Grow your multi-screen audience with Google Play Newsstand

If you have a news, sports, lifestyle, entertainment or other article-based site, target a growing mobile audience with Google Play Newsstand. Google Play Newsstand gives users the opportunity to discover more of the content they love in one place, and enables you to reach users through your own customizable Newsstand edition.

Use Google Play Newsstand Producer to create your edition and deliver your content to more mobile users. This tool allows you to customize the look and feel of your content, add branding, and set up ads and subscription streams for your Newsstand edition. Once your edition is live, share it with your users so they can subscribe and enjoy your content online or offline. Your users can share your content with others and bookmark articles they find relevant and interesting.

It's easy to get started, first sign up for Google Play Newsstand Producer and then create your edition.

We'd love to hear from you, tell us in the comments section below this post about your favorite content distribution strategies.

Posted by Jay Castro - Audience Development Specialist
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Live Google Hangout: Using Google Analytics to build a better gaming app

As smartphone and tablet usage continues to grow, many publishers consider exploring the growing app space. According to Gartner, more than 130 billion apps will be downloaded onto phones and tablets by the end of 2014 and most of them will be free to users*. At the same time, revenue from apps is expected to grow by over 200% in the next 4 years**. We're moving away from a paid apps model to an era of free apps with incremental payments.

In a world where users have lots of choice, understanding user behaviour within your app becomes key to success. Whether you're a budding app developer or you're just beginning to understand the different revenue models used by app developers, our live Hangout on Air can help. Register today for Analytics - It's a Game Changer taking place tomorrow September 17 2014, 10.00 a.m. PDT and learn:

• Why you should be measuring your users behavior; 
• Where to find the data that matters;
• How to measure the differences between highly-engaged and less engaged users; 
• When to use these insights to impact monetization positively.

If you can't join us live, please register anyway and we'll send you the recorded YouTube version by email.

Posted by Ciaran O Herlihy, Industry Manager - Gaming, Google

*Source: Gartner, September 2013
**Source: Gartner, January 2014

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Work with a vendor to improve your mobile user experience

Did you know you can hire a third-party vendor to help you build a multi-screen site? Our certified vendor partners are helping AdSense publishers like you create and optimize mobile sites, giving users a better experience regardless of the device they're using.

If you don't have the time or expertise to build a mobile site, working with one of our certified vendors can be an easy way to ensure that your users have a great mobile experience. These vendors offer a broad range of services for building a mobile site, ranging from simple to highly customizable solutions.

Regardless of the complexity of your site and the resources available to you in-house, there's a vendor to suit your needs. You'll find more information about certified vendors in the Multi-screen guidelines section of our Help Center.

Posted by Wibe van de Vijver - Inside AdSense Team
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Google AdSense answers multi-screen FAQs

We recently opened a new category called Going Multi-Screen in the AdSense Help Forum* where you can post questions and share your experiences about multi-screen optimization. In today�s post, we will summarize the top five FAQs received to date. We hope you find these helpful.

1. Optimizing websites for multiple screens requires resources and commitment. Is it worth my time and investment?
   Yes, going multi-screen is worth your time and investment, although it's not always something you can accomplish in a day. Our research shows benefits to both monetization and user experience. On average, publishers with mobile-optimized sites can have 8% higher RPM and their site traffic grows twice as fast as non-optimized publishers.** Having a mobile-optimized site can also help you to improve time spent on site and bounce rate.
   
   Furthermore, since global advertiser spending on mobile ads is expected to increase by 52% in 2015, you could benefit even more from this trend.***
   
   As Evan Britton, the founder of FamousBirthdays.com, said: The important thing to realize is that growth in the mobile market is all about offering a better experience the potential in the mobile space to grow ad revenue is huge. (find more publisher stories)
2. I'm planning to create a responsive website. How are responsive ad units performing? 
   
   We've found that responsive ad units generally perform better than normal ad units as they work in line with responsive layouts. This helps to improve the experience for your mobile users. We recommend using the smart sizing mode if you're just starting out, but there's also an advanced mode if you're looking to customize ad sizes on a more granular level. You can find code samples for the advanced mode in the Help Center.
3. What are the best practices for mobile site ad placement?
   
   The best ad placement will depend on your own site content and structure, but you can see our recommended placements for mobile sites below. We recommend that publishers use the large mobile banner (320x100) and medium rectangle (300 x250) sizes, which are high performing and fit nicely on your mobile screen.
4. What's the maximum number of ads allowed on mobile pages?
   
   You can place up to three content ad units per page on your mobile sites. This is the same number of ad units allowed on desktop sites. For smaller screens, carefully consider the balance of content and ads so that users can find the information they're looking for. Please avoid showing only ads on your first screen.
5. How can I improve the user experience on my mobile site?
   To check your mobile user experience, try the PageSpeed Insights tool and read the suggestions in the user experience section. For more detailed and technical approaches, we recommend you go through the Web Fundamentals resource on the Google Developers site. You'll learn more about how to deliver your content as quickly as possible, optimize images and videos, and improve the mobile experience for users. If you'd like to see some examples of good mobile site design, check out the white paper, Principles of Mobile Site Design.

Still have questions? Visit the forum and start a conversation with other publishers to learn multi-screen best practices.

* Currently only available in the English, Spanish and Japanese Forums
** Source -  Google internal data, please note that results may vary
*** Source - Global Ad Spending Growth to Double This Year, July 19, 2014 (digital advertising spending includes paid media spending on ads of any format delivered to any internet-connected device, mobile Internet ad spending includes display and search.)

Posted by Maiko Fujita - Multi-Screen Specialist
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Web Fundamentals and Web Starter Kit: Resources for modern web development

In recent years, mobile devices have brought the web to new users and introduced many new device capabilities, screen sizes, input methods, and more. To help publishers and developers navigate this new space, the Google Developers team recently built Web Fundamentals, a useful source for modern best practices aimed at web developers. We�ve also made it even easier to build multi-device experiences with the Beta release of the Web Starter Kit.

Whether you are creating a mobile site yourself or hiring a developer to create one for you, this resource will offer you useful guidelines to get started.

Web Fundamentals' guidelines are intended to be fundamental to the web platform: useful no matter which framework you choose or which browser your users run. The guidelines include a range of useful articles to help you build a site including articles focused on responsive layouts, forms, touch, and performance, just to name a few.

Inside Web Fundamentals you will find a web starter kit - a lightweight kit to help you or a developer get started with creating your mobile-optimized site. This kit is highly useful and includes helpful tools, including a visual style guide, that you can implement on your site.

Keep in mind, this content is pretty technical and is geared more towards web developers.  If you find the content to be too technical, we do offer a list of recommended vendors that can help you build a mobile-optimized site.

Keep an eye on this space moving forward. We will be updating the Web Fundamental guidelines with more content and resources in the future.

Posted by Matt Salisbury,  Multi-Screen Specialist
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This blog post was adapted from content originally posted on the The Chromium blog.

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Responsive web design gives FamousBirthdays.com a mobile advantage

Wondering which web design approach is best for mobile? Evan Britton of FamousBirthdays.com had the same question back in 2012. He looked to Google to help develop a mobile strategy for his website, deciding on responsive web design (RWD) as the best solution for his needs.

Evan chose RWD for a host of reasons, especially as it meant the site would adjust to fit various screen sizes, giving users a positive experience regardless of what device they visited from. Additionally, he liked that RWD is low maintenance once implemented, allowing him and his team to focus on growing the site.

Before implementing RWD, FamousBirthdays.com received around 100,000 mobile visits a month. After implementing a mobile-optimized site, this number grew to over 2 million. Evan believes that �the potential in the mobile space to grow ad revenue is huge�, and attributes this twenty-fold mobile growth to better user experience after implementing RWD. Today, the site employs a team of twelve to manage their fast growth. Evan claims, �without RWD, we would not have been able to grow as quickly.�

Read the full story, and hear from other publishers who have successfully adopted a multi-screen strategy, over in our Help Center.

Elise Thygesen, AdSense Multi-screen Specialist
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Get twice the insights with new Google Analytics integration in the Google Publisher Toolbar

If you�re seeking rich insights and key information on your site�s performance or user behavior, it�s likely you�re already using the Google Publisher Toolbar or Google Analytics. Starting today, access more insights directly from your site pages in just one click, with the integration of Google Analytics in the Google Publisher Toolbar.

In addition to giving you blocking controls and up-to-date information on how your site is performing, the Google Publisher Toolbar now offers more insights on user behavior powered by Google Analytics. Understand your users and shape your audience development strategy with more insights into user demographics and traffic sources. Also, find out which sections of your pages are most popular with your users through In-Page Analytics. As with current information from the Google Publisher Toolbar, you can access this new data directly from your pages when viewing them on Chrome.

Google Analytics is now integrated by default in the Google Publisher Toolbar. More information can be found in our Help Center.

If you�re not yet using the Google Publisher Toolbar, download it today from the Chrome Web Store. As always, we�d love to hear your feedback on this new release. Tell us what you think in the comment section below this post.

Posted by: Araceli Checa, Software Engineer

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Tips to make your content more accessible to users

A combination of offering users the best experience and efficiently monetizing your content is important for the long-term success of your website. With that in mind, here�s some tips to help you to achieve both of these goals:

Content: Is your site content relevant to your users? Ask yourself if the content on your site is well-researched and well-structured. Will it capture and engage your users' attention?

Ad types: When choosing an ad type for your site, consider if it improves the user experience on your site. It's important to be mindful of designs that are prohibited by our AdSense program policies, such as pop-ups and pop-unders, floating or static ads, or any other type of ad that could make it difficult for users to access your content. Where possible, test potential designs with focus groups or an AdSense experiment.

Ad placement: Advertising on your site should provide additional value to your users. Ads should be visible without limiting your site audience's ability to interact with the rest of your content. For instance, if ads are visible above the fold on your site, make sure they're not making it difficult for users to view your content. We may be less likely to display pages with obstructive above the fold advertising in our search results.

Multi-screen: Don't forget to think about the impact of your design and ad placement on the accessibility of content across platforms. Our research indicates that users are increasingly relying on multiple digital touch-points throughout the day.

In addition to the four tips above, check out the Webmaster Quality Help Center for website quality guidelines that have been created specifically for AdSense publishers. You�ll also find insights and tools to help you understand and improve your site on the Google Webmasters website.

Posted by: 

Andrey Lipattsev, Search Quality, Outreach Specialist

Alexey Petrov, AdSense Product Specialist

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Introducing a new multi-screen resource in the AdSense Help Center

Did you know that sites optimized for multiple screen sizes can have an average 15% higher RPM and twice the traffic growth rate of sites that aren�t?*

If you think about how quickly you�ll leave a site where you have to pinch and zoom to find something, it�s not surprising that multi-screen optimized sites are performing better. That same behavior will most often apply to your own users too, so having a multi-screen plan is important to keeping them engaged for longer.

There�s a lot to think about when deciding on your multi-screen strategy. To help you in your decision-making, we�ve created new multi-screen guidelines. They can be found in the AdSense Help Center and cover the following topics:

Multi-Screen Starter Guide

• Why go multi-screen?
• Multi-screen success stories
• What are the common approaches? 
• How to build a multi-screen site
• Getting technical support from a multi-screen vendor

Multi-Screen Implementation Guide

• Monetization tips
• Mobile user experience tips
• Mobile search engine optimization tips

We hope you find these resources useful. Start optimizing your site today to retain and grow user loyalty. We�ll be sharing more resources and success stories in the near future - check back here soon for the latest updates from our Multi-Screen Specialist Team.

* Source:  Google internal data

Posted by Hye In Kim,  Multi-Screen Specialist
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Find out what the world wants to know during the World Cup with Google Trends

As the World Cup launches, content consumption will increase for many websites especially those focused on news and sports. As can be seen from the statistics below, soccer fever is about to take hold:

• The World Cup is the largest, most connected global sporting event. Worldwide, it has more interest on Google Search than the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and the Tour de France combined.*

• In 2010, about 18% of searches for games, players and teams during the World Cup final were made on a mobile device. Compare that with 2014, when 63% of similar searches during a popular UEFA Champions League match were made on mobile. We�re likely to see this trend continue during this year�s World Cup.**
• Looking at a 30-day period this year, more hours of soccer content have been watched on YouTube than were broadcast during the entire 2010 World Cup�over 900 times the amount.***
• In that time, 64.7 million hours of soccer video were watched on YouTube globally.***
• 1.6 billion views of soccer content on YouTube globally.***

Views of Sports Videos on YouTube, April 13�May 13 ***

Source: 

* - Source: Google Data, January 1, 2010�May 14, 2014, Indexed Search Query Volume, Worldwide

** -Source:  https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/2014-world-cup.html 

*** - Source: Google Data, April 13�May 13, 2014, Indexed Video Views, Worldwide

Connect with your users as they enjoy the games, and potentially drive more traffic to your site. With google.com/worldcup, tailor your site�s content with the latest insights and most popular trends as they emerge during the tournament. Here�s some examples of the types of insights you can expect from Google Trends over the coming weeks: 

• Sentiment: Explore how an entire country is feeling, whether optimistic or anxious. Sentiment will be captured across search trends and public Google+ conversations.
  
• World focus: For every match, discover which team is capturing the world's attention in Search. 
• Top questions: Do your users want to know more about a penalty kick? They�re probably not the only ones. Check out trending questions from every competing country before and after kickoff.
• Rising players: Find out the players to watch and how they rank in search compared with their teammates.

Check out google.com/worldcup now and make sure you�ve got the latest information when creating your content. Whether it�s insight on how a country is feeling ahead of a big match, or where fans stand on a referee�s decision. 

Tailor your content to what�s capturing your users interests right now with the latest insights from google.com/worldcup.

Viva La World Cup!

Posted by Chris Jones - Audience Development Specialist

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This blog post was adapted from content originally posted on the Inside Search blog.

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Wire transfer payments now available in more countries

We're excited to announce that wire transfer is now available as a new payment method in a number of countries. The full list of countries is available in our Help Center.  With wire transfer, your earnings are deposited directly into your bank account, offering you a fast, secure, and convenient way to receive AdSense payments. If you�re not already using our new payments system, then wire transfer will become available when your account is transitioned to the new system.

We recommend checking with your bank to learn more about receiving an international wire transfer payment. Ask them what information they need to make sure you�re set up right for wire transfer payments. You can then sign in to your AdSense account and enter the details provided by your bank. Google doesn�t charge a fee to send wire transfer payments, but you should ask your bank about any fees or commissions they may charge for wire transfers.

Payments will be made in your payment currency, which could be USD or EUR, depending on your country. If your bank account is in another currency, your payment will be converted to the currency of your bank account.

If you're ready to start receiving your AdSense payments by wire transfer, please review the details in our Help Center.

Posted by Miki Noda- AdSense Payments Specialist
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Creating new ad units just got easier

Creating new ad units for your site can take time, especially when deciding on their look and style. Save time on this process with the new, simplified My ads tab in your AdSense account. From today, it�s quicker and easier to create new ad units, giving you more time to concentrate on optimizing your ad space.

In addition to simplifying the ad unit creation process, we�ve also refreshed the user interface for this page, making it more intuitive and easier to navigate. When choosing from the various options for your new ad units, we�ll help you in your final decision by highlighting the potential impact of your choices. Once you�ve decided on the best ad style, you can quickly implement this across your entire site rather than having to apply changes on an ad unit level.

Finally, to help enhance the look of ads on your site, we�ve made some changes to the default color palette for our text ads. The URL link will now display in a light gray replacing the green color previously associated with it.

It's important to note that these new features will not cause any changes to the way your existing ads appear on your site. For more information on the ad unit creation process, visit our Help Center. We hope the new My ads page will help make the ad unit creation process a quicker and more impactful experience for you. Share your feedback and suggestions over on our Google+ page.

Posted by Emma Burrows - AdSense Software Engineer
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New ad sizes for Google AdSense

We've heard from both publishers and advertisers that new, larger ad formats provide a great canvas for rich creatives and perform well on many sites. Today, we�re pleased to share two new ad sizes - 970 x 250 Billboard and the 300 x 1050 Portrait - that will help you reach more advertisers while also enhancing user experience and engagement on your site.

As with most of our ad sizes, both of these ad units can accommodate standard text ads in addition to image ads. Additionally, they can show similar-sized image ads when doing so will maximize the performance of your ad unit. In this case, a 300 x 250 ad would serve in the 970 x 250 ad unit and a 160 x 600 would serve in the 300 x 1050 ad unit.

As both of these new sizes are large ad units, you can place a maximum of one per page. As always, remember to keep a balance between your content and ads and ensure your ad placements comply with our AdSense program policies.

We�re always looking for your feedback and suggestions to help us provide you with the ad sizes you need to stay flexible to your advertiser and user needs. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon and share your feedback in the comment section below.

Posted by Alexey Petrov, AdSense Product Specialist
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Score goals with AdSense during the World Cup (part 5 of 5)

Welcome to the final part of our World Cup series. Today we�ll share some AdSense-specific tips and tricks to help grow your revenue potential. We'll cover some old but steadfast recommendations plus more advanced seasonal optimisation tips to help ensure you�re well prepared for the World Cup.

1. Increase ad coverage: Place up to three ad units, plus three link units per page. This can help increase the click rates and views on your site, and potentially boost your earnings. It�s important to remember that a good balance between content and ads is essential. Placing too many ads on a page may cause a high bounce rate and loss in revenue.

2. Use the best performing ad formats: Wider ad formats usually perform better compared to others. Some ad formats also have more advertiser demand. Typically ad formats like the 728x90 Leaderboard, the 336x280 Large rectangle, the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, and the 300x600 Large Skyscraper are the most popular formats among the advertisers and more effective in terms of potentially increasing revenue. During big sporting events, advertisers are often focusing on viral engagement. Enabling expandable ads will help you capture this opportunity.

3. Be careful with blocking controls: Review which ad categories you�re currently blocking and why you�re blocking them. Overblocking can lead to a decline in your earnings potential, especially in times of increased traffic to your site and bigger advertiser spend on categories such as CPG, Auto, Entertainment Food and Beverage and Travel.  

4. Ensure optimal ad position: Choosing the best locations to insert the ads can be challenging.  Use Google Analytics to get a heatmap on where your users are clicking. You�ll also find more new resources on the AdSense Help Center regarding the best performing ad placements for each website category. Recently we have new articles about ad placement specific to sports and travel.

That wraps up our World Cup blog series. We hope you�ve gained some new insights, inspiration and ideas on getting your site ready for the World Cup. Check back here in a two weeks when we�ll be sharing news of a fantastic Google initiative around World Cup insights.

Posted by Marta Lysiak - Inside AdSense Team
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Score goals with Google during the World Cup (part 4 of 5)

Welcome to the fourth part of our World Cup blog series. Today, we�ll take a closer look at reaching your audience across devices. 

Is your website optimized for your mobile users? Throughout the World Cup, fans will be looking for great content, regardless of whether they�re viewing it from a desktop, tablet or mobile device. �In 2013, internet traffic from mobile devices surpassed traffic from desktop, and that figure is continuing to grow�*.

Today, approximately 60%** of online users are now multi screen users. In many instances, this means they�re online on social networks, news sites or mobile messaging apps while also watching TV. During live sporting events, this number grows further. Euro 2012 and the 2012 Olympics were good examples of this trend as illustrated below.

�Source: Smartadserver Blog - London Olympics 2012: The impressive Mobile Infographic� 

With this in mind, think about whether you should be preparing additional mobile-optimized content to share with your users during events like the World Cup, especially during the opening ceremony, key matches and the finals. Looking at how your users digest your content is important. If they receive a link on their smartphone but are unable to view the content because it�s not mobile-optimized, they�ll feel frustrated at the poor experience. On the other hand, If the user is delighted with the content and their first visit to your site is a positive experience, they�ll likely come back again and again. We recently shared some best practices on driving user engagement and loyalty through smart mobile site design - take a look and see if there�s any practices you can apply to your own site. If you haven�t created a mobile-friendly site yet and would like to outsource this, take a look at Google�s recommended vendors.

If you already have a mobile optimized site, don�t forget that you can grow your earnings potential by understanding which mobile ad sizes are most effective for you. Moreover, if you�ve created an app, use Google AdMob to monetise it and grow your earnings.

Check back tomorrow for the final post in our World Cup series, when we�ll be talking about growing your site with Google AdSense.

*Source: Morgan Stanley Research
** Source: GfK, March 2014, US and UK

Posted by Barbara Sarti - Adsense Specialist
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Score goals with Google during the World Cup (part 3 of 5)

Welcome to the third part of our World Cup series. Today, we�ll focus on taking your content viral through social media.

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil won't just be about soccer. It�ll also be about interactions across social media. This event will see millions of people interact and share content on multiple social channels, driving the potential for your content to �go viral�. With this in mind, publishers should think about adapting their editorial coverage around the World Cup to generate audience buzz. Some fun examples could include discussing top ranked players or incredible game moments. 73%* of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. So it�s essential that content on your site is easy to share and that you�ve got a strategy in place for engagement and distribution of content through your social media channels.

Users not only like to read the latest updates regarding the World Cup, but also share interesting content, comment, and interact with other users. Additionally, sports are a leading topic on many social media platforms. Sports audiences often account for some of the most engaged and passionate fans on social media. To engage your audience further, explore using Google+ Sign In  and some of our other Google+ features that will help you take your content viral.

If you�re planning to create specific content for the World Cup, don�t forget to build out a content strategy for your social media channels. Use these channels to spread your content and engagement. For instance, try hashtags and make sure they�re relevant for the season and not just promoting your site or business. Using well established hashtags can help users discover your content faster and can also allow your content to contribute to ongoing discussions. Here�s a couple of examples of some of the most popular hashtags used with World Cup content:

• #worldcup
• #worldcup2014
• #fifa
• #brazil
• #football
• #brazil2014
• #soccer
• #brasil2014

Video is another potential channel for you to create and share unique content on your site. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube**. That's almost an hour for every person in the world. With that much content being consumed, think about using YouTube or Google+ Hangouts On Air to distribute your content and to engage your users. For example, you could create a daily 90 second clip that highlights the best, worst and funniest moments from the various games.

In our fourth blog post tomorrow, we�ll talk about your strategy for reaching users across devices.

* Source - http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/
** Source - http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

Posted by Chris Jones - Audience Development Specialist
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Score goals with Google during the World Cup (part 2 of 5)

Welcome to the second part of our World Cup series. Today, we�ll focus on the creation and promotion of related content ahead of the tournament. 

The World Cup is one of the most searched topics we�ll see in 2014. Other large-scale events such as the US Presidential elections don�t compare. At this time, sports, news, travel and outdoor sites could see an increase in traffic of up to 13%*. Take a look at the graph below which highlights the growth of site visits during last year�s Confederation Cup in Brazil.

Source: comScore 2013

As most World Cup fans will start to search for related information before the tournament begins, now is the time to start sharing relevant and related content with them. When building your content strategy and timelines, think about important dates, specific games and popular keywords. The World Cup audience will search for schedules, results, teams and player information, not to mention the viral entertainment that many advertisers will create. Fans traveling to Brazil might also search for travel and accommodation options, local directions or restaurant recommendations. Regardless of what type of website you have, ask yourself if you�re giving your users the content they need right now.

Stay tuned for the next blog post where we�ll share some best practices on using social media to reach more users.

Posted by Barbara Sarti - Inside AdSense Team
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*Google Internal data

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Score goals with Google during the World Cup (Part 1 of 5)

We�re fast approaching the biggest sporting event of the year and are excited to see which team will triumph. As World Cup fever takes hold, online activities are set to increase and you could potentially reach more users and advertisers as a result. We�ve created a five-part blog series that will run every day this week. The series will focus on how to make the most of this exciting seasonal event. We�ll look closely at how World Cup events can help benefit sports, news and travel sites.However the tips we�ll cover are universal and apply to most sites and sporting events.

To get us into the World Cup spirit, let�s drop by Italy to meet the team behind NapoliSoccer.net and get inspired. Created in 2004 as an online community, NapoliSoccer.net has grown as an online community. The site has even opened a cultural association and started a newspaper over the past few years. �It�s a completely non-profit project� says Sergio Massimo, one of the managers of the website.

�Now NapoliSoccer.net has about 25,000 page views a day and 12 people dedicated to writing content, creating press reports and managing relations with local radio and TV,� Sergio continues.

From 2005, NapoliSoccer began using Google solutions. "The role that AdSense plays is very important� says Sergio �since it allows us to cover more than a half of our costs. Moreover, 70% of our total revenue comes from AdSense."

"We started to use AdSense to secure revenue to cover the costs of our non-profit activities. AdSense was a natural choice that gave us a guarantee to keep our project alive."

Sergio explained that the ads are relevant and that when he doesn�t want to show certain types of ads, he uses the features available in the Ad review center.

"We are using a range of other Google products� Sergio tells us �including Gmail, which is used by all of our copywriters. Fans can also follow us on our YouTube channel and on Google+. And Google Drive is very useful for sharing documents."

Sergio concludes by telling us that his on-going plans for the site include more integration with social media and launching a mobile app.

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow where we�ll take a closer look at content creation and promotion.

Posted by Marta Lysiak - Inside AdSense Team
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Join us for a conversation on the future of digital advertising

Digital is no longer just another marketing channel. It�s a medium that�s changing the art of storytelling and reinventing the way companies connect with consumers.

How will digital advertising evolve next? You�re invited to tune in live as industry leaders tackle the question at DoubleClick�s annual event on digital trends.

Speakers include:

• Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation 
• Nikesh Arora, Chief Business Officer at Google
• Neal Mohan, VP of Display Advertising at Google 

Register now for the live stream 

Wednesday, June 4 

9:30 am PDT - 10:45 am PDT / 12:30 pm EDT - 1:45 pm EDT

Time not convenient? When you register you�ll receive a link to watch the recording on demand.

We hope you can join! 

Here�s footage from last year�s event to give you a taste of the 2014 live stream:

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Our first online course for AdSense publishers is now open

Optimizing AdSense is now in session. Start the course today to access all of the new videos, activities and assessments. The course forum is now open so you can start discussing optimization ideas with other publishers taking the course and find out how to best apply what you learn. Take a quick peek at the course now.

Posted by Courtney Richardson - Optimizing AdSense Team
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Do more with simplified A/B experiments

A/B testing is one of the most effective ways of ensuring your ad units are performing to their full potential. Last year we launched AdSense experiments to make A/B testing easy for your ad units. From today, you�ll be able to optimize your entire account with AdSense experiments, now available for account-level settings.

AdSense experiments let you quickly launch and analyze A/B experiments without you having to make any changes to your ad or page code. Using this feature allows you to configure your ad settings to give you the best possible performance. With account-level A/B testing, you can now also compare the performance of your account-level settings such as general or sensitive category blocking or ad-serving blocks.

If you haven�t already tried AdSense experiments to run A/B tests on your site, give it a try to make sure you�re getting the most out of your account and your ad units. You�ll find more information over on our Help Center. We�re looking forward to hearing your feedback - tell us what you think over on our AdSense+ page.

Posted by Nick Radicevic - AdSense Product Manager
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Unlock new opportunities with magazine ads

Today we�re happy to launch a new display-only format that we call magazine ads. To optimize revenue, we normally recommend that you enable both text and display for your ad units, however we recognize that the type of ads you feature on your site is also influenced by your own style preferences. To that end, we�ve created a new format allowing text advertisers to increase competition on your display-only ad units while maintaining a design aesthetic suitable for display.

If a text advertiser is the winning bidder for your ad unit, their ad will appear in the magazine ad format. This format has been designed with print magazine ads in mind, putting a big emphasis on space and typography and displaying a new look distinctive from our regular text ads. Take a look at the examples below to see how magazine ads will look in your display ad units.

If you currently have display-only enabled ads on your site, magazine ads will automatically be set up for these ad units. If you�d prefer not to show magazine ads, you can disable them through the Enhanced display option in the My ads tab in your account.

For now, when magazine ads are enabled for your display ad units, the Ad Review Center will still show you the original text ad provided by the advertiser and not the the newly-styled magazine ad. Check out our Help Center for more information. We�d love to hear if you�re using magazine ads already -- share your experience and feedback over on the AdSense +page.

Posted by Yuheng Kuang - AdSense Software Engineer
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Learn how to earn money from your website with Optimizing AdSense

Publishers often tell us that they want to learn how to use AdSense but aren�t sure where to start or which resources are right for them. We�re changing that. Join us on May 20th in Optimizing AdSense, our first online course for AdSense publishers. The course puts all of our top optimization resources in one place, helping you understand what drives your revenue and how to make changes right in your account to make the most of your setup.

Each lesson in the course will focus on a specific AdSense topic that can help. By completing Optimizing AdSense, you�ll learn:

• what drives AdSense revenue
• strategies for boosting your RPM
• how to improve your clickthrough rate, ad targeting, and coverage

Watch the lesson videos, follow the step-by-step walkthroughs, and complete the activities to practice what you learn. Also, take advantage of the course forum to connect with other publishers like you to see how they have used the course to earn money for their website. Publishers who complete the final assessment with an 80% or higher can also earn a certificate from the Google AdSense team.

Take the pre-assessment today to find out what to focus on when the course opens on May 20th.



Posted by Courtney Richardson - Optimizing AdSense Team
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Hangout on Air: Perfecting Your Mobile Site Experience

Mobile empowers users to connect with your content at any time and from anywhere. To truly meet the needs of your audience at any moment, you should strive to provide a best-in-class mobile site experience.

But what makes a mobile site great? Watch our panel of experts as they discuss this question and delve into our newest research on mobile site design in this Hangout on Air.

Mobile Site Design Panel

• Moderator: John Sullivan, Director of Search Strategy, Google
• Panelist: Jenny Gove, User Experience Researcher, Google
• Panelist: Manu Lakkur, Product Manager, Google
• Panelist: Luke Starbuck, Director, Mobify

We hope you enjoy the Hangout on Air!

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A new look for text ads on the Google Display Network

Users are consuming more and more web content across screens. Given this shift, we�re updating the design of our text ads to strengthen their performance and make them more consistent and easy to read across devices.

Our new text ads have been designed with better readability in mind, regardless of what device they�re being viewed from. We�ve introduced a new default color palette of blue and grey, making the ads easier to read for the user. We�ve also updated our default font to Roboto, designed for easier readability on mobile devices as well as desktop. With this change, we�ve aligned our text ad font with the web font we use on our Android OS.

160x600 (shown with multiple ads)

We've also made improvements to the ad call-to-action button by making the tap target size and position more user-friendly across devices.

468x60

300x250

Look out for our new text ads and tell us what you think of this redesign over on our AdSense+ page.

Posted by Clyde Li - AdSense Software Engineer
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