Google has announced a new AdSense ad unit named related search for content pages. The feature embeds ads that displays search terms related to the content of the pages your users are reading.
Here is what they look like:
It somewhat reminds me of the AdSense link unit types which Google retired last year. So I guess they are bringing this back in some form under the name of related search for content pages.
Using related search on your content pages "can encourage your users to explore relevant topics on your site and engage with search ads," Google said.
To use related search on your content pages, you need to complete the necessary contracting steps for AdSense for Search. Google said you will need to contact your account manager to activate AdSense for Search for your AdSense account. You need to comply with the custom search ads policies and the AdSense for Search policies.
You can create related search units in your AdSense account, style them to match the look and feel of your site, and start using them with a simple code change.
Google has a large help document on this ad unit going over the benefits, requirements, how to create these ads, reporting and most importantly the best practices.
Here are some of those best practices:
- Place the related search unit in a prominent location on your pages to improve performance. Please review the requirements for related search.
- Make sure there's enough textual content on your content pages for related search to perform well on your site.
- Don’t judge the performance of the related search unit for a few days after implementing related search. We recommend that you wait until the model has had a chance to optimize performance.
- You can add the language parameter (hl) to your related search code to make sure AdSense shows related search terms in the language you desire.
- (Optional) You can also provide your own search terms with the terms parameter in the related search request. This way, you have the opportunity to show more relevant terms to the page or to the user’s intent.
- If you're purchasing traffic for your content pages (i.e., incoming traffic in which a user arrives at the landing page of the related search for content unit by clicking an ad or a link on another site, and the ad or link is under your control), you're required to pass the "ad creative text" with the referrerAdCreative parameter in the related search request.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
