Google announced updates to Adsense Auto ads Tuesday designed to make them easier to implement and customize. AdSense publishers will be notified via email when the updates, which will be rolling out over the next several weeks, are live in accounts.
No code needed to turn on Auto ads in any AdSense account. Auto ads, introduced last year, use machine learning to determine where and when to place ads on publishers’ pages. Originally, to use Auto ads, publishers had to place a code on their sites. Now, Auto ads will work via any AdSense ad unit code, so any AdSense publishers can now turn on Auto ads in their accounts without having to add any code to their sites. You can see your Auto ads settings in the new Ads > Overview page in AdSense.
More controls and reporting. To turn Auto ads off on specific pages or sections of your site, you can now add the URLs to the Page Exclusions list.
Google has also added a preview tool to see how the Auto ads will look before going live. Inside the preview, you’ll be able to delete specific ad placements. Auto ads will then automatically create a new placement somewhere else on the page for you to review.
An ad load slider allows you to control the number of Auto ads to show on your pages, and you can specify the types of ad formats that can get placed by Auto ads, including Matched content.
The reporting dashboard will now show manual ad and Auto ads performance comparisons.
Google also teased a new experiment type for Auto ads that it’s working on to see how Auto ads will look on your site and trial them on a segment of your traffic.
Why we should care. Google is building on its machine learning capabilities for ad placement optimization. While keeping user experience in mind, the combination of Auto ads and manual controls should result in more revenue for publishers. With the new side-by-side reporting on manual and Auto ads, publishers will be able to see if these new tools deliver on that goal.
About The Author
Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.