Forum Moderators: martinibuster
We appreciate you taking the time to let us know how we can improve the AdSense program.
If there are features you would like to see in AdSense, please tell us about them here.
ASA
The 1% of control we have is the Competitive Ad Filter.
Yeah, even the stupid Competitive Ad Filter filter has not changed in 5 years and is limited to 200 spammers.
As you clearly see, without some feedback this isn't going to work.
So I'd suggest that from the recent posts like this one you make a list of what you understood we asked and post that back (number the suggestions so we can reference them)
Next once we can clarify any misunderstandings or have discussions on what's best and differing viewpoints either settled or left open, ...
Could you then at least give a little bit of an indication of the "chance" it would have to get done and for what reason if it's not likely to work in the end ?
Being constructive works only if you know what is constructive ...
I'm sure all we asked isn't going to come, so if you found anything that will, start perhaps with that. E.g. "We like the idea to be the market place for ads and will allow publishers to set a minimum price for clicks on their accounts per site they have. This is currently planned for 1Q09 but such dates can slip as always." [one can hope ...] Or if not tell us why so we can help suggest ways to remove the objections, to work around the objections so we can attain the common goal without the pitfalls.
Remove the link between gmail/free/personal google activities - and commercial ones such as adsense and adwords.I disagree. I like having one login for all google services.
Let's suggest to make it optional.
Those wanting to have the same account: let them.
Those hating the idea (I'm one of them): please allow us to skip the wizard forever (and please remove that step from logging in, it's a waste of time and bandwidth).
I like my separate account and will contineu to keep it separate till you absolute force me merge it. The moment I'm forced I'll stop using all other GOOG services linked to the google account as I do not want to use the same account as I use for adsense for _anything_ else. nor have I a desire to remain logged in all the time.
But I still get the screen. My AS and AW accounts are the same login but I still get the wizard and when I click on I have already merged it takes me back to login and then back to the wizard again.
Quite annoying really.
As you clearly see, without some feedback this isn't going to work.
ASA, when you first started here at WebmasterWorld you said:
Going forward, you can expect greater involvement from our side,
With respect, I must say it seems that ASA input here has increased only incrementally since the days of the previous ASA. You want our feedback and that's fine, but we would like you to reciprocate. Some of the suggestions put forward here (at your request) have been discussed amongst members here for quite some time and yet even after we are afforded the opportunity to communicate them to you, we find that we still have to operate in a vacuum.
It is totally beyond me why your brilliant developer team can not come up with an easy method to stop advertisements for parked domains. I JUST DON'T GET IT.
For example, I see roughly a dozen domains that lead to [insert small parking provider here], all pointing to the same IP address. Yep. It would even take me just a few minutes to write code that just rejects such ads. Real time. Live.
IF ip_addr(targeturl) = 192.168.1.115 THEN reject_ad
See how easy that was? Really. You don't have to be a genius.
Then I see another parking provider in my filter list, it's [insert biiig parking provider here], who apparently runs two Class-C subnets, i.e. 192.168.0.X and 192.168.2.X - now this is really difficult to block, I understand. But I guess your developers might find a way to block that.
I have never understood why Google accepts such ads in the first place. It must be business reasons. Google earns good money with these ads, and you apparently do not care one bit about user experience.
PLEASE give us a better filter, or (at least) establish some means to block such ads upon submission, BEFORE they even get into the system! (If your team can not do this, then please let us know, so that we know that we do not have to fill in stupid feature request lists any longer.)
[Rant over]
As a hypothetical example:
Let's say a publisher has a site about and sells shoes (which I don't and wouldn't, BTW). The site is only about casual shoes, but keeps showing ads for "tap dancing shoes." Constantly. Daily. That is a HORRIBLE match; everyone loses and the site/publisher might even get trounced/smart-priced for it, having a site that's worthless to advertisers. We need to exclude "tap dancing" or "tap dancing shoes" or "tap dancing lessons" from THAT site.
But that same publisher may have a site about a hobby of theirs, different kinds of dancing - lessons, competitions, etc.: swing, tango, cha-cha, mambo, ballroom dancing, tap dancing. SOME pages on that dancing site will be a fabulous match for tap dancing - including tap dancing shoes - but what if the use of the word "shoes" pulls up ads for tennis shoes? or baby shoes?
Can that happen? You bet it can! And it can not only be funny (like a page about womens clothing showing ads for dog sweaters, or a page about men's_keyword_phrase showing ads for diapers - and BOTH have happened without remedy). That can completely kill revenue and visitor retention.
The algo factor of links in the text on pages vs. anchor text in global site navigation to other pages on sites (they really should be weighted differently altogether, especially for organic search, from a page relevancy perspective) - is weighted so heavily for the navigation links, in the Adsense algorithm, that it's costing publishers, shoppers/consumers/users way too much - and Google as well, for that matter.
[edited by: Marcia at 9:05 am (utc) on May 8, 2008]
What a joke. Why do you even ask? Please stop wasting our time. You will never give your publishers anything that would eliminate GOOGs 99% control over the ads you display on our websites.
The problem is that there's no way to give enough feedback so that it's useful.
I like mixart's suggestion about setting channels, but exact match keyword exclusions are at the very top of my list of feature requests. It should be possible to apply this by site or even at the level of the page. The mismatches I get on one of my sites are frankly embarrassing.
A page about the "Google Dance" showing ads about ballet lessons (triggered by the word "dance") would not be funny or in any way productive. And it sure can be embarrassing for the publisher.
There are some small problems.
It's not possible to define "open SERP in a new window", when I was in an other menu for advanced settings, where there are the options for open in same window, 2 pages, AJAX
I tried several times to bring this search definition back to "open in a new window" but it failed.
some of this is due to poor advertising by AdWords users
I've said this before: If AdSense gave publishers better tools on our end, it would improve the user experience for surfers, and it would improve the ROI for AdWords customers. We're ready, willing and able to put an end to the MFA ads, the irrelevant algo-mismatched ads, and other such things. If AdSense would only give us the tools to do so.
[edited by: Lenni at 11:31 am (utc) on May 8, 2008]
It would be helpful if you'd respond to some of these comments. It at least lets us know you're still listening. As it is now, it seems that you started the thread and walked away. Think PR...
The problem may lie in the fact that publishers sometimes might be likelly to expect that some kind of action will be taken, and that's where the gap is likely to widen.
- Targeting:
a) I'd like to be given a choice between PPC & CPM targeting, I'd like for example to opt out of just CPM.
b) I'd like to be able to set targeting preferences per channel (PPC, CPM, Both)
c) I would like to exclude mydomainname from keywords leading to ads on my site, I've opted to disable targeting on my site, I don't want mydomain name taken off all your keywords, I know it's impossible, I just don't want advertisers circumventing site targeting and selecting my site by domainname, allow them the keyword, but don't land them on my site.
- Bigger Filter (again)
- No Parked domains (again)
- Better communication (again)
- Stop showing Google IPs in the list of domains showing my ads in the allowed sites tab, just include them as allowed or make it a tick box option.
- In the page that opens when you click "Ads By Google" insert links to the same page in English if we want to report or comment on non English sites carrying your ads.
- I keep seeing many non Google Referral ads in my reports with zero next to them although I am 100% sure I have no pages with non Google Referral ads and I don't allow page cache, either clear them off or show me where those ad impressions were made.
- In the overview, remove the top tip and in its place insert last month's earnings, this month to date earnings, this week's earnings and today's EPC, will save you a lot of page views and I know you like efficiency.
- Let there be Graphs and we shalt be grateful.
- Mobile friendly interface
Some folks may have a site that would do just fine (better) with CPM, but also have others that would tank with CPM, due to differences in traffic levels by straight numbers.
Then, a publisher might have one site that can be miserably targeted for snow shoes because it's about night life and partying in the big city (but will show ads because of the word "shoes" on the site), but yet have another site that's all about the outdoors and winter sports, and be showing ads for orthopedic shoes.
Regardless of which scenario, if there were to be site level preferences for broad or exact match ad preferences, a lot of mis-targeting could possibly be eliminated.
- Stop showing Google IPs in the list of domains showing my ads in the allowed sites tab, just include them as allowed
Please don't. I found out that ads served on the Google language tools IP addresses (the online translator) are always completely off-topic (usually about some translation services). I don't want that to affect my Smart Pricing status, so, yes, Google IP addresses are not white-listed.
[edited by: Lenni at 3:27 pm (utc) on May 8, 2008]
- Stop showing Google IPs in the list of domains showing my ads in the allowed sites tab, just include them as allowed or make it a tick box option.
Lenni, you didn't read to the end of the line:
I did. I know you suggested making it optional. However, my message was addressed to ASA. The problem is that Google never makes anything optional. They think all publishers are the same and we all want the same, so they implement stuff in the black-and-white fashion. That's why I suggested, Google, please keep it white. ;-)
[edited by: Lenni at 3:50 pm (utc) on May 8, 2008]
I would like to control the number of ads in an adblock.
I have 3 250x250 blended sitting side by side. I would like to lock the adblocks for 2 ads only, this gives the font size I want and the correct white space for my visitors to comfortably
read the ads. I know the algo chooses but I would prefer to do it myself. I don't want too much inventory but rather have readability. It kind of does it now but I would rather have a constant situation.
[edited by: Khensu at 7:11 pm (utc) on May 8, 2008]
Especially when some of them are apparently in such poor taste (I'm *guessing* that the bad ones that i saw were site targeted) that they surely breach AS ad guidelines anyway, eg about suicide and alcoholism with a strapline about weedkiller.
Help, before I have to turn site targeting off again! %-<
Rgds
Damon
But the new improved search has so many features, it would be to time comnsuming to make one search engine for each channel.
Much better, it seems to make on search engine for my English and one for my German sites and to be able to select the channel independent.
I would like to control the number of ads in an adblock.
Yes....by being able to turn off scroll bars.
Timestamping updates would stop me logging in 3 times an hour in case I just missed an update.
And how about something in the control panel letting you know if you are being smartpriced or it's just your advertisers being stingy? :)
I have a big one for you.
How about GOOG adSense will provide detailed report with all clicks including commission percentage and total earned from each click?
After all similar placement report is available in AdWords.
PS. I'm not totally crazy just a little naive.
[edited by: Januuski at 10:25 pm (utc) on May 9, 2008]
How about GOOG adSense will provide detailed report with all clicks including commission percentage and total earned from each click?
I would like to know how much I'm getting for each click so that I can tell if I'm getting an unusual number of discounted $0.00 clicks. I think that I may be getting some bot or weirdo repeatedly clicking ads today, but it may just be a slew of super low EPC clicks. How can I tell?
