Adsense New Ad Format: 300×600 Ad Unit

Bigger Is Better! (Bada hai to behtar hai)

Google has finally announced yet another Large Skyscraper, 300×600 ad unit. Which has both Text as well as image/rich media ads.
Since this is new ad format, currently only text ads are running on most of the websites. Once advertisers start taking notice of this, and start exploiting the potential of this big beast, we can see some creative which take up half of the page!

From previous tests conducted by Google, bigger ads have been performing better than smaller ad units. So we guess, 300×600 ad unit would yield more.

You can see them on our site sidebar. Sometimes it looks so awkward, but we have to see it’s performance over time.
I’m looking forward to see image/rich media ads on our site. It’s an opportunity for brands to showcase their creative effectively.

Adsense-300x600-ad-unit

Get to it:
My ads -> New ad unit -> select 300×600 ad unit

+1 Button Live On Adsense Ads

Google had previously announced about this +1 button on Adsense ads to publicly promote the ad. It was said to go live in October 2011. But we are seeing it live on almost all the rich image ads these days. Maybe from Christmas.

It’ll show the faces of people who liked it, only if they happen to be your friends(on your list: GMail, Circle contact).

Here is a live video of the ads with +1 button, which we could spot on our blog:



You can read more about this here: Google’s +1 On Adsense Ads: Demo Video!

Google’s +1 On Adsense Ads: Demo Video!

Well the +1 button has even made it’s way on Adsense ads.. yes starting from October 2011 Google’s +1 button along with the people(your friends) who pressed this +1 button will be shown at the bottom of Adsense for Content ads and Adsense for Mobile Ads.

adsense-for-content-social-ad

Example on Google’s blog:

For example, take Susan, who sees an ad for a good deal on flights. She +1’s the ad, thinking her friends might value this deal. Now, when Susan’s friends and contacts are signed in to their Google accounts, they’ll be able to see Susan’s picture across the bottom of the ad, with a note saying she +1’d it.

Susan’s friends and contacts will also be more likely to see the ad. While the dynamics of our ad auction aren’t changing, the ad will now be included in the auction for the pages Susan’s friends visit, as we know recommendations from friends can be a strong signal of an ad’s relevance.

Source: Adsense blog

My question is: will Susan click on the ad first or the +1 button ? If Susan click on the ad, then how can she click on +1 ? On the other hand, if Susan clicks on +1, then “how does she know if it’s a better product without even first visiting the site?”

So, basically this +1 will help big brands build up their tribe with these creative ads and recommend others to view it too. So I guess, this feature will increase the click through rates of big brands or recognized ads more and the one’s with highly creative ad.

Google Adword Promotional Ad
Google has already started showing Adword ads featuring this +1 and giving $75 for the first time users! Below is a video of the ad which appeared on our blog today.






To Opt-out of this feature: For publishers
Step 1: Log into your Adsense account.
Step 2: Click on “Try the new AdSense interface” at the top right corner.
Step 3:Allow & block ads” tab.
Step 4: In the left hand sidebar, “Advanced settings” under Blocking options.
Step 5: Click on the check box, to enable or disable:

opt-out-opt-in-adsense-social-ads


i. Interest-based Ads Preference: Show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites may be used to help create interest categories.
ii. Third Party Ads Preference: Allow advertisers to use their audience information to deliver more relevant ads to my site.
iii. Social Ads Preference: Allow the use of +1 related features and social annotations in ads.

Adsense for Mobile:
I’m particularly interested in seeing how this could work on Adsense for Mobile ads. I’m so much into using my Xperia Arc and hence many android Applications.
It would be nice to have +1 in the adsense ads which are shown in these applications.

adsense-for-mobile-social-ad

On mobile, the +1 button will replace the existing ‘g’ logo and recommendations will appear for several seconds, then fade out.

And no, clicking on +1 button won’t generate any revenue in your adsense account directly. Google hopes, it would increase the CTR(Click Through Rate) of your ads and hence your revenue will be increased.

+1’s will be one additional signal that help determine an ad’s relevance. All eligible ads will continue to compete in the ad auction, and we’ll continue to show the ones that will generate the most revenue for you. +1 button clicks are not counted as clicks on ads. Although you won’t receive any revenue for +1 button clicks, +1’s will help AdSense to deliver more useful ads to your users, which we think will result in higher returns over time.

For adword users though, it would help get more exposure. But the normal auctioning will continue..
As publishers we get the option to opt-in or opt-out of these Social Ad Preferences, so no complaining around. Opt-in or Opt-out, it’s left to you.

On Time YouTube Partner Payment

If you participate in the YouTube Partner Program, your account receives revenue from two different types of advertising. One type is served by Google AdSense and the second is served directly by YouTube. Because of this, you will see two earnings entries per month within your AdSense Payment History. One entry will include earnings from AdSense for Content Host and any other Google AdSense product you may use, while the second entry will include earnings from YouTube.

YouTube-fire-light

Previously YouTube earnings payout took 60 days, but from now you can enjoy the benefit of early payouts!

Yesterday I received this email from YouTube:

Hey Partner,

You probably noticed in the past that monthly YouTube earnings payments occurred on a different timeline (about 60 days after they were earned) than AdSense earnings payments (about 30 days after they were earned). We are excited to announce that starting this month and moving forward, payments from both YouTube and AdSense will occur on the same 30-day cycle.

What this means is that your YouTube earnings for July will arrive this month rather than next month as they would have under the former earnings payment schedule. Many partners will see a larger-than-normal payout in August since they will be receiving their June and July YouTube earnings, plus their normal (July) AdSense earnings. In September and beyond, both YouTube and AdSense earnings will be on a 30 day cycle and payouts will be back at normal levels.

So enjoy more earnings, and on-time payouts. Cheers!

Adsense Revenue Share: Google/Publisher

Mayank,


Q: There are many ad networks which reveal the total percentage of revenue share they give to their publisher.
What percentage of earnings does Google share with their adsense publishers ?

Google didn’t reveal this until many bloggers and economists started guessing the revenue share based on their quarterly reports. But now Google itself has revealed the exact numbers. So we hope these numbers are accurate.

To look into it yourself, log into your adsense account. Navigate to My Account tab, scroll down and under the Property Information you will see the percentage of revenue share between Google and You(the publisher).

adsense-revenue-share

What Google has to say about this:

For displaying ads with AdSense for content, publishers receive 68% of the amount Google collects from advertisers. For AdSense for search, publishers receive 51% of the amount collected from advertisers. These percentages are consistent, regardless of a publisher’s geographic location, and are not in any way averaged between publishers. We don’t disclose the revenue share for other AdSense products; the revenue share varies for other products due to different costs of developing and supporting these products.

We believe our revenue share is extremely competitive. However, revenue shares alone can be misleading, so we encourage you to focus on the total revenue generated for your site. For example, if the Google ads on your site generate $100, with our 68% revenue share you’d receive $68 through AdSense. Another ad network might offer an 80% revenue share, but only collect $50 from advertisers, so you’d receive $40.

With the vast number of advertisers competing to appear on AdSense sites, our system ensures that you’re earning the most possible for every ad impression you receive.

So, publishers get 68% for AdSense for Content, 51% for AdSense for Search. And Google doesn’t reveal the revenue share for its other products, as it depends on many other factors.

Change The Color of Adsense Ad On Each Refresh!

Arun,
Question and Answer Session
Q: Can you please share the PHP program that you use to alternate the adsense ad’s Title color, Background color, link color for each refresh. I have been trying to accomplish this using PHP; Is there a plugin to accomplish this easily? And I’m also afrid, isn’t it against Google TOS – altering the adsense code ?

Yes, altering adsense code is against Google TOS. But I’m neither editing adsense code nor am I using any PHP coding to accomplish this. All I use is a simple adsense feature that is enabled in all adsense publisher account.

While creating an ad you can select the color Palette from the existing color Palettes or create your own. You can then hold CTRL key on your keyboard and select multiple color palettes. And these color schemes will be applied alternatively to the adsense ad.

color-palettes

You can do the same by editing the already existing ad code.
Goto Adsense Setup tab -> Manage Ads -> now click on the edit Ad Settings link infront of the desired ad.

Custom Palette:
For creating custom color palettes: Log into your adsense account. Click on AdSense Setup tab -> Color Palettes.

custom-color-palettes

Do the customization, give a name to your customized palette, save it. This custom Palette will be shown when you edit or create an ad.
Tip: Blend the ad pattern with the design/color of your website and it performs better.

New AdSense Ad format(s) – YouTube, Twitter Integration

We have seen Adsense ads with YouTube videos integrated, which play on the same page when clicked. But these are somewhat different in their looks, and do not play videos on the same page, instead takes the visitor to a YouTube URL which is formated like a nice landing page.

Here are some screen shots. We found these ads on our blog too and had taken screen shots a month back.

adsense-youtube-ad-formateadsense-youtube-ad-formateadsense-youtube-ad-formate

And recently we also heard of a ad format containing Twitter tweets extracted from rss feed of the advertisers twitter a/c. Here are the images:

google-adsense-twitter-ads


“Google Twitter Ad” News Source(s): searchengineland and qualite.

The ad is interactive in that you can click the right and left arrows to see previous tweets from that account. You can also click on the Twitter avatar and name, plus the “Follow me on Twitter” link to be taken to that person’s Twitter URL.

The ad itself is connected to the advertiser´s Twitter account and rotates the latest tweets from this account. The only clickable parts of the ad are the logo, the Twitter-username, the text ”Follow me on Twitter” and the URL to the Twitter-profile. The goal with the ad format is to recruit more followers for the advertiser´s Twitter-profile.

Update: We found these ads ourselves on Google’s social networking site – Orkut. I have tried my best to capture the video.



Google has not officially said anything specifically about these ad formats, but it is said to have been testing some new ad formats to help advertisers get better exposure.

Orkut Adsense Ad Placement

There was/is a lot of hype! and buzz in online community about monetizing strategies for FaceBook and Twitter. With all these, Orkut silently started showing adsense ads on Orkut, at some places. After some time it started showing ads on almost all the pages! But PPC ads doesn’t seem to be performing well on social networking sites, as people in such sites will be looking for friends and not for new products in the market, so they are less likely to click a ad. On the other hand, CPM ads may work better, as there will be a lot of impressions on each ad.
top-ad-spot-orkut

With latest improvements for advertisers, Orkut have moved the big 250 x 250 ad to the top right side and it has marked it clearly as “advertisement”. I am sure that it will improve the advertisers interest[Not sure about the users experience and satisfaction. Personally I don’t have any problem with ads, as long as we get value from the website].

Another significant, less observed and good ad placement is in the search result page of Orkut..Try to search for someone in Orkut, and on the top of the results you can see a 468 x 60[or slightly bigger] ad which is well blended with the theme(Orkut design).
Orkut-good-ad-placement
And even smarter, Orkut shows “Recommendations by Google” and showcases and promotes some of its services.
recommendation-from-google-on-Orkut
Over all, critics are common when it comes to big players, but whats important is, we need to take the good aspects from them and need to learn from their mistakes. Everyone of us can’t make all the mistakes and then learn from it!

Over to readers. What do you feel about the ad placement and over all usability experience with Orkut.