Confusion regarding ad units and channels

each ad unit for each of or just one and different channels?

[TechMan]

Hi,

Let's say I have 3 pages as below:

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

I want to display an image ad on each of the pages.

I create a new image ad unit. Then I create 3 channels for each page namely:

Channel 1
Channel 2
Channel 3

Then I assign this ad unit to these three channels.

Then I copy ad CODE and paste it in each of the pages.

Have I done it right?

Or to track ads on each of the page I need to create three ad units each assigned to a separate channel? Because by using above technique I fail to understand how Google is going to decide which channel to show on which page because the ad CODE is same!

[TechMan]

My main purpose is to track which page is performing better.

[bumpski]

Techman

You want to use URL Channels as opposed to Custom Channels.

As you ad URL channels you do not need to modify your AdSense code. You are really just telling the Adsense servers what pages to accumulate information about in the AdSense database Google maintains for you.

Read more in the AdSense help regarding URL channels and you'll have just what you want.

[TechMan]

Oh ok!

I looked at URL channels. As far as I understood I just need to create ad unit (do not need to assign it to custom channels). And then later add those two URL in URL channels like this:

example.com/page1/
example.com/page2/

And it will automatically start tracking both pages right!?

[vero]

Yes, the URL channels will track how well each page does.

If you put more than one ad unit on a page, and you wanted to track how well each unit did (for example, do the ads on the right side do better than the ads on the left side), then you would create a channel for each unit.

[edited by: encyclo at 2:56 pm (utc) on Aug. 4, 2008]

[TechMan]

Got it!

it's working

thanks

[johnnie]

In my experience, it is best to use URL channels combined with placement channels (eg 'top', 'bottom', 'article', 'nav' etc). If I want to track a certain unit in detail, I can always make a temprary channel for that.

[TechMan]

After entering URL channels yesterday I found the stats shown in report a bit odd.

I entered two URL channels as below:

example.com
example.com/page1

I can see in reports that it is showing impressions of both pages which are different but the clicks seem to be same! I mean as an example here are the stats (these figures are not real)

impress clicks ctr ecpm earning
example.com 100 5 1% $2 $5
example.com/page1 90 4 0.9% $2.2 $5
-------------------------------------------
total 102 5 0.99% $2.5 $5

The total clicks is actually 5 but the addition of clicks of both pages should be 9? What I am saying is the total click 5 is correct but the individual figures should have been something like 2 + 3 = 3 or 4 + 1 = 5!?

Are these channels overlapping? if yes then why?
May be I didn't entered them properly? Then tell me how to do it.

[TechMan]

Figures are messed up so here they are again:

....................impressions¦¦¦clicks¦¦¦ctr¦¦¦ecpm¦¦¦earning
example.com.........100...........5........1%....$2.....$5
example.com/page1...90............4........0.9%..$2.2...$5
---------------------------------------------------------------
total...............102...........5........0.99%.$2.5...$5

[TechMan]

Ok funny thing is when I go into Advanced Reports, it actually show total clicks as 9 i.e. 5 + 4

[bumpski]

OK Techman

To see the stats exclusively for you home page you must enter, for example, www.example.com/index.htm. If you just enter your homepage path or any subdirectory you will see stats for everything in that entire directory tree.

Of course the base URL for your home page / directory will show stats for your entire site. So you may not want to include that in many of your reports.

So you must enter
www.example.com/index.htm
www.example.com/page1.htm
to see data exclusively for each page in a two page website.

Edit and PS
The AdSense terms of service (TOS) bar you from reporting any actual statistics other than total earnings. Relative stats are probably OK, like clicks are up 50%, etc. Just a reminder.

[TechMan]

Ok let me try with example.com/index.php

[TechMan]

One question came into my mind. If some body writes example.com then it shows the default index.php page. So even in this case Adsense would be able to track that it is actually example.com/index.php right!?

By the way the stats above are all fake. Just an example.

[bumpski]

Yes

I believe in essence your server redirects the request to the domain (www.example.com) to your default page (www.example.com/index.htm).

Actually for years, literally, the Adsense stats did not let you define a URL channel exclusive to your home or default page, you were forced to define a custom channel (and code) to document earnings for your home page. Then one day they fixed this problem, really without notifying anyone; poof the stats worked differently. Even today while Adsense is communicating much more with publishers, I do not think they let us know about technical corrections they may have recently made.

I don't keep up with the Adsense javascripts, but they obviously change them frequently. We've never been notified of these changes and their potential side effects and even bugs. Or even their performance impacts on the website, like adding new hinky graphics like shopping carts and scroll tabs, that slow down presentation of ads to our customers.

BUT, I digress!