Big events cause big spikes; use them to grow your business.

Across the world, users flock online to view, share and talk about big things that matter to them. From Royal Weddings to World Cups, when big events come around, they make waves online. Spotting and predicting these spikes in web traffic can give you an opportunity to grow your web business, capitalizing on the increase of users online by drawing them to your content.

Recent events and the spikes they created:

• The 2012 Olympics website received 431 million online visits
• The Royal Wedding was tweeted about 237 times per second
• The Cricket World Cup 2015 was searched for 323 million times
• Searches for the Tour De France in 2015 increased by a factor of 50 during the event
• There were 1.55m tweets using #supportyourteam during London 2012
• 90 million people filled out an NBA bracket online in 2014

Big events that generate global interest, particularly sports events, have historically created surges in web traffic. By examining these trends, you can know when the spikes are coming and create the right content to capture that crowd.

What does this mean for AdSense publishers?

Understanding the spikes and when they might happen is invaluable information for an online content creator of any kind. If web traffic has increased due to interest around a particular event, it stands to reason that if publishers incorporate related content into their sites, youre more likely to draw the crowds. 

For example; say an AdSense publisher runs a food blog and a large sports event is trending. This publisher may choose to harness that spike and write a piece about food inspired by the host city or nation, or even focus on restaurants in the host city for those attending. Linking the sites content to this trending event could lead to more traffic to this publishers site and could result in increased revenue. 

By predicting and reacting to web traffic spikes, AdSense publishers can create relevant content and stand the best chance of drawing the crowds in a crowded marketplace.

To start learning from past spikes and how they could influence your upcoming content, take a look at Google Trends.

This tool allows you look at what users are searching for on a global scale. You can select topic areas and drill down into regions for those topics, enabling you to find data relevant to your audience. Once youve established the kinds of spikes certain events create, you can create relevant content and harness the insights you find to predict what spikes may happen in the future.

Whatever your sites focus, web traffic spikes can have a huge impact of your growth. Start exploring the data now and think about how your content can adapt and take advantage of these moments.

New to AdSense? Sign up now and turn your passion into profit.

[New Resource] Are native ads right for your site?

Spending on native ads is expected to grow to $21 billion in 2018, presenting a huge opportunity for publishers to enhance their user experience and tap into new revenues.

What are Native Ads? Theyre a variety of paid ads with the goal of being so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong, says the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). You might recognize some of the more popular native ad formats, such as custom sponsored content, content recommendations, and in-feed ad units.

To help determine if native ads are the right fit for your site, weve created a quick guide that includes direction on how you can:

• Search for opportunities throughout your site where native ads can unlock new ad revenue
• Determine how to maximize your user experience and ad revenue before implementing native ads
• Ensure allocation of time and resources needed for proper implementation

Learn how #hashtags can help you

Its official, #hashtags have taken over the internet. Much like memes, gifs, and audio-less fast motion cooking instructional videos, #hashtags fill up social media news feeds. However, unlike the other popular content types, whats unique to #hashtags is that they organize conversations across the web. Even Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake had something to say about #hashtags.

#Hashtags started around 2007 on Twitter, and have rapidly grown into a common medium for users to express their feelings or interests primarily on social networks. As the summer of sport kicks off, its a good idea for you to consider incorporating #hashtags into your content strategy as a key ingredient to #drawthecrowds.

#Hashtags are quite simple to use and can attract new users to your content when you understand how they work. Essentially, when the pound/hash sign is used in front of a group of words it automatically turns that group of words into a searchable link. This transforms those keywords into a conversation that the entire web can participate in and follow.

The use of #hashtags can be boiled down into two main use cases:

1. Create your own, unique #hashtag to organize your content and start a conversation. This could be tricky because there are millions of #hashtags online, so dont be afraid to repurpose one that exists. AdSense uses original #hashtags like #AdSenseGuide to promote our downloadable content or #AskAdSense for our Q&A sessions. Were also using #drawthecrowds during the summer season to help AdSense publishers draw crowds to your content during big events. 
2. Use an existing #hashtag and join in on a conversation. Use social network search options to find trending #hashtags that are relevant to your audience and join the conversation. For example, #BurningMan is a popular #hashtag used in the summer months to find news and updates about the annual event. Everyone from news publications to the thousands of people in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada will be using #BurningMan to share their perspective of the Burning Man experience. Using existing and popular #hashtags presents an opportunity for you to contribute your unique perspective to the digital conversation.

To get the most out of #hashtags, heres a do and dont list to reference as you build out your content strategy:

DO

• Use one to three #hashtags per post, any more is generally overdoing it. 
• Use #hashtags that are relevant to your audience or ones that your industry is using. If youre writing an article on the food to try, you could use #hashtags like #Foodie and #Yummy so users will find you when they search for those always trending keywords.
• Its ok to be specific. In most cases, the more specific the #hashtag, the better. If youre going to talk about do it yourself (DIY) summer projects, youd want to use #hashtags like #diyprojects, #diyideas or #diyweddings instead of general keywords like #DIY or #DoItYourSelf. Using specific #hashtags helps users pinpoint the exact content theyre looking for. 
• Letters and numbers are OK to use in #hashtags.
• Keep #hashtags short.

DONT

• Dont string too many words together. #itbecomesreallyreallyhardtoread and it can take up most of your Twitter character count.
• Dont use punctuation marks or spaces, they will break the searchable link.
• Dont use the same hashtag twice in the same social post. Its just #weird.

Now that you understand how to use #hashtags and how they can help you #drawthecrowds this summer, share with us how youre going to incorporate them into your content strategy  wed love to follow along. 

How creating a content calendar can help you #DrawTheCrowds

In todays fast-paced and global media landscape, timing is everything when youre looking to draw crowds to your site. Throughout the year, there are trends and events that create opportunities for publishers to connect with audiences in the moments that matter. If you can time your content right and make it topical, you stand a much better chance of capturing the interest of a wider audience.


Lets take a simple example. Theres no sense in a fashion blogger writing a piece on Coachella fashion when the annual music festival season is over. If that blogger could know when events relevant to fashion were approaching, she could much better plan her content. Thats where content calendars come in.

A content calendar is an essential tool for any publisher looking to harness some of the online buzz generated by big events. Though they can come in many different forms and countless templates exist, the essential components of a content calendar are the same. Big events relevant to your users are plotted on a calendar, allowing you to get a jump on your content plan.

If you know what events are approaching, you can start to think about the kind of content you can create to harness your users interest in them. 

To get you started, weve pulled out a few upcoming events sure to draw the crowds over the next few months. There are 5 calendar categories for you to choose fromnational holidays, sports, entertainment, travel, and news. Scroll down to take a look at what big moments are coming up, click to add them to your calendar, then start planning your content!

This initial list is just to get you started, once you get into the habit of planning your content in advance, you can start to do your own research into what upcoming events might interest your audience. Need an insight into what your users like? Google Analytics can help you get to know your audience better.

Get started and plan your year today to begin drawing the crowds! New to AdSense? Sign up now and turn your passion into profit.

What could be causing your CTR/RPM to be lower on mobile?

Mobile is the fastest growing platform and its important for us to ensure that our sites are set up for long-term success. Recently, weve heard questions and concerns about lower than expected click through rate (CTR) and revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) for mobile inventory and wed like to share some insights as to what may cause this.

To understand whats happening you need to look at your performance reports. Analyzing your AdSense performance allows you to see how well your ads are performing and which devices your ad units were viewed on.

To view this report simply log into your AdSense account, click Performance reports and select Platforms from the Report type dropdown.

You may notice that your CTR or RPM is lower on mobile than it is on tablet and desktop. This might be caused by one or more of the following reasons:

• Your site may be displaying suboptimal ad sizes
• Your responsive design is using the column drop approach
• Youre not focusing on optimizing for viewability

Here are three tips to increase help you identify the issues and take action to improve your mobile RPM.

If youre not using AdSense to monetize your online content, be sure to sign up so you can start turning your passion into profit. 

1) Use high-impact mobile ad formats to ensure you have optimal ad sizes throughout your site.

The 320x50 ad unit was the original mobile ad banner, but now there are a range of mobile ad sizes and formats to choose from. If youre using 320x50 ads you should consider replacing them with 320x100 (just above the fold), 300x250 (below the fold), or a responsive ad unit. These ad sizes tend to generate higher RPMs than 320x50 ad units.

• The 320x100 ad unit performs best on mobile screens and can be placed in numerous positions throughout your site. Research from Google shows the most viewable ad position is right above the fold. The 320x100 also increases the fill-rate competition because it allows the 320x50 format to compete for the same space.

• The 300x250 ad unit is a popular ad size used by advertisers across the globe, resulting in a large ad supply, increased competition, and a potential increase in earnings. Research on viewability has shown that a 300x250 ad unit placed just below the fold has generated approximately a 50% viewability rate for other publishers. This ad unit could potentially help you maximize the impact of your ad space. 
• Responsive ad units automatically adapt to your page layout and the space available for the ad unit across desktop, tablets, and smartphones. AdSense identifies the appropriate ad size and then determines the best size for the screen. 

2) Pay close attention to your ad placements, especially if youre using a responsive design column drop layout.

Responsive websites are a great multi-screen strategy, but they present a challenge for high-impact desktop ad units that can be easily avoided. Responsive websites commonly use a column drop approach to design. This is where the entire right-hand column on a desktop screen drops down to the bottom of the page when the website is viewed on a mobile screen.


This means that a strong performing ad unit on the right-hand column of your desktop site could become an underperforming unit below the fold on mobile devices.


If this is how your site is designed, you should consider alternative ad placements, for example: moving your right-column ad units above the fold on mobile devices.

3) Focus on counting viewable impressions with Active View in your AdSense account.

Checking the Active View percent of your ads will give you a good indication of your mobile vs. tablet and desktop ad viewability. A display ad is counted as viewable when at least 50% of the ad is within the viewable space on the users screen for one second or more.

If you find that your Active View percent is much lower on mobile than it is on desktop, this could mean that your ads are not visible to your users and alternative ad placements may need to be tested.

There you have it, three tips to increase your mobile RPM.

Monitor your AdSense performance across devices to understand and identify potential underperforming units. If youre using a responsive web design, make sure your ads are viewable on all devices. Finally, use Active View to track the viewability of your ads.