Category Archives: Inside AdSense

A look inside Google AdSense

Create and share winning content

6 minute read

Content is everything we consume online. Users arrive on a site to be educated, entertained, inspired, or complete a task.

Content is how you win new site visitors, and how you entice them to return. So it’s important to remember that, though ads are driving revenue, content should be the focal point of every page.

With that in mind, part three of our series for new publishers focuses on how to plan, write, and promote great content. If you missed part one (AdSense 101) or part two (AdSense best practices), then check them out and get caught up.

The keys to engaging, shareable content

Be targeted, consistent, and frequent: Take the time to figure out who is reading your content and which topics they engage with most (we’ll get into the mechanics of this later on). Update your site as often as possible with fresh content, tailored to your audience.

Use video where possible: People crave video, users from around the world are now watching a billion hours of YouTube’s incredible content every single day! Video personalizes your brand and can boost the amount of time user’s spend on your site.

Be readable: Successful online content is scannable and snappy; follow these best practices to make sure your articles look enticing to viewers:

Don’t use more than 7 sentences per paragraph
Keep your column width between 700 and 800 pixels
Organize your content with headers and subheaders.

Stay on top of trends: Use online tools like Google Trends to identify subjects your audience is interested in, and discuss them while they’re still fresh. Trends is also really useful for location targeting - identifying popular topics and keywords in your target areas.

Incorporate evergreen content: Evergreen content is information that stays useful and relevant no matter when it’s consumed. While trending topics should be used to generate buzz, evergreen content will bring a consistent source of referral traffic that may boost your position on organic search pages.

Figure out what works, and do more of it

If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to link Google Analytics and AdSense. Otherwise, the following recommendations will not be applicable for you.

Content groups allow you to bundle your content into different lists, to analyze the themes that drive most engagement with your audience. For example, if you run a digital marketing blog, you could create content groups around SEO, social media, PPC campaigns etc.

After setting your groups, use the AdSense page report to view and compare metrics. You may discover that your audience is interested in one particular theme - if so, try to focus on that topic more at the expense of groups with less engagement. For example, if your foodie blog has more views on food truck review articles than any other group, then adapt your content strategy to include more of that content.

The Landing Page report in Google Analytics helps you understand where users landed on your site, and where they left from. This will give you insights into the type of content that draws visitors from external sites, and may highlight content that should be re-worked due to poor metrics.

To get the most value from the Landing Page report, track the following:

Look for pages with high bounce rates. If you find that one or two areas of your site drive your users towards the exit, then ask yourself what you could do to improve them.
If you’ve got quality content that’s not attracting new visitors, then play with the headline or experiment with different primary images to promote it.
Analyze page speed. 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load. If some of your pages are slower than others, then it’s likely they contain bloated elements. Consider compressing images or getting rid of animated files. Check out the tactical recommendations to increase page speed in part two of this series.

Plan ahead with your audience in mind

Use the Demographics and Interests tab in your Google Analytics account to understand who’s reading your content, and what their interests are (you’ll need to enable this feature before getting started).

The Demographics report will give you insights into the age and gender of your audience, and allows you to segment these groups to see how different people react to your content.

Use the Interest report to shape your content to your audience’s interests, and identify upcoming events they may be interested in. For example, if fans of your digital marketing blog are also interested in new technology and gadgets, you could mention these learnings across your social channels to increase your following.

At this point, you’ll have accumulated data from content grouping, as well as the Landing Page, Demographics, and Insights reports. Use it all to paint a picture of your average user, what they enjoy, what they dislike - then use those insights to build a content calendar.

A content calendar will allow you to plan a content strategy that’s focused on the topics you know your audience enjoys. Be sure to research seasonal events related to your industry or product, so you can discuss them while they’re still relevant.

Build an audience on social

Growing an audience on social media can provide publishers with a consistent source of referral traffic to their sites. As with content, the best way to compel users to follow your social accounts is to provide them with consistent value.

Here’s some tips to help you set up and maintain a strong social presence:

Don’t be too self-promotional. You’ll want to link back to your content, but if that’s all you focus on, potential followers will lose interest.
Use your content calendar to prepare posts around upcoming events in advance. Users care less about an Oscars tweet a week after the ceremony.
Create relationships with influencers. Retweet them, mention them in a favorable way, and link to their content. These relationships can lead to guest-blogging opportunities or retweets from an account with a large audience. This tactic can help you break through your current organic reach to access new users.
Build relationships with your users. Answer their questions promptly, engage with them in conversations. If your audience feels valued, they’ll be much more likely to help you promote your content.
Use Google Trends to discover trending topics on a daily basis, and tie in posts with popular conversations.

For a list of helpful tools to help you manage your social accounts and build your audience, read our ‘Amplify your content with social’ blog post.

And make sure to check in next week, when our series for new publishers continues with a post on improving performance to potentially maximize profits.

If you think AdSense is a fit for your site, then sign up now and get started.

‘Til next time.

Posted by: Jay Castro, @jayciro

Source: Inside AdSense

AdSense best practice: Set yourself up for success

7 minutes to read

In part two of our series for new publishers to turn their #PassionIntoProfit, we’ll cover three steps you can take to set up you up for success. Following these insights won’t guarantee success, however it will give more opportunities for your ads to perform, while making sure they complement your site’s user experience.

To get started, we’ll discuss three topics:

Optimal ad placement
Mobile optimization
How to avoid policy violations

If you’re looking for an introductory overview of AdSense, check out the first part of this series where we cover the basics of AdSense.

Make the most of your ad placement

It’s important to keep the user in mind when deciding where to place ads. You want your ads to perform well, but adding too many can clutter your page for users.

Before you decide where to place ads, ask these 4 questions:

How do your users engage with your site?
Where is their attention going to be focused?
How can you place ads in focus areas without getting in the way of your content?
How can you keep all of your pages easy to navigate?

It’s a best practice to place ads next to the content your visitors are most likely to focus on, but take the time to make sure ads are clearly separate and identifiable from your content. Remember that ads that confuse or mislead visitors violate the AdSense program policies and are not allowed. Other ad placement actions that can lead to policy violations include:

Mirroring or rewriting content from other sources without adding value
Pages with more advertising than publisher content
Using automatically generated content
Hosted ad pages or pages with no content
Sites that don’t follow our Webmaster Guidelines

Here are a few ad placement best practices that may improve the viewability of your ads.

For mobile sites, place a 320x100 ad above the fold, where it will be visible to everyone who lands on your page.
For desktop sites, use vertical ad units, which remain visible as users move around a page. The 300x600 layout is one of the fastest growing ad sizes, and is popular with advertisers who want to increase brand awareness.
Try to lay out your content in a way that holds your visitor’s attention and entices them to continue reading.

Optimize for mobile

Today, there are now more searches on mobile than on desktop. This increase in mobile traffic has increased user expectations of mobile site performance. Meeting the expectations of mobile users continues to be a challenge for publishers. 53% of mobile users will abandon a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load, with that number rising to 74% for pages that take longer than 5 seconds.

Despite this heavy shift towards mobile, a recent study by Think With Google found that the average time it takes to load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds.

Publishers who don’t adapt to mobile user needs are less likely to retain new visitors. This reduces their ability to convert site visits into ad revenue.

To get your mobile site up to speed, keep these insights in mind:

Dedicate time to discover current issues on your mobile site: Tools like PageSpeed Insights, Mobile-Friendly Test, and Web Page Test will highlight the areas of your site that need attention.
Optimize your mobile site for speed: Get rid of bulky content, reduce the number of server requests, and consolidate data and analytics tags. Prioritize loading elements that are visible above the fold first - styling, javascript logic, and images accessed after the tap, scroll, or swipe can be loaded later.
Monitor your progress: Run regular A/B tests to audit performance and remove anything that lowers speed or harms user experience. Whenever you update your analytics data, evaluate your requests and remove outdated collection pixels.

Once you’ve got your fast mobile site running smoothly on small-screens, take these additional steps to maximize your profits and ensure that you’re compliant with the AdSense program policies.

Help prevent accidental clicks by moving ad units 150 pixels away from your content.
Use responsive ad units, which automatically adapt your ad sizes to fit any screen.
Use the 320x100 ad size instead of the 320x50 where possible. By using the 320x100 ad unit, you allow the 320x50 ad to compete as well, doubling the fill-rate competition.
Place a 320x100 ad unit just above the fold.
Be as consistent as possible across screens - make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for regardless of the device they’re using.

Keep AdSense safe for everyone

After signing up for an AdSense account, you’ll need to make sure your website is policy-compliant before getting approved.

While AdSense will work behind the scenes to maximize your performance, it’s your responsibility to make sure your content and placements adhere to AdSense policies.

Violation of AdSense policies can lead to your account being suspended or your website removed from the network. To keep your account in good standing, follow these best practices:

Don’t click your own ads, or ask others to click them. These clicks won’t count toward revenue and may lead to an account suspension. Even if you’re interested in an ad or looking for its destination URL, clicking on your own ads is considered an invalid click and is prohibited.
Maximize content, not ads per page. It’s important that original, regularly updated content remains the focal point of your website.
Don’t use deceptive layouts. If the line between your content and your ads becomes blurred to your readers, those ads will be flagged as a violation.
Take responsibility for your traffic. Use Google Analytics to quickly identify and resolve unusual traffic patterns. If you’re unsure of what counts as invalid traffic, then watch this short video.
Always follow the Code Implementation Guide and don’t try to modify your AdSense code.

Our Webmaster Guidelines provides detailed notes on how to avoid spammy content and our all-in-one compliance guide is a resource for you to reduce the possibility of receiving a policy violation.

If you have any other questions about AdSense policy check out our Help Center to learn more, or join an #AskAdSense session Thursdays at 9:30am PT to speak directly with a support specialist.

Our beginner’s series will continue with ideas on how to plan and create content that sells.

Apply for an AdSense account

If you think content monetization is right for your website, then try AdSense.

Posted by: Jay Castro from the AdSense team

Source: Inside AdSense

AdSense 101: What you need to know

From all around the world, over 2,000,000 small and large publishers use AdSense to earn money through advertising. Before you take that step for your own website and apply for a Google AdSense account, there’s plenty to consider: from where to place ads, to the type of products those ads sell, we realize the importance of keeping the content on your site relevant to your audience and keeping your audience happy.

Over the next five weeks, our blog we’ll be covering everything you need to set up and manage your account to the highest standard. So if you think joining AdSense is right for you, then keep an eye on our social channels.

In this post we’re going to cover the fundamentals of AdSense, and give you clear steps on how you can earn extra income from your content without disrupting the flow of your website.

AdSense is a free, simple way to make money by placing ads on your website.

AdSense is Google’s ad network that does the hard work of bringing together the parties that participate in online advertising, making it simpler for everyone involved to succeed. It builds relationships with businesses looking to advertise, and websites like yours looking to make money by selling ads. Through an ad network, AdWords advertisers can get access to a wide variety of different online inventory at scale. And, they also help publishers find advertisers quickly. By working with an ad network like AdSense, you can spend less time marketing and selling your advertising space and more time focused on creating the best content for your users.

After you sign up for an account with a policy compliant website and are approved by AdSense, AdSense works behind the scenes to manage advertiser bids, inventory, and placements while focusing on increasing your earnings. It’s important to know that in order to maintain ad serving on your website and keep an AdSense account active, it's the responsibility of the publisher to keep up to date with, and adhere to, the policies posted here.

It’s like an automatic car -- it removes most of the manual adjustments, allowing you to cruise along with less effort. You still need regular “tune ups” to get optimal performance, but you won’t need to shift gears to get from point A to point B.

Put AdSense to work for you.

To make money from AdSense, you’ll need a steady stream of website traffic. It’s a best practices to consistently post high-quality content, as it can attract more loyal visitors with fresh, relevant content.

If you have a website that you update regularly, then why not sign up and see if AdSense works for you? The process is completely free and easy to add to your site. See the steps below or visit our help center to learn more.

With AdSense, you’re in complete control of the type of ads that appear on your site.

AdSense is packed full of features designed to help you quickly and easily display content that fits naturally within your website.

You call the shots on the ads that appear on your website.

Choose the ad formats you’d prefer (text, display, rich media etc.), then highlight where on your website you’d like them to display.
Block specific categories of ads that you don’t want to display, so only products or businesses relevant to your content can bid on your inventory.
Adapt the look and feel of text ads to match the style of your website.

Measure and optimize performance.

Performance reports provide key insights into how users engage with your content by measuring both your earnings and your performance across key engagement metrics.
Leverage these insights with the Optimization page within your AdSense account. It’s a one-stop shop for improving your account performance, providing you with tailored recommendations and A/B experiments to help you make more informed decisions.

Mobile friendly for you and your users.

For you, the AdSense mobile app provides you with an account overview, as well as access to detailed performance reports on all key metrics.
For your users, AdSense has mobile-friendly ad formats like responsive ad units that automatically adapt to different screen sizes or page-level ads that are displayed at optimal times when they’re likely to perform well for you and provide a good experience for your users.

AdSense is time efficient. Publishers that use our QuickStart feature only need to place a snippet of code in the <head> tag of their policy compliant web pages, then we’ll will take care of the rest.

Here’s how you can get started.

Before you can start earning money from your content, you’ll have to submit your website for approval. Follow these best-practice steps before the application to increase your chances of a quick and easy approval:

Make sure you include an ‘About’ page, ‘Contact’ page, and a ‘Privacy’ page on your site.
Include as much original content as possible; websites that post duplicate content will not be considered.
Make sure you have full ownership of the website you’re submitting, or permission from the owner.
Ensure that your site adheres to the AdSense program policies.

If you think AdSense is a fit for your website, then sign up now. After you’ve signed up you can submit your site to begin the approval process. To begin the approval process, log into your new AdSense account, click on Settings in your account page, then click My Sites and then Add.

Once approved, your final step is to add the a provided snippet of code to your website (find detailed instructions here).

If your site averages more than 300,000 monthly views, then contact an AdSense specialist for help that’s specific to your business. And if you’d like additional support with your account you can join an #AskAdSense support session on Twitter every Thursday 9:30am PT for our specialized guidance, tips and account support.

Once you start earning money with AdSense, you can finally turn your #PassionIntoProfit.

Apply for an AdSense account

Stay tuned for more insights on getting started with AdSense and optimizing your account right here on our blog and on our social channels.

Posted by: Jay Castro @jayciro, from the AdSense team

Source: Inside AdSense

Global Spotlight: Event-driven engagement strategies for Vietnam

We’re back with another AdSense Global Spotlight to help you succeed as a publisher in Vietnam. The big takeaway here is that building content that takes advantage of seasonal and viral events is key to engaging with Vietnamese audiences.

Get into the minds, and hearts, of your target audience. What do they want and need in terms of relevant information, ideas, inspiration and entertainment? Remember, content that carries emotion is more likely to resonate with your audience and evoke a response.

Seasonal Content
Seasonal content can be based on events taking place locally, regionally, or even globally. In Vietnam, the Tet holiday season, Reunification Day, Mua Vu Lan, Independence Day and the wedding season are just a few of the feature dates that can generate timely content. While timely articles are great for generating instant buzz, having content that maintains its importance over time may yield higher traffic rates overall. Evergreen content is information that stays relevant no matter when it is consumed. Make sure to interlace trendier content with evergreen pieces every so often. For instance, evergreen topics for the upcoming wedding season could focus on key cultural wedding traditions, or the most unique wedding locations, or even the top ten destinations for newlyweds to spend their honeymoon.

Use the events listed above as a starting point for creating a content calendar, an essential tool for any publisher looking to harness online buzz precipitated by big events.

Alongside the traditional calendar, have a look at Google Trends to find which upcoming events can lend the most buzz and relevance to your site’s content. Big events that generate global interest – especially sporting events – can create huge surges in web traffic. Look closely and you can anticipate when the spikes are coming, then create the right content to capture that crowd. Squall Le, Head of Web at YAN, suggests focusing on images for the maximum effect.

Providing a great example of a viral moment, Haynhucnhoi’s mascots Ms Nhuc and Mr Nhoi appeared in a cartoon showing how children behave when visitors visit during Tet. During the visit the kids, mind their own business. But as the visit draws to its end, they approach guests with puppy-dog eyes in the hope of receiving hong bao money. Inspired by this commonly shared experience, they created their own videos on the brand’s YouTube channel.

Viral Content
By being unique and noteworthy, viral content creates a sensation and compels users to share it. The conventional way for a website to improve its search ranking is to publish content over time that attracts attention and interest. Viral content accelerates that process, by helping a site rack up inbound links in a hurry.

Knowing what will make a piece of content go viral is a whole science in itself. Successful viral content often features a few key characteristics, tending towards topics that are newsworthy, surprising, positive, and simple to share and understand. Not surprisingly, broad areas of interest typically have broader appeal than anything too niche.

Of course, some of the most successful viral news comes from sporadic incidents that can’t be predicted. There are ways you can keep abreast of these trends though. Take for example the use of the phrase Tha Thu by Vietnamese singer Son Tung MT-P. Depending on pronunciation, it can mean both “tattoo” and “tolerate.” An online social movement quickly sprang up around this phase through viral clips, photos and memes. Simply paying attention to what’s making a sensation can lend inspiration to your viral content creation efforts. Follow the topic as it develops from the convenience of your inbox with Google Alerts, and consider establishing your own unique hashtag to propel the conversation.

According to the team at Haynhucnhoi, a rising Vietnamese social site, spending time on social media is a vital way to source potentially viral stories and understand how to capitalize on them. For example, when Euro 2016 was a trending topic, they created memes based on the hottest football clips. If a musical artist is making headlines, they’ll mine music for fans to listen to. If something funny has happened in the news, they’ll produce funny videos that tie in with the event or situation.

They’ve gone even further by creating their own characters and using them to illustrate seasonal sentiment. Even conventional dates – such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or the traditional Vietnamese calendar – provide inspiration for sharable cartoons. With this approach, Haynhucnhoi is able to produce new content every 15 to 20 minutes!

In light of inspiring examples like these, it seems there’s never been a better time for publishers to serve user demand for great content in Vietnam. With 68 million native Vietnamese speakers in the world,(1) offering localized content provides a great way to extend your user numbers. And don’t forget that monetizing that content is straightforward when you sign up with AdSense.

Get started today and sign up for AdSense, let’s turn your #PassionIntoProfit.

Posted by: Jay Castro, @jayciro

(1) Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2017. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twentieth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: www.ethnologue.com

Source: Inside AdSense

Manage the risks associated with user comments

As a publisher, you can drive discussion and increase reader engagement by using user comments. At their best, comments enable your readers to share their perspectives and learn from each others’ experiences. By creating a community of conversation around your articles, your readers become more engaged and find your site more relevant and beneficial.

Alas, not every commenter is well-intentioned or well-informed. Consequently, comment sections can devolve into a place where social norms are tossed aside to further an agenda or to air a grievance. These negative, rude, or abusive comments take away from the article and ultimately harm your brand. Comments that violate Google policies can also cause your site to no longer be eligible to show Google ads.

So, as a publisher, how can you keep comments — or, more generally, user-generated content (UGC) — policy compliant so that your site can continue to monetize with Google??

First, understand that as a publisher, you are responsible for ensuring that all comments on your site or app comply with all of our applicable program policies on all of the pages where Google ad code appears. This includes comments that are added to your pages by users, which can sometimes contain hate speech or explicit text.

Knowing this, please read Strategies for managing user-generated content. Make sure you understand how to mitigate risk before you enable comments or other forms of user-generated content. Managing comments on your site pages is your responsibility, so make sure you know what you’re getting into. For example, you’ll need to ensure you review and moderate comments consistently so as to ensure policy compliance so that Google ads can run.. We published an infographic in 2016 which offers a quick all-in-one glance at policy compliance.

Another option:
If you are unable to put into place strong and responsive controls over your comments, we strongly encourage you to make a simple design change: put comments on their own page, and don’t run ads on that page. Otherwise, unreviewed and unmoderated offensive or inappropriate user comments can show right next to your publisher content. This can damage your brand, offend your users, and cause you to violate Google policies.

Here’s one way to separate comments and content:
At the end of your content, place a call to action, such as: “User Comments” or “View Comments” which lets users open the comments in a new page. On that new page, make sure not to place any Google ad tags, so that no ads serve next to those comments...

At Google, we believe in fostering an environment where users, advertisers, and publishers can all thrive in a healthy digital advertising ecosystem. By valuing each party equally, we help ensure the sustainability of our industry. We publish Help Center materials, write blog posts, speak at industry events, provide publisher forums and host events at our offices to help our publishers succeed in an ever changing environment.

Posted by: John Brown, Head of Publisher Policy Communications

Source: Inside AdSense

Global Spotlight: Capitalizing on Vietnam’s digital opportunity

This week the AdSense Global Spotlight shifts its focus to Vietnam, home to nearly 90 million people and one of southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies. The country offers an unmissable opportunity for AdSense publishers interested in global audience growth.

First let’s look at the bigger picture: there’s no denying that the world becomes more digital each and every day. While global advertising expenditure is expected to reach $573 billion in 2017,(1) the key growth drivers are strong demand for digital advertising, specifically mobile campaigns.

Drilling down on Vietnam, the smartphone continues to pick up pace in this country, where many are mobile-first or mobile-only users. While Asia-Pacific made up 34% of all smartphone users in 2008, it’s expected to leap to 55% in 2017. Some Vietnam-based publishers have already seen mobile account for as much as 90% of their traffic.(2)

With all that in mind, there are seven key opportunities not to be missed in Vietnam this year:

Fast mobile experiences: The most successful publishers in the region are devoting development resources to boost load speeds of mobile sites and ads and to improve the user’s experience. Recent research from DoubleClick indicates that over 50% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load. Invest in increasing your mobile page speed to influence increases in time on site, engagement, and re-engagement.
Native advertising: These ads fit into the look and feel of your website, making it a better and more effective ad experience for your visitors. Native formats include custom sponsored content, content recommendations, and in-feed ad units.
Programmatic ad transactions: Programmatic advertising uses software and algorithms to match publishers’ inventory with buyers in search of ad space. An auction system ensures the ad of the buyer with the highest bid fills each space, which can add up to revenue gains for you and your site. Consider beginning with this short quiz to help you decide if the correct next step for your business is programmatic advertising.
Better ad experiences: Because marketers want to buy ads with a high chance of actually being seen by users, there’s a shift towards valuing viewable impressions over served impressions. Page level ads is an AdSense family of ads that you can use that is optimized to show when ads are likely to perform well and be seen.
Digital ad serving: As you grow as a publisher, you might find you need more control to sell, schedule, deliver and measure advertising deals across multiple digital properties. DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business is an industry-leading platform to consider given its easy to use interface and built-in yield management technology
Video: According to Buffer, visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. Furthermore, YouTube recently announced that over one billion hours of video content is watched on YouTube every day. If you don’t already create, embed, and monetize original video content on your site, now’s the time to incorporate video into your content strategy.
Messaging: Throughout Asia, the commercialization of social media has helped messaging platforms to evolve into central areas of ecommerce. For AdSense publishers, messaging platforms could provide an opportunity to drive mobile users to your content as a channel for content discovery.

Remember, there are 68 million native Vietnamese speakers in the world today who are going online in growing numbers. If you’re a publisher in Vietnam, signing up for AdSense is an easy way to turn your in-demand content into profit. And for publishers already using AdSense, Vietnam presents an exceptional opportunity to grow your site visitors.

To explore the possibilities for your business and site, don’t miss our live stream on 24th March where we’ll share even more recommendations for the Vietnamese market. You can sign up for AdSense here, and start turning your #PassionIntoProfit today.

Posted by: Jay Castro from the AdSense team

(1) eMarketer Worldwide Ad Spend Report 2016

(2) eMarketer Vietnam Online 2016 Report

Source: Inside AdSense

Help our team help you

We always hear from publishers that you’re looking for actionable tips and best practices for growing your site. Our team of product, monetization and website optimization experts are constantly building new resources and insights to help publishers like you grow your business. We share personalized suggestions for your website via email in addition to news on the latest product features and invitations. Additionally, we send periodic invitations to live video sessions and events offering personalized tips for your region.

To ensure you’re getting this information from us, we need to have up-to-date contact details and communication preferences for you. Here are a few quick and simple steps you should take when you log in to your AdSense account, to make sure we can get in touch:

Step 1:
Make sure that the email address you've listed in your account to receive communications from us is correct and is one that you’re regularly checking. You can check which email address we’re using to reach you by logging in to your AdSense account and going to your Personal settings under the Account section on the left menu bar.

Step 2:
Opt in to receive emails from us. We categorize the emails we send based on the content they include. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Customized help and performance suggestions - Includes personalized revenue and optimization tips customized specific for your website.
Periodic newsletters with tips and best practices - Includes general AdSense tips, best practices and product updates.
Occasional surveys to help Google improve your AdSense experience- Gives you a regular opportunity to share your feedback on AdSense.
Special Offers - Includes invitations to events in your country and live YouTube events..
Information about other Google products and services which may be of interest to you - Occasional updates on other Google products like Google Analytics or DoubleClick for Publishers.

You can update your email preferences by checking the boxes in your Personal settings section.

Step 3:
Choose your language preference. Did you know that AdSense emails are available in 38 different languages? We’ve recently added Hindi, Malay and Filipino. You can choose the language that suits you best by using the Display language drop-down menu directly under the email preferences checkboxes.

Get the most from the AdSense team and ensure you can hear from us. Log in to your account now and check your contact details and communication preferences. It takes no more than two minutes.

Posted by Suzy Headon - Inside AdSense Team

Source: Inside AdSense

Announcing the Winners of the Certified Publishing Partner 2016 Summer Challenge

Certified Publishing Partners are trained experts on AdSense, DoubleClick for Publishers, and DoubleClick Ad Exchange who can help publishers like you earn more while also saving you time. These Google partners can help you with a range of services from ads monetization to design and development support, allowing you to focus on creating quality content for your site.

The inaugural Certified Publishing Partner 2016 Summer Challenge launched in July 2016 to identify and recognize Certified Publishing Partners who show significant dedication and expertise in mobile, customer service, and innovation. Please join us in congratulating our three winning partners:

Customer Satisfaction Award Winner: AdThrive, USA

About the award: This award recognizes the partner who demonstrates outstanding overall quality of customer service for publishers.

Why AdThrive: AdThrive specializes in helping bloggers monetize their sites so that they can focus on blogging. According to our latest customer satisfaction survey, AdThrive scored 95/100. In addition to being able to deliver expected results for the publishers, AdThrive treats publishers in a way they are valued and has knowledgeable, friendly and approachable staff. This is a prime example of putting publisher’s needs first and delivering tangible results in an efficient and scalable way.

Congratulations to the AdThrive team!

Mobile Champion Award Winner: WOSO, China

About the award: This award recognizes the partner who demonstrates strong expertise in helping publishers capture mobile opportunities with strong user experiences and effective monetization.

Why WOSO: We believe that Certified Publishing Partners should take the lead in helping publishers of all sizes in various markets successfully adapt to a mobile first environment. Our 2016 winner WOSO has done exactly that. They are a leading pioneer in China's online advertising and SEM, WOSO, and in Q3 2016 during the Summer Challenge, they helped publishers achieve a significant year over year growth in driving mobile web monetization. Way to go WOSO!

Business Innovation Award Winner: Ezoic, USA

About the award: This award recognizes innovations that drive real business impact and challenge the status quo. We continually encourage our partners to develop differentiating value-add services and solutions.

Why Ezoic: We received more than 20 submissions for this award showing the breadth of innovation that our partners are bringing to publishers. Our 2016 winner, Ezoic, specializes in automated testing platform for content publishers. In 2016 they launched Ad Tester, a machine learning based solution designed to optimize user experience and ad earnings at the same time.

We look forward to many more innovations from Ezoic in the future.

Thank you to all of the Summer Challenge participants and congratulations to the winning partners!

Posted by Sean Meng,

Global Program Lead, Google’s Certified Publishing Partner Program

About Google Certified Publishing Partnerships:

A Certified Publishing Partner can help when you don’t want to do it alone. Our publishing partners handle everything from setting up to optimizing and maintaining ads, so you’re free to spend more time publishing content on your site. Using Google best practices, our publishing partners are adept at maximizing performance and earnings with AdSense, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and DoubleClick for Publishers. For more information, visit our website.

Source: Inside AdSense

The inside scoop on native advertising: What is it, why does it matter and do you need it?

The final part of the #SuccessStack looks at the hot topic of native advertising. You’ll learn what it is, why it’s on every advertiser’s radar and whether it’s right for your site.

What is native advertising?

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), native ads are paid ads that have the goal of being “so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong.”

Native ads allow you to have an ad styled to fit within the page and it’s surrounding content, unlike traditional display banners. They are designed to match the look, feel, and function of your site.

Why does native advertising matter?

Since most people access the Internet from a mobile phone, it’s important to prioritize a mobile first user experience. This shift in thinking requires a change in the way we approach our ads too.

You’re likely already putting a lot of effort into shaping your site to meet the high expectations of a clean and mobile-optimized user experience. It’s just as important to experiment with how you deliver ads to meet those user expectations and retain users’ interest in your site. Native ads can open up new earning opportunities on your site where traditional ad formats weren’t appropriate before. Ad formats, like banner ads, are effective but sometimes limited by size and placements. Native Ads can be customized to fit seamlessly within your content’s look and feel.

Do you need it?

According to new BI Intelligence estimates based on historical data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), PwC, and IHS; US native display ad revenue will make up 74% of total US display ad revenue in 2021, up from a 56% share in 2016.¹

Supporting and offering this ad format will provide you with access to a huge portion of the market for advertiser budgets. Additionally, as mobile consumers increasingly drive the publishing industry, native advertising is a key strategy for connecting with that audience and delivering a profitable mobile experience.

Finding inspiration

If you’re looking for a reason to get started on native ads, then take a look at some of our success stories.

Unidad Editorial is a leading multimedia group in Spain with 20 million daily users. See how they achieved a 4X increase in mobile CTR and and 6X increase in desktop CTR using native ads.
The New York Times also saw a huge boost in viewability and ad engagement metrics using native ads. Read their story here.
Leading publishers Aller Media (Scandinavia) and Grupo Expansión (Mexico) both saw serious uplifts in their viewability metrics using native advertising units.

When implementing native ads, consider the following:

Prioritize your audience: Consider your users’ expectations of your site and how they’ll respond to the type of ads you choose. Native ads meet users’ expectations by seamlessly fitting within your site’s user experience.
Test first to optimize for user experience and ad revenue: It’s important to consider how to create the best user experience while maximizing your ad revenue. Strike a balance between content and ads by testing new native ad units and formats to measure their impact on revenue and user engagement.

Next steps

Ready to get started? With 54% of global marketing leaders already using native advertising, native ads are the solution to help grow your ad earnings.²

Our team of experts can offer a personalized consultation to help you offer native ads to your advertisers and grow your publishing business. Book a slot time to speak with one of our experts.

Posted By: Jay Castro, from the AdSense team

1 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-native-ad-report-forecasts-2016-5?IR=T

2 “Current vs. Planned Use of Select Digital Ad Formats Among Marketing Leaders Worldwide, Jan 2016”, eMarketer, 2016.

Source: Inside AdSense

Understanding account suspensions due to invalid traffic

In today's post, we'll be discussing AdSense account suspensions due to invalid traffic.

We have found that there are two types of publishers who may have invalid traffic issues with their accounts. The first are publishers who may unintentionally send invalid traffic to their accounts, typically by testing on live ads. For those, we hope that increased transparency into our policies and processes can decrease these unintentional violations and help our publishers play by the rules. The second are publishers who intentionally bypass our rules, ending up with a variety of invalid traffic issues in order to artificially inflate their ad revenue. That’s why we work hard to maintain a policy compliant ecosystem for our publishers, advertisers, and users. In short, if you play by the rules, AdSense is here to help you grow your business.

We receive many questions about account suspensions, so let's go through the top questions about this process and what steps you can take to help keep your account in good standing.

What is invalid traffic anyway?
Invalid traffic includes any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. Invalid traffic covers both intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks.

Please note that clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest, and any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions is strictly prohibited by our program policies. If we observe high levels of invalid traffic on your account, we may suspend or disable the account to protect our advertisers and users.

Watch our #AskAdSense video for more information on what invalid traffic is and tips to help prevent invalid traffic on your account.

What is an account suspension?

If your account was suspended due to invalid traffic, ad serving has been turned off on all of your content for a fixed period (most frequently 30 days). This includes any website, YouTube channel, and/or mobile app. Please know that we will deduct revenue from your account and will credit advertisers with the withheld revenue where appropriate and possible. If there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will be automatically re-enabled after the fixed period.

Please note that your account is still active, and an account suspension is not the same as having your account disabled. If your account was disabled due to invalid traffic, your account is no longer serving ads, and you will be unable to monetize with any Google ad solutions. As with account suspensions, please know that we may deduct revenue from your account and may credit advertisers with the withheld revenue where appropriate and possible.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts or disabled accounts due to invalid traffic.

Why did my account get suspended?

In addition to monitoring for policy violations, we analyze all clicks and impressions to determine whether they might artificially drive up an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. If we determine that your account has invalid traffic, then we may suspend or disable your account. Please know that we may deduct revenue from your account and may credit advertisers with the withheld revenue where appropriate and possible.

Here are some common reasons for why your account may get suspended:

Clicking ads on your own site and/or YouTube channel: Publishers may not click their own ads or use any means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially, including manual methods. Testing your own ads by clicking on them isn't allowed. Additionally, YouTube publishers should skip ads when viewing their own videos to avoid artificially inflating advertiser costs.

For AdSense ad placements on sites, please use the Google Publisher Toolbar if you want to click the ads to check the landing pages or view more details about the ads. The Toolbar will allow you to check the destination of ads on your page without the risk of invalid clicks.

One or more users repeatedly clicking your ads: Don't encourage or ask your friends, family, co-workers, or general users to click on your ads. This includes asking for users to support your site or YouTube channel, offering rewards to users for clicking ads, and promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior.

We also recommend that you check your associated AdSense email for more information regarding your account suspension.

What steps should I take during the suspension period?

Account suspension gives you time to investigate the sources of invalid traffic, identify and block suspicious traffic, and put measures in place to ensure clean traffic. We recommend learning how to segment your traffic to help you best understand, monitor, and evaluate the traffic to your site. This may also help you identify sources of invalid traffic.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts due to invalid traffic.

How can I appeal an account suspension?

Account suspensions are currently not appealable. You can use this time to investigate your traffic sources and make adjustments to help prevent invalid traffic in the future. Provided that there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will automatically be reinstated once your suspension period is served.

Please don't fill out the invalid traffic appeal form because that form is reserved for disabled accounts, and you will receive an email that says we can't process this appeal.

If you would like to provide additional feedback to help us improve our processes and communications, you may do so using our suspended publisher feedback form.

When will my account be re-enabled?

If there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will be automatically re-enabled after the fixed period (most frequently 30 days).

What happens if after my account was re-enabled, my account continues to generate invalid traffic?

If, after your account has been re-enabled, invalid traffic persists and continues to contribute low value traffic to our ads ecosystem, then we may need to disable your account.

Visit our Help Center for more information about suspended accounts due to invalid traffic. We look forward to your return to the AdSense network in good standing after the suspension ends.

Posted by: Danielle Chang, Ad Traffic Quality team