Today I was chatting with someone that subscribes to ProBlogger via email through the Feedburner RSS to Email service that we offer readers and they mentioned in passing that they see the AdSense ads in the emails that they receive.
At first I was a little taken aback by this. AdSense don’t allow their ads to be sent via email – it has always been in their Terms of Service. I know this because publishers have been asking for it to be allowed for years.
So on getting home just now I’ve checked my inbox in Gmail to see my latest email updates from my sites and sure enough – there are AdSense ads in them.
Here’s how they look on my photography blog’s daily updates:
and another one:
The ads are AdSense for RSS ads that I run in my feeds (and have done for a while). They appear at the bottom of each of my posts when someone is viewing them via RSS – but it also appears that they’re showing up in some emails. I say SOME emails because when I view these same emails in my Apple Mail email client I don’t see the ads – but in my Gmail I do.
The person who told me about this also uses Gmail. I’m yet to test it using any other email client but it could just be that they show in Gmail.
I’m not sure if Google’s Feedburner or AdSense or Gmail teams (or a combination of them) are just testing this temporarily or if it is a permanent thing but as a publisher I’m definitely not disappointed by it – it means more ad impressions!
Have you seen AdSense ads like this in RSS to email subscriptions that you have? If so – what email clients have you seen them in? Just Gmail or are they appearing in other email clients too?
update: It seems AdSense did announce this previously – check out the last paragraph on this post on their blog (thanks to @mvizdos on twitter for the link). Question is – when are they going to let those of us with newsletters add AdSense to our emails!? I’d love that!
I use Gmail, and I can’t say I’ve seen them in any email subscriptions I have.
As a side note Darren, how effective do you think ads in emails are as a strategy?
Perhaps the topic of a future post?
Patrick
veryevolved.com
I have seen these ads in gmail.
Never tried it in other mail clients though.
No, I haven’t seen them in feeds unless you those feeds are compiled by code from another page, instead of being delivered to the clients browser at the time the page is pulled.
Brent Riggs
http://www.brentriggs.com
Darren;
I get your RSS feed and I read it through Outllook and I never see any Ads – Google AdSense or other wise. Is that right?
Ashley
I am new to blogging (last summer) and when I signed up for AdSense they seemed to just be launching AdSense for feeds. I had to migrate my FeedBurner account to Google to accommodate this service. But it was definitely something I signed up for, not something that occurred randomly. Maybe it is automatic for older clients?
As you mention, it always shows up in Gmail but not always in other email programs (campus email, for example).
I love this feature. From my experience they tend to be better paying ads.
*sorry, I meant launching AdSense for email subscriptions*
That’s strange, they aren’t showing in my feedburner email subscriptions. I hope that they are testing the ads out in emails, because you’re right, more ad impressions are definitely a good thing! I hope they show up in my feed soon.
Never seen it before
But it will make adsense a lot of money so I don’t see why they wouldn’t use it
Maybe later I could use it to monetize my aweber subscriptions
No, I have never noticed this on any blogs I subscribe to on email. I wonder if this is an effective ad placement.
Hi, I have seen these ads in gmail.
I think this is a good thing…
Take care,
Monthiel
This is separate but related… I’ve been trying for a week to get banner ads (not Google ones, just a single ad that I specify) to show up at the bottom of my RSS feeds in WordPress.. I have tried every tutorial I can find, and none work correctly. I have even tried posting to message forums and nobody knows the answer.
I know you’re a very busy man… but if you could please spare a minute to tell me what you suggest for including ads in RSS, or a plugin that does it, I would be so grateful.
Thank you!
The newsletter thing sounds intriguing. The CTR has to be terrible for email though. I wish there was a way to track that apart from feed readers. Are you aware of any way to do so?
I see these adds from your post using netnewswire, I have seen them a couple of times in other feeds… And to be honest I wondered how you did it?
I only notice Adsense in RSS feed….I think Google only trust their email client, they dont know what people will do with the adsense in other email client….
This is good news for bloggers. I hope Google will used in other email clients also.
Yes, more revenue for you and others who have huge subscribers. Congrats
Congrats to you Darren, it is what we have expected to see for a long time ago.
So the ads in g-mail are from google or the sender?
And I have not seen any in my yahoo and hotmail adresses
-Stephen
http://more4gamers.blogspot.com
Have you guys notice they link Adsense with Analytics as well. Still in Beta and only some accounts have this function.
You can trick in which page got click, how much you area from each page and many more information.
It is really important I guess.
Sjay
CrazzyCool hacks tricks and Tweaks
Great news, I’ll try adsense for feeds to my feedburner
Ah yes, this would be a nice addition to RSS email feeds. I personally haven’t seen any yet, but am kind of anxious to now.
I am envious that anyone can get ads into their feeds as I can’t this to work in my blogs.
I’m actually quite frustrated by this feature. I added feed flares to my website blog and it shows ads below the feedflares sometimes.. Its very annoying. I already have adsense ads on my blog, now I have this additional ad show up when I didn’t want it there.
So we have no control if these ads show up?
Wow. I might have never noticed if you hadn’t pointed it out. But I checked, and they’re showing up in my emails also. I think it’s great. When I first started running Adsense for Feeds, I wasn’t getting a lot of response. But after tweaking them a little bit, they’re definitely contributing to the bottom line.
Hi Darren, I just want to let you know that you are on my list of most admired bloggers. Keep it up! :)
http://www.millionaireacts.com/289/most-admired-bloggers.html
I just checked my Feedburner e-mail subscription for Ian’s Messy Desk in Gmail and the ad is there.
That would be a shocker. I didn’t expect them to go forward with advertising in e-mails, but if the testing is going thru it’s obviously possible. I wonder if other e-mail providers will find a way to protect their users from the ads especailly since it also would hurt their competition
I guess this has been introduced a while ago, and many have been using it. For most of my subscriptions, which uses Feedburner, I could see these ads in my Google Reader..
I have tried myself adding the feeds, but have failed, even after integrating Feedburner and Adsense account!
Since the launch of AdSense for feeds that I been receiving the ads in hotmail (or live mail) and gmail.
Unfortunately the conversion is really bad, but hey, the more clicks the better!
Google Adsense shows on my Yahoo and Gmail…
To activate adsense for feeds just click on:
Adsense Setup Tab -> Adsense for Feeds
and your on the way ^_^
I’ve just checked the feed on one of my sites and see Kontera ads showing on it… very strange indeed!
Where the eyeballs go, so do the ads.
Darren, it would be great if you could poll your email update readers to see how they feel about the ads. Right now, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not.
I haven’t seen this in my feeds though I have subscribed to use them in adsense admin.
Jon
http://Buzvia.com – Where’s Your Traffic Going?
I;ve never seen these adverts in my feeds using any account I have. Interesting, is it a new thing?
Completely off topic but i just noticed ProBlogger.net now has a Page rank 7!
IMPRESSIVE
I subscribe to you via email, read in gmail, and yes, there are google ads at the bottom of each of your posts in my email window. COOL!
I’ve been seen that for a long time (maybe more than 2 months) but as you say I can only see it in my mail box with the navigator, not with my mail client. I use the mails program for mac and gmail, so it’s the same that you have.
I am glad that they are putting ads in emails now.
More money for all of us!
thank you very much for saring blog
I’ve seen them in Gmail and Yahoo RSS to email subscriptions. They are my own “test” subscriptions that I have set up.
However, I personally set up the adsense for feeds so it wasn’t done automatically.
The only thing I don’t like is that you can’t see the ads that are being shown to each of your subscribers so you don’t know which ones to block.
I receive your Feedburner emails via Yahoo. I also see your Adsense ads in my emails from you.
I added them to my own Feedburner feeds purposefully and have seen an increase in my earnings.
Thanks for blogging. I learn something every day from you!
Ginger
The adsense ads in emails has been there since the day they launched adsense for feeds. I use gmail and have always found them.
I use hotmail and I see them! I wonder what the difference is. Perhaps Google is testing on some accounts and not others.
When Google took over feedburner, they announced the ads portion of that process back then. I’ve been using the ads in my newsletters for some time now.
You can choose to have an ad after every X articles in your feed mail.
You first have to convert your feedburner account to google via a request form they provide. Once they convert, you’re good to go!!
I noticed the ads on PB email feeds in Gmail. Also…THE ENTIRE AD IS CLICKABLE (whitespace and all) not just the title.
Pretty cool!
AL
I never heard back from Darren regarding my question above about how to add banners to your RSS feed, but I see some of you also asked in your comments.
I finally found the answer of scouring all kinds of blogs and forums.
If you’re using WordPress, you can install this plug-in and it will let you add custom ads, graphics, text, whatever you want at the bottom of your RSS feeds. It took less than 5 minutes to set-up from start to finish:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rss-footer/
I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to customize the footer of their RSS.
Yeah. My feedburner is also showing adsense. It’s nice technique to monetize email feeds.
i heard of placing ads in feed burner feed page but ads in emails is new. Lets see if this can be beneficial for publisher or not.
I’m a long time subscriber of your email subscription. And everytime i open your feeds, I always see Adsense ads below your post. Congrats for this new update.