Success stories in google adsense for current publishers

Google AdSense Case Study

Challenge

The Neopets website first launched it in November 1999, and rapidly attracted a passionate following. In June 2005, drawn to the site because of its unique offerings and target audience, Viacom International's MTV Networks – which also runs Nickelodeon and Nick.com – acquired Neopets. Today, Neopets has a membership of more than 30 million virtual pet owners around the world. The online network generates more than 5 billion pageviews per month and is available in English, Japanese, traditional and simplified Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. Although it is primarily a youthoriented network, Neopets reaches a broad demographic, with approximately 40 percent of members under 13 years old, 40% of members 13-17, and 20 percent over 18, and a broad age mix making up the remaining audience – all spending an average of 6 hours per month on Neopets.com. The site offers everything from message boards, games, and shopping to the Neodaq, a fictitious stock market.

Approach

Among Neopets' top priorities is earning revenue on the billions of pageviews it draws every month. Chris Davis, Vice President of Sales, wields several strategies to help Neopets capitalize on its loyal following. Among the most powerful tools is User Initiated Brand Integrated Advertising – activities or games built around advertisers' products and services that help build relationships and generate revenues with Neopets visitors. "User Initiated Brand Integrated advertising is the biggest chunk of our revenue," explains Davis. "But we realized it wasn't taking advantage of all of our pageviews."

To reach more Neopets followers, Davis began investigating contextual advertising options, including Google AdSense. A top priority for any ad program he considered was ensuring that it would deliver ads that were correctly targeted and relevant to the content on the site. Even more important, ads had to express a community feeling and meet or exceed Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requirements. With these goals in mind, Neopets began running Google AdSense ads. Davis and his team began with AdSense on a heavily trafficked page where members go to feed their virtual pets. After a successful initial test, they began running AdSense ads throughout the site.

Results

It was very easy to get started, Davis says, but what impressed him most about AdSense was how appropriate the ads were for his target audience. "We are always extremely careful about advertising on our pages because of the age of most of our members," says Davis. "There have been no inappropriate ads from AdSense – the quality has been excellent. We've also found that the ads are very targeted. AdSense helps us provide useful information for members that engenders loyalty."

From the beginning, AdSense has been a key source of revenue. Davis estimates that AdSense ads on Neopets garner roughly 50 million impressions each day. Davis and his team have since optimized their AdSense campaigns to achieve even better results. They used channels and A/B testing to discover that bolder colors that made ads stand out worked better than blended colors. After making these changes, Neopets doubled both its clickthrough rate and revenue. "It's worth the effort to test and experiment. We've found that our optimization efforts on AdSense have had a substantial positive impact on revenues," says Davis.

By adding site targeting to the AdSense mix, Davis noticed several positive outcomes. Site targeting drew more brand-name advertisers and more rich-media ads that his users respond well to. Even more impressive was a dramatic increase in revenues. "Our overall revenue doubled as a result of site targeting," says Davis. "Now, site targeting accounts for 30 to 40 percent of our AdSense income."

In terms of AdSense features, Davis appreciates the ability to block competitive ads and quickly change ad formats and colors to maximize income. He also likes the excellent service from the Google AdSense team and informative Google blogs that help him work through questions or issues.

"We're pleased with Google as a company, and with the Google AdSense program," says Davis. "Our next step is to experiment with AdSense for search, where we think there's even more revenue potential."usiness."

Success stories in google adsense for new publishers

HomeTips.com nails down big revenue with Google AdSense.

Home advice website HomeTips.com started out in a backyard clubhouse. Seeking a quiet, woodsy spot for writing home improvement books, author Don Vandervort converted the bottom floor of his sons' two-story treehouse into a small office. He launched HomeTips.com from that office in 1997, essentially as an online portfolio to promote his books.

In the decade since, HomeTips has grown into a large and popular site, thanks to the authority Vandervort has developed and the volume of content he has collected and posted from his more than two dozen books, scores of magazine articles, and many television appearances on ABC and HGTV.

Challenge

Until about three years ago, HomeTips' main source of revenue came from writing, publishing, and licensing books and content to other companies, such as Sunset Books and Microsoft. This business expanded significantly after Vandervort moved to larger offices in Glendale, California, and assembled a team of editors, writers, and artists.

Though his book and content business was thriving, the website's meager revenue came from online sales of guides and reports. When a visitor requested one of these, Vandervort would email it to them and trust them to send three dollars. "At that time, I couldn't find a good system for these small transactions," he recalls. "It was an interesting way for us to stay in touch with our visitors' needs, but a money-losing proposition. We needed advertising for the web business to be viable." But the small editorial team was far too busy working at their core business of creating content to develop an advertising program.
Results

In 2003, Vandervort heard about the Google AdSense program and thought it might be helpful for creating incremental revenue that could work for HomeTips. As he notes, "It took about 20 minutes to set it up - and that 20 minutes completely changed our business."

He started by testing AdSense on a few pages. During the first week, he remembers that AdSense revenue paid for coffee; the second week, it paid for lunches. The model clearly worked, so he began expanding the program across the entire site. Now AdSense revenue pays for all salaries, overhead, and business development.

"Google's ability to deliver targeted ads is remarkable," says Vandervort. "In fact, because the ads are so relevant to the content on any given page, we believe that they are a very useful resource for our visitors. This is evidenced by the fact that, on many of our pages, more than 10 percent of our visitors click through to the advertisers for more information," he adds.

HomeTips now sees more than 1 million online visitors each month. "Solid content is the secret to developing a following," says Vandervort. "If you write expert content with your visitor's needs in mind, the rest will follow."

As the business has grown up, so have the sons whose backyard clubhouse Vandervort first commandeered for an office. Now they bring media experience to the business: Gabriel as a former writer/producer of shows for The History Channel and Christian as a cinematographer and film editor. HomeTips anticipates online video to be the next area of growth. "Nothing can show you how to do something as clearly and adeptly as a video," says Vandervort. "As we see the migration of advertising dollars from television to the web, we expect video content and advertising to do very well."

The HomeTips team constantly tests site design, navigation, and ad optimization to improve both the user experience and the success of advertising. Vandervort points out the fact that channel reporting and Google Analytics are a big help in this effort. "These analytics help us zero in on where we're doing the best job and where we need to do more. As a result, our performance just keeps going up."

HomeTips.com nails down big revenue with Google AdSense.Home advice website HomeTips.com started out in a backyard clubhouse. Seeking a quiet, woodsy spot for writing home improvement books, author Don Vandervort converted the bottom floor of his sons' two-story treehouse into a small office. He launched HomeTips.com from that office in 1997, essentially as an online portfolio to promote his books.In the decade since, HomeTips has grown into a large and popular site, thanks to the authority Vandervort has developed and the volume of content he has collected and posted from his more than two dozen books, scores of magazine articles, and many television appearances on ABC and HGTV.ChallengeUntil about three years ago, HomeTips' main source of revenue came from writing, publishing, and licensing books and content to other companies, such as Sunset Books and Microsoft. This business expanded significantly after Vandervort moved to larger offices in Glendale, California, and assembled a team of editors, writers, and artists.Though his book and content business was thriving, the website's meager revenue came from online sales of guides and reports. When a visitor requested one of these, Vandervort would email it to them and trust them to send three dollars. "At that time, I couldn't find a good system for these small transactions," he recalls. "It was an interesting way for us to stay in touch with our visitors' needs, but a money-losing proposition. We needed advertising for the web business to be viable." But the small editorial team was far too busy working at their core business of creating content to develop an advertising program.ResultsIn 2003, Vandervort heard about the Google AdSense program and thought it might be helpful for creating incremental revenue that could work for HomeTips. As he notes, "It took about 20 minutes to set it up - and that 20 minutes completely changed our business."He started by testing AdSense on a few pages. During the first week, he remembers that AdSense revenue paid for coffee; the second week, it paid for lunches. The model clearly worked, so he began expanding the program across the entire site. Now AdSense revenue pays for all salaries, overhead, and business development."Google's ability to deliver targeted ads is remarkable," says Vandervort. "In fact, because the ads are so relevant to the content on any given page, we believe that they are a very useful resource for our visitors. This is evidenced by the fact that, on many of our pages, more than 10 percent of our visitors click through to the advertisers for more information," he adds.HomeTips now sees more than 1 million online visitors each month. "Solid content is the secret to developing a following," says Vandervort. "If you write expert content with your visitor's needs in mind, the rest will follow."As the business has grown up, so have the sons whose backyard clubhouse Vandervort first commandeered for an office. Now they bring media experience to the business: Gabriel as a former writer/producer of shows for The History Channel and Christian as a cinematographer and film editor. HomeTips anticipates online video to be the next area of growth. "Nothing can show you how to do something as clearly and adeptly as a video," says Vandervort. "As we see the migration of advertising dollars from television to the web, we expect video content and advertising to do very well."The HomeTips team constantly tests site design, navigation, and ad optimization to improve both the user experience and the success of advertising. Vandervort points out the fact that channel reporting and Google Analytics are a big help in this effort. "These analytics help us zero in on where we're doing the best job and where we need to do more. As a result, our performance just keeps going up."

Source : https://www.google.com/adsense