AdSense have added a new targetable channels feature to their system that allows you to label channels so that advertisers can specifically target them for their ads to appear on.
This takes AdSense to a new level for advertisers as it will enable them to specify where on your pages they want their ads to appear (if you enable it).
Thinking this one through – there are a number of reactions that come to mind (I’m thinking out loud here on the fly):
- The first thing that came to my mind was – who could be bothered. I already have over 100 channels with names that would mean nothing to advertisers and the thought of going through them all and renaming and thinking them through isn’t particularly appealing.
- I also immediately wondered whether this could lead to decrease competition for bidding on ads on ad units that were not quite as prominent (decreased competition means decreased ad value).
- On the flip side this could cause a bidding war on highly visible and sought after ad spots – increasing the cost per click. Smart publishers will probably set up targetable channels for their best ad positions.
- Then I wondered whether advertisers could be bothered with this level of targeting. Although – I suppose AdSense have tested this and found that it is something advertisers want.
- It’ll only really work though if publishers use the channels. I think AdSense have a task in front of them to get this to happen and they’ll need to prove its worth/benefits
Do you think you’ll use them?
There’s a little more information on targetable channels and how to set them up on this help page at AdSense.
This wouldn’t be of much use for for blog networks that have different topics on different URL’s, but for blogs that have different categories and massive amounts of visitors, it would probably be very useful.
For example, our blog is about ‘cosmetic makeovers’ but we are always getting ‘breast related ads’ on our other categories which have no relevance to these ads such as makeup, fashion and hair tips.
It’s very frustrating that the ‘contextual ad system’ fails so badly here.
The adsense channels is IMHO one of the best features of adsense. (esp. If your site has distinct zones which perform differently) If you know of any other ad networks which have mastered this please let me know.
I didn’t really read much into the idea of the targetable custom channels, but I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that the end result is more money in your (& Google’s) pocket. It’s all about the supply & demand economics of the ads in your site.
Hi Darren,
Intresting to read about their new idea,but i was unable to find the “edit radio” button as per their help….any idea hwere is it?
Thx
Ashish
If specific advertisers were clamoring to get onto a particular section of my site, I would be tempted to negotiate with them directly and cut AdSense out of the loop.
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I agree with meg.
that ‘s why I think this set up will work nicely for my site.
but darren… I can’t find the next step as ashish said.
any idea?
If I had to go and create individual channels for different pages of my websites, I’d lose my mind. As Martial Development said, I’d rather just sell ads directly to the advertisers. With that in mind, I agree that Google doesn’t introduce new features for no reason. They must have seen that this is beneficial to all parties involved.
I actually use channels ever since I understood how they worked! lol This new scheme by Google would be something that could help to shake off fears and rumors that adsense is dead.
I have some ads that are pretty productive and others less so. This may be worth experimenting for me on those more successful AdSense ad spots but overall I’m not too sure this will take off. I’m sure Google will leave the feature in there as its something to differentiate themselves from their competitors but I’m not entirely confident many marketters will go for this.
On the other hand, I sometimes have to exclude the domains of certain marketters from appearing on my site because they have absolutely no relevance to the topic at hand. Maybe this will be a way for them to better exclude themselves from unrelated pages.
Remains to be seen.
I don’t think this is available for everyone quite yet. I can’t do this, and although I can reach https://www.google.com/adsense/channel-edit directly, there’s no link to it from the parent page when I log in..
I’m feeling distinctly irritated with Google today (and I’m not normally anti-google). On my blog Home Business Wiz Google is only showing Adsense ads for Google products, even though there is no content on that page related to Adsense. What’s going on? Is this some kind of default that I’m not aware of? Any light that a more experienced Adsense user could throw onto this would be most appreciated.
Im not sure if this would help me much. I have been using channels for a little over a year and the ads are relevant but low paying so I don’t think tagetable ads will make much difference.
I have two pages in my private blog which are highly specialized and would defenetly benefit from it as I am ranking very high in the search engine.
People will not want to advertise on my blog but would be willing to specifically bet in there.
I wish Google would notify users when they come out with new features for Adsense, had it not been for your site I might not have heard about it for awhile.
Thanks,
Terry