Google Launches AdSense Referrals 2.0 – Time to Earn More

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This past March, Dan Friedman announced over at Google AdSense blog that the AdSense team has launched a new referrals beta program. Here I’ll just post a few paragraphs of the original AdSense blog post:

Now, with our new referrals beta, you can select products and services from our base of AdWords advertisers. This is good news for those of you who have wanted to use referrals in the past, but couldn’t find a product to match your site’s content. With the referrals beta, you can search for products that match up directly with your site’s content. And you can customize your referral units to match the look and feel of your site, making it easier than ever to find a referral ad that fits in seamlessly with your site’s design and content.

What’s more, Google can help make sure you find and display the most relevant, best-performing referral ads on your site. Simply provide a few keywords to describe your site and your users’ interests, and you’ll see ads automatically displayed that perform best for your site. No more constant updating, rotating products, or guesswork.

As with our current Google referrals, you’ll generate earnings when your visitors click through to an advertiser’s site and complete an action defined by your advertisers, such as a sale or sign-up. Because these actions are often more involved than a simple click or impression, advertisers pay more for these referrals, which can translate into higher earnings for your site.

Yes, I’m writing about the same PPA (Pay Per Action) program that you may have read about on many blogs in the past couple of months. The good news is that they have finally launched this program to all AdSense publishers.

The key benefits of referrals 2.0

  • Expanded product inventory:
Referrals 2.0 offers products from thousands of AdWords advertisers, so you can find the right ads for your sites.

  • Category and keyword targeting:
The option to refer products by category and keyword. You can narrow down the types of ads you want to display and let AdSense figure out which ones will perform best on your site. Whether you want ads for a specific category, advertiser, or product, referrals 2.0 will give you the control to decide.

  • Ad unit optimization:
The joy of ad unit optimization features for referrals. When you create a new referral ad unit, simply select the Pick best performing ads option. The AdSense system will then compare your selected ads to other relevant ads, and serve the ads it expects to perform best on your site.

  • Better targeting for pages with multiple themes:
With standard contextual targeting, ads may not match up directly with the text around them if there are a number of themes on the page. With referrals, you can select unique “keywords” for each ad unit to narrow the targeting directly to the theme you want. Better targeting means higher earnings for your site.

  • Greater compensation for high-quality traffic:
Since referrals are paid on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, your traffic matters. If the traffic you send to advertisers is more likely to turn into a completed sale or lead, you will earn more with referrals.

  • Add your seal of approval:
Unlike AdSense for content ads, the program policies allow you to make specific references to referral ads on your site. If you endorse the product that you are referring, feel free to let your users know. By adding your personal review of the products you refer, you can help your users make more informed choices.

If these points sound cool, you can head over to your AdSense control panel and check the AdSense Setup tab to see if the Referrals 2.0 is already available. If you don’t see referrals 2.0 right away, please check back in a few days, as the feature will gradually become available in all accounts over the next few weeks.

[tags]AdSense, Google, Referrals 2.0, PPA[/tags]

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