Matched Content

In 2015, Google launched Matched Content Unit to help increase user engagement and time spent on the site by promoting relevant content present within the site. According to Googles own research based on the real-time data this matched content unit increased number of pages viewed by 9% and the time spent on site by 10%.

Note:
1. You can’t cross promote your articles/contents from 2 different sites. Matched content recommendations that are generated for each site will be internal to that site.
2. Matched Content units generate recommendations from pages that have Google ads or Matched content units on them.

Matched content units work on mobile, tablet, and desktop and are mostly responsive(the images and text within the unit content) in nature. If your articles do not contain images then text only format will be displayed.

Eligibility for Matched content unit

Eligibility	What it means
Not currently eligible to use Matched content	Your site doesn’t yet meet minimum requirements for traffic volume and number of unique pages.
Eligible to use Matched content	Your site meets minimum requirements for traffic volume and number of unique pages.
Eligible to use Matched content and show ads in between recommendations	Your site meets minimum requirements for traffic volume and number of unique pages, and it can be well monetized.

It has 2 criteria, minimum requirements for traffic volume and number of unique pages. The exact number for traffic is not known but we believe a site with as low as 400-500 unique visits per day is eligible provided it has enough unique pages – because these matched content units must show relevant related content without which it is of not much use to the visitors.

Check eligibility

Log into your adsense account. Go to Settings -> My Sites -> Matched Content.

Here it shows the domains which work well with Matched Content. You can create a Matched Content unit in My Ads section and use this list to see which domains will show good recommendations from pages on that domain.

Add Matched Content To Your Site
Go to MyAds, click on New ad unit button.

Select ‘Matched Content‘. To your right hand site you get options to customize the look and feel of your matched content unit. Here you can also opt-in or opt-out of ‘Monetize with Ads’, under Ad options settings.

Next you can also set its font family, title and background color. You can also set the width and height of the matched content unit or else select responsive unit. Save & Get Code. Paste the code inside your website / blog wherever you want this ‘Matched Content Unit’ to appear.

Responsive Matched Content Unit
Matched content units are optimized based on the container size. You can use the preview tool available inside your adsense account to see how the unit changes across different sizes.

Tips on Matched Content Unit Placement

For best results, place your matched content unit directly below your article or in the sidebar.

Earn with Matched Content Unit
You can also show ads, so you earn money while promoting your content. Simply opt-in to show ads and Google will start showing relevant ads to your users whenever it’s appropriate.

We’re already seeing 3 ads along with our own content recommended in Matched Content Unit on one of our blog.

Matched Content Unit on Technotip.com
We got approved for using Matched Content Unit on one of our sites Technotip.com You can check the unit below each article. We’ll update this post after going through the performance report of this Matched Content Unit on our blog.

Let us know if you need to know anything about these units ..I’ll be happy to assist you with whatever I know.

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