Google AdSense Review for Publishers

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Introduction to Google AdSense

One of the oldest online advertising networks still in existence, Google AdSense is also possibly the largest. As such, they are very popular with advertisers and publishers alike. In general, publishers will find the performance and eCPMs of AdSense ads tough to beat, and while it is nearly impossible to get one-on-one support from Google, initial setup is usually quite simple.

Overall Rating: 4.50 out of 5.

• What We Like: High payouts (publishers get 68% share); good performance; no minimum traffic requirement; very high fill rate.
• What We Don’t Like: Poor customer service; easy to have your account banned with little chance of a successful appeal.

Google AdSense Company Stats

• Homepage: Google AdSense
• Program Founded In: 2003
• Employee Count: 46,170 as of 2014 Q1 according to Google Investor Relations
• Ownership: Public (GOOG)
• Profiles: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Crunchbase, BBB

Google AdSense Support & Contact Information

• Address: 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View CA 94043
• Phone Number: 650-253-0000
• Support Email: None.

Publisher Requirements

• Publisher Terms: https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms
• Traffic Minimum: None.
• Publisher Language Requirement: Content must be primarily in one of these supported languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lituanian, Polish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.
• Prohibited Publisher Content: Pornography, violence, racial intolerance, excessive profanity, hacking/cracking, illicit drugs, drug paraphernalia, sales of beer or hard alcohol, sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products, sales of prescription drugs, sales of weapons or ammunition, sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer or other goods, sales or distribution of coursework or student essays, programs which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites, or reading emails, any other illegal content.

Advertisers & Offers

• Advertising Types: Display, Video.
• Offer Types: CPC.
• Verticals: All.
• Network Size: “2 million publishers worldwide” as of June 19, 2013, according to SocialTimes.
• Sampling of Publishers: NY Times, Digital Photography School, BusinessBalls.com.

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Tech Implementation

Google AdSense Tech Implementation Rating: 5 out of 5.

Example of Google AdSense 300×250 ad unit

• Creating an Ad Unit: To create a new content display ad unit, click the “My Ads” tab, in the sidebar, click “Content”, then “+New Ad Unit”. You can then name and customize your new ad unit’s size, style, custom channel (for tracking purposes), and more. Finally, simply copy and paste the HTML code into your webpage.
• Display Ad Unit Sizes Available: 728×90, 468×60, 234×60, 125×125, 120×600, 160×600, 180×150, 120×240, 200×200, 250×250, 300×250, 336×280, 300×600, 320×50, 970×90.
• Implementation Technology: HTML, JavaScript.
• Mobile Ad Units Available: Yes.
• WordPress Plugin Available: Yes (third-party only).

Publisher Reporting & Admin Control Panel

Google AdSense Publisher Reporting & Admin Control Panel Rating: 5 out of 5.

Google AdSense control panel

• Control Panel: The control panel on AdSense is pretty basic, but extremely functional. You’ll immediately see earnings for the current and previous days, as well as a month-to-date total and any outstanding balances (i.e., what is owed to you currently). There’s also a basic breakdown between Search and Content earnings if applicable, and a summary of relative performance over the past week. AdSense also lets users create customized reports that can be readily available from the control panel as well.
• Reporting: Reporting is one of the highlights and major advantages of Google AdSense. Unlike some networks that report with a lag of 24 hours or more (e.g., Media.net), AdSense delivers results in real time (or pretty darn close to it). The dashboard offers publishers the ability to break down earnings by every metric they could want, including site, ad unit, and day. Beyond the basic functionality that will satisfy 95% of publishers, there are also some advanced features that will help power users analyze results even further.
• Control Panel URL: https://www.google.com/adsense/

Payment

Google AdSense Payment Rating: 5 out of 5.

• Publisher’s Share of Revenue: 68%.
• Payment Methods Available: Check, EFT, Western Union, Rapida.
• Payment Terms: Net-30.
• Minimum Payout Threshold: $10.

Account Help

Google AdSense Account Help Rating: 3 out of 5.

• Knowledge Base URL: https://support.google.com/adsense/?hl=en
• Personal Account Manager: No.
• Easy to Contact Support: No. There is no support email address. There is a contact form in the help section, but it is difficult to find, and they don’t always respond.

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