I am always on the hunt for excellent webinars, tutorials, conferences, and guides covering Google AdSense. Earlier this month I found an AdSense conference being held in New York in November; however, I wanted to QUICKLY inform  you about  a free AdSense Webinar that’s taking place over the next month and a half. Actually, the first class was a few hours ago and unfortunately missed. But, it’s not a complete waste becuase as it turns out, the first class that was conducted today will be available again in December.

The class that was missed today (but will be available again on Dec. 2nd) covers AdSense optimization. Specifically on optimizing AdSense for content implementation. This includes advice on proper placement, format, coverage and styling. Additional topics in the class include: How to attract placement targeting campaigns to your site, Tracking the performance of your optimizations via Channels, AdSense for Search regarding the importance of search. The next class starts on Oct. 22nd 5:00pm GMT and is called Teaching our Teachers, which provides advice on using AdSense on educational sites.

There are six more classes in addition to these first for a total of eight free classes. There is no catch. Registering and attending these classes are totally free. I am very pleased to see free Webinars available. These particular classes are online seminars conducted and moderated by Google AdSense specialists. The entire series of classes are designed to help publishers by providing tips and explaining the guidelines on monetizing sites using AdSense. Needless to say, if you have interest in getting the most from Google AdSense, I would make sure to attend each and every class.

(image from Sérgio Rodrigo)

Last week, news was released that for the first time, the UK has become the first major economy where advertisers spent more on internet advertising than on television advertising. As explained in the Wall Street Journal:

“Internet advertising sales rose 4.6% on the year in the first half to £1.75 billion ($2.78 billion), giving it a market share of 23.5%. TV advertising fell 16.1% to £1.64 billion, dropping into second place with a 21.9% market share, the research showed.”

While this sounds like great news for online publishers, another story was released the day before this one that put a damper on the news for many publishers. Comscore released a new report, titled “comScore and Starcom USA Release Updated “Natural Born Clickers” Study Showing 50 Percent Drop in Number of U.S. Internet Users Who Click on Display Ads.” As explained in the report:

“The collaborative studies focus on an understanding of how U.S. Internet users click on display ads. The updated results based on March 2009 comScore data, and presented by comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni and Kim McCarthy, manager, Research & Analytics at Starcom, at the iMedia Brand Summit in San Diego on September 14, 2009, indicated that the number of people who click on display ads in a month has fallen from 32 percent of Internet users in July 2007 to only 16 percent in March 2009, with an even smaller core of people (representing 8 percent of the Internet user base) accounting for the vast majority (85 percent) of all clicks.”

“The original research, conducted using July 2007 comScore data, showed that 32 percent of Internet users clicked on at least one display ad during the month. These clickers were segmented into Heavy, Moderate and Light Clicking segments based on the group of users accounting for the top 50 percent of clicks (heavy), middle 30 percent (moderate), and bottom 20 percent (light). In 2007, comScore, Starcom and Tacoda found that heavy clickers represented 6 percent of U.S. Internet users, moderate clickers accounted for 10 percent and light clickers accounted for 16 percent. By March 2009, those numbers had dropped substantially in each case, to 4 percent of Internet users for heavy clickers, 4 percent for moderate clickers and 8 percent for light clickers.”

So, what does this mean for online publishers? While it may seem like the sky is falling at first, that’s simply not the case. Instead, it has much more to do with click-throughs not being the end-all, be-all to measuring the effectiveness of online advertising.

Since click-throughs aren’t the holy grail of online advertising, you are probably wondering what is. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an answer to this question. However, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t thinking about this issue. In a recent TechCrunch post (which was arguing that CPM is a metric that needs to go away), Shelby Bonnie made the following suggestions (which also apply to the CPC metric):

“First, just stop using the CPM. Yes, it will break every model and process that the industry holds dear, but we need to get rid of the crutch. The ensuing turmoil will bring creative thinking, new ideas, and entrepreneurial passion.

Realize that we all share a common need to fix this. The fight is with the system, not each other.”

In your opinion, what kind of metrics should advertisers and publishers be focusing on instead of CPC and CPM?

On Wednesday, I talked about the need for websites to offer more content to visitors. Today, I would like to talk about creating better ads.

Although banner ads and text ads are still the most common type of ad unit that you will find on the Internet, companies are looking at different ways to reach customers, such as incorporating new video technology into ad units. While there seems to be a lot of potential for video advertising, for the most part, it still has a long way to go (just think of the un-targeted AdSense units that pop up on YouTube videos, or video ad units that automatically play at a blaring volume when you load a web page).

While it will be interesting to see video advertising and other forms of online advertising evolve over the next couple of years, for the time being, it is safe to say that standard banner and display ads are going to remain the most common type of online advertisements. Because of the amount of online ads that people see on a daily basis, many begin to develop what is known as “banner blindness.” Even though this creates a challenger for advertisers, you can still make people notice your ads by creating ones that really stand out.

If you are like me and weren’t blessed with graphic design skills, you can still make your own great looking displays. Like many of their other free tools, Google offers a great Display Ad Builder tool. With over ninety different templates (including their newly launched Elegant ad templates), Google allows you to easily create a great looking display ad. Instead of spending your time or money on graphic design, this tool allows you to focus your energy on your copywriting. While a great looking ad will get people’s attention, great copywriting is what will get them to actually click on your ad unit.

If you haven’t ever tried out the Display Ad Builder tool, I suggest that you take a look at it today. And if you have used it before, drop a comment with any helpful tips you’ve picked up to get even more value out of this tool.