Create relevant content to #drawthecrowds

If you’re looking to #drawthecrowd to your site this summer, be sure that you’re familiar with the top-searched keywords and have a plan in place to create relevant content for it. For example, leverage Google Trends to identify the trending searches around Halloween. Using this insight, content can transition from ideas to evergreen articles that resonate with your users year after year.

If you’re looking for content ideas, think about this summer and cultural events the world will be searching to stay connected and informed about. Several big sporting events are happening this summer that will likely have a good amount of search interest considering past trends. For example, football related searches grew 180% during the soccer World Cup in 2014.[1]

When building your content strategy and timelines, think about important dates, specific games and popular keywords. Think with Google released an infographic showcasing that 70% of game-related searches happen in the month surrounding game day vs. the day itself. Their research shows that these events are more like a month-long series of digital moments–each one an opportunity to connect with fans through search, mobile, and video. 

Here are a few search related resources to help you optimize your site and your content: 

• Learn how Google Search works
• Mobile search engine optimization tips 

Regardless of what type of site you have, ask yourself if you’re providing your users with the content they need and want. 

New to AdSense? Sign up now and turn your passion into profit 

Posted by Barbara Sarti,  from the AdSense Team

[1] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/es-419/articles/marketing-copa-america-latam.html

Videos get views: why you should embed video content on your site

Video content is one of the most engaging formats for content consumption. According to Hubspot, online video now accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic.

Videos are easily consumable from desktop and mobile devices to social media platforms and email communications. Studies from the 2012 Olympics showed that 50% of users either watched Olympics related online video for the first time or watched more online video than their usual habits.

Video content can be incorporated into your content strategy in two ways:

1. Create, share and then embed your own original video content onto your site.
2. Embed public video content onto your site.

The first option may lead to greater revenue gains for your site through the use of pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll ads. However beneficial this may sound, this option is far more resource intensive than the second and requires an upfront investment to create original video content. YouTube is a popular platform for you to upload and share your content. YouTube has over a billion users - almost one-third of all people on the Internet - and every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views.[1]

If you choose to create and monetize original video content as an additional format for your audience to consume your unique perspective, check out these resources.

• YouTube Creator Hub is the destination for resources to help you make great videos, find your audience, and grow your YouTube channel.
• YouTube Audio Library is a place for you to browse and download free music to use for your original videos.
• Google+ Hangouts On Air can help you connect directly with your audience and then distribute your content to engage your users on your site or on YouTube after the event.
• Read the article In Video Advertising, Is Longer Strong? to learn about video advertising.

The second strategy is to embed public video content directly onto your site. This strategy lets you focus on curating high quality video content rather than spending time and resources on creating it yourself.



YouTube players can be embedded in a web page using either an iframe tag or an object tag, both provided by YouTube. By appending parameters to the iframe, you can even customize the playback experience. For example, you can automatically play videos when the page loads or choose a specific video size to match the UX of your site.

We highly recommend using YouTube to embed videos on your site, here’s the five step process:

• On a computer, go to the YouTube video you want to embed.
• Under the video, click Share.
• Click Embed.
• From the box that appears, copy the HTML code.
• Paste the code into your blog or website HTML.

Embedding public videos onto your site that supplement your original content is a great strategy to help meet the user demand of online video and further engage your users. If you have original content on your site and choose to use embedded videos to supplement your content, ensure that the videos themselves do not violate any policies. To learn how to correctly embed public videos please read the AdSense Program Policies.

Whichever strategy you choose, embed video content onto your site this summer. The summer of sport creates a huge opportunity for AdSense Publishers, especially in the sports category. In fact, over the last four years, sports YouTube watch time has grown 267%.[2] The 2016 Summer Olympics has already generated 30,000 hours of Olympics related content on YouTube and there’s an expectation that this year’s games will garner 3.6 billion views on YouTube alone.[3]

Big events mean big views for related videos. Invest into video to boost your traffic, draw new crowds, and further engage with your audience.

New to AdSense? Sign up now and turn your passion into profit

Posted by Barbara Sarti, from the AdSense Team



[1] https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html
[2] Google internal data
[3] YouTube Internal Tools, 2015, +/1 one month of games

Big events cause big spikes; use them to grow your business.

Across the world, users flock online to view, share and talk about big things that matter to them. From Royal Weddings to World Cups, when big events come around, they make waves online. Spotting and predicting these spikes in web traffic can give you an opportunity to grow your web business, capitalizing on the increase of users online by drawing them to your content.

Recent events and the spikes they created:

• The 2012 Olympics website received 431 million online visits¹
• The Royal Wedding was tweeted about 237 times per second²
• The Cricket World Cup 2015 was searched for 323 million times³
• Searches for the Tour De France in 2015 increased by a factor of 50 during the event⁴
• There were 1.55m tweets using #supportyourteam during London 2012⁵
• 90 million people filled out an NBA ‘bracket’ online in 2014⁶

Big events that generate global interest, particularly sports events, have historically created surges in web traffic. By examining these trends, you can know when the spikes are coming and create the right content to capture that crowd.

What does this mean for AdSense publishers?

Understanding the spikes and when they might happen is invaluable information for an online content creator of any kind. If web traffic has increased due to interest around a particular event, it stands to reason that if publishers incorporate related content into their sites, you’re more likely to draw the crowds. 

For example; say an AdSense publisher runs a food blog and a large sports event is trending. This publisher may choose to harness that spike and write a piece about food inspired by the host city or nation, or even focus on restaurants in the host city for those attending. Linking the site’s content to this trending event could lead to more traffic to this publisher’s site and could result in increased revenue. 

By predicting and reacting to web traffic spikes, AdSense publishers can create relevant content and stand the best chance of drawing the crowds in a crowded marketplace.

To start learning from past spikes and how they could influence your upcoming content, take a look at Google Trends.

This tool allows you look at what users are searching for on a global scale. You can select topic areas and drill down into regions for those topics, enabling you to find data relevant to your audience. Once you’ve established the kinds of spikes certain events create, you can create relevant content and harness the insights you find to predict what spikes may happen in the future.

Whatever your site’s focus, web traffic spikes can have a huge impact of your growth. Start exploring the data now and think about how your content can adapt and take advantage of these moments.

New to AdSense? Sign up now and turn your passion into profit.

Posted by Jay Castro, AdSense Content Marketing Specialist

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1 https://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/multi-screen-olympics_research-studies.pdf^↩
2 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8483199/Royal-wedding-facts-and-figures.html^↩
3 https://www.google.co.in/trends/story/2015_IN^↩
4 https://www.google.co.in/trends/explore#cmpt=q&q=Tour+de+France&date=1/2015+12m&geo^↩
5 https://econsultancy.com/blog/10871-60-fascinating-digital-stats-from-the-london-2012-olympics/^↩
6 https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/basketball-madness-begins.html^↩

[New Resource] Are native ads right for your site?

Spending on native ads is expected to grow to $21 billion in 2018, presenting a huge opportunity for publishers to enhance their user experience and tap into new revenues.

What are “Native Ads”? They’re a variety of paid ads with the goal of being “so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong,” says the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). You might recognize some of the more popular native ad formats, such as custom sponsored content, content recommendations, and in-feed ad units.

To help determine if native ads are the right fit for your site, we’ve created a quick guide that includes direction on how you can:

• Search for opportunities throughout your site where native ads can unlock new ad revenue
• Determine how to maximize your user experience and ad revenue before implementing native ads
• Ensure allocation of time and resources needed for proper implementation

Posted by Kate Pietrelli from the AdSense Team

Use #hashtags to create trending content

It’s official, #hashtags have taken over the internet. Much like memes, gifs, and audio-less fast motion cooking instructional videos, #hashtags fill up social media news feeds. However, unlike the other popular content types, what’s unique to #hashtags is that they organize conversations across the web. Even Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake had something to say about #hashtags.

#Hashtags started around 2007 on Twitter, and have rapidly grown into a common medium for users to express their feelings or interests primarily on social networks. As the summer of sport kicks off, it’s a good idea for you to consider incorporating #hashtags into your content strategy as a key ingredient to #drawthecrowds.

#Hashtags are quite simple to use and can attract new users to your content when you understand how they work. Essentially, when the pound/hash sign is used in front of a group of words it automatically turns that group of words into a searchable link. This transforms those keywords into a conversation that the entire web can participate in and follow.

The use of #hashtags can be boiled down into two main use cases:

1. Create your own, unique #hashtag to organize your content and start a conversation. This could be tricky because there are millions of #hashtags online, so don’t be afraid to repurpose one that exists. AdSense uses original #hashtags like #AdSenseGuide to promote our downloadable content or #AskAdSense for our Q&A sessions. We’re also using #drawthecrowds during the summer season to help AdSense publishers draw crowds to your content during big events. 
2. Use an existing #hashtag and join in on a conversation. Use social network search options to find trending #hashtags that are relevant to your audience and join the conversation. For example, #BurningMan is a popular #hashtag used in the summer months to find news and updates about the annual event. Everyone from news publications to the thousands of people in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada will be using #BurningMan to share their perspective of the Burning Man experience. Using existing and popular #hashtags presents an opportunity for you to contribute your unique perspective to the digital conversation.

To get the most out of #hashtags, here’s a “do and don’t” list to reference as you build out your content strategy:

DO

• Use one to three #hashtags per post, any more is generally overdoing it. 
• Use #hashtags that are relevant to your audience or ones that your industry is using. If you’re writing an article on the food to try, you could use #hashtags like #Foodie and #Yummy so users will find you when they search for those always trending keywords.
• It’s ok to be specific. In most cases, the more specific the #hashtag, the better. If you’re going to talk about do it yourself (DIY) summer projects, you’d want to use #hashtags like #diyprojects, #diyideas or #diyweddings instead of general keywords like #DIY or #DoItYourSelf. Using specific #hashtags helps users pinpoint the exact content they’re looking for. 
• Letters and numbers are OK to use in #hashtags.
• Keep #hashtags short.

DON’T

• Don’t string too many words together. #itbecomesreallyreallyhardtoread and it can take up most of your Twitter character count.
• Don’t use punctuation marks or spaces, they will break the searchable link.
• Don’t use the same hashtag twice in the same social post. It’s just #weird.

Now that you understand how to use #hashtags and how they can help you #drawthecrowds this summer, share with us how you’re going to incorporate them into your content strategy – we’d love to follow along. 

New to AdSense? Sign up now and turn your passion into profit.

Posted by Jay Castro, AdSense Content Marketing Specialist

How creating a content calendar can help you #DrawTheCrowds

In today’s fast-paced and global media landscape, timing is everything when you’re looking to draw crowds to your site. Throughout the year, there are trends and events that create opportunities for publishers to connect with audiences in the moments that matter. If you can time your content right and make it topical, you stand a much better chance of capturing the interest of a wider audience.


Let’s take a simple example. There’s no sense in a fashion blogger writing a piece on Coachella fashion when the annual music festival season is over. If that blogger could know when events relevant to fashion were approaching, she could much better plan her content. That’s where content calendars come in.

A content calendar is an essential tool for any publisher looking to harness some of the online buzz generated by big events. Though they can come in many different forms and countless templates exist, the essential components of a content calendar are the same. Big events relevant to your users are plotted on a calendar, allowing you to get a jump on your content plan.

If you know what events are approaching, you can start to think about the kind of content you can create to harness your users’ interest in them. 

To get you started, we’ve pulled out a few upcoming events sure to draw the crowds over the next few months. There are 5 calendar categories for you to choose from–national holidays, sports, entertainment, travel, and news. Scroll down to take a look at what big moments are coming up, click to add them to your calendar, then start planning your content!

This initial list is just to get you started, once you get into the habit of planning your content in advance, you can start to do your own research into what upcoming events might interest your audience. Need an insight into what your users like? Google Analytics can help you get to know your audience better.

Get started and plan your year today to begin drawing the crowds! New to AdSense? Sign up now and turn your passion into profit.

Posted by Jay Castro, AdSense Content Marketing Specialist

What could be causing your CTR/RPM to be lower on mobile?

Mobile is the fastest growing platform and it’s important for us to ensure that our sites are set up for long-term success. Recently, we’ve heard questions and concerns about lower than expected click through rate (CTR) and revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) for mobile inventory and we’d like to share some insights as to what may cause this.

To understand what’s happening you need to look at your performance reports. Analyzing your AdSense performance allows you to see how well your ads are performing and which devices your ad units were viewed on.

To view this report simply log into your AdSense account, click “Performance reports” and select “Platforms” from the “Report type” dropdown.

You may notice that your CTR or RPM is lower on mobile than it is on tablet and desktop. This might be caused by one or more of the following reasons:

• Your site may be displaying suboptimal ad sizes
• Your responsive design is using the column drop approach
• You’re not focusing on optimizing for viewability

Here are three tips to increase help you identify the issues and take action to improve your mobile RPM.

If you’re not using AdSense to monetize your online content, be sure to sign up so you can start turning your passion into profit. 

1) Use high-impact mobile ad formats to ensure you have optimal ad sizes throughout your site. 

The 320x50 ad unit was the original mobile ad banner, but now there are a range of mobile ad sizes and formats to choose from. If you’re using 320x50 ads you should consider replacing them with 320x100 (just above the fold), 300x250 (below the fold), or a responsive ad unit. These ad sizes tend to generate higher RPMs than 320x50 ad units.

• The 320x100 ad unit performs best on mobile screens and can be placed in numerous positions throughout your site. Research from Google shows the most viewable ad position is right above the fold. The 320x100 also increases the fill-rate competition because it allows the 320x50 format to compete for the same space.

• The 300x250 ad unit is a popular ad size used by advertisers across the globe, resulting in a large ad supply, increased competition, and a potential increase in earnings. Research on viewability has shown that a 300x250 ad unit placed just below the fold has generated approximately a 50% viewability rate for other publishers. This ad unit could potentially help you maximize the impact of your ad space. 
• Responsive ad units automatically adapt to your page layout and the space available for the ad unit across desktop, tablets, and smartphones. AdSense identifies the appropriate ad size and then determines the best size for the screen. 

2) Pay close attention to your ad placements, especially if you’re using a responsive design column drop layout.

Responsive websites are a great multi-screen strategy, but they present a challenge for high-impact desktop ad units that can be easily avoided. Responsive websites commonly use a column drop approach to design. This is where the entire right-hand column on a desktop screen drops down to the bottom of the page when the website is viewed on a mobile screen.


This means that a strong performing ad unit on the right-hand column of your desktop site could become an underperforming unit below the fold on mobile devices.


If this is how your site is designed, you should consider alternative ad placements, for example: moving your right-column ad units above the fold on mobile devices.

3) Focus on counting viewable impressions with Active View in your AdSense account.

Checking the Active View percent of your ads will give you a good indication of your mobile vs. tablet and desktop ad viewability. A display ad is counted as viewable when at least 50% of the ad is within the viewable space on the user’s screen for one second or more.

If you find that your Active View percent is much lower on mobile than it is on desktop, this could mean that your ads are not visible to your users and alternative ad placements may need to be tested.

There you have it, three tips to increase your mobile RPM.

Monitor your AdSense performance across devices to understand and identify potential underperforming units. If you’re using a responsive web design, make sure your ads are viewable on all devices. Finally, use Active View to track the viewability of your ads.

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow us on Google+ and Twitter, we offer tips, tricks, and downloads to help you make the most of your AdSense account. 

Until next time,

Posted by Paul Healy, from the AdSense team