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We’re fast approaching the end of another year and it’s time to take a look back over the last 12 months. Here’s some of our 2013 highlights:  

We’d like to thank each of you for your continuous feedback and engagement over the past year. Please keep sharing your comments and suggestions through our AdSense +page.

We’ll be back in January – stay tuned for lots more AdSense updates plus a series on Google Analytics and an inspiring showcase of publisher success stories from around the world.

Happy Holidays from all of us here at Google AdSense! 

Posted by Suzy Headon- on behalf of the Inside AdSense Team

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We’ve been talking a lot recently about why you should have a multi-screen strategy in place for your site. Today we’re happy to share some product updates to complement and strengthen your strategy, with new features for our responsive ad units and a multi-screen optimization score now available in your publisher scorecard.

New features for responsive ad units

Earlier this year, we launched responsive ad units to help you enhance the user experience on your site across devices. You’ve shared a lot of positive feedback on our responsive ad units and also made some great suggestions on new features you’d like to see. We’ve incorporated these suggestions into our next iteration of responsive ads with the following changes: 

More information on responsive ad units can be found in our Help Center.

Multi-screen optimization score in publisher scorecard

To help you understand how well your site is optimized for the many screen sizes of your users, we’re introducing a new multi-screen category in our publisher scorecard. For example, if users need to zoom and/or scroll often, this may negatively impact their experience. Your score in the multi-screen category will measure what percentage of your pages are multi-screen optimized and compare this percentage to that of other AdSense publishers. Please note that you may not see this category in your scorecard if you have a low percentage of mobile traffic on your site.

This new score will be visible in the scorecard on your AdSense home page. Don’t forget to follow the ‘Learn more’ link displayed in the scorecard to learn how you can optimize your site for multiple screen sizes.

More information on your scorecard can be found in our Help Center.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on these new features. Feel free to share your feedback on our AdSense +page.

Posted by Nick Radicevic – AdSense Product Manager

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Many of you are already using the Google Publisher Toolbar to view your AdSense performance and control your ads. If you also use DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business, we’re pleased to let you know that your DFP account can now also be directly integrated with the Google Publisher Toolbar.

The Toolbar is a Chrome extension that gives you a clear overview of which ads are serving on your site and why, through an overlay for each ad showing which line item and creative was served. You can get more information by clicking on any overlay. When you sign in to the Toolbar, you’ll see complete information on each ad — regardless of whether AdSense or DFP served the ad.

Please visit our Toolbar Help Center article for further information and support. 

Download the Toolbar and start using it with DFP Small Business today. We’re continuing to improve support for DFP in the Toolbar, and are always happy to hear your feedback.

Posted by Ilia Malkovitch – DFP Product Manager

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Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of 434,216 new ad unit sizes! Or in other words, we’ve just made it possible to create custom ad sizes to give you more flexibility and enable you to better design your content for your users. 

Custom sized ads behave just like their standard size counterparts, showing a text or display ad depending on which is likely to have the best performance for the impression. 

Text ads

For text ads, we’ll determine the optimal number of text ads to display for a given impression, and show the ads the same way they appear inside standard sizes. Our system predicts the value of each competing ad for every impression, based on historic performance and comparison across a variety of scenarios. For unique ad unit sizes, our system will need some time before it can optimize the number of ads shown. Please see our blog post Understanding the dynamics of the AdSense auction – Part II for more information. Here are three examples of custom-sized ad units displaying text ads:

Display ads

For display ads, our system will determine the appropriate size ad to fit into the space you select; the selected ad will not be larger than the space requested. In the example below, we’ve shown the same three custom sizes as above, but this time with display ads. Please note that the dotted border is only present to show the total size of the ad unit, but won’t actually appear on your pages.

To ensure that ads continue to deliver a positive user experience, we’ve put a few restrictions in place around maximum and minimum pixels for ad sizes. Any custom ad size that falls outside of the restrictions won’t appear on a page. As always, all of your ads must adhere to the AdSense ad placement policies. Remember that users value your content, and that they appreciate a balance of content and ads, knowing that the ads support the content creator. Forcing too many ads into the users viewable screen is not likely to tempt them back to your site.

Ready to get started with custom ad sizes? Create an ad unit in the usual way, select “Custom ad size” from the Ad size drop-down and set the desired width and height for your ad unit in the process. Copy and paste the ad code into the HTML source code of your page where you’d like the ad to appear.

You can also find more information in our Help Center. We’re excited about the possibilities of these new custom ad sizes, and appreciate your ongoing feedback as we continue to improve this offering. Please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions about this update on our Google+ page.

Posted by Omer Gimenez Llach – AdSense Software Engineer & Johan Land – AdSense Product Manager

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As the holidays approach, you can expect an increase in smartphone usage, especially in activity with gaming apps. Each year around this time, millions of new mobile devices are activated and billions of apps are downloaded. A recent AdMob study* also revealed that downloading and playing gaming apps are users’ top priority when getting a new smartphone, which represents a special opportunity for developers.

A new strategy for game-app developers can help them make the most of this increase in usage. Game developer Izumi Artisan used this strategy to increase his revenue by 60%, and so today we’ll share the details on how he achieved these results. 

Step 1)  Create a strategy guide for your game and post it on your website

Game guides, strategy manuals, and walk-throughs have become commonplace for gamers looking to get the edge or just take the easy path through a tricky section of a game. As a result, numerous third party game-strategy sites have popped up, and are attracting users in mass numbers.

This represents a great opportunity for you as a game developer, as you can create your own strategy or walk-through guide and host it on your website. There are many examples of successful game guides on the Web that you can use as a model when creating your own. The guides will vary in structure and length depending on the format of the game, so we suggest browsing a few to find the most suitable format. If there are already third-party guides competing for your users’ attention, try releasing the “Official” guide to separate yourself from the rest of the pack.

Step 2)  Monetize your new website with AdSense

Creating great content and putting it on the Web is an important step for those looking to generate income online. To start earning revenue from your online content you can use AdSense to show highly relevant ads on your website. 

With AdSense, advertisers will bid against each other to show their ads next to your content. The ads that appear are highly targeted, so they’re likely to be interesting to your visitors. AdSense also offers a number of great features including customization options to control the appearance, placement and type of ads that will show up on your site, as well as the ability to restrict the subject matter of the ads. 

If you’re not already an AdSense publisher, sign up for a free AdSense account. 

Step 3)  Use house ads in AdMob to drive users to your new website

One of the most difficult pieces of building a successful website is attracting visitors. As a game developer, you have the benefit of an existing and engaged audience — your users. By taking advantage of this built-in audience you can quickly generate demand for your new web content…you just have to point them in the right direction.

You can do this by using AdMob’s house ad feature, which lets you display your own promotions to your users at no cost. By creating a “house ad”  promotion for your new website and displaying it in an appropriate section of your game (i.e., on the home screen, or in-between game play, etc.), you can easily generate awareness for your web content while preserving a good experience for your users. The great part is, you won’t need to push a new version of your app since the house ad can be updated directly within the AdMob interface.

Sign up for an AdMob account here**. It’s free.

Be sure to make the most of the app usage increase that comes with the holiday season by trying this strategy. Have these tips worked for you?  Do you have other tips to share? Let us know in the comments!

**Update: There is a known issue for users who currently have a new AdMob account, that restricts them from signing up for AdSense. A solution is being worked on and is expected in the new year.

In the mean time, if you are currently using the new AdMob and would like to sign up for AdSense, please fill out this form and after reviewing your request we will enable AdSense on your account.

Please note: if you are an existing AdMob user and your account has not yet been migrated to the new version of AdMob, you will still be able to sign yourself up for AdSense. If you do not yet have an AdSense or AdMob account, please sign up for AdSense first, before signing up for AdMob.

Posted by Max Sack - Publisher Advocate

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*Mobile Apps Consumer Study, AdMob and Parks Associates, Oct 2013

Over the past few months, we’ve regularly talked about the growing number of users accessing publisher content via mobile devices, and the importance of creating a positive user experience across all devices. In this same spirit, we’re happy to let you know about mobile anchor ads for smartphones, a new feature we’re starting to make available that’s focused on giving users a better experience with ads on mobile devices. 

Mobile anchor ads work by allowing a 320×50 banner ad unit to be anchored to the bottom of the smartphone screen, staying there when your users scroll up or down the page. At the same time, users remain in control — they can dismiss an ad when they find it’s not relevant or want to free up the screen space, simply by swiping the ad left or right. When this happens, the anchor ad will fade and be dismissed and no other anchor ad will display unless the user reloads or visits another page.

The mobile anchor ads experience reflects our continued focus on providing users with control. As we’ve seen from our TrueView video ads and Mute this ad feature, users prefer having choice and control when it comes to viewing ads. In addition, the prominence of mobile anchor ads will give advertisers enhanced visibility while helping improve performance for you, and also remove the need to overload your mobile pages with ads. 

We’ve started enabling this feature for a select group of publishers today, and will gradually roll it out to everyone over the coming months. 

Thanks for all of the feedback you’ve provided to date on adapting to the multi-screen environment. Please do continue to share your suggestions so we can keep improving AdSense for you. Watch this space for more news and updates in the near future!

Posted by Pasha Nahass – AdSense Product Manager

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• Gain insights into the most common mobile consumer behaviour and learn about the most common approaches to building a mobile solution. 
• Hear insights on user experience, content optimization, and page speed. 
• Recommended for all publishers. 

• Hands-on session to learn more about going responsive.
• Followed by a Q&A session and best-practice sharing with the AdSense Team.
• Recommended for those who are considering designing a responsive website.

• Building an app can be an alternative to building a mobile solution or can be created as part of your multi-device strategy. Learn why and how to build a great app for your content. 
• Find out how to promote and monetize your apps.
• Recommended for those who have built or are considering building a mobile app.

** Can’t watch the sessions live? Don’t worry, a recording of each Hangout On Air will be added to the event pages shortly after the live broadcast so you can watch the material when it’s most convenient for you. 

Posted by Fouad Howayek – Inside AdSense Team 

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