation; on the beach, in the forest or next to the volcanoes. See why Costa Rica is one of the best countries to vacation in.”

What makes govisitcostarica.com a great AdSense partner?
“We have a great use of AdSense within our large amount of content.”

Why do you love AdSense?
“AdSense has been a great add on to our monthly income for our very popular travel website.”

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In the next couple of weeks, we’ll highlight our final Gold Star Partner so be sure to keep an eye on the blog!

Posted by Julia Riley, AdSense Strategic Partnerships

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