5. Creating and Managing Ads on Your Website
In This Chapter
• Getting to Know the My Ads Tab
• Understanding and Configuring Ad Styles
• Creating AdSense for Content Ads
• Creating AdSense for Search Ads
• Creating AdSense for Feeds Ads
• Creating AdSense for Mobile Ads
• Activating AdSense for Domains
AdSense is all about making money from ads on your website, blog, or other content. To do this, you must determine where you want the ads to appear and what size they should be. AdSense then generates the HTML code for each ad block, which you insert into the code of your web page.
How, then, do you create this AdSense code, and how do you manage all the different ad blocks you use across multiple pages? You do it all from AdSense’s My Ads tab—and it’s really quite easy.
Getting to Know the My Ads Tab
All of your key ad-related activity is managed on AdSense’s My Ads tab. As you can see in Figure 5.1, you use the navigation pane on the left side of the page to select the specific AdSense program you want to advertise with—Content, Domains, Feeds, Mobile, Search, Games, or Video. You then either create a new ad or manage existing ones on the right side of the page.
Figure 5.1. Navigating AdSense programs on the My Ads tab.
Understanding Ad Units
You don’t create specific ads on the My Ads page; instead, you create what AdSense calls ad units, which are containers for those ads that AdSense serves. You control the size and appearance of the containers you create; AdSense controls the content of each ad unit served.
In addition, AdSense serves up different types of ads. You can opt to display text ads, image ads, even rich media ads on your pages.
What type and size of ad you display depends on how obtrusive you want the ads to be on your site. An image ad looks more like a traditional advertisement than does a text ad, and thus stands out more from your regular page content. Some webmasters feel that this cheapens their sites and results in fewer click-throughs; others feel that it draws attention to the ads and results in more click-throughs. As such, testing might be in order.
Ad size is determined more by the design of your web pages than anything else. Determine the size of the space where you want the ads to appear, and then choose the closest ad format. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t try to slot a tall ad into a wide space, or vice versa. AdSense offers enough different ad sizes to make this choice relatively easy.
You choose the type of ad and size of ad unit when you create the ad code for your web pages. Before you do so, however, it’s best to familiarize yourself with the different types and sizes of ads available.
Text Ads
The most common AdSense ads are text ads, like the ones shown in Figure 5.2. These ads typically consist of a title and one or two lines of body text; sometimes the link-to URL appears at the bottom of the ad, sometimes the title itself is clickable and linked to the advertiser’s site.
Figure 5.2. A typical ad unit of text ads.
The AdChoices link in the bottom-right corner of the ad unit lets visitors report any inappropriate ads they might see.
AdSense offers text ads in a variety of sizes and formats. Most formats allow for two or more ads from different advertisers; the smallest formats are for single ads only.
Table 5.1 details the available text ad formats.
Image and Rich Media Ads
While text ads are most common among AdSense advertisers, some advertisers prefer displaying their products or brands in a graphical manner. To that end, AdSense offers several image ad formats, each consisting of a single ad from a single advertiser. In these ads, like the one in Figure 5.3, the advertiser’s website appears in a text link within the ad; in most instances, the entire ad is also clickable.
Figure 5.3. An image ad from a single advertiser.
Some image ads are actually rich media ads. That is, they display more than just a static image, typically some sort of Flash animation or video. You don’t have to opt in to display rich media ads on your site; these ads are rotated with the image ad inventory, and thus will be served along with regular image ads.
There are fewer image and rich media ad formats than you find with text ads; because these ads need to be larger to be effective, some of the smaller sizes aren’t available. Table 5.2 details the available image ad formats.
Table 5.2. Image/Rich Media Ad Formats
Link Units
You also have the option of displaying link units instead of ads. Think of a link unit, like the one shown in Figure 5.4, as a kind of table of contents to related ads. Each link unit displays a list of topics relative to your web page’s content; when visitors click a topic link, they’re taken to a page full of related ads.
Figure 5.4. An AdSense link unit.
Link units are available in a variety of different sizes, as detailed in Table 5.3. These are not the same sizes available for text or image ads; make sure you size your page space accordingly.
Understanding Channels
By default, AdSense tracks all the ads on all the pages of your site in kind of a big lump. If you have multiple pages on your site with different content, you might find it more informative to track the performance of these individual pages, so that you can better target the content of those pages. AdSense lets you do this by defining different channels within your website; you can then track performance by channel.
You can define each page on your site as a separate channel, or group like pages together in a single channel. In the first example, you create what AdSense calls URL channels; each URL is its own channel. In the second example, a site about gardening might have several pages about flowers, other pages about shrubbery, and still more pages about grasses. In this instance, you could create several different custom channels, such as a flowers channel, a shrubbery channel, and a grasses channel, tracking performance for all pages within a category together.
Creating a New URL Channel
The easiest way to manage ad performance on different websites or different pages within a single site is via URL channels. To create a new URL channel, follow these steps:
1. From the My Ads tab, click Content in the navigation pane.
2. Click URL Channels in the navigation pane.
3. When the URL Channels page appears, you see all your current URL channels, as shown in Figure 5.5. Click the New URL Channel button.
Figure 5.5. Viewing URL channels.
4. When the Add New URL Channel dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5.6, enter the URL you want to track. Add multiple URLs, one to a line.
Figure 5.6. Creating a new URL channel.
5. Click the Add URL Channels button.
Creating a New Custom Channel
To create a new custom channel to track ads by topic or other criteria, follow these steps:
1. From the My Ads tab, click Content in the navigation pane.
2. Click Custom Channels in the navigation pane.
3. When the Custom Channels page appears, you see all your current custom channels, as shown in Figure 5.7. Click the New Custom Channel button.
Figure 5.7. Viewing custom channels.
4. When the Add New Custom Channel dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5.8, enter a name for this custom channel into the Name box.
Figure 5.8. Creating a new custom channel.
5. For each type of ad unit you want to include in this custom channel, click the Add link next to that item in the Ad Units list.
6. If you want to show this custom channel to advertisers as a targetable ad placement (for those advertisers who want to target their ads by channel), check that option.
7. Click the Save button.
Understanding and Configuring Ad Styles
Before you start creating ads for your site, you also need to know about ad styles. In short, an ad style is the specific combination of colors and fonts that are used in the display of each ad. You can customize the style for each and every ad you insert.
When you’re creating a new ad, AdSense offers five default ad styles to select from:
• Google default
• Classic grey
• High-contrast black
• High-contrast white
• Modern white
Creating a New Ad Style
You’re not limited to these five default styles, however; you can also create your own custom ad styles. Here’s how to do it:
1. From the My Ads tab, click the Styles link in the navigation pane.
2. When the Ad Styles page appears, as shown in Figure 5.9, click New Ad Style.
Figure 5.9. Selecting an ad style.
3. When the Create Ad Style dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5.10, check the types of ads you want this style to apply to: Ad units, Link units, or Custom search engine ads.
Figure 5.10. Creating a new ad style.
4. Enter a name for this new style into the Style Name box.
5. Click the small box next to each color item (Border, Title/Links, Background, Text, URL, Visited URL, and Similar Pages) to select the color for that item.
6. Go to the Corner Style section and click the button for the desired corner style for the ad.
7. To select a font for the ad, pull down the Font Family list and make a selection—Use Account Default, AdSense Default Font Family, Arial, Verdana, or Times.
8. To select a font size, pull down the Font Size list and make a selection—Use Account Default, AdSense Default Font Size, Small, Medium, or Large.
9. When you’re finished making selections, click the Save Ad Style button.
Your new ad style now appears on the Ad Styles page.
You can preview the style in progress in the top-right corner of the Create Ad Style dialog box.
Creating a New Style from an Existing Style
You can also create new ad styles from existing styles, which is a tad easier than creating new styles from scratch. Just find an existing style that’s close to what you want, and then fine tune it.
Here’s how to do it:
1. From the My Ads tab, click the Styles link in the navigation pane.
2. When the Ad Styles page appears, hover over the style you want to customize, and then click Copy and Edit.
3. When the Edit Ad Style dialog box appears (it looks just like the Create Ad Style dialog box), give this custom style a new name and make the desired selections.
4. Click the Save Ad Style button when finished.
Creating AdSense for Content Ads
That should be enough background to start creating your first AdSense ads. We’ll start by focusing on ads for the AdSense for Content (AFC) program—the one that places ads on your website.
Generating Code for a New Ad
Whether you’re a new user or an experienced subscriber to the AdSense program, it’s now easier than ever to create a new ad for your site. Here’s how to do it:
1. From the My Ads tab, click the Content link in the navigation pane.
2. Click the Ad Units link in the navigation pane.
3. This displays the Ad Units page, which displays all your current ads. Click the New Ad Unit button.
4. When the Create New Ad Unit page appears, as shown in Figure 5.11, enter a name for this ad into the Name box.
Figure 5.11. Creating a new website ad.
5. Pull down the Ad Size list and select the size for the ad unit.
6. Pull down the Ad Type list and select which type of ad you want to display—Text Ads Only, Image/Rich Media Ads Only, or Text & Image/Rich Media Ads.
7. To select what appears if Google can’t find an appropriate ad to display on your page (it happens sometimes), pull down the Backup Ads list and select from Show Blank Space, Show Other Ads from Another URL, or Fill Space with a Solid Color.
8. To add this ad unit to an existing custom channel, click the Add link next to that channel in the Custom Channels list.
9. To create a new custom channel for this ad, go to the Custom Channels list and click Create New Custom Channel. When the Add New Custom Channel dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5.12, enter a name for this channel, select which ad units will apply (you can select more than one), and then click the Save button.
Figure 5.12. Creating a new custom channel.
10. Scroll to the Ad Style section and click the ad style you want to use for this ad. If you prefer to create a new custom style, click the Use Custom Settings button then select the desired colors and fonts for the ad.
11. When you’re finished configuring the ad unit, click the Save and Get Code button.
12. You now see the Ad Code dialog box, shown in Figure 5.13. Copy the entire block of code from this page and paste it into the HTML code for your web page.
Figure 5.13. The final ad code—copy it into your web page’s HTML.
Inserting the Ad Code on Your Site
After you’ve generated the HTML code for a specific type of ad, you then need to insert that code into the underlying HTML code of the pages on your website. If you want the same ad type on each web page, insert the same code onto each page; if you want different types of ads on different pages, insert the code for the appropriate ad type onto those pages where you want that ad type to appear. (You’ll also need to insert different code if you create custom channels for your site.)
Even though the code might be the same from page to page, Google generates different ads for the unique content on each page of your site. You need to create new ad code only if the format of the ad (size, type, color, and so on) changes from page to page.
You should insert this AdSense code in the position where you want the ad to appear on your page. For example, if you want the ad to appear at the top of your page, insert the ad code at the beginning of the body code; if you want the ad to appear at the bottom, insert the ad code at the end of the body code. If you have a more sophisticated page design, use the appropriate HTML or CSS tags to position the ad on the page.
If all this code insertion stuff causes your head to spin, just turn the task over to an experienced web designer. He or she will know what to do.
By the way, you can regenerate this code at any time by going to the My Ads tab, selecting Content, Ad Units, and then clicking the Get Code link underneath any ad unit listed there. You don’t have to go through the whole ad creation process every time you need to use the code.
Creating AdSense for Search Ads
Aside from the popular PPC ads provided by AdSense for Content, there’s another way to generate ad revenue from your website. If your site is large enough that visitors could benefit from searching the site for the information they want, you can add a Google search box to your site—and generate revenue from the ads that appear on the subsequent search results pages.
You do all this via Google’s AdSense for Search (AFS) program. And when you place a search box on your site, you not only generate ad revenue, you also improve the experience of your site’s visitors. It’s a win-win for everybody.
Understanding AdSense for Search
The AdSense for Search program is another way for you to generate ad revenue from your website. AFS is a subset of AdSense for Content that lets you insert a search box on your site, like the one in Figure 5.14. Depending on how you configure it, visitors can use this search box to either search your website or to search the entire web. The search results pages display typical AdSense PPC ads; you generate revenue when visitors click on these ads.
Figure 5.14. A Google search box displayed on a typical website.
Even better, you can customize (to some degree) the results from these on-site searches—both the matching pages and how they’re displayed on the results pages. And, of course, you can customize how the PPC ads are displayed on the search results pages.
For starters, you can specify just where your visitors can search. AdSense lets users search your site only, a collection of sites you choose, or the entire web. You can also prioritize and restrict visitors’ searches to specific sections of these sites.
Obviously, the PPC ads appear alongside the search results, as on Google’s normal search results page. It’s the same content-sensitive advertising that you’re used to with AdSense for Content, but displayed alongside users’ search results. You can opt to display these ads along the top and right sidebar of the search results page, or at the top and bottom of the page. Naturally, you can also customize the color scheme of the ads to make them look more like organic search results or to stand out from the results.
AFS uses the exact same search technology used on the Google search site itself, so you know the results will be good—both fast and relevant to users’ queries. In fact, the results should be identical to those obtained on the main Google site, at least before you do any customization.
No revenue is generated from merely searching from the Google search box or from the display of search results. As with AdSense for Content, revenue is generated only when users click on the ads displayed on the search results pages.
Adding a Google Search Box—and Ads—to Your Site
Here’s how you add a search box to your site and specify the types of ads you want displayed on the search results pages:
1. From the My Ads tab, select Search in the navigation pane.
2. Select Custom Search Engines in the navigation pane.
3. This displays the Custom Search Engines page, which lists any previous search engines you’ve created. Click the New Custom Search Engine button.
4. When the Create New Custom Search Engine page appears, as shown in Figure 5.15, enter a name for this search engine into the Name box.
Figure 5.15. Creating a new custom search engine.
5. Go to the What to Search section and select whether you want to search The Entire Web or Only Sites I Select. (Use the latter option to restrict search to your own website, then enter your site’s URL into the resulting text box.)
6. To fine-tune users’ search results, enter one or more keywords that describe the subject and content of your site into the Keywords box. Use spaces to separate multiple keywords.
7. If you want to prevent inappropriate sites from appearing in the search results, check the Use SafeSearch option.
8. In the next section of this page, verify or edit your site’s country, language, encoding, and transliteration.
Transliteration enables site visitors to enter queries phonetically in English and have that query translated into another language.
9. If you want to specify a reporting channel for your AFS ads, expand the Custom Channels section and click Add next to the channel(s) you want to use. Click Create New Custom Channel to create a new custom channel.
10. To determine how the Google search box will appear on your site, expand the Search Box Style section, shown in Figure 5.16. Check the style you want to use.
Figure 5.16. Selecting a style for the Google search box.
11. To determine how AdSense ads will look on the search results pages, expand the Ad Style section. Select an existing ad style, or click the Use Custom Settings button to fine-tune ad colors and fonts.
12. To determine how search results are displayed on your site, expand the Search Results section, shown in Figure 5.17. You can opt to open the search results on the Google site in the same browser window, on the Google site in a new browser window, or within your own site. You can also opt to display your site’s logo on the search results pages, as well as include a link to a landing page on your site when your logo is clicked. Click the appropriate button to select whether your logo will be placed above or beside the search box.
Figure 5.17. Configuring the look and style of the search results page.
13. When you’re finished configuring all these options, click the Save and Get Code button.
14. You now see the Search Box Code dialog box. Copy the entire block of code from this page, and then paste it into the HTML code for your web page where you want the search box to appear.
Creating AdSense for Feeds Ads
Next we come to AdSense for Feeds (AFF), which lets you insert ads into the site feed for your blog. Now, to insert ads into the blog itself, you use the regular AdSense for Content program; you use AFF only for your blog’s feed.
A site feed is an automatically updated stream of a blog’s contents, enabled by a special XML file format called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). When a blog has an RSS feed enabled, any updated content is published automatically as a special XML file that contains the RSS feed; this syndicated feed is then picked up by RSS feed reader programs and aggregators, so that subscribers are automatically informed of new posts.
To add advertising to your blog’s site feed, follow these steps:
1. From the My Ads tab, click Feeds in the navigation pane.
2. Click Feed Ads in the navigation pane.
3. This displays the Feed Ads page, which lists any existing feeds you’ve set up. Click the New Feed Unit button.
4. When the Create New Feed Unit page appears, as shown in Figure 5.18, pull down the Ad Type list and determine the type of ad you want—Text Ads Only, Image/Rich Media Ads Only, or Text & Image/Rich Media Ads.
Figure 5.18. Enabling AdSense for Feeds.
5. Pull down the Frequency list and select how frequently you want the ads to appear—after each feed item or after every second, third, or fourth item.
6. Pull down the Post Length list and select the length of posts where you want ads selected. The default is for posts of any length, but other options are available.
7. Pull down the Position list and select where you want the ads to appear—at the bottom or the top of each feed item.
8. In the Colors section, opt to let AdSense determine the ad colors or select the Let Me Choose My Colors option. If you select the latter option, you’ll need to pick colors for each ad element.
9. If you want to track your ads by channel, either select an existing channel in the Channels section or click the Create New Custom Channel link to create a new channel.
10. In the Feeds section, click the Add link beside each blog feed you wish to activate. If a given blog feed isn’t listed, click the Burn New Feed link and, when prompted, enter the URL for your blog.
11. Click the Save button when done.
AdSense will now display ads on the selected blog feeds, in the manner specified.
Creating AdSense for Mobile Ads
If your website is optimized for mobile devices, or if you include alternative mobile pages, you can generate revenue by placing PPC ads on those mobile pages. AdSense for Mobile (AFM) works just like AdSense for Content, matching ads to your site’s content; you earn money when mobile visitors click those ads.
Because mobile pages are different from normal web pages, the ads serviced by AdSense by Mobile are a bit different, as well, containing just 24 to 36 characters of text, followed by the advertiser’s destination URL. Figure 5.19 shows a sample mobile text ad.
Figure 5.19. An AFM text ad.
In addition to traditional text ads, AdSense also serves mobile image ads, like the one in Figure 5.20. Clicking one of these ads can either open the advertiser’s website or dial the advertiser’s phone number, at the advertiser’s discretion.
Figure 5.20. An AFM image ad.
You can display just one mobile ad unit per mobile page. This can be a single or double ad; if you opt to display the double ad unit, it can be placed only at the bottom of each page.
To add AFM ads to your mobile website, follow these steps:
1. From the My Ads tab, click Mobile Content in the navigation pane.
2. Click Ad Units in the navigation pane.
3. When the Ad Units page appears, click the New Ad Unit button.
4. When the Create New Ad Unit page appears, as shown in Figure 5.21, enter a name for this ad into the Name box.
Figure 5.21. Creating a new mobile ad.
5. Pull down the Device Type list and select the type of device for which your site is optimized—iPhones and Other Highend Devices Only or All Phones.
When choosing a device type, the default setting of iPhone and Other Highend Devices Only is best if your site is designed primarily for Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android phones, and other smartphones. If your site supports a wider variety of non-smartphones, select the All Phones option.
6. Pull down the Ad Format list and select the ad size you want to create. (Sizes differ depending on the types of devices you selected in the previous step.)
7. Pull down the Ad Type list and select what types of ads you want to display: Text Ads Only, Image/Rich Media Ads Only, or Text & Image/Rich Media Ads.
8. If you selected All Phones as the device type, you now need to specify the markup language used to create your web page. (This option isn’t available if you selected iPhone as your device type; the markup language is already known.)
9. Pull down the Encoding list and select the character encoding for your ads; the default Auto-Detect setting is normally best.
10. Pull down the Color Palette list and select the desired color palette for your ads, or define custom colors for specific ad elements.
11. If you want to track your ads by channel, either select an existing channel in the Custom Channels section or click the Create New Custom Channel link to create a new channel.
12. Pull down the Alternate Ad or Color list and select what you want to display if relevant ads aren’t available.
13. Click the Save and Get Code button.
14. When the Mobile Ad Unit Code dialog box appears, copy the code and paste it into the underlying code of your mobile web page, where you want the ad to appear.
Tables 5.4 and 5.5 detail the available mobile ad sizes for both WAP-enabled phones and smartphones.
Table 5.4. Mobile Ad Formats for All WAP-Enabled Mobile Phones
Table 5.5. Mobile Ad Formats for Smartphones (Both Text and Image Ads)
Activating AdSense for Domains
Did you know you can make money from web domains that don’t have any content—so-called “parked” or unused domains? Although it might seem counterintuitive to think that people would visit a site without any content, the AdSense for Domains (AFD) program helps you put content on otherwise empty sites, and then serves up PPC ads related to that content. Visitors stumbling across your parked domain thus find some content (mainly links to other sites) and are enticed to click on the related ads that accompany those links.
How AdSense for Domains Works
A parked domain is essentially a web address you’ve purchased and registered but not yet created pages for. Normally, when visitors access this type of undeveloped address they see some sort of “page under construction” message or a 404 error message. AdSense for Domains lets you fill this blank space, however temporarily, with links, search results, and other content—including PPC ads. This way, visitors find something when they enter your domain’s URL, and might even be persuaded to click on some of the ads, thus generating revenue from an otherwise fallow site.
How does AdSense determine what type of content to put on a parked page? It uses Google’s semantic technology to target content to the domain name. The more descriptive the domain name, the better focused the content. It’s that simple.
An AFD page also includes a Google search box, which visitors can use to search for anything they want. When a visitor uses this search box, Google returns a typical search results page. Not surprisingly, PPC ads are also displayed on the resulting search results page—and you make money when any of these ads (but not the organic search links) are clicked.
Entering New Domains
Presuming that you’ve already registered a domain and left it empty, here’s how you fill it up with content from the AdSense for Domains program. Just follow these steps:
1. From the My Ads tab, click Domains in the navigation pane.
2. Click Hosted Domains in the navigation pane.
3. This displays the Hosted Domains page, where all previously registered domains are displayed. Click the New Hosted Domain button.
4. When the Create New Hosted Domain page appears, as shown in Figure 5.22, enter one or more domain names into the first text box, separating multiple names with commas or spaces.
Figure 5.22. Activating AdSense for Domains.
5. Pull down the Select a Language list and select a host language for these domains.
6. Click the Add Domain(s) button.
If you have a lot of domains to enter, you can add them all at once by saving the domain names to a CSV file and then using the Upload a CSV File option.
You now need to modify the settings for these domains at your domain registrar. In general, you must create a CNAME alias that refers to your AdSense ID and A records that point to specific Google addresses. Instructions for doing this with several major registrars, such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions, are located at www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=76049. Once you’ve changed these domain settings, it should take about 48 hours for your domains to move from the Pending to Active status.
Customizing Your Pages
When your domain is active, you can customize certain elements of the resulting page that Google serves. Return to the AdSense for Domains page, select the domain you want to edit, and then pull down the Actions list and select Edit Settings. You can select a color palette for the page and enter one or more keywords to help define the site’s content.
The main page of your domain will now go live, formatted as you specified. You can return to the AdSense for Domains page at any time to edit the page’s settings; use AdSense’s standard tracking tools to track the performance of this domain.
You can also use the My Ads tab to create ads for video and game content, although you must apply to both of these programs. Just click either Video or Games in the More Products section of the navigation pane and follow the instructions there.
Editing Existing Ads
After you’ve created one or more ads in any AdSense program, you can edit those ad units and generate new code. To do this, go to the My Ads tab, select the program that contains the ad you want to edit, and then click the Ad Units or other appropriate link in the navigation pane.
For example, to edit ad units appearing on your website, select Content, Ad Units from the navigation pane. This displays the Ad Units page, as shown in Figure 5.23, with all existing ads listed. Click the link for the ad you want to edit; this displays the old familiar Ad Units page. Make any changes you want, then click the Save button. (You’ll now need to display, copy, and paste the new code, of course.)
Figure 5.23. Managing existing AdSense for Content ads.
If you have a large number of existing ads, you can find a specific ad by typing one or more keywords into the Filter Ad Units box at the top-right corner of the page.
To redisplay the code for an ad unit, click the Get Code link underneath that ad on the Ad Units page. You can then copy and paste the code back into your web pages.