Tag Archives: Ad formats

Introducing AdSense Native ads

Today we’re introducing the new AdSense Native ads -- a suite of ad formats designed to match the look and feel of your site, providing a great user experience for your visitors. AdSense Native ads come in three categories: In-feed, In-article, and Matched content*. They can all be used at once or individually and are designed for:

A great user experience: they fit naturally on your site and use high quality advertiser elements, such as high resolution images, longer titles and descriptions, to provide a more attractive experience for your visitors.
A great look and feel across different screen sizes: the ads are built to look great on mobile, desktop, and tablet.
Ease of use: easy-to-use editing tools help you make the ads look great on your site.

Native In-feed opens up new revenue opportunity in your feeds

Available to all publishers, In-feed ads slot neatly inside your feeds, e.g. a list of articles or products on your site. These ads are highly customizable to match the look and feel of your feed content and offer new places to show ads.

Native In-article offers a better advertising experience

Available to all publishers, In-article ads are optimized by Google to help you put great-looking ads between the paragraphs of your pages. In-article ads use high-quality advertising elements and offer a great reading experience to your visitors.

Matched Content* drives more users to your content

Available to publishers that meet the eligibility criteria, Matched content is a content recommendation tool that helps you promote your content to visitors and potentially increase revenue, page views, and time spent on site. Publishers that are eligible for the “Allow ads” feature can also show relevant ads within their Matched content units, creating an additional revenue opportunity in this placement.

Getting started with AdSense Native ads
AdSense Native ads can be placed together, or separately, to customize your website’s ad experience. Use In-feed ads inside your feed (e.g. a list of articles, or products), In-article ads between the paragraphs of your pages, and Matched content ads directly below your articles. When deciding your native strategy, keep the content best practices in mind.

To get started with AdSense Native ads:

Sign in to your AdSense account
In the left navigation panel, click My ads
Click +New ad unit
Select your ad category: In-article, In-feed or Matched content

We'd love to hear what you think about these ad formats in the comments section below this post.

Posted by: Violetta Kalathaki - AdSense Product Manager

*This format has already been available to eligible publishers, and is now part of AdSense Native ads.

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

Viewability is vital for publisher business growth

In the fourth article of the #SuccessStack, we explore viewability and its increasing importance in retaining and growing ad revenues for your publishing business. We’ve recently received a lot of questions on viewability from our AdSense publisher community, so this post should answer the most frequently asked ones.

What is viewability?

Media Rating Council (MRC) and IAB standards state that a display ad is counted as viewable when at least 50% of the ad is within the viewable space on the user’s screen for one second or more.

Why is it important for your ad revenue?

An ad served doesn’t necessarily equal an ad viewed, and digital advertisers and publishers are catching onto this as the industry shifts toward valuing viewable rather than served impressions. This is because ads that are considered viewable have a higher chance of being seen and are more likely to engage an advertiser's target audience.

As a result, more savvy advertisers are paying closer attention to ad viewability and it is increasingly becoming a factor in their decision making around ad spend.

If an ad isn't seen, it can't have an impact, change perception, or build brand trust. That's why measuring viewability matters. For AdSense publishers, this means that increased viewability may encourage greater investments from advertisers.

Let’s get started

Before you get to work on increasing viewability, make sure you choose the right tool to give yourself the best possible potential earnings. To help you with this, be sure to schedule a free consultation with one of our experts who can help you to choose the right solution for your business.

How can you increase the viewable impressions delivered by your site?

1. Put ad units just above the fold.

Interestingly, ads placed just above the fold of a web page produce higher viewability metrics than those at the top of the page. Try horizontal ad unit sizes, e.g. 320x100 for optimal increase in viewability metrics. It’s important to note that it's against the AdSense ad placement policies to place a 300x250 ad unit above the fold on mobile pages, so be sure to place those larger ad sizes below the fold.

Bonus tip: Switch 320x50 for 320x100 ad units.

Replacing your 320x50 ad units with 320x100 on your mobile device can improve viewability and potentially increase earnings. Revenue per thousand impressions (RPMs) tends to increase when you move to the larger mobile banner ad. This is because using the 320x100 ad unit allows both the 320x50 ad and the 320x100 to compete for the same ad space, doubling the fill-rate competition. It’s best practice to put the ad just above the fold as mentioned above, which could further boost your revenues.

2. Use mobile-friendly ad formats.

Mobile is becoming an ever more important part of online ad sales. Here are three mobile friendly ad formats to try:

Use large high impact ad units such as the medium rectangle (300x250), large rectangle (336x280) and large mobile banner (320x100) to get the best results. The first two work well on desktop and mobile (below the fold), with the third being designed specifically for mobile.
AdSense also offers two kinds of page-level mobile ad formats, anchor ads and vignettes. Both are designed to increase mobile viewability.

Once you’ve implemented the tips above, you can find even more advanced best practice viewability tips in this infographic.

Source: Inside AdSense

Global Spotlight: Converting pageviews into revenue

Welcome back to our Global Spotlight on India, a nation with a population of over 1 billion people and 22 official languages (not including English) which for current AdSense publishers, this presents an opportunity to grow your audience globally.

The Global Spotlight is a series of blog posts that can help educate, inspire, and provide you with insights into how you can grow your business and share your content in emerging markets.

Our last spotlight shared insights on why you should cater to mobile first users. Now that you have a site optimized for mobile users and with high quality, relevant content, here’s how you can convert your traffic into revenue and turn your #PassionIntoProfit.

First, deliver more viewable impressions to get your ads seen. Measuring viewability is extremely important, because if an ad isn't seen, it can't have an impact, change perception, or build brand trust. Here’s a few ways to boost ad viewability on mobile devices:

Replace 320x50 ad units with 320x100
Move ads at least 150 pixels away from content to cut accidental clicks
Use page-level ads designed for mobile devices. More on page levels below

Learn more tips on boosting mobile ad viewability in this blog post.

Second, choose the right mobile ad sizes: medium rectangle (300x250), large rectangle (336x280), large mobile banner (320x100), and rectangular responsive ad units. They tend to get the best results.

Third, use page-level ads. You’ve heard this from us before haven’t you? Page-level ads are a family of ad formats that offer a new and innovative way to help you earn money from your mobile content. They’re designed to automatically show the right mobile ad format at the right time - potentially increasing your earnings without interfering with your users’ mobile experience.

There you have it, our 3-step strategy to help you expand, or start, your site in India.

Do your research

Use Google’s research tools
Understand the users in India
Apply your micro-moments strategy

Go mobile or don’t go at all. And make it fast.

Understand how mobile devices are used
Increase your page speed
Leverage Google’s mobile resources

Convert page views into revenue

Optimizing for viewability
Use the right ad sizes
Try Page-level ads

Do you want to hear more from us about successfully monetizing your content in India? We regularly host live Hangout on Air sessions to talk through best practices and ways to grow your business. Be sure to register for our next live session on November 17th.

If you’re new to AdSense, turn your #PassionIntoProfit today and sign up for Google AdSense.

Be sure to follow AdSense on Twitter to learn more tips on optimizing your account and stay tuned for more posts from our Global Spotlight series in the future!

Posted by Jay Castro, from the AdSense Team

Source: Inside AdSense

Do more with Ads on AMP

Cross-posted from the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Blog

Over a year has passed since the AMP Project first launched with the vision of making mobile web experiences faster and better for everybody. From the very beginning, we’ve maintained that the AMP project would support publishers’ existing business models while creating new monetization opportunities. With regards to advertising, this meant giving publishers the flexibility to use the current technology and systems they’re used to, and evolving user-first mobile web initiatives like AMP for Ads (A4A).

With a growing number of publishers embracing the speed of AMP, today we’re addressing some of the ways in which we’re helping you do more with ads on AMP.

Serve ads from more than 70+ ad tech providers

Keeping with the open source nature of the project, more than 70+ advertising technology providers have already integrated with AMP. And that list is only growing. Existing tags that are delivered via a supported ad server also work in AMP. So, you can serve ads from both directly-sold campaigns as well as third-party ad networks and exchanges so long as they have support for AMP.

Keep 100% of the ad revenue

AMP is an open source project. It does not take a revenue share. AMP is not an advertising service provider or intermediary, and publishers can monetize AMP pages the same way you monetize HTML pages, keeping 100% of the revenue you earn based on negotiated rates with ad providers.

Choose the advertising experience on your pages

You can choose to serve any number of ads per page to serve in locations that works best for your content, including the first viewport. Just remember that regular ads in AMP load after the primary content. So, unless you’re loading the lightning fast A4A ads, we recommend placing the first ad below the first viewpoint to optimize for viewability and user experience.

Take advantage of video ad support

AMP currently supports 13 different video players, ranging from Brightcove to Teads, all of which can serve video ads. If you want to use a video player that is not currently supported in AMP, place the video player inside amp-iframe. Learn more.

Differentiate yourself with rich and custom ad formats

AMP accommodates a large variety of ad formats by default, ranging from publisher custom ad units to IAB standard outstream video and in-feed native ads. We value publisher choice and support efforts to create proprietary ad formats. For example, with responsive layouts in AMP, you can offer advertisers custom ads that can dynamically span the entire width of the mobile device. Learn more about how you can adapt your ads strategy for AMP.

Maximize revenue with interchangeable ad slots

In September 2016, both YieldMo and DoubleClick announced support for multi-size ad requests on AMP pages. With this launch, you can optimize yield by allowing multiple ad creative sizes to compete for each ad slot, capturing the most advertiser demand possible on AMP pages while still protecting the user’s experience.

Plan ahead with a view into AMP’s roadmap

Transparency is important to the success of any open source project and is a key value for AMP. Accordingly, we started publishing the AMP roadmap publicly nearly 6 months ago, including milestones for ads. These roadmaps are accompanied with bi-quarterly status updates and you can also see all AMP releases here.

Over 700,000 domains have published AMP pages and a good many are monetizing them with ads. Early studies suggest that ads on AMP are more viewable and engaging than ads on non-AMP mobile pages. That’s because with AMP, you don’t have to choose between good user experiences and monetization opportunities. When balanced and optimized, you can have both.

Reach out -- we’re eager to hear your suggestions and feedback to make sure that AMP pays off for everyone.

Posted by Vamsee Jasti, Product Manager, AMP Project

Source: Inside AdSense

How to make the most of Matched content

Matched content is a recommendation tool that allows you to promote relevant content from your site and sponsored content to your visitors. Matched content can help capture visitor attention and loyalty by showing relevant content which could increase pageviews on your site. Here’s a few tips to help you get started with Matched content.

Strategically place your ads to improve viewability.

According to a Think With Google study, “56.1% of all impressions are not seen.” So when determining the placement of your Matched content units, think about which spot(s) would improve viewability and engagement. To increase these metrics we recommend placing this unit directly below your article and either above or below your ad unit. This way readers can easily click on the next piece of content that is interesting to them. Placing it directly below the article often drives higher click-through rates (CTR) than other placements.

Since Matched content units help your users learn more about similar content, you should think about placing it at points in your website where your user will engage more with the content.

Track performance.
To determine if your placement is effective for your site, be sure to track the performance of your Matched content units. Understanding performance is key to maximizing your ad revenue and satisfying your readers. On your Performance reports tab, you’ll see an updated way to view two metric families -- the Overview metric family and the Matched content metric family:
Overview metric family

Selecting this metric family will allow you to understand how much you’re earning from your Matched content units and how these units compare to other ad units on your site. You can also review metrics such as impressions, clicks, and estimated earnings.

Matched content metric family

To get a more detailed performance of your ads and recommendations, use this metric family to view metrics like total impressions, ad impressions, ad clicks, ad revenue per thousand impressions (RPM), and recommendation clicks. Since this metric family is more specific, you should be able to use this data to optimize the ad unit itself.

To see all metric offerings and how they work, take a look at the AdSense Help Center.

By optimizing your Matched content units, you will allow your readers to learn more about topics they are interested in and potentially increase your site’s engagement rate and revenue. If you do not currently have Matched content but are looking to add the feature, determine if you’re eligible by viewing our Help Center article.

Posted by Bserat Ghebremicael
From the AdSense team

Source: Inside AdSense

Four ways to boost your ad viewability on mobile

What’s ad viewability and how is it measured? In this post we'll look at those questions and offer four ways to make your ads more viewable and profitable on mobile screens.

What’s viewability?

Most of us know that ads used to be measured by impressions: if a page loaded, and the ad was anywhere on that page, that counted. There was an obvious problem with this: if the ad was below the fold of the page, and the user didn't scroll down to see it, there wasn’t a chance for that ad to be seen. And ads that can’t be seen, don’t deliver results and can’t drive the impact that Advertisers are looking for.

Advertisers today want more transparency and effectiveness, and that's where ad viewability comes in. Now, by Media Rating Council and IAB standards, a display ad is counted as viewable when at least 50% of the ad is within the viewable space on the user’s screen for one second or more.

That means an ad unit on the first screen ("above the fold") will be counted as viewable if a user opens the screen for one second, but an ad below the first screen will not be counted unless the viewer scrolls down. Check out this interactive demo to see how viewability works first hand.

Why does viewability matter?

Advertisers naturally tend to bid more for viewable impressions because they have a higher chance of being seen and as a result more likely to engage an advertiser's target audience.

Smart advertisers are paying closer attention to the ads that they are paying for and are looking to ensure that the ads they buy have a chance to be seen by users. One way to track viewability is to check the Active View index in AdSense; it shows the percentage of ads that are viewable out of the total number of ads counted on the page. If one out of two ads are viewable, the rating is 50%.

Viewability helps both advertisers and publishers. It lets advertisers identify their high- and low-value inventory and adjust budgets and targets to maximize reach and ROI. As they learn which inventory has the highest viewability, advertisers can better set their advertising strategies.

For publishers like you, focusing on viewability will increase the long-term value of your inventory. If an ad unit is rarely viewed, you may learn that viewers don't scroll to that area, quickly scroll past it, or that the ad size or format may need adjustment. You can discover the most (and least) valuable spots on your pages and optimize your ad units accordingly, rather than just scattering as many ads as possible.

How do I create more viewable impressions on mobile?

While numbers vary, a viewability index of around 50% is fairly typical. In general, the higher the index, the more people are seeing your ads ― although few sites reach 100%. On smaller mobile screens, publishers should consider which ad sizes earn them the most in different placements on their pages.

Here are four ways publishers can optimize their mobile viewability:

Replace 320x50 ad units with 320x100. Revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) tend to increase when you move to the large mobile banner ad. By using the 320x100 ad unit, you allow the 320x50 ad to compete as well, doubling the fill-rate competition. The best practice is to put the ad just above the fold.
Use 300x250 ads for a potential increase in fill rates and RPMs. 300x250 is built to fit most mobile screens. It also tends to have a high fill rate (and higher RPMs) since many advertisers prefer this size. Research has shown that a 300x250 ad unit placed just below the fold could generate an approximate 50% viewability rate, helping you to maximize the impact of your ad space.
Cut accidental clicks by moving ads at least 150 pixels away from content. As you improve viewability, you can also improve the user experience and decrease spam rates by leaving room between ads and the context. 150 pixels of space is a good starting point; test and adjust to see what works best with your content.
Use page-level ads designed for mobile devices. To keep pace with the trend to mobile, Google AdSense has launched two kinds of page-level ads: anchor ads and vignettes. Both are designed to increase mobile viewability. Anchor ads, as their name implies, stick to the bottom of the page as the user scrolls. They are smooth and easily dismissed, and they are typically reserved for high RPM ads.

Vignettes are full-screen ads that appear as users move between pages on a website. These pre-loaded ads display immediately as the user leaves a page, so there's no waiting, and users can dismiss them at any time. Vignettes are reserved for the highest-paying ad impressions.

Summary

Viewability is a publisher's friend. It can help you understand the real performance of every ad to improve your strategy for ad formats and placement. It can also help you increase your revenues in a smarter way.

Viewability is still relatively new in digital advertising. More and more advertisers are taking the index into account as they allocate future budgets. If you're a publisher, it's a good idea to get ahead of the curve on viewability data and start making adjustments now. Take a look at this infographic for more best practices on how to improve the viewability of your site.

Posted by Silu Luo, from the AdSense Team

Source: Inside AdSense

Boost your mobile performance with the right ad sizes

We’re paying special attention to improving the mobile ad experience to help empower content creators, news organizations, and publishers. As mobile continues to grow, choosing high-impact mobile ads are key for businesses to generate revenue from a mobile audience.

When choosing the right mobile ad units for your business, it’s a best practice to ensure that each and every mobile impression receives the highest value possible, which can be determined by a mix of metrics like viewability, size, placement, and demand.

It’s also important to protect the user experience by choosing the right ad formats and placements for your site to engage mobile users so that you don’t interrupt their desired intent.

Start by choosing a high-impact mobile format: medium rectangle (300x250), large rectangle (336x280), large mobile banner (320x100), and rectangular responsive ad units tend to get the best results. Here’s why we recommend these formats:

Each format works well on both desktop and mobile (with the exception of the large mobile banner). This gives advertisers the opportunity to appear on a variety of screens which increases demand, upward auction pressure, and potentially even earnings. The large mobile banner will also allow 320x50 display ads to appear within this format, which increases competition. If the 320x50 ad unit wins the auction, it will always be vertically aligned to the top.
These formats are bigger and more engaging than smaller mobile units, so they'll grab user's’ attention. Here's an example of what the medium rectangle looks like placed above the fold, yet below the main content.

For additional changes for incremental revenue gains, you may want to consider trying link units. Link units are designed to be responsive, so they work with both mobile and desktop. You can add up to three link units in addition to the default limit of 3 ad units per page.

However critical mobile is to your business today, it will be more critical tomorrow. Energize your mobile strategy today by using high-impact mobile ads, they’re a great way for businesses to generate more revenue and engage your users.

Be sure to follow us on Google+ and Twitter we’d love to hear what’s working for your mobile business. Until next time.

Posted by:

Denis Rodrigues,
AdSense Account Strategist

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Tag Archives: Ad formats