Configuring AdSense for Content

AdSense for content has two types of services: ad units and link units. With ad units, you can select to receive text and image ads, text ads only, or both. Link units display a list of topic links relevant to your site’s content that the viewer can click to view related ads.

Selecting a format

Your first step is to select the format. There are three horizontal formats, three vertical formats, and six square formats to choose from. See the section “Customizing the Appearance” later in this chapter, for format recommendations.

Choosing a color palette

Now it’s time to select a color palette, or you can create your own. Creating your own is simple. If you know the exact six-character hexadecimal color, you can type it in the text box next to the # sign or simply click in the color box and select a color. You can watch the sample ad unit on the left as you scroll over the colors. You also can select from the list of preconfigured AdSense palettes. And you can choose to have multiple palettes rotate.

To use a rotating palette, select Use multiple palettes and then select one to four palettes from the list of AdSense palettes that appears. To select more than one palette, Ctrl-click or Command-click with your mouse. Your selections appear on the left.

Specifying a placeholder

You can choose what to display when no relevant ads are available. These are your choices:

• Show public service ads

• Show non-Google ads from another URL

• Fill space with a solid color

The default behavior is to have Google fill the space with a public service advertisement. You also can choose to fill the space with an image or a Web page.

Tip 

Be sure that images selected for display in the Google AdSense ad unit match in size and dimension.

To fill the ad unit with a static image, type the full URL that points to the image you want displayed. All users see is a pretty picture, but they can’t click it.

Filling the ad unit with a clickable image takes a little more work. You can use the same image, but it must first be placed on a Web page that you host on your site. When you create your Web page, you must do these important things:

• Enclose your image tag <img> in an anchor tag <a href></a> to make your image clickable and act as a link.

• Add target = “_top”.

Here is an example:

 <a href="http://www.mypage.com/myad.html" target="_top"><img src="/books/2/150/1/html/2/http://www.mypage.com/mypic.gif"><a/>

This example displays an image that, when clicked, loads a new Web page containing any content you might think of.

Use absolute URLs when creating your clickable Web page. Absolute URLs are full URLs (http://www.something.com/graphic.gif) rather than partial URLs (/graphic.gif).

Selecting a tracking channel

When you have created channels, you may select a channel from the list by clicking the add link next to the channel name. You also may choose to create a new channel by clicking the Add new channel link below the ad unit. You also may select the Manage channels link to configure your channels for better tracking of your AdSense ad units.

Tip 

You can select up to five custom channels to track performance in areas such as page position.

Click Continue to see the AdSense code that Google creates for you based on your configuration. Copy and paste this code into your Web page in the location where you want the ads to appear.

Adding a link unit

Another way to display AdSense for content is by using the Link unit. These units display topic links rather than display ads. Viewers of your Web site can see several topics related to your site’s content and can click the topic to see ads related to their topic choices.

When you are given the choice between creating an Ad unit or a Link unit, select Link unit when you want your viewers to have the ability to “drill down” and find ads related to a specific topic.

The steps for creating a Link unit are the same as for creating an Ad unit. Select a format from the drop-down list. Then select or create a color scheme, viewing the sample on the left. Finally, choose what to display if there are no relevant ads, and then click Continue to view the code you copy into your Web site’s HTML code.