SUCCESS STORIES SEATGURU FROM ADSENSE

Hobby site SeatGuru.com found a real business with Google AdSense.
Case study : SeatGuru.com : www.seatguru.com

Working on a project that took him repeatedly between San Francisco and Prague, Matt Daimler racked up a lot of air miles. During these long flights, he studied the seat configurations on various models of aircraft to determine which seats are the best, including proximity to such features as video monitors and power ports. Compiling these details inspired him to create a website, www.SeatGuru.com, to share his information. Daimler quickly began to get tips and anecdotes from other frequent fliers who visited the site, which led him to rank seat selections from "very good" to "bad."

Two years since he launched SeatGuru as a hobby, Daimler continues to have a day job. But his sideline has continued to grow: Today the site provides seating diagrams for more than 100 different planes. And it has gotten favorable press mentions in places like Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal. All of this has required Daimler to invest more time – and money – to manage the site.

"Google shows targeted ads reflecting the sorts of information and services SeatGuru visitors want. For a small business like mine, this is the best approach to advertising." Matt Daimler Founder, SeatGuru.com

Approach

After some initial hesitation ("I did not want to put banners or pop-ups on the site," he recalls), Daimler joined several affiliate marketing programs along with an ad network that required him to sell the ads and maintain the advertiser relationships. He quickly learned "it wasn't worth the hassle for the meager return I got." Direct advertising was no easier. When he approached airlines directly for ad support, they said the site was too small.

A friend sent Daimler a customer case study about using Google AdSense,™ which interested him. Among other things, the story described an easy-to-use product that yielded $3,000 a month in ad revenue. "I have a high level of trust in Google," he recalls thinking, and he decided to try it. He calculated that since his page views were about one-third the number of those in the case study he read, he expected to make about one-third the revenue cited in the story. His results were considerably greater.

Initiating AdSense took very little effort, Daimler says, noting that within minutes he implemented AdSense ads on about 90 percent of the site's pages, "where it makes sense to serve ads and monetize traffic."

Results

"Google shows targeted ads reflecting the sorts of information and services SeatGuru visitors want," says Daimler. Ads appeared on the airline seating chart pages for airlinespecific discount fares, business class upgrades, airport parking, and the like. "For a small business like mine, this is the best approach to advertising," he says. "You set it up easily, it automatically serves relevant ads, and it takes very little of my time."

Today Daimler sees about 175,000 unique users and 650,000 page views a month. AdSense ads are his only source of revenue. Not only has SeatGuru attained the original revenue Daimler hoped for, it has exceeded it. As Daimler says, "AdSense really marked the turning point that changed my hobby into a business."

"AdSense really marked the turning point that changed my hobby into a business."

Daimler uses several AdSense features, including channel reporting, to optimize the program's performance on SeatGuru. Channel reporting enables him to track the performance by specific site areas, ad format, ad colors, and more.

Initially, Daimler did not run ads on the home page, assuming they would not be effective until visitors had gone into the site. Using AdSense channels, however, he found quite the opposite: These ads on the home page registered more clickthroughs and greater revenue than did other sections. "Straight away, we saw very high value with channel reporting data," he says.

The AdSense support team also recommended Daimler try the 160 × 600–wide skyscraper ad unit. He converted a portion of the site to run ads in this format and tracked that portion using AdSense channels. Once more, he says, "there was an improvement in both CTR and earnings, so the entire site now uses that format, and has seen the same increases." Now Daimler looks forward to experimenting with channels for colors, position, and ad formats.

Daimler also takes advantage of AdSense features such as the filtering tool, which blocks ads he doesn't want to appear, and the reports, which he says have "very usable information in a great format." Whenever support questions arise, he says, "I always receive a reply within 24 hours. AdSense support has exceeded my service-level expectations."

Today, Daimler engages an accountant to maintain the finances, and SeatGuru.com has become a corporation. "Because I can count on the ad revenue from Google," Daimler says, "I can spend more time developing the site. I feel comfortable investing in it, knowing that it's bringing in money." His advice to others who may be inspired to create a web presence reflecting their interest? "Good content pays! Find your niche, create a good site, and use AdSense to make it worth your while. It's easy to set up, the ads are useful, and your users will like it."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. A broad universe of sites profit from AdSense, with service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management. Google's thousands of advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, including AOL, Ask.com, Lycos, and EarthLink. Visit www.google.com/adsense.

SUCCESS STORIES MEDICAL CODING FROM ADSENSE

Medical Coding.Net found greater clickthrough and conversion with Google.
Case study : Medical Coding.Net : www.medical-coding.net

Entrepreneur Darren Carter, M.D. created a company in 2001 to sell software and other products for medical coding and billing processes, an increasingly important task for medical practices of all kinds. His company, Medical Coding.Net, is today a wholly owned subsidiary of Provistas, Inc., which provides Medicare compliance solutions to hospital and physician-practice clients. Medical Coding.Net receives a qualified professional audience of about 500 unique visitors each day.

Challenge

"Every ad that shows is a complement to my sites, and I'm getting high-quality traffic." Darren Carter, M.D. Entrepreneur

"In my industry, people are out looking for a variety of services and products," says Dr. Carter. In order to grow his e-commerce business, his online marketing strategy now includes Google AdWords to drive traffic to Medical Coding.Net; Froogle to increase visibility and gain customers for his specialty software; and AdSense (AdWords ads on content pages). He intends to leverage this combination of all three Google programs in order to gain traffic, clicks and buyers.

Results

"AdWords sends qualified leads my way," says Dr. Carter. "We get cost-effective visibility that's tied to very specialized keyword searches through our AdWords program.” For those visitors "who don't find what they need from the products on my site,” he adds, "the AdSense program, which enables Google ads on other sites, seems to offer them what they need." says Dr. Carter. He also notes that enabling these "unobtrusive" ads "took only a few minutes to put up. It was very easy to add the code." The ads now appear for nearly 100 percent of the site's pages.

While he was initially concerned that ads on his discussion forums would not be well-targeted due to the dynamic nature of those pages, Dr. Carter says he is "very pleasantly surprised at how well targeted they are. "Every ad that shows is a complement to my site," he says, "and I'm getting high quality traffic." He also takes advantage of ad blocking, noting that even in this highly specialized arena there are enough suitable ads after he blocks direct competitors.

Regarding Froogle, Dr. Carter says, "This free merchant program is a great way to become visible for a specialized product category." He sends an XML feed for Froogle to upload whenever he has new pricing, sales promotions, or new products. "It's incredibly easy way for us to be branded in a big e-commerce channel, and we see customers who would not have found us otherwise."

For all of his efforts, Dr. Carter is seeing a healthy five-figure return on his advertising investment. He also reports that AdSense revenue more than offsets his AdWords expenditure: "In fact, we have reduced our overall ad budget," he says. What's more, he reports a consistent and healthy 3.6 percent clickthrough rate. Overall, Dr. Carter concludes that " All of Google advertising has had a very favorable impact on my business."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES PVRBLOG FROM ADSENSE

PVRBlog.com found a way to cover costs and make a profit with Google AdSense.
Case study : PVRBlog.com : www.pvrblog.com

It's fair to say that Matt Haughey doesn't always start with a business plan. Based in San Francisco, Haughey has been a website developer, designer, and publisher for years, and is an active blogger as well. One of his blog sites, PVRBlog.com, is all about personal video recorders (PVRs), especially the TiVo® brand. Nearly a year ago Haughey began posting messages about this growing consumer electronics category, including notes on TiVo features, shortcuts, new s, reviews, hacks, and PVR industry news.

"I encourage people who can write and have active blogs dedicated to a single subject to support them through AdSense ads. It's definitely lucrative, and you can concentrate on your subject and your site." Matt Haughey Founder, PVRBlog.com

Challenge

Haughey didn't intend for PVRBlog to become a business. But its popularity grew - up to 5,000 people read it every day - and he wondered if there was a way to cover costs for hosting and storage. "If running ads could pay for the site, that would be fantastic," he recalls thinking. But as rule, Haughey and his blogging circle did not like the often irrelevant, obtrusive nature of most online advertising. "I didn't have a clue about how to find decent advertising for the site," he says. Haughey read about the Google AdSense™ program and decided to try it. "It's completely automated, and so it took 5 minutes to set up," he says. "I've hardly touched it since then."

Results

"I can't believe how lucrative AdSense is," Haughey says. "On the very first day it was on, I made twice what it costs me for monthly hosting, storage, and bandwidth overage fees," adding that he's making money because the ads are relevant and readable. "The targeting is perfect for me," he says. Since PVRBlog is about a product, he gets a lot of traffic from searchers. "People are constantly looking for TiVo and PVR products and services. I'm lucky to have a blog that is product focused, because the ads all relate to PVR products and services."

Haughey says the custom color feature to differentiate the ads from the pages is "awesome. It's nice to add color so readers can see them in context on the page."

In his professional role as web creator, Haughey says he now sees the value of AdSense for similar endeavors. "I encourage people who can write and have active blogs dedicated to a single subject to support them through AdSense ads," he says. "It's definitely lucrative, and you can concentrate on your subject and your site." In particular, he feels the program is "really great for bloggers who worry about the wrong kind of commercialism creeping in, because AdSense ads really work in the context of blog pages."

Since launching AdSense on PVRBlog, Haughey has even opted to run AdSense ads on Metafilter, a much larger community blog site he began in 1999. Today, it features half a million posts on some 27,000 subjects. In short, Haughey has become an extreme fan of Google advertising, which he now says "changed everything by offering highly targeted ads that are actually useful."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. A broad universe of sites profit from AdSense, with service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management. Google's thousands of advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, including AOL, Ask.com, Lycos, and EarthLink. Visit www.google.com/adsense.

SUCCESS STORIES TESTMAGIC FROM ADSENSE

TestMagic found a profitable way to grow with Google AdSense.
Case study : TestMagic.com : www.testmagic.com

For years, Erin Billy taught English to non-native speakers, including a three-year stint in Brazil. When he moved to San Francisco in 1997, he continued his passion for teaching through a web-based business, TestMagic.com. Today he offers online and offline classes in San Francisco for those applying to American universities and colleges. He also offers preparation courses and reference guides for high-level tests, including the GMAT, SAT, and GRE.

Approach

After losing money on the website for the first couple of years, Billy says he made a small profit by the third year. Three years after that, he has two full-time employees on the payroll, and contracts with five teachers for classroom training. Now his challenge is to grow the business and make it more profitable. Currently, he gets about 60,000 daily page views from 3,000 unique visitors. To make money from that traffic, he has tried a variety of advertising strategies. "I've tried most of the media types I can think of," he says.

"Getting started was a breeze, and right away, I began to make money." Erin Billy CEO, TestMagic.com

Billy doesn't like subjecting his users to annoying pop-ups and interstitials. He says he "moved up the ladder of affiliate programs," starting with those that are easy to get in, but pay poorly. He managed to move into a more selective affiliate position, but the programs he chose kept a sizable share of revenue, and several didn't pay out for 90 days. Despite the drawbacks, he's maintained several affiliate relationships. He also has a deal with one direct advertiser.

When Billy heard about the Google AdSense™ contextual advertising program through an ASP forum, he recalls thinking, "If Google is doing it, it's worth a try." He tested AdSense by putting the bit of required code onto a few pages of TestMagic. "Getting started was a breeze," he says, "and right away, I began to make money." So he quickly incorporated AdSense on virtually all of the site's pages.

Results

"Good advertising gives people more options, more information," Billy says. "And text ads are my all-around favorites," adding that, "It's great that Google chooses the best combination of relevance and high-paying ads." Now he gets "very impressive" AdSense revenue – about four times what he typically gets from all affiliate programs and ad networks combined. Billy invests this additional income in TestMagic to give his users more of what they want. "I can now afford to outsource some technical and creative work that I previously had to do myself. The ad revenue helps me speed things up."

"I can now afford to outsource some technical and creative work that I previously had to do myself. AdSense revenue helps me speed things up."

Billy takes advantage of two AdSense features in particular. One of them, alternate ads, enables Billy to specify an image or ad server when there are no suitably targeted ads available from Google. (An unexpected effect of using this feature is that he has decreased his use of ad networks, and now uses them primarily to ensure that his ad space is always used effectively.) He also uses the custom color palette to make sure that the ad appearance "fits in with the site overall, because I don't want to alienate my users."

Billy believes that AdSense revenue "has infused small publishers and webmasters like me with cash they could never have had before." And he continues, "I honestly believe that AdSense is helping users in a ‘second wave' of the Internet. It's a great equalizer, enabling people like me with a lot of knowledge and a useful service, but not much financial backing, to build a business that makes money." So when associates ask, Billy's advice is "start using AdSense right away."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. A broad universe of sites profit from AdSense, with service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management. Google's thousands of advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, including AOL, Ask.com, Lycos, and EarthLink. Visit www.google.com/adsense.

SUCCESS STORIES SWAPALEASE FROM ADSENSE

Swapalease.com
Case study : Swapalease.com : www.Swapalease.com

Business

It was among the first companies to handle car lease transfers online, and today Swapalease.com is now one of the largest car lease assumption marketplaces in the world. It receives 300,000 unique visitors monthly and has successfully transferred more than $500 million in automobile leases since its founding in 1999.

"Some people want to get out of their automotive leases without penalties, and some people want to assume short-term leases," explains Swapalease Executive Vice President of Operations Scot Hall. "We match supply with demand by providing a large online classified ad system of leases to be transferred and we handle the logistics of making the lease transfers happen expeditiously."

Approach

"With AdSense, Google takes the work out of selling and delivering ads." Scot Hall Swapalease Executive Vice President of Operations

As an online marketplace, Swapalease discovered early on that search-based advertising using Google AdWords was a great way to drive traffic to the site and help convert customer leads to sales. When the Google AdWords team suggested Hall might substantially augment his revenue with relevant ads from Google AdSense, he was interested.

"Our site follows the 90-10 rule, with 90 percent of traffic landing on 10 percent of the pages," says Hall. "We reasoned that our most visited pages would be a good place to deliver ads that meshed with the site content. And, we welcomed the additional association with the Google brand—it gave us a lot of credibility."

Results

After signing up, AdSense ads immediately comprised of 40 percent of Hall’s online revenue, without requiring a dedicated ad sales staff. "With AdSense, Google takes the work out of selling and delivering ads," says Hall. "Google really takes care of the details." After making only slight adjustments to ad size, format and placement such as ensuring that ads appear "above the fold," Hall was earning 75 to 80 percent of his online revenue from AdSense.

Hall is choosy about how his site appears and says he doesn’t "want to overdo it" when it comes to online advertising. He’s found the right mix of quality, relevant ads using AdSense, and makes smart choices about where he delivers them. Hall also appreciates the ability to block competitors’ ads to maintain the Swapalease brand and keep customers loyal. "The right partners advertise on our site," says Hall. "This helps ensure that AdSense ads are useful to visitors, and that nothing detracts from our business success."

As a next step, Hall has signed up to display video ads from Google AdSense, and he’s looking forward to the possibilities. "When Google comes out with something new and exciting, you know it’s important to take notice," says Hall. "That’s how we feel about video ads, and about Google in general."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES APARTMENTRATINGS FROM ADSENSE

ApartmentRatings.com
Case study : ApartmentRatings.com : www.apartmentratings.com

Business

Jeremy and Katie Bencken were fed up with the driving, bother and rushed decisions associated with finding rental housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and decided to do something about it. In 2000, they started ApartmentRatings.com, a site for apartment hunters to obtain information such as peer reviews in order to make informed rental decisions. What started as a sideline for the couple has grown into the largest independent apartment-hunting site on the web, with 560,000 pages and traffic comparable to larger, commercially-funded sites for rental housing. Today, the company is located in Austin, Texas, and the site reaches approximately 30 percent of apartment hunters nationwide. Site users praise ApartmentRatings. com as a "brilliant resource," saving grief for a countless number of users in the process of apartment hunting.

Approach

"Google serves up very relevant ads. The content matching is impressive, which makes the ads helpful for our visitors." Jeremy Bencken Co-founder

Advertising is the company's exclusive source of income; however, the Benckens face several challenges in selling ads. With a staff of five, they don't have a large pool of resources to sell directly to advertisers. To remain unbiased, the Benckens don't accept ads from apartment complexes and instead rely on movers, renter's insurance providers, and roommate locators to fill their inventory. To add to the challenge, the rental housing market is highly localized, yet the Benckens note that it can be difficult and time-consuming to find and recruit advertisers in smaller markets.

"We were in a 'Catch 22' situation," recalls Jeremy Bencken. "We weren't big enough to have a sales force dedicated to selling ads, but we couldn't become big unless we sold advertising." In 2003, the Benckens learned about Google AdSense contextual advertising and realized that it could "move them along the growth curve."

Results

The Benckens are now running AdSense ads across virtually all of ApartmentRatings.com, their blog, OhMyApartment, their forums, ThinWallsTalk, and their classifieds, Apartments-and-Rentals.com. Jeremy is pleased that advertisers come from across the U.S., including smaller metropolitan areas. He notes that AdSense complements his use of other Google products such as Google AdWords campaigns that drive traffic to his site, and Google Sitemaps, which make the newest content on the site available on Google search.

Besides being pleased with the revenue he's generating from AdSense, Bencken notes that "Google serves up very relevant ads. The content matching is impressive, which makes the ads helpful for our visitors."

After gaining experience with AdSense, Jeremy further improved his results by making adjustments to ad placement and size. He uses 300 x 250 medium rectangles containing four ads each and 160 x 600 wide skyscrapers – both with colors that blend well with the site. He also places ads at the end of apartment reviews to enhance the user experience by giving visitors a useful next step once they've finished perusing a review. With just these minor ad format and ad placement changes, he was able to improve his CPM by 45 percent and his clickthrough rate by 91 percent without disrupting the user experience.

AdSense also helps the Benckens adjust to seasonal fluctuations in advertising demand. During summer, call for rental properties is at its peak, and advertisers tend to less aggressively promote their services. Other times of the year, advertisers are hungry. "AdSense is flexible and adjusts to whatever the market is doing, without us having to intervene by raising and lowering prices, which can be difficult," says Jeremy. In addition to AdSense, the Benckens rely on Google business tools such as Google Sitemaps*** and Google Analytics to increase visibility of new site content in Google search results and to gain valuable insight into their site's audience.

Since they started the company, the most important lesson the Benckens have learned is that real estate requires a local focus. Concludes Jeremy, "AdSense does the work for us and has allowed us to tap 100 percent of our market, since we can reach both small and large metropolitan areas, versus serving only a few big advertisers. AdSense has made a tremendous difference in our business."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES TEACHNOLOGY FROM ADSENSE

TeAch-nology
Case study : TeAch-nology.com : www.teachnology.com

Business

TeAch-nology offers services and resources designed to support educators who want to effectively incorporate technology into their classrooms. The company provides a reservoir of online resources and delivers effective tools for designing instruction. At TeAch-nology.com, educators can find best practices information, as well as a variety of free classroom materials and support tools. A seasoned team, including pre-K to K-12 grade teachers, professors of higher education, leading educational consultants, small business consultants and experienced web designers, maintains TeAch-nology.com.

There’s no charge for accessing many of the resources found on TeAch-nology.com. Educators who want more in-depth content and resources can purchase memberships for a modest annual fee.

Approach

"The quality of the AdSense ads is superb. It's almost as if a specialist hand-picked ads for every page. The ads match our content so perfectly, it's amazing" Paul McKee Founder

Founder Paul McKee explains that he can offer the site as a free service due to advertising campaigns and sponsorships. For several years, TeAch-nology has relied on Google AdWords search-based advertising to help drive traffic to the site and encourage membership sales. The site now receives 3 million page views each month. "AdWords provides an unbeatable return on investment for us," says McKee.

McKee started investigating other ways to increase his income. He saw TeAch-nology’s ads showing up on other relevant education sites, and was impressed with how well his ads matched the content. "When we saw how relevant our ads were to users on other education sites, we decided to investigate use of contextual advertising ourselves on TeAch-nology," says McKee. In the fall of 2006, TeAch-nology began running Google AdSense ads throughout the site.

Results

It was easy to implement AdSense, McKee says, but what impressed him most was the relevance of the ads his users now see. "The quality of the AdSense ads is superb," says McKee. "It’s almost as if a specialist hand-picked ads for every page. The ads match our content so perfectly, it’s amazing."

In terms of revenue, McKee notes that AdSense ads outperform other forms of contextual advertising by 8 to 9 times. He notes that he’s "extremely satisfied" with AdSense, which now accounts for 50 percent of company revenue. Equally important, McKee says that filling his ad space through AdSense frees up efforts to sell memberships, another key source of revenue. "We don’t have a full-time ad sales team," McKee observes. "AdSense takes care of itself, allowing us to focus on running our business."

In all, McKee believes he’s found a powerful tool to make the most of the educational site he runs. "It’s vital to us to be able to continue offering a wealth of resources to educators at no charge," he says. "Without revenues from AdSense, that goal would be difficult if not impossible to achieve."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES AUTOMOTIVEFORUMS FROM ADSENSE

AutomotiveForums.com
Case study : AutomotiveForums.com : www.automotiveforums.com

Business

In November of 2000, when he was just 14 years old, Igor Sushko founded AutomotiveForums.com because of his enthusiasm for cars and desire to spread knowledge to others. Today, the site receives about 950,000 unique visitors each month on more than 1,000 forums. There, car buffs can discuss virtually any car make and with more than 150 expert moderators and thousands of other enthusiasts. Membership growth has maintained its steady pace and is nearing 500,000 worldwide.

Approach
"AdSense is a win-win for all entities. It adds value to my website, and not just from a revenue standpoint. The ads are also useful for visitors."

Igor Sushko
Founder

To maximize the value of his site, Sushko wanted to build revenue by running relevant advertising throughout AutomotiveForums.com. But more important, he wanted to maintain a feeling of community on the site’s pages. He needed to ensure that ads were correctly targeted and therefore relevant to the content on his site. "Psychologically, the people who visit AutomotiveForums.com are part of a community," explains Sushko. "They get offended when things change unexpectedly, or when they feel they’re being spammed."

Based on Google’s brand, reputation and targeting technologies, Sushko decided to explore contextual advertising more fully. In August 2003, he began running Google AdSenseTM ads throughout the site. In addition to AdSense ads, Sushko expanded his options by trying other contextual advertising networks.

Results

Sushko reports that Google AdSense "blew other contextual advertising networks out of the water." Google immediately began filling his ad space efficiently, without fail, and without any effort on his part. He was impressed with the revenues that came streaming in, but even more important for Sushko, his users didn’t realize they were looking at advertisements. "AdSense ads are extremely well targeted and non-invasive to my visitors," says Sushko. "They’re more like supplementary content than ads, which makes them useful for visitors."

In addition to running ads on content pages, Sushko runs AdSense ads on his discussion forums, where he notes that the ads are easily visible but do not interfere with the user experience. He optimizes his revenue by ensuring that the ads match the color of the site and by trying out ads in a variety of locations. He notes that adjustments are easy to make and that even small changes can yield a significant increase in daily revenues. He’s now looking forward to running video ads to attract attention and keep users entertained and informed.

Although AdSense is just part of the equation, Sushko gives Google credit for bolstering his success. He’s now expanded his user base substantially and has started an auto racing team to further promote the community to enthusiasts on TV, magazine publications, and a variety of events. "AdSense is a win-win for all entities," he says. "It adds value to my website, and not just from a revenue standpoint. The ads are also useful for visitors."



About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.

SUCCESS STORIES UNIVISION FROM ADSENSE

Univision
Case study : Univision : www.univision.com

Business

Univision Online, Inc. is the interactive division of Univision Communications Inc. (NYSE:UVN), the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Univision Online owns and operates the most visited Spanish-language Internet destination in the U.S., located at www.univision.com. Each day, users visit Univision.com nearly 850,000 times, accessing everything from the latest entertainment and sports news to classified ads and reader forums. Univision Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Univision Communications Inc. Univision Communications Inc’s portfolio includes television, radio, music and Internet offerings that entertain and inform more Hispanics each day than any other media company in the country. Television operations include the Univision Network, TeleFutura Network, Galavisión, and Univision and TeleFutura Television Groups. Other operations include Univision Radio and Univision Music Group.

Approach
“We’ve had significantly better results since switching to Google. Google helps us monetize our site better.”

Javier Saralegui
President of Univision Online

Maximizing revenue from its popular online property is one of Univision’s chief goals. Univision Online discovered early on that contextual ads are a meaningful way to do just that. As a result, Univision.com began delivering contextual ads in January 2004. Although the ads immediately generated income, Univision Online sought to increase revenue even further, as well as improve click-through rates and ad quality. “We were doing relatively well with contextual advertising,” recalls Charles Walter, Director of Product Development for Univision Online. “But we also had a suspicion that we could improve our metrics manifold, including click-through rates, revenue per thousand impressions and overall income.”

In addition to boosting revenues, Univision Online sought to ensure that they delivered ads that were relevant, tasteful and useful to visitors – ads that meshed well with the content and site design of Univision.com. Among the biggest considerations was the ability to deliver a mix of ads in both English and Spanish. This is especially important because of the prominence of the Spanish language among the more than 40 million US Hispanics. The US Hispanic population makes up approximately 14 percent of the total U.S. population, and is driving the nation’s population growth. Analysts predict advertisers will spend more than $3.4 billion this year to get their attention.

With these goals in mind, Univision began investigating contextual advertising more fully and changed ad vendors, implementing Google AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content in June 2005.

Results

Walter reports that it was easy to get up and running with AdSense, and that AdSense “runs itself.” According to Walter, Google ads are highly appropriate. He notes that he was immediately impressed with Google’s content matching and ability to crawl the Univision website with unmatched accuracy.

In terms of revenue, the Univision team immediately saw positive results. Gauging the success of AdSense a year later, Univision has seen AdSense for Search revenues grow by 160 percent. Revenue from both Google AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content increased by 103 percent. Univision has subsequently expanded its use of Google tools by implementing site targeting with the goal of attracting advertisers who want to promote their brand specifically to Univision’s highly sought after user base.

“We’ve had significantly better results since switching to Google,” said Javier Saralegui, President of Univision Online. “Google helps us monetize our site better.”

For Univision, AdSense has become an exceptional complement to traditional advertising. It produces revenue without requiring an internal sales staff, providing a way to fill ad space at lower fixed costs and letting smaller advertisers benefit from the broad reach of Univision Online.

“Google is an important strategic partner,” says Saralegui. “Not only are we pleased with the relationship, but we believe both users and marketers on our site are benefiting as well.”

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.