Short Guide about Adsense Channel Types

Using channels wisely. Channel types.

[silverbytes]

I'm trying to make better use of channels and here are some types I can think of *please add any others I might be missing or correct wrong ideas* as result this may be a good sort of guidelines for new adsense users too:

Definition: Channels are criterias usefull to track in reports in order to determine what works and what doesn't

1- Ad Type Channels (is it adlinks, search, adblock) and always defining size and kind of the ad IE: "adlinks 4 ads 728x15"

2- Language Channels (to track what users are making you earn money) IE: "spanish", "french"

3- Position Channels (where is the ad positioned on page) IE: "top", "left column", "bottom"

4- URL Channels (what page is paying) IE: "mydomain.com/home", "mydomain.com/product1.asp"

5- Color Schema Ad Channels (what color palette are ads using, you can put palette's name or description) IE: "contrast, red", "mypalette1", "site similar look and feel"

So what do you do with them? Create a good set of channels for every domain of yours. Name it in a way you can track easily later as:

mydomain-channelname

What for? To check your stats, and see what is working.
Suppose you get good earnings in your homepage but 90% is for rectangular ads and 10% for skycrapers. Wouldn't be interesting to test what happens if you blow up skycraper and try 2 rectangular ads?

Are german pages getting valuable clicks (more than other language pages also in my site) but I just have 50% of my site translated? Why don't I focus on developing 100%.

And things like that.

[panos]

You can also use:

Visitor Type Channels: Loyal users, new users

[netmeg]

I have channels defined as ad sizes:

468x60
125x125

and that sort of thing.

I have a lot of sites that have state names in them, so I have a channel for every state.

I have an channels for the overall theme of the site.

I have channels for colors.

I would like to have url channels for everything, but they just plain don't give us enough channels for me to be able to do that, even when I double and triple up.

[silverbytes]

Visitor types? And how could you know that?...

About url channels: is it true that you don't need to add code for those? So you can put all your domain pages to get detailed info on that?

[panos]

Visitor types? And how could you know that?..

I'm using PHP and cookies. The first time somebody visits my site a cookie containing a unique id and a timestamp is created.

With PHP i then check that timestamp.

Pseudocode:

if no cookie detected
visitor is new serve new_channel
endif

else
if now - cookie_timestamp > value
visitor is loyal serve loyal_channel

elseif now - cookie_timestamp <= value
visitor is new serve new_channel
endif

[silverbytes]

Is it allowed to use custom scripts beyond adsense ready to paste code? I'm not sure...

[Content_ed]

I only noticed this week that you can do URL channels for whole directories, not just individual URLs.

At the same time, I'm beginning to suspect that channel URLs can go wrong if you use them for related pages that require different ads. Take the example of pages about red widgets with blue knobs, with green knobs, with brown knobs, etc. We call it the red widget channel. Over the course of time, perhaps years (it's been around that long), there seems to be a lot more advertising of red widgets with green knobs on the pages about blue knobs and brown knobs. I think it's because the green knobbed widgets have the greatest number of page views. But people with blue and brown knobbed widgets usually aren't interested in the green widget ads. I can see where it makes sense from Google's perspective, if they are trying to honor the channel as a logical unit. But who knows.

[panos]

Is it allowed to use custom scripts beyond adsense ready to paste code? I'm not sure...

No it's not.

I'm using PHP to output the adsense code. This doesn't mean that i alter the adsense code.

[silverbytes]

I only noticed this week that you can do URL channels for whole directories, not just individual URLs.

That's incorrect. You can track directories like this mysite/directorie and you can track individual urls like this way: mysite/mypage.html

Another question: about Channels, you can use something like "HorizontalskyToppageRedandwhite" but what if you use 3 different channels like "Horizontalsky" "Redandwhite" "Toppage" all combined into one single ad?

Would that provide useful information to you? I mean you can notice if HorizontalskyToppageRedandwhite works or not.

But would be useful to know if "Toppage" performs in general best than "Bottompage"?

[netmeg]

Another question: about Channels, you can use something like "HorizontalskyToppageRedandwhite" but what if you use 3 different channels like "Horizontalsky" "Redandwhite" "Toppage" all combined into one single ad?

That's exactly how I do it. I might have one channel for the size, one for the state, and one for the theme, or otherwise tell me which of my sites it's on. Three or four channels on one ad.

So then I can write my reports, and get reports on which size ad or link units are doing well, which states are doing well, etc. etc.

However, 200 channels still isn't enough. It still is 200 channels, isn't it?

[Content_ed]

That's incorrect. You can track directories like this mysite/directorie and you can track individual urls like this way: mysite/mypage.html

How is that different from what I said? I was just pointing out that it took me longer than two years to notice it was possible.

BTW, breaking up the channel I mentioned either made a huge difference in ad targetting and click through, or it's one of those Adsense coincidences.

Or maybe, it's proof of the new whining theory:-)

[silverbytes]

My mistake sorry, didn't read correctly.

[Tastatura]

With PHP i then check that timestamp.

Pseudocode:

if no cookie detected
visitor is new serve new_channel
endif

else
if now - cookie_timestamp > value
visitor is loyal serve loyal_channel

elseif now - cookie_timestamp <= value
visitor is new serve new_channel
endif

slightly OT: detecting if visitor to the page/site is new or returning is reallly difficult and above logic will not cut it. What happens if I was at you site, and later emptied my cookies, and afterwards I came back? Or I access your site from different computer? or... but it's entirely different topic

[panos]

Tastatura, you're right, it is difficult to detect with 100% accuracy, but even with 90% accuracy you will be able to observe, study and analyze the behavior of new and returning visitors in order to extract patterns and optimize.

[mslina2002]

keyword channel.

bluewidget_300x250_toppage
redwidget_468x15_botpage

[texguy]

I use custom channels to do split runs of different layouts (like panos, I'm using PHP to serve up the code).

I usually test about 8 layouts at a time, each with minor differences in ad placement. During a test run, I randomly serve up the various layouts, which gives me a nice side-by-side comparison of which layouts perform best.

The layouts themselves are similar enough to each other so as not to be too jarring to a visitor, but the small changes in ad placement seem to help prevent "ad blindness," where the user gets so accustomed to an ad's position that they train themselves to ignore it. So unless one layout absolutely dominates in terms of results, I tend to use the top 3 or 4 layouts once I've determined what the best performers are.

I should add that my particular site only has one main page* with a handful of side pages, so the content itself doesn't vary greatly from page to page. Only the layouts, colors, etc. serve as real variables in my particular case.

(* The main page is a results page with about 32,000 possible sets of data query results)

I also track all 50 states+DC and the 98 largest metro areas, but those channels have proved a bit inconclusive for research purposes. I keep them mainly because they are "targetable" and advertisers may wish to target those metros.

[Content_ed]

OK, this is strange. We have a custom channel for red widgets that includes pages in a few subdirectories. A couple days ago, I created URL channels a couple subdirectories. Today I noticed that the total number of page views in the the red widget custom channel has been reduced by the number of pages views in the subdirectory channels.

I can see the logic of this from a reporting standpoint, so that numbers aren't piled up too much, but it seems odd that they never subtract individual page URL channels from custom channel totals, but do it for subdirectories.

[incrediBILL]

You can also do some GeoIP checking and add a channel to track which country or state your visitor came from. Obviously there are too many countries so I only track the top 10 countries that visit my site.

[OutdoorWebcams]

I'm currently tracking performance based on pageviews.
One channel for the first pageview of the visit, one for the second and so on (stopping at fifteen).

[charlier]

What software do you recommend for analyzing Google adsense stats. I would like something to make charts with spaces for annotations on it from the data files that you can download form Google. I like the idea of using PHP to serve different channels based on visitor criteria but that could generate a lot of data that may be hard to keep track of.

[silverbytes]

I do it pretty mannually with excel. But perhaps you want something more advanced. For starting, a grid with period, ctr and earnings in initial status, then compared with same after optimization, may give you a fair idea of what is happening.

I got some 60% increase in a pair of sites. Hope it lasts!