Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I am guessing they will be offering stats broken down into individual domains and possibly (hopefully!) broken down to a page level, so publishers know exactly what pages are getting the best CTR and EPC.
Offering stats in a graphical format would also be something publishers would find useful.
If these stats are as comprehensive as it sounds like they will be, it will save publishers from having to mess around with third party scripts and tools, especially since some of them violate the AdSense TOS.
I know many are looking forward to a variety of new stats. What other sorts of stats do publishers want on their AdSense stat wish list?
So my guess is Friday April 9th. (I assume we're doing this on Pacific Time, like Google?).
Hopefully I'm wrong and the stats will be there tomorrow (and they include money amounts by domain, not just impressions/clicks).
When things start going weird, it generally means something is being updated in AdSense or Adwords. Stats are delayed and the missing mediabot are pretty big clues. And no, I don't have any insider information ;) And besides, I don't want to have to wait any longer for new stats, LOL.
Won't we see an increase in these pages, once spammers get a handle on which spam techniques work better?
What is AdSense planning to try to ensure that better analysis and tracking tools don't lead to greater abuse?
Aren't stats for advertisers a greater priority than stats for publishers?
Once the stats get going... what are the implications for those creating spam pages optimised entirely for adsense? Won't we see an increase in these pages, once spammers get a handle on which spam techniques work better?
Of course.
What is AdSense planning to try to ensure that better analysis and tracking tools don't lead to greater abuse?
Maybe the plan is to use algorithms to identify sites for manual QC checks. Fighting "AdSense spam" is likely to be just as much of an uphill battle as fighting search-engine spam, though.
Aren't stats for advertisers a greater priority than stats for publishers?
Let's hope that stats and controls for advertisers are a greater priority than they are now.
Maybe the plan is to use algorithms to identify sites for manual QC checks. Fighting "AdSense spam" is likely to be just as much of an uphill battle as fighting search-engine spam, though.
I think fighting adsense spam will be easier. Once a webmaster gets blacklisted, they have to appeal directly to Google to get reinstated. And Google has all the information {including tax id}.
I am not saying you couldn't do it. You can. It just take some smarts and work to get around those barriers, which might prove too much for someone trying to get back in.
Aren't stats for advertisers a greater priority than stats for publishers?
With all the info exchanged at PubCon I might be a bit muddled on this (and probably am), but I think I remember the AdSense rep Gokul Rajaram stating this very thing. Basically saying that while stats and reporting for publishers are near the top of the list, Google was first concentrating on improvements to the advertiser side.
As a publisher I would like improved stats sooner rather than later but I don't think we can expect to see anything until after Google takes care of the advertiser side. Once those are implemented we can start anticipating.
I think fighting adsense spam will be easier. Once a webmaster gets blacklisted, they have to appeal directly to Google to get reinstated. And Google has all the information {including tax id}.
That's a good point, although there certainly are ways around the tax ID problem. (Heck, I've got five people in my family; if I were an AdSense abuser, it wouldn't be that hard to open separate accounts in the names of my wife and kids, or even to set up businesses with their own taxpayer IDs.)
I think a bigger problem with detailed stats is the encouragement of AdSense and SEO-driven sites or pages that may be "legal" (in terms of AdSense's TOS) but exist primarily to harvest AdSense click revenue. If advertisers begin to see their ads turning up on sites that have no intrinsic value, content ads will lose credibility, quality of leads will suffer, and more advertisers will opt out of content ads (at least if Google's content-ad network continues to be an "all or nothing" proposition as it is now).
at least if Google's content-ad network continues to be an "all or nothing" proposition as it is now
I would think that with improved stats for Advertisers Google would allow them to (possibly) choose which content publishers they would like their ads to appear on... i.e. this site sends me good clients with good conversion - and drop others that are not performing and wasting clicks and lowering CTR...
Improved stats for Publishers will also compliment this system by (possibly) having publishers not display ads (hopefully on specific pages of Publisher sites) that are not performing and wasting space and upsetting users with irrelevant ads... this will increase the quality of CTR for genuine Advertisers and deliver more user / advertiser satisfaction and more closely related links / ROI
Human editing is still the best way to tune results on any site - and a yin / yang approach between Advertisers / Publishers should produce some good results for all - especially the user...
Though a system like above would require a lot of time to "tune up" in human hours on behalf of Advertisers AND Publishers - it would be worth it...?!
Just like SEO industry came about by the need for results - a demand for more "Google Account Managers" would be on the radar should more complex options become available... managing google AdWords on behalf of clients is already a growing "industry"
We wonder - and we wait... there _is_ a balance out there...
Improved stats for Publishers will also compliment this system by (possibly) having publishers not display ads (hopefully on specific pages of Publisher sites) that are not performing and wasting space and upsetting users with irrelevant ads...
I don't think improved stats will solve that problem, but improved controls (e.g., being able to include positive or negative "helper" keyphrases) might. For example, I've had ads for St. Martin hotels on a page that talks accommodations at the monastery where Martin Luther took his vows; being able to exclude "St. Martin" as a topic would solve that problem more effectively than just blocking hotel sites one by one.
They have been claiming for months that it would be soon. Now for over a week, we have "very soon."
For something like this, where Google obviously has all of the data and technological capability, IMHO 2+ months does not equal "soon."
"Very soon" in internet speak sounds like within 2 weeks to me. Maybe they will make it - I don't know - but I am not holding my breath.