Archive for the 'Adsense & YPN' Category

Google’s Content Network, ( Adsense ) has never been great for conversions ( sales, leads, subscriptions, etc). IMHO, their content network is better suited for a campaign that has an objective for brand awareness. Besides that, Adsense is more heavily hit by click fraud than Adwords. So, when managing a PPC campaign that has a primary objective for generating conversions, I usually opt-out of Google’s content network.

Recently, one of my Google reps (one of the Google girls ) wouldn’t give up on pushing me to opting into the content network for a specific campaign. I repeatedly refused. They started tag teaming me. My argument was that I need to be able to track keyword level CPC’s. And, that’s not possible using the content network. She said she’d get back to me. Well, to my pleasant surprise, she had a brainstorm. She said to just create 1-word adgroups. That way, I’ll be able to see the keyword CPC on the Content Network. I think that’s an awesome idea, and I’m implementing it as a test on a relatively small sample of keywords.

In the new Google CPA (Cost-Per-Action) offering, Google charges the advertiser with a % markup on the cpa…just like traditional cpa networks. And, it’s obvious they are using their adsense network to get distribution.

However, I see some initial weaknesses in their ability to compete with the traditional CPA or affiliate networks like cj.com, linkshare, azoogle, etc. The traditional CPA networks let the advertiser have more control and relationships with the actual affiialtes (sending promotions, optimization tips, newsletters, contests, etc). That relationship has a direct correlation to performance metrics for both the advertiser and the affiliate.

Even though google will have the distribution, many other traditional affiliate networks have a better optimization model & an experienced affiliate base that make it work… that’s something Google doesn’t have. That is what will ultimately entice advertisers. Performance. Plus affiliate marketers usually seek higher payouts, and thats what the traditional cpa networks offer.

Traditional affiliate marketers want/need more control than the Google’s new CPA network (Content Referral Network) is offering. Affiliate marketers want control like product-specific landing pages, choice of creative, choice of promotional offers, choice of image sizes, etc.

I’m slamming it, huh? Well, the bottomline is that Google’s new CPA network provides advertisers the safety in a deeper metric that eliminates click fraud, will be fun to try ( like every other new google product), and is another digital channel to add to the marketing mix.

The Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) has NOT been performing for me. And, from the comments people leave me, and other stuff I read on the web, it generally seems like the YPN just doesn’t perform. My guess is this mostly because their relevancy sucks. Additionally, YPN is only crediting me with 12% of the clicks on my ads. That’s a bummer too. I haven’t given up though.

I have tweaked the ad placement, ad colors, and ad size. Nothing seems to effect a noticeable performance change. Before switching to Google Adsense I’m going to try a couple of more things, in the hope that my Yahoo ads will get more clicks, and be more relevant to my content.

First adjustment is, rather than showing the 10 most recent posts on the homepage, I reduced that to 7. My thoughts are that this will narrow the subject matter, thereby increasing the likelihood of the relevancy of the Yahoo ads.

Secondly, I installed a Wordpress plug-in called Adsense-Deluxe.

AdSense-Deluxe is an easy-to-use plugin for WordPress 1.5+ (including WP 2.0) for quickly inserting Google or Yahoo! ads into your blog posts.

I enabled the Yahoo Ads only on individual Posts though. This is the first post that I’m using it. So, let’s see how relevant the ads are to my content. And, I sure hope they get more clicks.

I have a problem.
The problem is that barely anyone is clicking on my Yahoo Ads. I’d love to make a little bit of money from the clicks. So, in this post, I’m going to attempt to analyze the problem. I can use all the help I can get.

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of visitor traffic.

Please, feel free to try to help me figure why no one is clicking on the Yahoo Ads. Eli tried.

First, let’s look at the Yahoo Ads. Not too relevant, huh? Yeah, that could be the entire problem itself. But, let’s explore a little more.

Maybe, it’s the format of the ad layout. For example: Which unit works best? Leaderboard, skyscraper, Link Units, etc?

Maybe it’s the ad placement? Such as:

1) Ads in the Header.
2) Ads in The Sidebar.
3) Placing ads above each post’s content.
4) Placing ads inside the content of each individual post.
5) Placing an ad just over the comment link.
6) After the First Post.
7) Ads in RSS Feeds.

A well known strategy is to make the ads blend into the site content by making the ad border, and background color, the same color as the site’s background color. I tried that. It didn’t work.

I haven’t tried some of the other basic adsense strategies yet. But, I certainly intend to.

Although, I can’t help but wonder if….even if I did everything perfectly…the horribly un-relevant content within the Yahoo ads, is preventing visitors from clicking on the ads.

I guess the best course of action will be to just test, track, and optimize the results.

The two biggest players in Contextual Advertising are: Google AdSense, and the Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN).

First let’s list the similarities between Google AdSense and YPN.
1. They both have the largest network of Publishers, and Advertisers. Their ad formats are similar, and both networks offer the ability to advertise on RSS feeds.
2. Both have a great reporting center, with Real-time stats.
3. Neither will disclose how much revenue you will make from any category or advertiser.
4. You’re not allowed to run both Google Adsense, and YPN on the same webpage.
5. And their Terms of Agreement are similar.

Now let’s list the differences between the two giant Contextual Networks:
1. Google is more diverse because they offers image ads, CPM ads, and ad links.
2. Yahoo Publisher Network currently only offers the traditional ad sizes, and ads for RSS feeds.
3. AdSense accepts all International publishers, YPN does not while its in Beta
4. YPN pays higher commissions than Google Adsense to the publishers.

Question: Which Contextual Network is best for you?
Basically, they seem the same, right? Ideally, if you can, conduct a test. If you can’t, then just pick one, and run with it. However, what you see on other websites might not work equally well for your website.

Here’s how to test:

There are some pretty good third party tools for testing like: PHPAdsNew which permits rotating ads on a 50/50 basis, or whatever rotation you decide. PHPAdsNew also can be geotargeted for the Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN).

Another useful tool is the AdSense Preview Tool.
Then, use your web analytics to track things, like which ads are being clicked on, CTR, IP addresses, dayparting, etc.

Do the rotating A/B Split Testing for a week or two, or until you have enough data that you’re comfortable making a decision. Once you have enough data, you’ll need to analyze things like, CTR, earnings per CPM (eCPM), etc.

After all this, you’ll be confident to make the right decision in choosing your Contextual Network.

FYI: Some other smaller contextual ad networks are, Kanoodle BrightAds, IndustryBrains, MSN ContextAds, Fastclick, and BlogAds.

Here are some tips on generating more revenue thru Google Adsense and the Yahoo Publisher Network.

1) Use text ads, not image ads.
Statistically, image ads don’t get as many clicks as text ads.

2) The ads should be close to your content.
People are reading your content, so their eyes will have a greater chance to see a keyword that prompts them to click.

3) Don’t rely on standard ad placement, or ad sizes.
Many people have trained themselves to ignore 468×60 banners placed in the traditional spots. Experiment with untraditional placement, and ad size. Possibly even the bottom of your content.

4) Use multiple ads.
It is reasonable to place multiple ads per page, as long as you don’t dilute your content.

5) Consider “white” borders.
Classic ads online have lines boxing them off from the other content on the page. However, you might test a “white” border which for a white page would effectively render the border invisible. No border means no block to stop the eye.

6) Match borders to your site colors.
Another option: use a border color that matches your site’s palette as closely as possible. The ads look more “at home” and often get better clicks.

7) Create content to match most expensive AdSense clicks.
You can check which keywords are generating higher costs per click, and write your content accordingly.

Create ads that look like your Navigation.
The Engadget blog has a great example of this.