Why I Reinstalled AdSense on My Blog in 2010 – Reason #4

Written by Paul Piotrowski - Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

In this fourth article in this series, I’m going to cover some new features and improvements that are now available to AdSense publishers that weren’t available a few years ago.

Some of these new features could give you enough reason to try AdSense out again on your Blog, so you may want to pay attention.

Ad Review Center – Category Filters

In the past, one of the challenges that Bloggers had as AdSense publishers was that it was difficult to control what type of ads were shown on their site.

This was especially true for Bloggers who like to cover multiple topics on their Blog.

Google AdSense now allows us to instantly see which category of ads is earning us the most money, and which types of categories of ads are being shown the most on our site.

Here’s a screenshot from my account to show you what I mean:

AdSense Categories

As you can see, each type of category that has appeared on my website is shown in this list. The categories vary from Cosmetic Procedures to Weight Loss. For each category I can see what percentage of my recent ad impressions were served to that category.

What’s even more cool though is that I can see what percentage of my recent earnings comes from each category. I’ve only been testing AdSense on my site for the last few weeks so far, so I’m not going to be making any changes yet, but this kind of data is invaluable.

If for example a large chunk of my ad impressions are going to a category that isn’t earning me any kind of money, I can easily filter out that category and AdSense will no longer serve any ads on my site from that category.

This is an awesome way to maximize the value you get out of each ad impression. It is also a great way to improve the quality of your site to your visitors. For example, if your visitors are not clicking on any ads related to politics or dating sites, then just filter those categories out. Instead, focus your ad impressions on the types of ads your visitors are interested in.

I don’t know when Google added this feature into AdSense, but I didn’t see it available until I re-installed AdSense on my Blog a few weeks ago.

To see what kind of categories are performing best for you, and to see where your ad impressions are going, login to your AdSense account and go to “AdSense Setup > Ad Review Center > Category Filters”.

Google Certified Ad Networks

Yet another somewhat hidden feature to AdSense is that Google has now partnered with a whole bunch of ad networks to display ads on your Blog. What this means is that AdWords advertisers now have to compete with other ad networks for your advertising spots.

This is a huge benefit to AdSense publishers, and from what I’ve seen in my account, it’s something that is automatically turned on.

There is a way to filter out ad networks if you wish to do that. You can go in and see a listing of all the ad networks that Google has partnered up with right inside your AdSense account and block any or all of these networks from having access to show ads on your Blog.

Here is a screenshot of what that looks like:

AdSense Ad Networks

Here’s a video that Google released talking about AdSense Ad Networks:

With Google partnering up with all these ad networks, I think it’s going to become more and more profitable to show AdSense ads on your Blog.

Google AdSense and Google Analytics Integration

This is probably my favorite new feature of AdSense. Integrating my AdSense statistics with Google Analytics allows me to see things such as:

Top AdSense content that’s me money
Percentage of AdSense revenues from each piece of content
Top AdSense referrers showing me what are my most profitable AdSense traffic sources
Trends graphs showing me daily revenue trends
etc.

This video does a much better job explaining what you can see in AdSense now:

And here’s a video that Google released on how to link your AdSense and Google Analytics:

New Google AdSense Interface

Google AdSense is now also beta testing a new AdSense interface. If you’ve ever used the old AdSense interface, I’m sure you’ll agree that it was clunky and annoying.

The new interface looks a lot sleeker and seems to be working fine for me even though it’s still in beta testing.

Here’s a screen-shot of the new interface I got from Google’s Blog:

As you can see it’s much sleeker and more useful than the old AdSense interface. Although the integration with Analytics will take care of some of these stats already, having a quick glance overview of your earnings just by logging into your AdSense account is really useful.

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Comments:

Shanker Bakshi says:

July 6, 2010 at 12:46 am

They have do doubt improved a lot on AdSense Interface front. analysis is the key, one must keep checking whats going on with present ad inventory, placement and type of ad serving on site and AdSense newly design interface dose it all.
Shanker Bakshi´s last blog ..How to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing-Part I

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Angel says:

July 6, 2010 at 1:28 am

First, congratulations for a great post.

I have to say that Google has been doing a good job but it is very frustrating when you have 2 different emails for Adsense and for Analytics.

There is no way to change the email of the Adsense account and if you change Analytics you have to lost all your data.

A pity, for example I am trying now to unlink my Adsense and Analytics account and I have to wait 48 hours. I don’t understand why Google do this sort of things.

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used tires says:

July 6, 2010 at 2:35 am

Google has been way too king to us lately, which is a great thing! The Google AdSense and Google Analytics Integration is something that I’ve really have been all over, and loving that! And also.. throw in the Google Webmaster’s tool stats that we’ve been getting, and it’s an all around win. Who would of imagined back 1-2 years ago, that Google would allow us Publisher’s to have such golden information like we get nowadays. There’s always been a belief that we as publisher’s have been kind of blind in it all, but Google has surely done a great job to close that gap, and really open the doors/windows for us so to speak.

Till then,

Jean
used tires´s last blog ..Used Tires Dealers Website

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Jan says:

July 6, 2010 at 6:40 am

Great stuff Paul I was wondering about your opinion of G Analytics. Greg Jacobs says that using GA has decreased his page ranking on Google. I wonder what your testing has shown. Thanks.

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- Paul Piotrowski says:
  
  July 6, 2010 at 6:48 pm
  
  @Jan: I really doubt Google would lower people’s rankings based on installing AdSense. That would make no sense.
  
  Maybe it’s some other factor that happened around or at the same time that he installed AdSense and he just figured it was due to AdSense?
  
  Reply
Wesley says:

July 7, 2010 at 2:34 am

Didn’t know about the category filtering, just applied it to my own sites. Let’s see what the impact is One thing though, this seems to be a global setting, is it not possible to do this on a site by site basis?

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- Paul Piotrowski says:
  
  July 7, 2010 at 10:18 am
  
  @Wesley: Good question, I never thought about that. However, I think if they did it on a per-site basis, then they would have to do it on a “per-channel” basis because “site” is not drilled down enough for people either. Maybe it’s something that they might implement later, but for now they just offer a global setting?
  
  Reply
Bidet says:

July 7, 2010 at 2:56 am

They have improved their interface greatly, Google is always updating their sites and improving their products. With integration of Analytics we can now see even better the conversions and where the clicks are coming from.

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Gary David | Build Your List Fast says:

July 8, 2010 at 2:42 am

Thanks for sharing this Paul. Google have been improving on their interface lately. I’m just wondering if you still earn decent income with adsense? Ever thought of place some paid advertisements instead?

Regards,

Gary

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brian speer says:

July 8, 2010 at 1:35 pm

I have recently installed it as well. I am looking forward to using it and see how much better it works these days.

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çizgi film İzle says:

July 8, 2010 at 4:23 pm

I have an issue with getting distracted by just too many projects. That’s where my downfall is. If I could just stay focused, I think I would do really well.

Reply
- Paul Piotrowski says:
  
  July 8, 2010 at 7:09 pm
  
  @cizgi: Or, you’re not learning how to systemize/delegate/outsource properly.
  
  Do a search in my sidebar using the google search for “scanner” and read my articles on that. You might enjoy them.
  
  Reply
kadın sağlığı says:

July 11, 2010 at 1:10 am

I have to say that Google has been doing a good job but it is very frustrating when you have 2 different emails for Adsense and for Analytics.
kadın sağlığı´s last blog ..Kadınlarda Depresyon Belirtileri

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- Paul Piotrowski says:
  
  July 11, 2010 at 6:14 am
  
  @Kadin: Why not just create a new AdSense account? Worst case you lose any money you’ve earned in there under the $100 payout, but the benefit is that you will get access to analytics which will help you make way more money in the future.
  
  Unless of course you’re at like $96 in earnings and just waiting for the last few bucks.
  
  Reply
Charlie @ Cell Phone Cases Blog says:

July 16, 2010 at 8:45 am

Hey, Paul:

The category filter feature is what i’m most excited about. Many times, Adsense is spot on with the ads that it serves, but once in a while its off. So I appreciate you letting me know about this, as I also was not aware of it.

Cheers,
Charlie
Charlie @ Cell Phone Cases Blog´s last blog ..Sleek Droid X Case Plus Holster

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