Tracking Ad Performance with Channels

I guess it is time I start to practice what I preach....I have written before about the importance of tracking how your adverts are doing on your blog or website, and the best way to do that is to use Adsense Channels for your contextual ads.

Well...I have a confession...even though I wrote about tracking channels being important, I didn't do it...gasp...mostly because I didn't have time, or didn't want to take the time to redo my advertisement html to add the channel tracking stuff. Well, I got ambitious the other day and decided the time had come to find out what the heck is going on with my advertisments so I bit the bullet and started converting my Adsense to channels.

Having several blogs it has become a bit of a project I have to admit, but, it's already shown it's value. I now have a much better idea where the majority of my hits to my ads are happening, and what they are paying. I'm far from finished, but I have the majority of the important ones converted now, and find it very useful.

Using Adsense Channels, I can tell what my readers are clicking, allowing me to compare my ad placements and optimize them for the best return. I am also learning that some of the places I thought were not the best, actually are pretty good. For instance, I have found that the upper left sidebar is working well on one of my blogs, and I didn't think it was. Ads above the fold are true to what everyone says, the best placement, at least on the blogs I have channels for, but the sidebar is not doing too bad either.

It's far too soon to tell for sure what channels or placements are best, but I know I am on my way to discovering it now. Be prepared for quite a bit of work though, especially if you use Blogger and there in blog feature that lets you add Adsense under the layout tab. There isn't a way to add channels using this feature, so you have to go to your Adsense account and create new ones which you then can use to replace your existing ads blocks. That's what is taking time for me because I started using the layout feature when I went to the new Blogger, so I have a lot to undo or redo....

That said, I am still going to do it. The information I am learning from watching my channel reports is invaluable. It's going to give me an opportunity to not only experiement with add placement, but also design and color schemes. In addition, having channels is telling me quickly what blogs are worth keeping updated, what blogs attract readers who will read the advertisments. Very useful information.

So if you aren't using channels to track your contextual ad performance, you should start. Open your Adsense account and go to Manage Channels and start setting them up. I think it will be worth your time.