Google Adsense has come up with a new tool for publishers – Matched Content. It’s a recommendation tool, which shows related content to your visitors – much like a related content widget with images.
Works best when used at the bottom of each article. Since visitors might be looking for more content after they have consumed the content of your article.
Eligibility to use Matched content
The Matched content feature is not available to all publishers. To be eligible, you must have a site that meets our minimum requirements for traffic volume and number of unique pages. We’ve put these requirements in place to ensure that Matched content provides a great experience for you and your site visitors. Once your site is approved, you’ll have access to the Matched content feature in your AdSense account.Create an ad unit
Create an ad unit in the usual way, making sure to choose an ad size that fits your layout, and to select “Matched content” from the Ad type drop-down in the process.
To get the best fit for your layout, you might want to use a custom ad size. When using a custom size, we recommend choosing an ad size with a width:height ratio of around 2:1 for a horizontal layout, or 1:2 for a vertical layout.
Check if your site is approved for matched content
1. Sign in to your AdSense account.
2. Click the gear icon and select Settings.
3. In the sidebar, under “Account”, click Site management.
Under the “Owned” tab, check the “Matched content” column to see if your site has been approved. If the status of your site is:
Approved: You may place Matched content units on any of the pages of this site.
Not approved: You may not place Matched content units on this site.
If there is no column called “Matched content“, then your account is not yet eligible for it and you’ll have to wait for some months before it is rolled out to every publisher.
Revenue
Going forward am sure Google will roll content matching ads into this widget and help publishers generate more revenue from their site. For example, apart from your own sites content, the widget might show some relevant content and link of an advertiser. This way, advertiser gets traffic and the publisher gets his cut!
Related Read: New AdSense Ad format — Widget Ads