Tuesday, December 18, 2012 | 9:22:00 AM
Labels: Case studies , Mobile
The increase in smartphone sales and mobile traffic makes it more important every day for web publishers to build a mobile strategy for their businesses. Nevertheless, only 1 out of 10 AdSense publishers has a mobile-friendly version of their site. To encourage other publishers to go mobile, Ángel Hernández and Manuel Lebrón, owners of Qué Tiempo, shared their experience with us.
Qué Tiempo is a Spanish site that displays the weather forecast globally. Ángel and Manuel became AdSense publishers in 2007 and over the years, thanks to investing in their content, optimizing their ads and growing their traffic, they’ve been able to build a team of more than 20 employees and invest in new ventures.
Back in 2008, they could already see through Google Analytics that the traffic coming from mobile devices was growing, so they decided to develop quetiempo.es/mobile in-house.
Their mobile traffic has successfully grown by 20% over the last two years. New users are arriving to the mobile-friendly version of their site from mobile devices, while the desktop version is experiencing a 10% year over year growth. This shows that mobile traffic is additional, not substitutional, and mobile usage is complementary to desktop.
Thanks to the increase in their mobile traffic, together with a successful implementation of their ads, Qué Tiempo saw their daily earnings grow by 30%. The CTR of their mobile leaderboard 320x50 now doubles the CTR on their desktop ads. In addition, the CPC of their mobile ads is 100% higher than the CPC of the desktop site.
Most of Qué Tiempo’s efforts are now focused on improving their mobile site with features like geotargeting, which makes it possible to deliver accurate location-specific weather forecasts.
“We encourage other publishers to build a mobile-friendly site, not only because they’ll quickly see their revenue grow thanks to the available Google AdSense mobile formats, but also because the future of your online business depends on your mobile strategy, a market with infinite possibilities.”
Posted by Alicia Escriba - Inside AdSense team
This information is current as of December 18th, 2012.
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Social Fridays: Temptalia discovers the beauty of Google+
Friday, October 12, 2012 | 3:25:00 PM
Labels: Case studies , Social
Every Friday, we’re posting Google+ tips to help publishers make the most of all of the features and resources available. Be sure to check back each week for the latest in our educational Social Fridays series!
Temptalia is one of the most popular beauty and makeup review blogs on the web, responsible for delivering the latest product information, tutorials and in-depth reviews to numerous fans. Given the blog’s global following, it’s easy to imagine a huge staff working behind the scenes, but in fact founder Christine Mielke still runs the blog herself and creates the vast majority of the site’s content.
In addition to running the blog herself, Christine maintains a focus on social media for Temptalia. Christine established the +Temptalia page on Google+ not long after the platform launched, and continues to encourage fans to +1 and link to the brand’s page. On average, six new posts appear on Temptalia every day, and each of these is promoted through Google+. She says content that includes photography shines on the channel, and pretty products and colorful cosmetics tend to grab more attention than skincare.
Google Analytics is key to helping Christine understand how each social media channel contributes to the blog’s traffic. Designed to make analysis easy, Social Sources reports in Analytics automatically segment referral traffic from hundreds of social networks. By using these reports, Christine can see that Google+ is among the top 10 social referrers to Temptalia, along with other Google properties including YouTube and Blogger.
But to get further insights into the audience, Christine looks beyond the numbers and goes straight to the users themselves. “We try to listen in what our readers are asking for, what they are looking at, what they are most excited about,” she explains. This user-focused approach continues to drive Temptalia’s success. Christine’s advice to those getting started with Google+ pages is to use the channel as a valuable research tool in understanding a site’s readership.
While Temptalia may be a small operation, its impact is significant – already Temptalia has over 600,000 followers on Google+. To read more about how Christine, a lifelong beauty enthusiast, is using Google+ to maintain, build and serve her blog’s audience, read the full case study.
Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team
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PubTalk: Katie and Gene Hamilton share how AdSense lets them be creative
Thursday, September 20, 2012 | 8:45:00 AM
Labels: Case studies
AdSense let Phillip Martin become a full time artist and Todd Sarouhan write about and travel to Costa Rica.
Meet Katie and Gene Hamilton, the creators of diyornot.com. AdSense lets them be creative on their website and run their newspaper column from home. Watch this video to hear their AdSense story and keep an eye out for more publisher stories.
Tell us your AdSense story to get featured in future posts. Complete the sentence "Because of Google AdSense..." and send it to pubstories@google.com along with a photograph of what Google AdSense has given you. Be sure to include your publisher ID and main website URL. Please note we won't be able to respond to all submissions. We’re looking forward to reading your responses!
This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with Publishers
Posted by Julia Eckstein - Inside AdSense Team
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PubTalk: Todd Sarouhan shares his AdSense story
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 | 9:10:00 AM
Labels: Case studies
AdSense gives publishers freedom. It lets publishers like Phillip Martin follow their passions and allows others to enjoy free time, be creative, and earn a living. Each AdSense publisher has a story.
During our Google+ Hangout, publishers shared the value they find in using Google AdSense.
In this video, meet Todd Sarouhan, the creator of GoVisitCostaRica.com. AdSense lets him write about and travel to Costa Rica, a place he knows and loves.
Check our blog and AdSense +page to meet more AdSense publishers.
Tell us your AdSense story to get featured in future posts. Complete the sentence "Because of Google AdSense..." and send it to pubstories@google.com along with a photograph of what Google AdSense has given you. Be sure to include your publisher ID and main website URL. Please note we won't be able to respond to all submissions. We’re looking forward to reading your responses!
This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with Publishers
Posted by Julia Eckstein - Inside AdSense Team
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PubTalk: Phillip Martin talks about becoming a full-time artist with Google AdSense
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 | 9:25:00 AM
Labels: Case studies , Video
Every now and then we come across stories on how AdSense helps publishers succeed in different ways. It has helped grow small businesses like DocStoc, and also allowed people like Phillip Martin to follow their passion. Listen to Phillip tell his story below.
With AdSense, Phillip became a full-time artist creating clip art for his site and painting murals for charity in high-need communities.
Tell us your AdSense story and you might be featured in a future post. Send a photo of what you’ve been able to do with AdSense along with a quote that begins with “Because of Google AdSense….” to pubstories@google.com. Please also include your publisher ID and your main website URL as well. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with publishers.
Posted by: Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Manager
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PubTalk: Publishers discuss testing colors for their ads
Monday, August 20, 2012 | 9:55:00 AM
Labels: Case studies , Optimization
We’re back with the third video from our Google+ Hangout with AdSense publishers! Have you tried our publisher suggestions of adding a third content ad unit or changing ad sizes and placements?
Another feature publishers Katie and Gene Hamilton of diyornot.com, David and Jan Moncrief oftxantiquemall.com, and Voitek Klimczyk of simplyadditions.com tried was changing the text and background colors of their ad units. Experimenting with colors and tracking different ad styles provides insight on clickthrough rates and revenue uplift which will help you decide how to make future changes to your site.
Watch this video to see how these publishers test colors and follow AdSense on Google+ to see how publishers use AdSense’s different customizable features.
This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with publishers.
Posted by Julia Eckstein - Inside AdSense Team
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PubTalk: AdSense publishers discuss adding content ad units to their pages
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 | 8:45:00 AM
Labels: Case studies , Optimization
Welcome to the second video in our publisher feedback series. Hopefully you’ve been able to test ad sizes and placements since our last post!
During the same Hangout, publishers Al Gross of infosports.com, Katie and Gene Hamilton ofdiyornot.com, and Voitek Klimczyk of simplyadditions.com discussed how adding additional content ad units to their pages significantly helped increase their AdSense revenue. In the past, we’ve seen publishers increase their earnings by 400% by adding a maximum of three content units to their pages.
Watch this video to see why these publishers made the change and continue to check our blog for more optimization tips. To hear what other publishers have to say and to get involved in the conversation, follow AdSense on Google+.
Visit our Help Center to learn more about best practices for balancing ad units and page content, and to learn how to measure the effect of multiple ad units.
This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with publishers.
Posted by Julia Eckstein - Inside AdSense Team
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PubTalk: AdSense publishers talk about testing ad sizes and placements on their site
Tuesday, August 07, 2012 | 8:10:00 AM
Labels: Case studies , Optimization
Many of you have opted in to receive our customized suggestions about your AdSense implementation. Wonder what publishers have to say after they’ve implemented one of these suggestions? Now you can hear from the publishers themselves in our new Google AdSense optimization series.
Five publishers recently participated in a Google+ Hangout with AdSense to share their stories and some of their top optimization tips. In this video, publishers Gene and Katie Hamilton ofdiyornot.com, David and Jan Moncrief of txantiquemall.com, and Voitek Klimczyk ofsimplyadditions.com discuss how changing ad unit sizes and placements has increased their AdSense revenue and clickthrough rates.
Visit our Help Center to learn more about recommended ad formats and placements to help you decide which changes you’d like to make next.
Check out this video and keep an eye out for the rest of the series!
This post is part of the PubTalk series of conversations with publishers.
Posted by Julia Eckstein - Inside AdSense Team
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PubTalk: Docstoc’s Jason Nazar says ads can complement e-commerce
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 | 8:55:00 AM
Labels: Case studies
When Docstoc was launched in 2007 as an online destination to help small businesses grow, advertising was the only source of revenue. As the company grew, the business model evolved to include premium subscriptions. We recently spoke with Jason Nazar, CEO of Docstoc, on the impact of advertising on their e-commerce business.
Jason says that as subscriptions grew, there was significant internal debate at Docstoc on whether ads were distracting users and limiting subscriptions. A strong believer of testing and making data-driven decisions, Jason removed all ads across the site for a single day to see if this created uplift in subscriptions.
With more than 600,000 daily visitors, the results of the experiment were definitive: removing ads did not have a noticeable impact on subscription conversions. In fact, user engagement metrics like time on site and page views per user didn’t improve either, debunking the myth that ads were alienating users.
Jason concluded that there could be a harmonious balance between running an e-commerce business and having ads on the site because a site’s audience isn’t homogeneous. In Docstoc’s case, while some people are looking for the high quality content behind the pay wall, others want quick information. When Docstoc is unable to provide information to users in the second group, contextually relevant advertising helps answer their questions – thus, Docstoc is able to earn revenue from users who are unlikely to convert to paying subscribers. Users invested in the service and the content sign up for the subscription service even with the AdSense ads. “From an overall revenue standpoint, we’re clearly much better for having both advertising and e-commerce on the site,” he says.
Jason advises publishers to be aggressive about testing any product they use on their site and to make decisions that are driven by data, rather than subjective opinions and whims. “If you’ve got a content site with a lot of traffic, AdSense and products like it are a fantastic way to drive revenue, even if you have opportunities like lead gen, e-commerce and subscription, you shouldn’t be taking off the ad products - you should be figuring out how they can live together in harmony, because you’ll make more money for it.”
Read the full case study on the ‘Success Stories’ section of our Help Center. Have you had similar results on your website? Share your story with us on the Google AdSense +page.
This blog post is part of “PubTalk”, a series of conversations with publishers.
Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Manager
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