An early spring tale: how to defrost a cold AdSense channel

In 2004, Google began providing AdSense channels which give webmasters and advertisers the opportunity to view detailed reporting about specific pages or ad units.  By assigning a channel to a combination of pages or ad units, it is possible to track their performance separately, providing powerful data for use in optimization and other efforts to improve results. 

Initially, the number of channels available to each publisher was fairly limited (16), but in 2005 this number was increased to its current level of 200.  With so many channels available, it is possible for publishers to monitor their performance data in a variety of ways.   

One of the greatest benefits of this level of monitoring is that it often allows webmasters to identify trouble spots in their AdSense programs.  Oftentimes, the first sign of trouble may be an unexpected decrease in overall revenue.  To investigate the problem and find a solution, it’s necessary to:

·          Analyze each channel’s patterns individually to determine which channels are most responsible for the drop in revenue.
·          Study the channels’ behavior in the weeks preceding the revenue drop to see when the problem began.      
·          Examine the web pages containing the ads most involved in the decrease and view their source code to verify that it is properly formatted.  

Oftentimes a decrease in performance may have to do with the source code for certain ads.  While Google has made it easy to configure AdSense and to set up channels, each webmaster is still responsible for making sure the underlying code is correct.  If any part of the syntax is wrong, the ad won’t generate revenue.  

In order to work as intended, an AdSense ad code must include several key elements:

·          Comment tags (<!-- and //-->) surrounding the ad attributes (height, width, etc.)
·          A semicolon and line break following each attribute of the ad
·          A Javascript call whose src attribute points to the file show_ads.js. 

<!—- A well formatted AdSense ad should look like this -->

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--google_ad_client = "pub-1234567812345678";
google_ad_width = 300;
google_ad_height = 250;
google_ad_format = "300x250_as";
//2008-02-13: Acme Products Banner Ad
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "1234567812";
google_color_border = "003366";
google_color_bg = "003366";
google_color_link = "FFFF66";
google_color_text = "FFFFF";
google_color_url = "FFFFFF";
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"src="http://pagead2.
googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script> 

Utilizing AdSense channels can be a huge help in keeping a close eye on your ads’ performance and help track down any issues that may keep your program from delivering the best results possible. 

News & Notes

Happy Birthday to the following Media Breakaway employees:
•  Myra Calley, Vice President, on April 4th

Happy Anniversary to the following Media Breakaway employees:
•  Jaclyn Charles, Marketing Associate - 1 Year on April 2nd