A few months ago, we updated the email communication options in your AdSense account to give you more choices about the types of messages you’d like to receive from us. You can now pick the types of messages that interest you from five categories:
- Customized help and performance suggestions
- Newsletters
- Google market research
- Special offers
- Information about other Google products and services which may be of interest to you
If you’d like to receive emails with optimization tips that are targeted to your specific account settings and ad implementation, you’ll need to choose the category Customized help and performance suggestions. You’ll receive roughly one email per month from us with targeted performance suggestions, so you don’t have to worry about your inbox overflowing with messages from us.
In case you aren’t currently opted into this category, we’d like to recommend that you update your preferences to be able to receive Customized help and performance suggestions going forward and not miss out on valuable information on how to optimize your AdSense performance.
Posted by Annette Vorstoffel - AdSense Optimisation team
We’ve received tons of feedback and questions about Chitika | Select, so I want to put the answers to some of the most-asked questions here:
So on Monday, am I suddenly going to be showing a ton of different/strange ads on my site?
No – not at all. We will be gradually rolling this out, starting with a very small amount of additional “Select” impressions. As we gather more feedback and performance data, we will increase the amount of additional “Select” impressions that we show.
Why is this an opt-out instead of an opt-in?
Simply due to your feedback. Ever since we launched Chitika | Premium 2 years ago, 90% of publisher feedback has been that you love how we monetize search traffic, but you want to also earn money from the rest of your traffic too. Since the vast majority of you want to be able to do this, we are automatically turning it on. To give you some idea: Google shows ads for 100% of your traffic. Chitika currently shows ads for less than 30% of your traffic (about 60% of US traffic across our network). Given the huge available opportunity – this was a no-brainer that a lot of our publishers are asking for. However, in all this — please note that our core philosophy of not bombarding the user with ads still remains. We will only show ads when we really believe that the user will benefit from them — the rest of them time, the ads will continue to collapse.
For publishers who DO NOT want this new functionality, it is very easy to opt-out. Just login to your Chitika account and go to the “My Account” tab. The opt-out is at the bottom of the page. [Update: We will be giving you multiple levels of control -- so you can opt-out/opt-in at an account level, or only for certain ad units. See how to do this below.]
How does Chitika | Select choose when and when not to show an ad?
We determine when (and when NOT to) show an ad by using our new click-prediction technology. What is click-prediction technology, you ask? We have been conducting HUGE amounts of research over the past 1 year which allows us tremendous amount of insight into how users interact with ads. For example, did you know that IE users are twice as likely to click on an ad as FireFox users? These types of statistical studies are the core of this new predictive technology. This type of analysis is common in other industries such as insurance, credit cards, etc., and now Chitika is bringing that to online advertising. [Note: This new click prediction technology has been running on select publishers on parts of our UK traffic for the last 3 months -- the results have been outstanding]
Your premium ads look at the search terms used to arrive on the site – as a result you get really relevant results- what about Select, how will we know the ads are something I want on my site and/or relevant?
The Chitika | Select ads may or may not be relevant to your content – however you can be SURE that they are relevant to the user. Remember – the Chitika | Select technology will determine the likelihood of whether an ad is a good match for that user or not. This is how we are able to command a high eCPM – by selectively showing ads when we know that they have some value for the user. Remember: For these new ads, what YOU see might be a lot different than what your READERS are seeing (this is similar to the “interest based” ads on Google Adsense — its targeted to each user). However, since they are targeted to the user — they command higher CPMs than untargeted ads.
What do you mean by “Image ads”? What do these look like?
Just like Google AdSense’s image ads, these will be high-quality graphic/banner ads from major brand name advertisers. We will only choose to show graphic/banner ads if they command high CPMs. These are the same ads that run on top ComScore 500 publishers’ sites.
I do not want image/graphic ads on my site! But I do want to use Chitika | Select – is that possible?
Yes – in the opt-out section, you can keep Chitika | Select switched on, but opt-out of the image ads part of the service. Our goal here is to give you the options and the controls. We understand that no single size fits all.
Can I see a breakdown showing my earnings from search (Premium) vs. my earnings from non-search (Select) traffic?
Yes. You will be able to run reports on this that separate the 2 types of ads that are showing – this will give you an accurate read on how well each type of ad is performing for you.
Can I keep my search-only ads where they are, but add new placements for the Select ads?
Yes. If you want to use both the current Chitika | Premum ads and Chitika | Select, you should opt-out of Chitika | Select, and then you can just add this line of code into your new ads which will enable them for Select:
ch_select = "enabled";
Or vice versa – if you want to turn all of your existing ads into Chitika | Select, but then keep 1 or 2 ad Premium, you should stay opted-in to the new Chitika | Select service. Then you can add this line of code to the 1 or 2 ads that you want to show to search-only:
ch_select = "disabled";
What if I am using an Alternate Ad to show to my non-search traffic?
Your Alternate Ad will continue to function just like it did before. However, Chitika | Select ads will override it whenever we feel that we can earn an eCPM yield that is similar to or greater than what you are earning on your search traffic.
Can I be assured that only family-friendly ads are displayed?
Just like Chitika | Premium ads, we do our very best to ensure that our ads are family friendly. We do not allow adult advertisers or do business with adult advertisers. Period. These ads are filtered by multiple parties using various filtering tools. Again – all of these ads are sourced from major brand advertisers and are shown on top ComScore 500 sites, so there is little room for error.
In the rare case that an ad would somehow slip through this, you are able to block ads by merchant and keyword from your “My Account” tab in your Chitika account. Also, you can submit any offending advertiser URL’s to our customer support team and we will have them removed immediately.
What about traffic outside the US and Canada?
Stay tuned! With Chitika | Select technology we will be incorporating lots of new advertising partners, and we will be able to open up to more than just US and Canada traffic. This will begin to happen slowly and ramp up as we continue to roll the service out.
So… what other questions do you have? What other info/features/etc. would you like to see added to this? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
We’re constantly focused on bringing new advertisers and more advertising spend to AdSense sites. One way to do so is to make it easier for brand advertisers to reach their goals on AdSense sites. Brand advertisers are focused on raising brand awareness and driving engagement, typically with display ads, for a product or service a person may buy in the future. Brand advertisers differ from direct response advertisers, who typically look for clicks and conversions from the campaigns they run on your site.
For example, an advertiser selling DVDs online may want users to click through and make purchases, while a brand advertiser for an upcoming summer blockbuster may want to generate awareness among users. Because of their campaign goals, brand advertisers tend to be more selective about the sites their ads run on, as well as where on the page their ads appear. We want to help these new advertisers compete for the portions of your ad space that are most attractive to them so that we can increase your earnings over time.
With that in mind, we’re launching a new beta advertiser feature that we believe will help accomplish this goal. The new feature enables brand advertisers to target their ads to ad units that are immediately visible when a page is loaded — in other words, the portions of the page a user can see without needing to scroll down. The ads that are immediately visible are called ‘above the fold’; those that require a user to scroll down in order to be seen are called ‘below the fold.’
In order to determine which ads are above and below the fold, we’ve implemented a statistically-driven model. The model takes into account various user experiences and situations, including different web browsers, monitor sizes, and screen resolutions, and only considers ads above the fold if they are fully on-screen when the browser window loads.
If you’ve placed your ad units above the fold, advertisers using this feature will now be able to reach your site in a new way. If you haven’t, placing new ad units above the fold will enable them to do so. We believe this feature will help attract new brand campaigns to AdSense sites, bringing more revenue to publishers over time.
Posted by Aaron Rothman - Product Manager
Up until now, Chitika ads were only able to cater to your search traffic with
Chitika | Premium. I am now happy to introduce Chitika | Select ads, which will display to more than just your search traffic.
This upgrade to Premium ads on will allow Chitika ads to reach more visitors and directly increase your Chitika ad revenue. We estimate Select ads could give publishers a 5 – 10% revenue increase on top of Premium ads alone.
How do Chitika | Select ads work?
Using our click-prediction technology, Chitika | Select ads will display only when there is a higher chance the ad will be clicked. The percentage of non-search traffic that will see the Select ads will vary from site to site.
FAQ’s
Can I Still Use Chitika | Select With Google AdSense?
Yes! Just like the Chitika | Premium ads you can use the new Chitika | Select ads and AdSense together on the same page.
How Can I Upgrade My Chitika | Premium Ads?
You don’t need to, it will happen automatically Monday, March 8th 2010.
Are Chitika | Select Ads PPC (Pay-Per-Click)?
Chitika | Select will always show the highest-paying ads possible. This will include PPC ads as well as CPM image/banner ads (which pay per impression, whether a user clicks or not).
Will Chitika | Select Ads look different than Chitika | Premium?
Sometimes. Similar to how Google shows image/banner ads if they determine that it is the highest paying ad for a certain user visiting the site, we will do the same. Some of your users will see ads with the Chitika | Premium format and others will see ads that look different but will pay more.
If you would rather have your Chitika ads continue to ONLY show to your search traffic, you can opt-out of Chitika | Select here. *However by doing so, you will miss out on a potential revenue boost!
What do you think of our new Select ads? Please comment below.
Once ads are displaying fine on your pages, your next concern may be your earnings. To make sure all your impressions and clicks are recorded correctly, check out the following notes and tips.
First, be aware that your AdSense reports are updated every 15 to 30 minutes, but can sometimes take up to 24 hours to update. So at times, if you don’t see the numbers you expect in your reports, be sure to check again later once your reports have been updated.
- Do you use the Allowed Sites feature? Allowed sites are websites or URLs on which AdSense publishers allow or wish to have their Google ads displayed. If you use the allowed sites feature in your AdSense account, be sure to add all the websites you’re displaying ads on, to the list of allowed sites. If you forget to add a sites where you’re displaying ads, then impressions and clicks on the sites will be shown in your reports, but advertisers won’t be charged and the clicks won’t earn any revenue.
- Do you have channels set up to track your clicks and impressions?
- If your channel reports show more data than your aggregate reports, it might be the case that your domains or ad units are being tracked simultaneously on multiple URL or custom channels. If that’s the case, then to see your complete, accurate statistics, visit your Advanced Reports page. When you select the Aggregate Data radio button and click Display Report, you’ll see all clicks, page impressions, and earnings from your account with no duplication of data.
- Alternatively, you may see that your aggregate reports show more data than your channel reports, even if all your pages are tracked with channels. This can occur sometimes when your page is displayed within a frame; in this case data won’t appear in your channel reports but will display in your aggregate reports.
Channel data can be a bit tricky, so make sure to pick distinctive names to differentiate between URL and custom channels — that way, you’ll know exactly what data you’re viewing. We also recommend checking out our optimization tips for channels to help you determine which ad units and placements are performing well, and how you can use this information to earn more revenue.
- If you have ad placements, have you named them accurately? Once you create channels for your ad units or domains, you can turn your custom channels into ad placements that advertisers can specifically target their ads to, using placement targeting. When entering a description for your channels to appear as ad placements, be sure to enter something informative and accurate to represent your site well.
Also, we advise you to be careful when renaming the ad placement as you will lose existing advertiser bids.
Next week, we’ll look at publisher controls and how to filter certain ads from appearing on your site.
Posted by Ulrike Jung - Inside AdSense Team
