Mobile Mondays: Setting goals for mobile monetization

This is the first post in our ‘Mobile Mondays’ series. Throughout the next couple of months we'll highlight best practices to help you get the most from your mobile content. From time to time, we’ll also share stories directly from publishers who have recently gone mobile.

We recently announced our 11 billionth app download from Android Play. Given the consumer movement towards the small screen, it’s important to consider how much of this consumed media was created specifically for mobile. Once you’ve successfully taken your business mobile, you can capitalize on this with some key optimization steps. Below, we’ll outline ways you can get the most out of your mobile content. Before any optimization can take place, you’ll need a clear view of your business goals on mobile.

The importance of goals
There are no rules around mobile strategies, but mobile businesses need clearly defined goals  in order to be successful. If you’re an online-only publisher, your goals might revolve around engagement and visits. If you have location-specific content, you may want to incorporate local elements into your mobile offering. Your business goals should align with the needs of your users.

Prioritization is a key element in goal-setting. You might think that all publishers have acquisition goals around new users prioritized most highly -- after all, who wouldn’t want to reach new audiences? Consider a mobile forum and message board website. They’ll want new users discovering and using their online discussion site, but this should occur organically if their existing user base creates discussions with sufficient breadth and depth. In this instance, it could be beneficial for the forum owners to focus on website optimization (driving engagement), rather than new user acquisition.

With these possible goals in mind, here are some tips to help you optimize your content for a mobile audience:

Goal #1: Drive traffic and new customer acquisition

• Cross-promotion: This is an easy and cost-effective way to leverage your existing user base to drive users to your mobile site.
• Advertising: Mobile website optimization now factors into mobile search ads quality. To find out more about advertising on mobile devices, visit our Mobile Ads site.
• Localize: China, Korea, Japan, and the U.S. represent some of the biggest markets for mobile media consumption. Track your usage in regions and consider building out a localized app for regions where it's most popular. 
• Create new, unique mobile content for new mobile audiences. Men’s Health understood that their target audience used smartphones in the gym to listen to music. As a result, they created a mobile app with workout exercises -- handy for when their users have the phone with them in the gym.

Goal #2: Drive engagement

• Website optimization: If one of your goals is to retain users who want access to content on-the-go, use Google Analytics to help you choose the most effective content for your site. A recent survey (Omniture, 2010) found that Mobile- friendly web experiences have produced an average 75% higher rate of engagement (revenue, page views, etc.) per visit for mobile users, than desktop websites viewed through a mobile device.
• Brand engagement: Make use of the extended functionality of a mobile device (GPS, Camera, SMS).

Goal #3: Maximize revenue

• When designing a mobile-optimized site, it’s key to focus on the overall user experience and what you want to achieve as a publisher. This is especially true if your core business model is built around advertising revenue or if it’s a strong contributor of profit. Consider the type of ad units and formats that you plan to incorporate, which will help you make the most of monetization opportunities without compromising content. To find out more, download our publisher guide or our Android app to explore the range of our mobile ad formats.

We’ve placed “publisher goals” into three categories using broad brush strokes above. In reality, it’s unlikely your ambitions will be as narrow in scope. We hope you’ll be able to pick an optimization step (or a combination of steps) tailored to your particular site.

Posted by Robbie Wetherell, Mobile Publisher Advocate

A message from an AdSense publisher: How to balance conflicting interests

Editor’s Note: Today we’d like to share some tips from AdSense publisher Dave Taylor, owner and author of askdavetaylor.com. Dave Taylor has been online for over thirty years and has been producing helpful tech content for just about all of that time. You can find him online at http://www.davetayloronline.com/.

It's a tricky balancing act being an AdSense publisher because once you start seeing your earnings increase, there's a natural desire to shift your attention to your revenue. The problem with focusing on your revenue is that you're taking attention away from producing the most useful content for your readers. And without readers, you have no audience to run ads for in the first place.

I know, because it's a challenge I face as an AdSense publisher too. I run a popular tech support site called Ask Dave Taylor and my focus since 2003 has been on answering tech questions in a simple, free, and easily obtainable manner. I had over 18 million visitors to the site last year -- but it's also a business, not a hobby, so maximizing my per-visitor revenue is important.

I’m sure you’ve heard that "it's all about content,” and that the best sites have high quality content that's regularly updated and provide a value to their customers. That's still true, and it's important to have your primary focus be the experience you offer to your reader.

But there's that tension. It's the lure of the dark side, in Star Wars terminology. What is the perfect middle ground along the content/revenue continuum?

Here's how I try to balance things…

The first place I stop every week is Google Analytics. The data gives me food for thought, like how many visitors are using mobile devices. This helped me decide how much money to invest in a mobile-friendly version of the site (and when it made sense for me to add AdSense for Mobile Content to my advertising mix). Analytics also shows the most popular pages on my site, which offers great insight into what my readers visit most frequently. Since I categorize all my content, it helps me understand if tutorials about the Sony PSP are garnering more traffic than those about the Apple iPod, for example.

Hook Analytics to AdSense (and yes, I have an article about how to do that on my site) and you can also produce a report of your most profitable pages, a cross-correlation between traffic and AdSense revenue. You’ll gain a reliable way to figure out if that blog entry you wrote three months ago is actually now generating 11% of your overall site revenue.

But there's the ugly head of profiteering rearing up again.

Let's look at this a different way. There's a name for a restaurateur who focuses exclusively on per-customer revenue and keeps raising prices: out of business. On the other hand, a restaurant that doesn't pay attention to what items are popular, what daily specials get people excited, and the fluctuations in supply cost runs the risk of ending up with a menu that's completely out of touch with customer desires and they too go out of business.

I spend the majority of my time and attention on producing the best possible content and use my desire to maximize revenue as a secondary goal, something for me to keep in mind as I proceed. It doesn't launch my ship, but it helps me build it most efficiently.

If you're a long-time AdSense publisher, you've hopefully also found that sweet spot between being completely content driven and ignoring the business side of your publishing business. If not, here's a suggestion based on my years of participation: Once a month, really dig into your AdSense reports to understand what categories, what topics and what pages on your site are performing well. Set a goal of producing more of the same in the following 30 days, then put revenue out of your mind and focus completely on what you can contribute to your customer community. Rinse, wash, repeat.

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Posted by Raina Rathi, Strategic Partner Manager, AdSense

Watch the recorded GoMo for Publishers videos to learn how to mobilize your site

As part of Google’s ongoing GoMo initiative, we hosted a live webinar a few weeks ago to help publishers learn the benefits of creating mobile-friendly sites, hear tips and case studies, and tap into new resources to get started. If you missed it, no problem! You can watch the recorded video or download the slides below.

Watch this webinar to learn:

1. Why go mobile?
Your users have gone mobile in a big way, hear why you must follow suit.
2. Tips for building mobile sites   
Mobile is different.  Learn 10 practical tips for building engaging, uniquely mobile experiences.
3. Best practices in action
Hear from web publisher FindTheBest about the success they’ve seen from going mobile.
4. How to get started
Google is here to help. Learn about tools we’ve created to get you started on the path to delighting
your users and maximizing your mobile revenue.

Interested in learning more? Watch the recorded webinar and download the slides.

Posted by Tuyen Nguyen - Mobile Publisher Advocate

Introducing UK promotions and deals from Google Affiliate Network

We’ve blogged before about Google Affiliate Network, which helps you earn more from your site with ads that pay based on conversions. While all AdSense publishers around the world are eligible to join Google Affiliate Network, we’re happy to let you know that this network has just expanded to more UK advertisers -- meaning that if you’re located in the UK or have UK-based readers, the promotions available in Google Affiliate Network will soon become more relevant and interesting.

We’ve brought aboard UK affiliate programs like Blue Nile, Onlineticketexpress.com, Orvis UK, Shoes.com and Skechers, and will continue to add advertisers in verticals like retail, financial services, travel and electronics. Publisher payments are now available in over 40 currencies in 80 countries, and we’re working to continue developing additional enhancements.

To get started with Google Affiliate Network in the UK, simply sign up using your existing AdSense login details and you’ll hear back within a few days about your application. Once you’re a publisher with Google Affiliate Network, follow the steps below to to get started:

1. Log in to your Google Affiliate Network account
2. Visit the Advertiser tab
3. Change Relationship Status to 'Available', then click 'Apply'
4. On the left-hand navigation, click ‘Countries’ and choose United Kingdom
5. Apply to programs

For more information about Google Affiliate Network, visit our Help Center.

Posted by Erica Sievert -- Google Affiliate Network Marketing Manager

Adding a new ad unit helps Concertboom boost revenue 400% while maintaining site quality

With a background in database and computer science, Internet marketing, and search engine optimization, Kooshiar Azimian is a self-described wearer of many hats. In early 2011, he channeled his diverse expertise to create Concertboom, a comprehensive concert database. Concertboom is monetized through ticket sales and Google AdSense, serving more than four million ad impressions monthly. “AdSense creates the least amount of ad waste — the advertiser gets the most value out of their ads, and the publisher gets the most money,” says Kooshiar, recalling his decision to use AdSense. As traffic increased to one million unique visitors per month, Kooshiar was looking for new ways to increase revenue from AdSense. 

A simple change brings booming revenue
Initially, Kooshiar showed just one 300x250 ad on some of his pages. A few months later, he received a personalized email from the Google AdSense team, who periodically share optimization tips to help publishers maximize revenue. The email suggested adding an ad unit or two, for a maximum of three units per page.

This surprised Kooshiar, who had previously thought one ad unit per page was the maximum allowed. “I was also a little skeptical about losing page quality, and I didn’t want to have to change my interface to serve another ad. But I said, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ I added one unit and the result was shocking. My revenue more than quadrupled in the first week,” he recalls. 

Quality matters most
Given the benefits of this simple implementation, Kooshiar recommends other publishers give it a try, but not at the expense of site quality and user experience. “A quality site serves the right content, especially if your audience comes from search engines. Don’t trick your audience into content you don’t have. Provide content that is accurate, updated and served in a timely fashion with nice, clean graphics. Be sure to maintain page quality and a quick load time. Know your audience and consider which ad formats work best with your content. Also, make sure you’re not compromising your site aesthetic, so your website doesn’t just look like ad junk,” he advises.

Kooshiar also points out that since he maintained his focus on quality, he did not experience any change in his search ranking after adding a new ad unit.

A solid venture
After witnessing his revenue quadruple, Kooshiar is seeing Concertboom in a new light. “Before, this site was just extra cash for me, and now it’s a growing business. I can start hiring people to help me create more content,” he says. “This AdSense optimization has changed the whole dynamic of Concertboom.”

Posted by Caroline Halpin, AdSense Optimization Specialist

Monetize online videos and games with AdSense

Updated 4/3/12 at 11:20am PT to include information about the YouTube Partner Program

It seems that everyone these days is spending more time watching their favorite shows online, or playing the newest online game. eMarketer predicts that in 2015, 76% of total U.S. internet users will be regularly watching videos online, and that 40% will be playing online games. These audiences are becoming increasingly attractive to advertisers, and spend on video ads and ads within games is growing each year.

If you’re one of the many video publishers or games producers who can benefit from this growth, you might be interested to know that Google has two solutions to monetize this type of content: AdSense for video and AdSense for games. With AdSense, you’re able to deliver relevant and non-intrusive ads on your video content and browser-based games. Over the last year, we’ve seen these products take off. We’re particularly excited about the TrueView video ad format that gives viewers choice and control over the ads they watch, while delivering better returns for our publishers.

If you’re interested in monetizing your video content or games, please visit our AdSense for video or AdSense for games Help Center sections. We’ve changed our application process so that you can start to implement straight away. Follow our guidelines and once we review your integration for policy compliance, you’re ready to go. And just to clarify, AdSense for Video is for publishers who create and host videos for their own site. If you're using YouTube to host your video, you can check out the YouTube Partner Program.

The network of video and games publishers gets bigger every day, and we hope you can join us!

Posted by Daniela Bruno, Product Specialist, Video and Games, AdSense Team