Customizing referral ads

The odd thing about creating referral ads, to me at least, is that all the
actions for creating the ads are on the same page. When you begin the customization
process for referral ads, you have the ads that you’re selecting
from displayed on the left, but after you select an ad or category of ads, the
customization abilities expand on the right.
When you first open the ad-creation pages, not much appears available for
customization — you only see information boxes on the right side of the page
for Referrals and Categories and Keywords. After you select the products,
keywords, or categories that you want to refer, you begin to see customization
capabilities on the right side of the page — Referrals, Categories and
Keywords, as well as Alternate Ads or Colors. Additionally, a new section
appears under the Advanced Options heading — AdSense Unit Name.
To see how this works, go ahead and select an ad — one of those ads you
tracked down with the techniques spelled out in the previous section.
Selecting an ad brings up the customization section of the AdSense Unit
Wizard, as shown in Figure 12-7.
First things first, choose an ad format. (Ad format selection is the top option
on the customization section of the page.) To view your options, click the
Ad Format drop-down menu — formats listed in black are available, whereas
formats listed in red are unavailable. Feel free to choose any of the available
options you feel suit the space you have available on your Web site.
After you get formatting out of the way, the menu on the right expands with
additional customization options. You see these sections: Referrals (which
list the referral ads you’ve selected), Categories and Keywords (which list the
categories and keywords you’ve selected), and Alternate Ads or Colors.
The Alternate Ads part of the Alternate Ads or Colors option is where you
choose what should show on your site instead of the referral ad in the event
that a particular advertiser reaches its budget limit and its ad can no longer
be shown. You have three options here to select from:
Automatically Choose Fallback Referral Ads: This option leaves any
fallback ads up to AdSense. If your chosen advertiser hits its budget
limit, AdSense substitutes another ad.
Show Non-Google Ads from Another URL: If you’re using more than
one advertising program, you can have Google show ads from that other
program if your chosen advertiser hits its budget limit. (How generous
of Google!)
Fill Space with a Solid Color: Rather than show any additional ads,
AdSense blanks out the ad space you have set aside with a solid color.
The only problem with this option is that as long as your ads are
blocked (because advertisers’ budgets are limited), you have no potential
to make money from this spot that you’ve set aside.
I select the first option for each of my ads. I have yet to see a time when alternate
ads needed to be shown, but I’m sure that it does happen. (I guess I’m
just not picking the most popular ads in the referral program!) If you have
another option or you don’t trust that AdSense will show ads of which you
approve, the other options are just as viable.
As for your colorizing options, remember that these are only available for
text block ads, not text links or graphical ads. To see your options, click the
Advanced Options to expand the Customization menu so it includes a Text
Block Color section and a Custom Channel section. The Text Block Color
option is the very first option that appears under this link.
The options in the Text Block Color section are limited to those included in
the drop-down menu in this block, as shown in Figure 12-8. Choose an option
from the drop-down menu, and a preview of that option appears immediately
below it.
When choosing colors, try to get as close to the color scheme used on your
Web site, but resign yourself to the fact that you just can’t match it perfectly.
Because you can’t, stick with colors that are complementary to your site.
Don’t do something dramatic just to draw attention to the box. If you do,
you end up with a referral box that looks completely out of place and isn’t
aesthetically pleasing, which (believe it or not) could cause your visitors to
avoid clicking the box even if they’re interested in the referral.
Aesthetics, or the appealing look of an ad, are important. If visitors see a small
portion of your site that looks out of place, they’re more likely to avoid it
because humans, by their nature, need harmony. If your referral box is out of
harmony with the rest of your site, it sends a subliminal message to visitors
to avoid it. Don’t let a referral stand out like a sore thumb. Instead, keep the
colors of your referrals similar or complementary to the rest of your site.
One of the last options that you have in the Advanced Options section — and
this has nothing to do with the appearance of the referral ad on your site —
is what channel you want the ad to be tracked with. I talk a lot about using
channels in Chapter 14, but for now, you need to know that channels help
you track ad performance on your pages or even on whole Web sites so that
you can keep track of which ads are generating the most revenue.
If you don’t know how to create a channel yet, don’t worry. You can always
create an ad without one and add the channel later — maybe after reading
Chapter 14. Or, you can click the Add a New Channel button, enter a name
for this channel in the text box that appears, and click OK. Then you have a
channel that you can use to track the referral ad.
The last option in the Advanced Options section allows you to give your ad a
specific name. By default, ads are named according to their size and the date
created, but if you have a bunch of different ads and referrals on your Web
site, keeping track of what’s what might be a little difficult if you leave the
default name in place.
Consider creating a more descriptive name that helps you remember what
the ad is and its purpose. When you see reports — once a week or once a
month, depending on your preference — you can quickly decipher which of
your ads is performing well and which should be removed or replaced. (Not
sure what kind of reports I’m talking about? Check out Chapter 15. You’ll be
glad you did.)
All you have to do is highlight the default text and type the name you want to
use. When the code for the site is generated, the indicator that tags that ad
with the name you’ve created is added automatically to the code.