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)