For those learning a new language or just wondering how words are pronounced in different parts of the world, Forvo provides a solution. Launched in 2008, the online pronunciation guide offers recordings of over 1.5 million words in 36 languages, uploaded by native speakers. A team of four based in Guipúzcoa, Spain maintains the site, which has 250,000 registered users and receives around nine million visits a month.
According to CEO Félix Vela, “the income from AdSense has allowed me to take on two new employees over the past couple of years.” Félix has been happy with the quality and relevance of the ads, and regularly uses other Google tools like Analytics to understand the site’s visitors.
Looking ahead, Félix plans to continue improving the site and increasing the number of pronunciation examples available. “There’s absolutely no doubt that AdSense will continue to play a fundamental role in this growth,” he says.
Read Forvo’s full story, and join us here again next week to meet our next publisher.
nanapi.jp is a Japanese site which provides helpful tips for everyday life. From tips on romance to how to use web services, it has all sorts of advice for everyone.
Recently, nanapi started using AdSense and has seen a steady revenue increase. We spoke to Mr. Furukawa, the CEO, and Mr. Saito, the Director of Ads, and asked them about their experiences with AdSense.
■ Inside AdSense (IA): Please tell us the history of nanapi and how you built your site.
We established nanapi in September, 2009. We realized that there was a need for an information site where people could find tips for everyday life, so we decided to provide this content in the form of articles on various topics.
Initially, we only had a desktop site but now we’ve created a mobile site for smartphones too. As of August 2012, we receive 42 million page views and 9 million unique users per month. The number of unique users is bigger on the desktop site, but the smartphone site receives more page views.
■ IA: How and why did you start using AdSense?
When we first established the site, we decided not to implement ads as we wanted to focus on creating quality content first. After our number of monthly visitors reached 10 million, we implemented a medium rectangle (300x250) in the upper right corner of the site. As a result, we earned higher revenue than we’d anticipated.
We were surprised by the quality of the ads and how well they matched the content of our site. We’d been concerned that ads might damage the design or usability of our site, but we didn’t feel that way about the site post-implementation. That’s why we decided to use AdSense more.
■ IA: What results did you see after implementing AdSense?
We started to use AdSense more after the pilot in April 2012. More specifically, we switched from another ad network to AdSense, and increased the number of ads per page. Our revenue increased more than ten times in just three months!
nanapi covers a lot of topics, and it can be difficult to show relevant ads, but with AdSense's contextual targeting, relevant ads are shown automatically. People visit nanapi before they take action, and that's why it's natural for our visitors to click relevant ads and leave the site. We implemented 336x280 ads below our articles to capture this kind of user behavior.
■ IA: Did you have any issues after implementing Google AdSense?
We didn’t have any difficulty in implementing or setting up AdSense. Compared to the ad network we used before, AdSense’s account interface is easy to use. It was also very easy to implement AdSense on our smartphone site. We pasted the ad code from the account interface, just as we’d done for the desktop site. It’s very good that AdSense allows us to check performance by platform too.
As for resources, we only need one person to manage AdSense. The account interface is very easy to use. For example, when we experiment with changing an ad format, we can check its performance immediately.
We were concerned that ads would deteriorate the usability of our website. However, ad quality was very good and we didn’t have to worry. Since the ads match our content, they enhance the information on the site and we haven’t received a single complaint from our users
■ IA: Please tell us about your plans for the future.
We plan to keep adding more and more articles to our site. Our goal is to make users think that “if you visit nanapi, you’ll find answers for all kinds of topics.” From an ads perspective, we’re considering using DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) to manage our ad units more easily.
Posted by Ayaka Sakakibara - Strategic Partner Manager Was this blog post useful? Share your feedback with us.
Please note that since the 970x90 unit is new to our network, you’ll currently see mainly text ads appearing in this format. The new super leaderboard ad unit can show up to four text ads organized in a column layout but, as with other ad sizes, the number of text ads per unit may vary per impression. When enabling image and rich media ads for this unit, display ads in the size of a 728x90 unit will be displayed initially. Over time, we expect that the inventory of image and rich media ads for the 970x90 will grow and you’ll see more full-size display ads being served.
As always, we strongly recommend considering your content when placing your ad units to ensure both users and advertisers have a great experience with your site. Please note that the limit for AdSense for content ad units still remains at three per page.
We look forward to hearing what you think about the new 970x90 ad size. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback on our AdSense +page.
Posted by Omer Gimenez Llach - AdSense Software Engineer & Johan Land - AdSense Product Manager Was this blog post useful? Share your feedback with us.
This change will happen automatically for publishers using link units in the affected countries and site verticals, so no action is required if you’re an existing user of the format. For publishers not using link units, we’d recommend trying them out!
Link units are an efficient way of monetizing smaller areas of your website.
Link units are a non-intrusive way to monetize, as the simple layout doesn’t distract from your content.
As a reminder, our program policies state you may have three link unit ad formats in addition to the three standard units.
We encourage you to test out the link unit format. For more information visit our Help Center.
In order to keep pace with changes in our products, we regularly review our Terms and Conditions to make sure they're up to date and in line with those of other Google products. As a result of our recent review, we’ll be making some updates to our Terms, starting April 23rd. If you're based in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, or North America, you'll see a notification in your account when you log in after this date. It will present you with the updated Terms and prompt you to accept them. For publishers based in the Asia-Pacific region, the change to our Terms will happen slightly later as we’re rolling the changes out gradually across all regions.
You'll have 30 days to fully review the new terms in detail before action is required. Before the updated Terms appear in your account, we'd like to give you an idea of what's changing:
With this new version of the Terms and Conditions, our goal has been to make them as clear and transparent as possible. As a result of this, we hope that it’ll be even easier to navigate and find what you’re looking for.
With mobile being one of the big trends in 2013 and beyond, we’re expanding our Terms to cover mobile properties more specifically. We’ve also incorporated guidelines for using the AdMob SDK and other publisher products.
The updates outlined above are the main areas that will be affected by the change. However, we’ve made smaller changes throughout, so please be sure to review the Terms as a whole before accepting them.
Posted by Matt Goodridge - AdSense Product Manager
Today we’re heading to Paris to say bonjour to Videdressing, an e-commerce site founded in 2009 by American expat Meryl Job. After looking for a medium to sell some of her clothes and noticing that a number of fashion bloggers were opening wardrobe sales, Meryl started the site to enable others to buy and sell fashion items they no longer wear. Today, the site employs over 20 people and receives over 25 million visits each month.
Since joining the AdSense program last year, Videdressing has used its AdSense revenue to complement the earnings it generates from sales and transactions. The additional income adds to the profitability of the site and is used to offer better services to its customers. Company chairman Renaud Guillerm sees advertising as “being first and foremost an additional service that we can offer our customers. Our conversion rate is only two per cent, as 98 percent of visitors browse the site without buying anything. By using AdSense we can monetise these many visits.”
Videdressing uses AdWords to advertise the site, and also makes use of Analytics to understand the site’s visitors. To date, the company has seen strong growth in France, and is looking to expand to additional markets in the future.
