Wednesday, November 23, 2005

AdSense Onsite Advertiser Sign-up Fiasco

Wouldn't you think that Google would plan what they add to their AdSense program so that the new features even make sense?

Nah, that would be too easy.

The new feature in AdSense puts "Advertise on this site" in the ad units so that advertisers can supposedly easily sign up to site target ads on your web site. Well, this would be nice and all assuming you only have one web site as Google only gives you one landing page. This means people with multiple sites already have a dilemma when someone signs up to advertise seeing a common landing page.

How about letting publishers authorize who or what is advertised on their site via site targetting? Oh hell no, you get whatever crap the advertiser decides to inflict directly on your web site as long as they bid enough.

Reporting?

Nope.

No way to see how much site targetting ads pay vs regular site content ads, it would make too much sense.

How about a referral fee for signing up new advertisers?

Nope.

They'll pay you for referring new competitors to steal your ad money but forget new advertisers that fuel the whole system, you get paid then they advertise on your site.

I immediately opted out of Onsite Advertiser Sign-up for many reasons, some listed above, and the fact that I already have direct advertisers on my site and don't need Google pilfering my extra revenue anymore than they already do.

I'm sure some bleating AdSense sheep will leave this option enabled but the negatives on this outweigh the positives and I'll wait for a new and improved version to surface if it ever does.

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