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AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in
this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on
their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either
a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis. Google is also currently
beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.
Overview
Google utilizes its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the
user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with
Google's targeted ad system may sign up through AdWords. AdSense has become a
popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less
intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the
website.
Currently, the AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements
into a participating site. If it is included on a site which has not yet been
crawled by the Mediabot, it will temporarily display advertisements for
charitable causes known as public service announcements (PSAs). (Note that the
Mediabot is a separate crawler from the Googlebot that maintains Google's search
index.)
Many sites use AdSense to monetize their content and some webmasters work hard
to maximize their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:
They use a wide range of traffic generating techniques including but not limited
to online advertising.
They build valuable content on their sites which attracts AdSense ads which pay
out the most when they get clicked.
They use copy on their websites that encourage clicks on ads. Note that Google
prohibits people from using phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase
click rates. Phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements".
The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program which in turn has a
complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction, in that it
commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (not observable by competitors).
Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid
increment above the second-highest bid.
AdSense for feeds
In May 2005, Google unveiled AdSense for feeds, a version of AdSense that runs
on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to
the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most
appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content;
readers see relevant advertising — and in the long run, more quality feeds to
choose from".
AdSense for feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is
displayed by the reader/browser, Google writes the ad content into the image
that it returns. The ad content is chosen based on the content of the feed
surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected
to the advertiser's site in the same way as regular AdSense ads.
AdSense
for search
A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search lets website
owners place Google search boxes on their pages. When a user searches the web or
the site with the search box, Google shares any ad revenue it makes from those
searches with the site owner. However, only if the ads on the page are clicked,
the publisher is paid. Adsense does not pay publishers for mere searches.
As of September 2007, the HTML code for the AdSense search box does not validate
as XHTML, and does not follow modern principles of website design:
non-standard closing tags such as </img> and </input>
the boolean (minimized) attribute checked rather than checked="checked"
presentational attributes other than id, class, or style, such as bgcolor and
align
a table structure used for purely presentational (non-tabular) purposes
the font tag
The terms of the AdSense program forbid their affiliates from modifying the
code, thus preventing these participants from having validated XHTML websites.
How
AdSense works
Each time a visitor visits a page with an AdSense tag, a piece of JavaScript
writes an iframe tag, whose "src" attribute includes the URL of the page. For
contextual advertisements, Google's servers use a cache of the page for the URL
or the keywords in the URL itself to determine a set of high-value keywords.
(Some of the details are described in the AdSense patent). If keywords have been
cached already, ads are served for those keywords based on the AdWords bidding
system.
For referrals Google manage the subscriptions on a long term, to add money when
the visitors either download the product of subscribe, that depend upond the
sort of product.
For search, advertisements are added to the list of results and clicks on them
make money.
To protect webmasters from bad use of their code, it is possible for them in the
configuration panel to make a list of websites where advertisement are
published. When other sites use their JavaScript code, clicks on ads are
ignored.
Abuse
Some webmasters create sites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other
engines onto their AdSense site to make money from clicks. These "zombie" sites
often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content
(e.g.: A directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper
sites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such
"AdSense farms" are splogs ("spam blogs"), which are centered around known
high-paying keywords. Many of these sites use content from other web sites, such
as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered
to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.
MFA (Made For Adsense) is a site or page with little or no content, but filled
with advertisements so users have no choice but to click on ads. Such pages were
tolerated in the past, but due to complaints Google now disables such accounts.
There have also been reports of Trojans engineered to produce fake Google ads
that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The Trojan Horse apparently
downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page and then
replaces the original ads with its own set of malicious ads.
Criticism
Due to concerns about click fraud, Google AdSense has been criticized by some
Search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid
clicks" in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine ads to drive up
its costs.[6] Some publishers have been blocked by Google, complaining that
little justification or transparency was provided. Webmasters who publish
Adsense can receive a lifelong ban without justification. Google claims the
revealing of any information may reveal the nature of their "proprietary" click
fraud system, and thus Google will not "disclose any specific details".
To help prevent click fraud, publishers can choose from a number of click
tracking programs. These programs will display detailed information about the
visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use that data
to determine if they've been a victim of click fraud or not. There are a number
of such commercial scripts available for purchase. An open source alternative is
AdLogger.
Google has also come under fire for allowing AdWords advertisers to abuse
trademarks. In 2004, Google started allowing advertisers to bid on any search
terms, including the trademarks of their competitors.
The payment terms for webmasters have also been criticized. Google withholds
payment until an account reaches US$100 [10], but many small content providers
require a long time - years in many cases - to build up this much AdSense
revenue. These pending payments are recorded on Google's balance sheet as
"accrued revenue share". [11] At the close of its 2006 fiscal year, the sum of
all these small debts amounted to a little over US $370 million - cash that
Google is able to invest but which effectively belongs to webmasters. However,
Google will pay all earned revenue, even if smaller than 100 dollars, when the
Adsense account is closed.
Google came recently under fire after the official Google AdSense Blog showcased
the French video-site Imineo.com that clearly violates Google’s AdSense Program
Policies by displaying AdSense near explicit adult content while other site
owners were banned for showing adult content.
Getting Started Guide
If you're reading this document, it means you're interested in adding AdSense
functionality to your application or website. We're glad to have you on board!
Integrating the AdSense API should be quick and easy, but there are a few hoops
to jump through. This document outlines the process. If you have any questions
while reading please consult our Google Group.
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