Google Advertising Tools

Trent Lucier writes "Google depends on new content constantly being added to the web. No Google initiative has done a better job at encouraging new content than the AdSense/AdWords programs. Google Advertising Tools by Harold Davis is a book that teaches you to use these tools effectively." Read the rest of Trent's review.

Google Advertising Tools
author	Harold Davis
pages	353
publisher	O'Reilly
rating	8
reviewer	Trent Lucier
ISBN	0596101082
summary	A guide to using Google's AdWords and AdSense programs, along with some additional advertising strategies.

For those wondering how Google made $6 billion last year without every charging you so much as a penny for all your searching, AdWords and AdSense are a big part of the answer. AdSense is the program that lets webmasters post targeted advertisements on their websites. When a visitor clicks the ad, both the webmaster and Google get some money. AdWords is the other side of the equation. It is the program by which merchants submit their ads and bid on ad rates. Google tries - and generally succeeds - at matching ads with the most relevant websites (that's the "target" in "targeted ads").

I have sympathy for anyone who has to write technical literature. Sometimes, the process can be like living in an M.C. Escher painting where you don't know which part of the stairs should come first. Davis must have felt this way too, since he provides a lot of background information before getting to the goods on Google. Before one can discuss AdSense, search engine optimization should be learned...but before that, driving traffic to a website is useful...but before that, you have to understand what makes riveting content. Perhaps this is why the chapters on AdWords and AdSense don't begin until page 141.

My interest is primarily in AdSense, and this book has some great tips for improving the relevancy of the ads that run on your site.

For example, META keywords always seemed useless to me, tossed into the dustbin of irrelevance by spammers. Davis, however, argues that keywords are worth using if your site doesn't contain a lot of text content. He provides an example of a site that is mostly made of images, and shows how the META keywords appear as the page's description in Google search results. This is good stuff if you run a tool-based site with little text-content and are having trouble teaching Google what your site is about.

Davis spends a lot of time explaining the AdSense and AdWords statistics and screens (the book does get a little pedantic with screenshot after screenshot). The almighty CTR (Click-Through Rate) is one of the most important statistics, representing what proportion of your visitors clicked on ads. I previously had no idea what was a good or bad CTR. Davis says that a good rate is 0.5% to 2% (with the latter being a homerun). "If your CTR is consistently below 0.5%...your traffic is going to waste."

That's a good tip, and it gives readers a concrete way to measure progress.

Webalizer and other tools are also briefly explained in terms of how the information they provide can be used with AdSense. For example, it is important to know the top exit pages for your site, because if users are ready to leave, they are more likely to click an ad.

Click-fraud gets half a page, but I would have liked more information. The section ends with the eyebrow-raising statement: "A recent study shows that less than 6% of all advertisers regard [click fraud] as a problem."

Really? What study was that? I also wondered how click-fraud is usually committed. Davis says that detecting it is primarily a statistical matter.

Non-Google advertising also takes up a large part of the book. In fact, the first 140 pages are almost Google-free. Search engine optimization, driving traffic to your site, affiliate programs... all are discussed at length. The affiliate program section is quite good, although it did have one questionable piece of advice: "You should test that each affiliate link on your site works by buying something and making sure the sales commission shows up when you check the tracking software."
He must be working with some really nice merchants, because this violates practically every terms-of-service agreement that I've seen.

Right before you get to the Google section, Davis devotes an entire chapter to adult sites.

In truth, the adult sites section is informative and practical. If you ever wondered how to privately create an adult site and profit from it, Davis pretty much gives you all the info you need to get started. He even provides links to some real adult sites and tools for hosting content. (One of his tips on obtaining adult content: "Create content yourself." Uh, no thanks.)

But the chapter on adult content leads to the biggest "Huh?" moment in the book: "Although Google will not accept adult-content sites into its AdSense content network, it will accept ads into the AdWords program that direct traffic to adult sites."

Let me get this straight: Google refuses to run ads on adult sites, but it has no problem driving traffic to adult sites via ads? Does this strike anyone else as backwards? Sadly, the book has no further explanation of what the quoted sentence means, or how to use AdSense/AdWords if you are providing borderline adult-content.

The last part of the book describes how to use the AdWords API. For advertisers whose needs are too massive to create individual ads through the AdWords GUI, the API can be used to programmatically interact with the AdWords servers. Examples using C# and PHP are provided.

The book was published in January of 2006, and I found it to be as timely as can be expected from a computer/internet book. A few of the screens look a little different (the AdSense color-scheme chooser has changed), but none of the info seems to be harmfully wrong. Perhaps the biggest sins are those of omission. The AdSense API is not mentioned, and the AdSense Calendar did not make the cut, either. However, as I write this review, these new features are only a few weeks old, so Davis can hardly be blamed.

Overall, Google Advertising Tools is a good book to get if you are an AdSense or AdWords user. There is a little bit of fluff, but keep your eyes open and you'll find some gems. Whether your ads are currently making money or not, this book might pay for itself in short order if you use it wisely.

Trent Lucier is a software engineer. His latest pet project is ChessUp.

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You can purchase Google Advertising Tools from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

To clear up any confusion...

"But the chapter on adult content leads to the biggest "Huh?" moment in the book: "Although Google will not accept adult-content sites into its AdSense content network, it will accept ads into the AdWords program that direct traffic to adult sites."

They won't put adsense ads on porn websites- they specifically state this in their TOS. However, they do not proof the copy of every advertisement in their adwords advertising program, and allow adult sites to advertise their sites through it. Just do a test: google for "fucking" [google.com] and you'll find XXX sites advertising in the sponsored links section to the right of the search results. However no adult sites display Google adsense advertisements.

This isn't the scam book?

My friend was reading an adSense book that consisted, essentially, of "here's how to build a click farming portal that looks like an actual website". The author even said get your old papers & homework from high school if you need "content"

Sex money in, no sex money out

I guess Google's theory is it's not "evil" to take money from adult sites (even in exchange for directing traffic to them), but they'll be darned if they pay money to adult sites.

Hey Neat

I personally found this to be a very good review. Now I know a good way to create chess diagrams online! I've always wondered about that, and now it'll be a cinch. Thanks.

Small typo

For those wondering how Google made $6 billion last year without ever charging you

Click fraud

Does the book address how to budget for a large percentage of your money being wasted by fraud? [businessweek.com]

Click fraud is so rampant at this point, that I wouldn't consider using AdWords until they have a real solution to this.

Hyperbole

> Google depends on new content constantly being added to the web.

This is hyperbole. Google depends on people using their search engine in preference to Live.com or Yahoo! and then rather than clicking on the free results, clicking on the sponsored ones. Google depends on knowing how to get the mix between relevant free and paid for results right. It also in part depends on a netword of websites taking up its AdSense programme and for its AdSense adverts to be more appealing than any internal link or bouncing out of the site.

Sins of omission...?

The book was published in January of 2006, and I found it to be as timely as can be expected from a computer/internet book. A few of the screens look a little different (the AdSense color-scheme chooser has changed), but none of the info seems to be harmfully wrong. Perhaps the biggest sins are those of omission. The AdSense API is not mentioned, and the AdSense Calendar did not make the cut, either. However, as I write this review, these new features are only a few weeks old, so Davis can hardly be blamed.

Being that the book was published in January 2006, as stated, why even mention the fact that it doesn't include features that you yourself admit are only a few weeks old now, in November? Did you expect the author to look into the future and write about features that didn't exist yet? This paragraph seems pretty much like filler to me...

Encouraging CRAP content

Phooey!

No Google initiative has done a better job at encouraging new content than the AdSense/AdWords programs.

Correction: no Google initiate has done a better job at encouraging crap content [led-digest.com] than the AdSense/AdWords programs. And Google doesn't care [led-digest.com] about spammy arbitrage blackhats, either.

It's gotten so bad that using AdSense in a traditional manner actually degrades a site's credibility IMO. Yes, I use it too but more and more discreetly. That = lower CTR but higher professionalism hopefully.

Regarding Adult-content Sites

Let me get this straight: Google refuses to run ads on adult sites, but it has no problem driving traffic to adult sites via ads? Does this strike anyone else as backwards?

Not backwards at all, but not entirely forthright either. We're talking about porn, here... hello-o?!

Lemme 'splain...
No... there is too much.
Lemme sum-up.

AdWords drives traffic based on contextual relevance; not to mention it annoys the heck out of me when I get on these sites; pausing my reading to pop-up a little ad. (keep... mouse... away...)

The contextual relevance part is academic; the adult-content sites will only get clicks from words on similar-content sites. You won't find words like "honey" on a cooking site directing you to "honeybearhouseofpleasure.com" or anything. There is a measure of relevance to the words that get "picked" as ad-links.

As for refusing to put adult-content sites in AdSense, I think that's just good business practice. As a click-generator, you don't want to get involved in what the visitors to adult sites are seeking. (or vice versa) Let them start a new window and Google the URL apart from the adult site.

I mean really, if you owned a business, how would that statistics page look to you? [It appears here we got 7% of traffic from labia-twaddlers.biz; now we know the perversion-ratio in our customer base! Yay!]

(I didn't think so.)

So, to end the confusion once and for all. Google seems to have taken a don't-ask-don't-tell stance on adult-content sites, while still taking advantage of—let's be honest here—a *proven* market. Hypocritical? Maybe. Wise move? I think so.

We're talking about a harmless, self-indulgent market share... unless they show-up on Dateline. [msn.com]

Oh, those kind of tools

I clicked the link in my RSS reader, thinking this article would be about the tools that run Google's advertising department. No dice, it's just another book report, er...review.

Not a bad book

For $20, this book is worth buying. The reviewer was right about the first 140 pages or so; there's alot of general SEO information and other tips that, while not necessarily groundbreaking, are pretty helpful or atleast serve as a reminder of things you might not think of right away when creating a new site. I haven't read the entire book yet so I can't say that it will make you an overnight AdSense millionaire, but for the cost of the book and what I've read so far on content, site optimization, and advertising, it's worth picking up if you're in to this kind of thing.

Experiences with AdSense and Ajax applications?

I'd be interested in hearing real world results that people get with AdSense and advertising, particularly if you have developed a web game. How much do you make from AdSense if you have it on a web game? I know little or nothing about web advertising.

I created an AdSense account just last week, in order to put up some ads on my web-game, called Grand Strategy, which is Risk clone. See here:

http://denizengames.com/grandstrategy/ [denizengames.com]

As it is an Ajax application, I can't make use of AdSense within the game (there are no page refreshes while playing). What advertising alternatives are there for Ajax apps?

book isn't very good

I bought the book based on this review, and it was a complete waste of money. It spends a lot of time on stuff that's totally unrelated to adsense, like an explanation of how to get your web page indexed on search engines. (Duh?) It also spends a lot of space on screenshots of trivial stuff like how to sign up for adsense. (Duh?) Useful information: basically zero. You can learn more just by reading the relevant wikipedia articles and following a few of the links.