AdWords, AdSense, and the Google blog

I spent a year as an engineer in the ads group, but that was a long time ago (28 dog years, at least). So asking me detailed AdSense or AdWords questions is sometimes like asking a cat how an airplane works:

Q to cat: How does an airplane work?
A from cat: Meow?

So when someone asks me how to carry the clickthrough from one NodeGroup to a different currency while preserving their negative matches (yes, I’m making this question up), I’m usually stuck with meow. I keep intending to use AdWords or check out AdSense, but I haven’t had the cycles yet, and I’m not sure when I will.

So if you read this site and want more advertising info, I would hop over to the AdWords blog or the AdSense blog. They’re crunchy with good information and tips. For example, the link I did for the AdWords blog talks about increasing the capacity of the Site Exclusion tool so you can be more selective about where your ads show up in AdSense.

If you haven’t noticed, the Official Google Blog has been getting more solid, too. Take this post for example; I’m a little surprised we talked about how Google can harness the collective wisdom of Googlers, but I’m glad that we did. Was the original incarnation of the Google blog fluffy? Yeah, it kinda was. To be fair, it was launched in the middle of an IPO quiet period, so there were limits to what the blog could discuss. I’m glad that the blog is talking about issues of substance, from Kai-Fu Lee to fair use. Crunchy is good.

Geez. I wrote this up this morning, and completely missed the new Google Group dedicated to talking about AdWords. Cool. Also, I should point out that if you position this book next to this book, they will in fact explode.

30 Responses to AdWords, AdSense, and the Google blog (Leave a comment)

  1. Good morning Matt

    Pls tell us whats going on on the serps at present. Is it an update including algo changes?

    And pls don´t reply by a: Meow? 🙂

    Have a great day and a nice weekend.

  2. > so there were limits to what the blog could discuss

    but there are limits left. they do not “discuss” with their audience. for me a blog becomes a real blog when it enables comments. thus i am happy about your personal blog and annoyed about googles uncommunicative public appearances. but i take it as a positive signal that your blog and the reinclusion-pilot have begun to speak “with” us.

  3. Thanks for all the useful links Matt. 🙂

  4. Matt, may I point out that there is another Google Group called SEM 2.0 that often discusses AdWords (in considerably more depth than most places I think).

    The AdWords forums on SearchEngineWatch.com and the PPC forum at HighRankings.com are also pretty good.

    P.S. I notice the AdWords Google Group seems to be broken down into “subtopics.” Is that a new Group feature or something? I can’t seem to figure out how to do that with my Group.

  5. It would be cool to see the SEW conference separated into Paid search marketing & organic conferences too (hint hint)

  6. Are you using the x*7 or the (x-1)*4+21 method for counting dog years?

  7. Michael Updegraff

    Matt Said “I should point out that if you position this book next to this book, they will in fact explode.”

    I laughed out loud @ mine desk

  8. Matt,
    I just saw you were listed as one of the speakers at the Vegas SEO conference. I’m getting to go this year, and seeing that just made my day! Do you do autographs????

    ***banking that the autographs could be sold on Ebay***

    Just kidding of course! 🙂 I really am tickled to death that you’ll be there!

    Jan

  9. There’s also a great forum at webmaster world about AdWords.

    Don’t forget the AdWords API blog at:
    http://adwordsapi.blogspot.com/

    Has current info on a crucial part of AdWords.

  10. I love the parts about “crunchy” and “fluffy” – I think they’re about as tasty as “snap, crackle and pop” and just as cute. But how about adding “deceptive,” “vacuous” and “swill” to the list?

    Just night before last night I had to pull AdSense off 99% of a site because there seemed to be no other way to get rid of the ads selling ‘Guaranteed top ten search engine rankings in ten days” or “Submit to hundreds/thousands of search engines” and some other some-such I’d rather not say.

    My rationale is that AdSense is value-added content on pages. If folks don’t find what they want on pages, AdSense gives them alternative solutions to help them find what they’re looking for. But sometimes the ads that are run have to be consistent with the values of the site they’re run on. That’s just one example of a much broader issue, but what it sometimes can boil down to is a values-clarification issue and sometimes choices have to be made based on those criteria.

  11. Matt,
    Sorry to be a contrarian here, but the Official Google Blog is anything but “crunchy” IMO. The “voice” of their blog is not real. It feels scrubbed by the PR department, I might even go so far as to say it comes off as a mouthpiece of the PR department. The blog sounds self congratulatory and self promotional. The blog has its face to the company, and consequently its butt to the reader. Let’s try a little experiment, one that — believe it or not — involves “keyword density!” Yes, I think I’ve finally found a valid reason to calculate keyword density, and it has nothing to do with SEO. Here’s the application…

    In the supposedly “crunchy” post at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/putting-crowd-wisdom-to-work.html that you linked to above:
    17 occurrences of “we”, “us”, “our”, “Google” or “Googlers”
    3 occurrences of “you” or “your”
    6:1 ratio of us-speak to you-speak
    422 total words in the post
    4% “it’s all about us” density
    0.7% “it’s all about you, the reader” density

    Now I randomly picked a Yahoo! Search Blog post from around the same time period, http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000190.html to compare this with:

    7 occurrences of “we”, “us”, “our” or “Yahoo” (in the context of the company not part of a product name)
    8 occurrences of “you” or “your”
    1:1 ratio of us-speak to you-speak
    214 total words in the post
    3% “it’s all about us” density
    4% “it’s all about you, the reader” density

    In this very small sample set, Yahoo’s blog seems to talk to the reader much more effectively. Not to mention their blog supports reader comments, unlike the Google blog.

    Now to make this more scientifically valid, we just need an automated tool that analyzes all of the posts from both Y!’s and Goog’s blogs to compare. That’d be a nifty little tool if it existed. Perhaps I’ll get someone here at Netconcepts to code it…

    Stephan

  12. I definitely have to agree with Stephen about the Official Google Blog. It is a PR thing, and not that helpful for advanced users, but I would also say it’s a reliable resource for newbies to get info from.

  13. Wow Stephan, impressive investigation. I guess all of them are biased to show how good they are. Also yahoo is more connected to the users yes, it allows them to post and ask questions. I wish there were more people like you Matt that are more close to us webmasters.

  14. This blog alone seems to cover most topics, so any of the others are an added bonus..

  15. Any reason why Google hasn’t gone after the Google adword scammers who manage to get around the adwords rule of No Gambling Ads? I’ve raised it several times with Google but adwords users continue to target the keywords casino, poker and bingo with huge success. Rumours have it that companies are paying someone internally to keep the ads up during parts of the day.

  16. “Any reason why Google hasn’t gone after the Google adword scammers who manage to get around the adwords rule of No Gambling Ads? I’ve raised it several times with Google but adwords users continue to target the keywords casino, poker and bingo with huge success. Rumours have it that companies are paying someone internally to keep the ads up during parts of the day.”

    How about money? I could only imagine what those keywords must be running at.

  17. I could not think of anywhere else to ask this, so I hope it is not entirely inappropriate.

    My question relates to Trademarks and Google Adsense. If a specific company name is trademarked and is a fairly unique name with no other possible meaning, can anyone simply sponsor that word through Google Adsense?

    If this is not a suitable place to ask this question then I would appreciate some guidance as to where I can get this information.

    Aside from the above, thanks for an informative and regularly useful blog Matt !

  18. Mr. Matt, I am working on many websites to increase adsense income. Can i think long term… ? At present, i am earning $900 / month from google adsense. And i know i can increase my profit my targeting new industies. But, my only fear is? what if google stop adsense or change some policies? Is it right to keep alternative income source… or should i 100% concentrate on adsense. Can i work for adsense for next 20 years? What do you think? Please reply to me.. i am sure many other webmasters wha to know the same thing…

  19. I appreciate your difficulty with AdWords questions, but unfortunately the AdWords blog does not seem to accept comments. I’ve been a bit frustrated with a particular AdWords problem lately (see my blog post if you’re interested in the details: http://albany-lawyer.blogspot.com/2007/01/adwords-runaround.html ), and don’t know where to turn.

    Going through the normal customer service avenues has been very disappointing. I expect more from Google. I love that your blog gives us access to someone inside who knows what he’s talking about. Unfortunately the AdWords blog does not give us that level of access. Any suggestions about how to reach someone comparable to you in the AdWords team?

    Warren

  20. Thanks for the links matt lol. I’m thinking about getting in the program. not sure yet. There are soo many but I hear google offers the best with Adwords.

    Brad
    http://www.effectlocal.com

  21. Matt, having a huge issue with someone breaking the terms of Adsense and not being dealt with….they are hacking into sites and replacing existing Adsense code with their own. Someone I know reported it months ago, and now they did it to my site with the exact same publisher ID. Can you put me in touch with someone?
    Thanks
    Adam

  22. Hi Matt,

    How is it possible that a website can have 5 blocks of google ads appearing on one page? Take a look at this “PR5” site….

    http://thecelebritycafe.com/ – 5 adsene blocks
    http://thecelebritycafe.com/contests/nintendo_ds_lite.html also 5 adsense blocks…..

    Are some sites allowed more than 3 ad units? If so, why?

  23. Good article with interesting links. With those useful Adword and Adsense blogs links you posted there, I got some information that helped me to optimize my own marketing website.

    Thanks.

  24. Matt, I had my site hacked into for a second time, the hacker switched my Adsense code with their own. It is a letdown, because I have complained before, and my brother has also had the same issue. It was the same Adsense user both previous times, and they have still not had their account shutdown. Can you put me in touch with someone to see that this is fixed this time?

  25. Hi Matt ,

    whats about in video ads?
    Im looking for a answer by google…
    I send some mails and spend my time trying to realise this idea..
    I dont know but i think that adsense hav to work with the xml feeds or something.Just to compare the video and title, wich the user is watchning..

    i tried a lot of things..i know that google will come out with a adsense flash miniplayer..and it will overlap the video for some seconds…

    it could be expensive for us webmasters to strem files and pay a lot for traffic and eran just a little bit from these poor adsense links or small banners..

  26. does anyone know how to prevent invalid clicks on AdWords?

  27. Hi Airgle…

    Google AdWords has an inbuilt invalid click detection technology.
    It is in Google’s best interest to protect it’s AdWords customers, and you can actually generate a report in the AdWords centre that gives details of invalid clicks.

  28. Matt, what is Google position on having Adsense on Gambling sites?

    Some say adsense permits online casinos content as long there is no gambling on the site itself. Only adwords does not aloud online gambling promotion. Is this correct?

    The TOS is not very clear on this. Thanks.

  29. Hi Matt, yes, I enjoy your blog too and this is the first time however I will make a comment. It is rather aimed at Airgle who asked if there is a way to prevent invalid clicks on AdWords.

    Would he or she mean Adsense ? Just in case, there seems to be a software called Adsense Click Protector, designed by Mike Steup which can make sure there is no such thing going on.

    Hope that helps.

    To Blackhat Domainer: I have heard that just recently, Google is talking about letting back in so to speak the gambling niche in the Adwords dungeons. This is a very interesting developement. Just do a search on Google with it and you will see what I mean. It is news right now as we speak.

    Thanks

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