AdSense

Google AdSense

What is AdSense?

AdSense is Google's free program that allows web publishers/owners to place relevant ads on their websites and earn money. It allows web publishers/owners to earn money whenever someone clicks on the Google ads displayed on their pages.

Personally, I find AdSense quite easy to deploy but less easy to understand. That is because it is quite easy to get your HTML code for AdSense, plonk it onto your web page(s), and shortly after you will see the ads appear on your page(s).

Just deploying AdSense ads to your site does not mean that they are "optimized" - i.e. earning you the best revenue they can. Revenue stream from ads are significantly affected by the choice in format, size, color as well as their positioning on the pages. And then there is the "challenge" of producing relevant reports to view and track performance of the ads that are running on your site. And this falls significantly into the realm of "channels".

In other words, to really have a good chance of optimizing your revenue stream via the placement of Google ads on your site, there is a quite a few things you need to know. I presume a lot of web publishers using AdSense are like me: impatient and eager to get something on your site with minimal amount of time "wasted" on reading, then letting the ads run with only occasional cursory checks on how they are doing. We all seem to lead such busy lives and we have 10,000 other things to do - so who has time to read through the tons of (helpful) material that Google provides to help us achieve our goals.

While not claiming to be a Google AdSense expert, I have noticed that once in a while, when I make the concerted effort of reading up and following some of Google's suggestions, my revenue from Google AdSense has been known to jump by 300% or more. However, the difficulty is that there is so much still to read and learn and know. And each time I put aside time to do some reading and research, I get sidetracked by the multitute of useful links. And then after hours of reading around and around the same or similar pages, I feel all lost, there is still no clear picture in my head and I give up; leave my ads "unoptimized", and go back to just whistling in the dark for more clicks and revenue.

Hence the purpose of writing this series of Google AdSense articles is to try and provide you (and me) with some coherent, logical, sequential way of doing things so that you don't go through this protracted, tedious, and ineffective ways of doing things.

My Structure of Google Articles

It is very confusing if you are trying to simultaneously juggle setting up an optimized AdSense, trying to learn all the information you need to know, as well as minimizing the time you need to set aside to do all these. Google's steps, help, and tips are all interlinked and while the information is generally very good, it does mean that you are constantly jumping from one hyperlinked information page to another, just trying to find and absorb what you can use now so you can complete your task.

So I am going to structure the sequence of these articles as if you are a newbie:

step-by-step, walk you through the steps from seting up an AdSense (example) to getting the code for your pages. (Note: the steps will be highlight in a yellow box for easy reading.)
I will simultaneously provide the information (that you will most need now) to setup AdSense
A list of references for further reading will be provided at the end of each page. (You can read this at some later date. It will not be necessary for you to read them all now. Similarly, you do not need to jump to all the hyperlinks provided inline on the pages. They are provided for you as extra information and you can come back to read them later.)
At the end of the series, there will be a Summary of the steps (in one place) as a quick refresher.

Don't Rush. Patience will Pay Off.
Your goal is to monetize your site - optimally. Not to waste time. Take the time now to gather some information and tips that will help your income stream rather than hurriedly throwing some Google ads on your pages. Following some of these tips will help you greatly. This has been my own hard-learnt lesson. After months and months of running Google ads, when I finally took the time to get some tips and rearrange some ad placements, my income stream from Google ads tripled.

Joining AdSense and How much does AdSense cost?

Google's AdSense is free to join.

You can use Google's online application form to sign up.

Google will need to approve your application and then will inform you when your Google AdSense account is activated and ready for you to use.

Google now combines one log-in to access multiple product accounts you have with them. For example, if you have a Gmail account and then you acquire an Adsense account, you can log on with just via one log-on.

AdSense Setup Overview

Okay, lets say you have applied and set up an AdSense account and you are now eager to place some Google targeted ads on your web pages. What do you do now?

Getting to AdSense Setup Page - setting up the AdSense 'shell'

To get the AdSense HTML code to put on your pages, you need to set up an AdSense "shell" configuration - what colour you want the ads to be, what size, how many ads, and where you want to place these ads. You don't actually specify the ads themselves. Rather, you are setting up the "shell" so that Google can drive ads into those allocated "shells" that are relevant to the contents of your pages.

Log into your AdSense account.
When Google approves of your application, they would have provided you with a URL to use to log in. Otherwise, you can log in at https://www.google.com/adsense/login/en_GB/
Click AdSense Setup [tab]
On this page, you can choose one of the sub-categories under AdSense.
For now, choose AdSense for Content.
(AdSense for Content is the most widely used of the sub-categories and so I will go through the steps and information you will need to setup the "shell" you will need to be able to have Google ads appear on your pages.)

You can read to the end of this page for a bit more information about the sub-categories under AdSense.

AdSense Sub-Categories

Google offers AdSense in a number of sub-categories - to suit the needs of your site as to where you want to place the ads, whether the Google ads are to appear on standard web pages or mobile sites, etc.

At the time of writing, Google is offering 5 sub-categories of AdSense (click image on right to view fully). It is possible to use more than one of these sub-categories. The current sub-categories are:

AdSense for Content
AdSense for Search
AdSense for Feeds
AdSense for Domains
AdSense for Mobile Content

Click on the thumbnail provided to see the larger image which also contains a short description of each of these AdSense sub-categories.

At the moment, as I am only employing AdSense for Content and AdSense for Search, I will only be writing on these two sub-categories for now. And I will be writing with specific reference to Drupal sites as that is what I currently use the most.

Let's go to the next step: AdSense for Content.

References

Google's What is AdSense page
Google's AdSense Programme Policies - including information on types and number of AdSense ads you can have on each page.

AdSense for Content

"AdSense for Content" are contextual ads (i.e. theyare relevant to the topics on those pages), driven by Google, that are placed on web sites. Almost everyone has seen these types of ads on web pages.

Publishers/owners of sites join Google AdSense program. The "AdSense for Content" is one of 5 sub-products under the AdSense programe. With AdSense for Content, publishers can then decide on various formats for the ads that will appear on their sites (e.g. leaderboard, images only, text only, square boxes, banner sizes, etc.) They will then be given a block of HTML code which they can place in the appropriate locations on their web pages.

AdSense for Content is an easy way to monetize your site(s), is free to join, and easy to implement. Your AdSense account also offers ways and means (e.g. via Channels) of tracking performance of ads placed on your sites and of generating the reports you need to monitor these performances.

In broad terms, Google will pay these web publishers for ad-clicks (whenever a user clicks on these ads).

About Setting up AdSense for Content

After you have logged into your Google AdSense account,

AdSense Setup^[tab]> AdSense for Content

On the AdSense for Content page, it will open, by default, in the "wizard" style of setup. To setup your AdSense "shell" in the "wizard" mode, Google will show a step at a time and you will be going through multiple pages to complete the setup.

Reminder: I am using the word "shell" because you are not setting up the actual ads as in what or who is being advertised specifically. Rather you are setting up space or "shell" so that ad formats that fit your "shell" is made available on your webpages (via HTML code that Google will provide and you can paste onto your pages) and Google will drive the appropriately sized, type, and content-relevant ads into the "shell" that you are going to set up here.

I personally find the "single page" easier to use as you can see all the things you will need to select all on the one page. So,

click the "single page" link.

On this AdSense Setup page, you will have to choose a number of things so that you can specify how the Google ads will appear on your pages. In other words, you will be customizing the look, colour, size, and appearance of an ad "shell" so it fits with the aesthetic scheme of your site.

The things you will be choosing and deciding are:

Choose Ad Type
Choose Ad Format and Colors
More Options
Choose Ad Channels
Save and Get Ad Code

Don't worry if this all sounds a bit over-whelming and a bit confusing at this stage. We will go through these step by step.

Lets start off with step one: Choose Ad Type

References

What is AdSense for Content (source: Google)

Ad Type

AdSense Setup: Choose Ad Type

Summary Checklist of types and number of AdSense ads you can have on each page: AdSense Programme Policies summary

Choosing Ad Type

Google gives you a choice between Ad Unit or Link Unit. If you choose Ad Unit, you can decide if you would like to allow image and text ads (so that Google can either rotate a relevant image or a relevant text ad on the ad space you allocate), or you can specify if you want only image ads or only text ads.
AdSense for Content Ad Types

Difference between Ad Unit and Link Unit

The (clickable) image here shows you a quick visual difference between a Ad Unit and a Link Unit.

Link Units

Apart from the visual difference, a Link Unit displays a list of relevant topics. When users click a topic, they are brought to a page of related ads. In other words, with Link Units, it does not display a specific advertisement from a single advertiser.

You do not get paid if a user click on a topic in the Link Ad. You only get paid if the user later clicks on a specific ad on the resultant page of related ads.

Ad Units will display specific advertisements from specific advertisers - and this can be either in textual form only, as image ads only, or a rotational combination of either whenever a page is viewed.

Q. So why would you use Link Units?
Google says the Link Units are flexible because they "available in a variety of sizes to fit those hard-to-fit places on your site".

Additionally, if you are placing a lot of Google ads on any of your pages (making sure that it will work with your page layout AND will be of benefit to your users), then you might choose to include some link units.

According to Google AdSense policies,:

For AdSense for Content, you can only have a maximum or 3 Ad Links and 3 Link Units per page.
For AdSense for Search, you can only have either 2 AdSense search boxes per page (and no other Google ads) or 1 AdSense search box and 1 Link Unit (and no other Google ads) per page.

Ad Units

You will almost certainly be employing some Ad Units. As you saw above, Ad Units are offered to you in 3 variations - images only, text only, or allow Google to randomly drive either contextual image or text ads into the ad "shells" you set up.

Here is a quick visual example between a TEXT Ad Unit vs. an IMAGE Ad Unit. I am only showing one size/format but Google does offer Ad Units in multiple sizes. (We will come to that later).

The default (and Google recommended) setting for Ad Units is to choose "Text and Image ads".
According to Google, the combination of the image/text ads will is more engaging for your users and will add "interactive content" to your site. Also it will increase competition for your ad space as advertisers will bid for space on your site whenever your site's content is relevant for them. Google also says:

"By choosing to display image ads in addition to text ads, you can help make sure that you'll have all available advertisers bidding to appear on your site. Both text and image ads will compete in the same auction to be displayed on your pages and we'll automatically display the ad(s) that will be most effective for you on your site."
- from Google's Newbie Central - Ad Formats

Make sure that you're using an ad format that supports image ads to take advantage of the full ad inventory for your site.

You will get paid each time a user clicks on an Ad Unit displayed on your web pages.

Choose Ad Type: Ad Unit

For the purposes of this learning, let's choose:
Ad Type = Ad Unit [text and image ads (default)]
choose AdSense Ad Unit as ad type

Then let's proceed to the next step in AdSense setup: Choose Ad Formats and Colors

References

Google's Newbie Central - Ad Formats (source: Google)

Ad Formats and Colors

AdSense Setup: Choose Ad Format and Colors

This is a continuation of AdSense for Content article on how to set up your Google AdSense. By now you would have:
logged in to your AdSense account > AdSense Setup^[tab]> AdSense for Content > single page (link)

and you have chosen Ad Type = Ad Unit [text and image ads (default)]

Optimising Your AdSense

The main reason why people run AdSense ads on their pages is to monetize their sites (i.e. earn some money from having Google ads on their sites). The more users click on the ads you have on your pages, the more money you can earn. So if you are going to place on your pages, you want to know what are the best configuration of ads to run, and where to place them to optimize the number of (ad-)clicks you will get. At the same time, to get more and more visitors to your site, you need good content - no one wants to visit pages that only have ads and more ads. The ads should be a bonus to you (monetizing) AND a bonus to your visitors (they see it and it is relevant enough to them to want to click them).

So before we take another step, here a few things that will be useful for you to know. The color, format (sizing, shape) and placement of your ads will have a significant on how much money you can earn.

Google has done some research on these factors and they provide tips and guide to help you maximize your profitability in using their AdSense program.

Placement - Google Heat Map

Where you place your ads will have a significant impact on the performance. And where you want to place the ads will also help determine what size and/or format you should use.

Based on Google research, the following "heat map" can be used to quickly help you decide where you might want to place your ads. And based on the general layout of your site or pages, you can determine how big and what kinds of ad "shells" (e.g. images vs text ads) you might want to create.

Tips on Ad Placements

With reference to the "heat map" shown, the ads in darker colored areas tend to be more successful, with the lightest areas being least successful.
Use the heat map as a general guide for positioning only. Keep the interests of your users as topmost priority. Consider their likely behavior on different pages and what will be most useful and visible to them.
It is highly recommended that you only do ad insertions and placement AFTER you have your site up and running. In fact, from the perspective of SEO, you should not place ads till you have at least 30 or more completed, live pages. Reasoning: visitors are put off visiting sites that seem to have ads only and nothing of real content to offer them. And once they are put off, they may never come back to your site again. Read more tips about SEO and monetizing your sites.
Tip: Above Fold Line -
generally speaking, ads placed above the fold line are also more successful.
Tip: Bottom of Text Content -
ads placed at bottom of reading text content (e.g. editorial pages) tend to perform pretty well.
Tip: Near Navigational Guides -
ads placed near navigational guides and content rich areas have the most user focus and so ads placed near them also then to do well.
Tip: if you have chosen to setup your AdSense as Ad Type = Image only, or as Image & Text ads, make sure that the ad format you choose will support image ads to take advantage of the full ad inventory for your site.

What are the Ad Formats that will support Image ads?

This here is a list of ad formats that will support image ads:

Leaderboard (728 x 90)
Banner (468 x 60)
Skyscraper (120 x 600)
Square (250 x 250)
small square (200x200)
medium rectangle (300x250)
large rectangle (336x280)
wide skyscraper (160x600)

You can also check out Google's page on AdSense Ad Formats to see the full listing and samples.

So now is the time to have a look at the "heat map", and think about the ads you might want to have on your pages and where they could be - taking into account the layout of your established pages and the interest of your users.

At the time of writing (Jan 2010), Google AdSense policies allows up to 3 Ad Units and 3 Link Units per page.

Summary Checklist of types and number of AdSense ads you can have on each page: AdSense Programme Policies summary

Choosing Your Ad Format

Let's assume that for purposes of this exercise, you have decided you would like to set up an AdSense "shell" with placement, shape, and size approximately as per indicated here:

Have a look at Google's full range of AdSense Ad Formats.

Say, we will go with the Banner size ad format (468x60px)

Choose Ad Formats and Colors > [drop down selection box] > Other - Horizontal > 468 x 60 Banner

And since in the previous step we have selected Ad Type = [text and image ads], this image here shows what the ad might appear like.

Choose Your Ad Color

AdSense Setup^[tab]> AdSense for Content > Choose Ad Formats and Colors > Colors > Palette drop-down selection box

In choosing what colour palettes you want for the ads that appear on your site, Google provides a set of predefined color palettes. You can also create your own color palettes to better match the color theme on your site.

You can create up to 100 of your own customized color palettes.

According to Google's "What Color Palettes Are Most Successful", choosing the right colors will yield "biggest revenue impact for the smallest effort".

The goal of the ads is not to try and trick or confuse your users into thinking that the ads are contents. Rather it is to serve your users by making the ads visible (without being annoying or too glaring) so that they can click on the ones that are of interest to them.

Suggested Color Strategies for AdSense ads from Google

(Source: Google's What Color Palettes Are Most Successful?)

	Inline Ads (within Content)	Ads Next to Content
Ads on Light Background	Blend	Blend or Complement
Ads on Dark Background	Blend, Complement, or Contrast	Contrast or Complement

Tip on Borders
Google says that Ads generally perform better without borders
(source page: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=32614)

Rule of Thumb

Blend - set ad's border and background match identical to page's
(tip: if your page has a white background, you can use Google's predefined "Open Air" color palette)
Complement - use colors that already existing on your site/pages but are not identical to the page background
Contrast - Google only recommends this on pages with dark backgrounds. Google's recommendation is to give your contrasting ad a white border & background, with blue titles.

Further tips on text and hyperlinks:
Google recommends for your ads to use the same colors for the text and hyperlinks within the ads as you are already doing on your pages.

Exceptions to the Rule:

If your pages have a lot of repeat customers, to keep your ads "visible", set up "rotating color palettes". Google allows you to attach 4 color palettes to each ad. These colours will be randomly rotated when the page is visited.

Under AdSense setup, within the color palette drop-down box, select multiple palettes and then hold down the Ctrl key to select up to 4 color palettes for the ad.
If your pages have a lot of content or competing ads, you might want to use stronger or more arresting colors for your ads so that users will see them.

Based on the color information above, either choose a pre-existing color palette that will suit your webpage(s) or create a customized color palette to use.

Choose Fonts, Corner Styles, and More Options

The setup for these options are pretty user-friendly so I won't go into details.

After you have made your selections, we can move on to the next part of the AdSense Setup: Choose Ad Channels.

References

AdSense Ad Formats to see the full listing and samples of Ad Formats (source: Google)
where to place Google ads and heat maps (source: Google)
How do I customise the colour of the ads on my website?(source: Google)
What Color Palettes Are Most Successful (source: Google)

Ad Channels

AdSense Setup: Choose Ad Channels

Linking channel(s) to an AdSense unit is optional. But it would be advisable to do so. Channels are used to track the performance of the ad ("shells") you place on your site. You need to create these channels - called custom channels. You can have up to 5 custom channels to track any one ad. And you can make any custom channel available to advertisers (You can read more on this later: Ad Placement).

But first, it would be worth your while to get an overview of Ad Channels. (This will open in a new window so you don't lose this page.)

AdSense for Content and Channels

To continue with this tutorial where we have chosen AdSense for Content so far, the following image shows the channel types that are available when using AdSense for Content.

As you can see, even though Google allows you to create a great number of channels, you can assign between 1 to 5 channels to each specific ad (whether they are Ad Units or Link Units).

A reminder of the different Ad Types: Ad Units vs Link Units

Choose Ad Channels

As noted in Channels Overview, it might be better to create your channels before you do this AdSense setup. However that is not essential. And you can always create a(nother) channel later and assign it to this (current) ad "shell" or even reassign the ad "shell" to other channel(s).

For purposes of this tutorial, I will assume you either already have some channels you can use or you will be doing a quick new channel from the AdSense for Content setup page that you are already on.

Either choose a channel and click corresponding 'add' link or click the 'Add new Channel' link to create a new channel which will then be assigned to the Adsense "shell" you are creating.

Google recommends precise and consistent naming for your custom channels. Their recommendation is to follow the pattern:
Page+Location+AdFormat+ColorPalette

However you don't have to follow this. You only have to keep in mind that channels are either

for reporting purposes - so you want to name your custom channel so that it fits your tracking performance purpose and you can identify it as such or
for target ad placement by advertisers - so that advertisers (who can see the names of these elected channels) can decide if they want to target their ads to your ad "shells".

You can refresh your memory regarding Custom Channels, including recommended naming patterns (link will open in new page so you don't lose your place on this page).

Name, Save, Get Code

The next step is to name your AdSense "shell" unit, and then click the "Submit and Get Code" button. This will be the code that you will paste into the appropriate position on your page(s).

About Naming your AdSense units

The names of your AdSense units are meant to help you recognize them later and so that you can organize them. (The name will also appear in your code but you can delete that if you like).

Google recommends the following pattern for naming your AdSense units:
mysite_section_location_AFT_size
(AFT stands for "above the fold")
For example:
sports_football_ATF_250X250

Don't worry. AdSense unit names can be changed.

Give your AdSense unit an appropriate, identifiable name.

Click the submit button to get your code.

You can now paste it anywhere on the pages you want Google driven ads to appear.

Done! That's it. You have created your first AdSense ad "shell", and once placed, will start earning you some revenue with every click.

References

How do I create an AdSense unit? (source: Google)
Google's Quick Start Guide - Google's guide on how to start creating AdSense units. (source: Google)

Summary

AdSense for Content - Overview & Summary

Here, I will pull together a quick overview of AdSense for Content and a Summary or checklist of the important tips and info needed for Google's AdSense for Content.

A Visual Overview

Allowed up to 3 Ad Units & 3 Links Units per page (& 3 referral units; & 2 AdSense for Search boxes)

Ad Formats - Summary

You can also refer to full comprehensive Google ad formats.

	Ad Units		Link Units
	as Text Ads	as Image Ads
Leaderboard (728x90)			120x90 (up to 5 links)
Banner (468x80)			120x90_4 (up to 4 links)
Half Banner (234x60)			160x90
Button (125x125)			160x90_4
Skyscraper (120x600)			180x90
Wide Skyscraper (160x600)			180x90_4
Small Rectangle (180x150)			200x90
Vertical Banner (120x240)			200x90_4
Small Square (200x200)			468x15
Square (250x250)			468x15_4
Medium Rectangle (300x250)			728x15
Large Rectangle (336x280)			728x15_4

Supports images - If choosing Ad Type = Image & Text, or Image only - make sure you choose Ad Format that supports images (bolded above)

High performers - identified in blue above

Optimization Tips

Following are tips as per Google recommendations. Use them as guide as they are rules of thumb only.

General

Use Google Heat Map as guide for better placement
No borders is better
Use multiple ad units for:
* pages with long text
* forum/message boards, esp. with threads
* pages where only smaller ad formats will fit (e.g. 125x125 buttons)
ads ATF (above the fold) do better
if also using AdSense for Search, place ads at top and right of search results for added visibility
Fonts and hyperlinks - use the same as that for the rest of your site.

Ad Formats

Wider formats out performs taller counterparts
(Google-)Identified high performers are: Large Rectangle, Medium Rectangle, Wide Skyscraper (blue in table above)
In the identified "high performers", the Wide Skyscraper is not wider than it is tall, and the two rectangles are just marginally wider than they are tall. I suppose from the 2 points above, if you cannot fit any of the 3 "high performers" in a space you would like, then try fitting a wider-than-tall format in, e.g. banner, leaderboard).

Colors

	Inline	Next to Content	Exceptions
Light Background	Blend	Blend/Complement	lots of repeat customers - use (up to 4) rotating color palettes - use Contrast if a lot of competing ads or content
Dark Background	Blend/Complement/Contrast	Contrast/Complement

Channels

can create max. 200 custom channels for AdSense for Content ad; max. 200 custom channels for AdSense for Search
can link up to 5 channels for each ad "shell"
URL channels only for AdSense for Content (not for AdSense for Search)

Suggested Naming Conventions

Both AdSense units names and custom channel names can be changed (URL channel names cannot be changed at the moment as they are directly reflective of URLs - partial, full, domain, etc. They can only be removed or deactivated.)
Changing AdSense unit names will not affect the code. (The unit name is included in the code, but it is a (HTML) comment and can be deleted/changed safely).
Changing custom channel names also will not affect the code. (This is true (as at 2009) for most upgraded AdSense units. In the past, changing channel settings would have affected the code).
However, if you have set up a custom channel as an 'ad placement', changing the channel name can mean you will lose any existing advertiser bids for that channel.
AdSense unit naming convention:
mysite+section+location(placement)+ATF+size
Note: unit names can be change. Units cannot be deleted, only "hidden".
Custom channel naming convention:
page+location+AdFormat+ColorPalette
For example:
HomeTopLeaderSeaside or ArticleRightWideSkycraperOpenAir
Note: channels names can be changed. Channels can be removed (deleted)

AdSense for Search

AdSense for Search and Drupal sites

Google's AdSense programe includes "AdSense for Search" which allows you to create a search feature you can put on your own site. With this, you can also specify that the search results are only from specific sites (e.g. only from your own site(s) as well as from the entire web. This is a doubly useful package as it provides the ability for your visitors to be able to do a search directly from you site(s). Additionally, Google will also serve up relevant ads on the search results page that will give you another change to earn AdSense revenue if/when your visitor clicks on any of these ads.

I personally recommend that you employ AdSense for Search. It has a significant impact on your site's revenues.

How do you make money with AdSense for Search?

Quite apart from any money revenue stream, having a search engine on your site is a benefit to your users. With AdSense for Search, each time a user does a search, they will be taken to a search results page. On that page will be Google driven ads. You earn revenue each time the user clicks on an ad (not on a general search result listing) in the search results page.

Google will place contextually relevant ads on your search results page.

Google used to have (and may still have. Google Help info is not very helpful or clear about this as at Feb 2010) to offer what they called a CSE (Custom Search Engine). That is, Google offered you the ability to create a search engine for your site - which was called a CSE. And if I remember correctly, you can edit it later and change settings.

At the time of writing this side note (Feb 2010), I am not sure if Google still offers the ability to create a CSE, or if they are in some transition stage of trying to integrate the existing CSEs with their newer product, AdSense for Search. I can't find any clear documentation of what is going on at Google and the tutorials and guides they have on CSEs seem to be outdated and no longer applicable.

I would however like to quote an excerpt from one of Google's Help topic:
"If you already have an existing AdSense account, we recommend that you create all of your search engines in AdSense for search and only use the CSE page to access advanced features."
~ from Google's help article "What's the difference between AdSense for search and Custom Search Engine?"

So I will just ignore CSEs all together and only talk about AdSense for Search - as they seem to be right now.

AdSense for Search Programme Policies

(ref: Google AdSense Programme Policies)

Maximum of 2 AdSense for Search boxes per page.
On search results page - can have only 1 search box and/or 1 'link unit'. No other Google ads may appear on the search results page.

Create an AdSense for Search

Log into your AdSense account > AdSense Setup^[tab] > Adsense for Search.

Most of the steps required are pretty self-explanatory so I will just point out a few features that are directly relevant to a Drupal site.

Specify Search Type:

You have 2 choices here; to allow your users to get the results for their search query:
* only from your own site(s) or
* from the entire web.

I would recommend the former. Your users, when they find what they are looking for from your site(s), will stay longer on your site(s). And anyway, in the search results page, if you put in another search box there, they have the ability to choose if they would like to do another web-wide search.

List Selected Sites

Here you can specify one or more sites, pages, sub-domains from which your users will get their search results. This is useful if you have more than one site or have sites you know are likely to be of use to your users.

You can list the following types of URLs (one URL per line):

Individual pages: e.g. www.mysite.com/thispage.html
Entire sites: e.g. www.mysite.com/*
Entire domains: e.g. *.mydomain.com or just mydomain.com
Certain parts of sites: e.g. www.mysite.com/*health* (i.e. search results will only be from pages in your site that has 'health' in their names)

Specify Optional Keywords

What is the purpose of specifying optional keywords?

As I mentioned above, when a user users your AdSense for Search search-box on your site, they get sent to a search results page. On this page will be Google driven ads. Specifying the optional keywords here increases the likelihood that Google will deliver up more ads that are truly relevant to your site's core topics or the topic of your search engine (if you have a different search box in different topical sections of your site). The more relevant the ads are (on the search results page), the more likely your users will find them useful and so will click on them. And it is only when they click on the ads that your earn revenue.

Examples of possible theme-related keywords:

Website Theme	Possible Keywords
jewelry	jewelry, jewelry making, beads, craft
Mac	Apple, Mac, OS X

More Options

Most of the choices you have to make here are quite self-explanatory. I just want to comment on:

To have or not to have Custom Channels
This is optional. But it is a good idea to create a new channel and especially if you have multiple sites, to prefix your channel with some your site name or initials of your site name. That makes it much easier for you to later get reports for the performance of each channels and the ads and search performances related to each site. Custom channels are also great if you are creating multiple search boxes, one for each different section of your site.

Remember to uncheck "Automatically create a new channel" because there seems to be some kind of glitch so that even though you create a new channel yourself, Google creates 2 channels (the automatic one and the one you specified and named). You then end up with 2 channels for the same Search Engine feature which can make your AdSense reports a bit confusing and misleading.

Choose Search Box Options

Here is your opportunity to custom style the search box so that it suits and fits the look of your pages. As you select each radio box, the sample search box will change according so you can preview the look of the box.

Similarly, you can vary the length of the search box in the "Text Box Length". The sample shown will also change accordingly.

The length of the box can be varied later by changing the number in the code which you will get for pasting into your web pages.

Search Results Style

Search Boxes vs Search Results Page

We will be discussing search boxes and search results page. It can be a bit confusing if you don't have a clear picture of the differences and the process.

The page that contains your search box is (not necessarily) the same page where the search results appear. When a user does a search, the results appear in another page. Click on the small image here to get a clearer idea.

You have 3 options for the display of your search results.

Open results in the same window
Open results in a new window
Open results within your own site

In the first 2 options, the visitor actually leaves your site and goes onto Google's site where the results are displayed.

Normally option (3) would be the (personal) favourite option as you have much more control over the look and feel and the visitor does not leave your site.

However with Drupal, that is not quite straight forward (unless you have a Drupal contribution module that will do this for you. But I prefer to have minimal additional installations whenever possible).

Why it is not straight forward to display search results in a Drupal page, within your own site?

To easily display the search results in a designated page on your Drupal site is not easy because:
1) First, you need to create a page in Drupal for the search results to appear (Google will give you the code to put on this page when you finish your adSense for Search configuration. This is not the problem). The URL of that Drupal page will either be an alias (if you have the Pathauto contributed module installed) or will take the form of ".../node/129"
2) Then when search results are generated, Google appends a query string to the end of the name (URL) of your search results file-name. When that happens, Drupal will not recognize that modified file name and will display a "Page Not Found" result. (This is the problem)

So if you have a Drupal site and you don't want to install anymore contributions?

Easy option for Search Results page

You choose either option (1) or (2) .. i.e. for the search results to appear either in the same or a new window. (I prefer the latter as it leaves as the window with your site remains open for the user).

Once you do that, Google still kindly gives you a way to customize the search results page via the ability to include your site logo.

You can either have your logo appear to the left or above the search results. Google tells you what size-dimensions is allowable for each option and the file formats for the logo.

As you can see, the file formats for the logo can be: .jpg, .png, or .gif
If you choose to have a left logo, the maximum logo dimension is 100x100px.
If you choose to have a top logo, the maximum height is 50px (but the width can be much longer, and is not specified by Google).

Obviously you must create or have a suitable logo (image) you can use; upload that and then specify where that logo image is located. What is very good about this is that you can designate a destination URL (e.g. your homepage) so that your visitor can click the logo and return to your site.

Work-around solution: Search Results to appear within your own site

Okay, let's say you are quite determined to have the search results display in your own site (and not have your visitors leave your site). And I applaud you because it is a good thing. Furthermore, if you can create a page within your own site - then you have better control over that page - including adding another search engine on that page (so that your users can easily conduct another search in your search results page) and/or a Link Unit. Which will help with your revenue optimization.

According to Google's Programme Policies, you are allowed to insert maximum of only 1 search box and 1 Link Unit into your search results page.

So how do we do this? Remember that it is no use to create a page for your search results within Drupal.

Create a simple HTML file , name it appropriately (e.g. sitename-search-results.htm).
Because it is not created in Drupal, there will be none of your normal navigations and menus on the page. So, put in your logo at the top which is hyperlinked back to your main page. That way, users can easily return to your (Drupal site's) home page with one click.
Upload the file.
If you have a multi-site Drupal installation, you might want to upload it to:
/sites/all/ folder.
In that case, the URL will be: www.yoursitename.com/sites/all/sitename-search-results.htm
In the "Enter URL where search results will be displayed", you have to enter the complete URL of the (results) page that you just created and uploaded.
Optional, for later: You can edit this results page of yours at any time. You can add images or as alluded to before, later add the allowable 1 search box and 1 Link Unit if you like.

That's basically it for the workaround solution. Now you have a results page that is under your control and that is within your site/domain. When you get the code you need, you can test this out. For now, let's carry on with the remaining steps to create your AdSense for Search.

Enter width of results area:
The default is 800px and usually that will work for most results pages. This is the horizontal width across for the lists of search results.

Google does not allow any width less than 795px.

Select Ad Location

On the search results page, Goggle will automatically serve up relevant ads. Here you specify where you want those Google ads to appear on your results page.

Google recommends "Top and Right" for revenue optimization purposes.

Palette

Unlike AdSense for Content, you cannot have your own customized color palettes here. Google provides you with a set of predefined palettes. You can try each one out and the sample will reflect the changes. Choose the one you think will best suit your site.

These can be changed later if you need to.

Get Search Code

You get to name your search engine just before you finish your configuration and get your required codes. Click the "Submit and Get Code" button and you will be taken to a page with the codes.

If you have selected before that you want the search results to appear within (a page) on your own site, then there will be two snippets of code.

One to be pasted into the pages where you want the search box.
The other is to be pasted into the search results page you created earlier. Paste it where you want the search results to appear.

If you have not selected to have search results to appear within your own site, then only one snippet will be created. That is to be pasted into pages where you want the search box to appear.

Code and Drupal sites

Tip for Drupal sites:
You can use the 'block' modules to help you place your custom Google search box.
Create a block and paste the code in the block. Save.
Then you can place the block in the region you want and configure who is able to see it and on which pages it should appear.

How to edit your AdSense for Search settings

Log into AdSense > AdSense Setup^[tab] > Manage Ads

Locate the AdSense for Search you created, click the "Edit Settings" link.

Each time you change your settings, the code for the search box will probably change. You need to get the new code and re-paste it into the pages with the search boxes.

If you have your own search result page, the code for that is unlikely to change. Double-check anyway.

References

AdSense for Search Help Topics (source: Google)
How can I specify sites for AdSense for search? (source: Google)

Summary

AdSense for Search - Overview & Summary

Here, I will pull together a quick overview of AdSense for Search and a Summary or checklist of the important tips and info needed.

Optimization Tips

Under Header or in Left Navigation bar - making it easy to find.
Keep search box(es) in same location on every page for consistency aid to users.
Maximum allowed - 2 search boxes per page. Recommended on pages with a lot of content - one at top, one at bottom.
If integrating search results page on your site, place another search box on the search results page to help users perform another search.
Ads on search results page - place at top or right of search results for better monetization. Only allowed 1 'link unit' and/or 1 search box on results page.