Referral 2.0

[Manthem]

This past March, we launched a referrals beta to test the feature and iron out some wrinkles. Now that we've finished our testing, we're pleased to announce that referrals 2.0 will soon be available to all AdSense publishers.

While some of you may already be familiar with referrals for Google products, this launch will greatly expand the inventory and functionality of referrals for AdSense publishers. Below we've highlighted a few of the key benefits of referrals 2.0:

Expanded product inventory: While many of you have had success referring one of our Google products, some of you weren't able to find a product that fit the context of your site. Referrals 2.0 offers products from thousands of AdWords advertisers, so you can find the right ads for your sites.


Category and keyword targeting: With thousands of products available, it can be difficult to decide which ads will perform best on your site. That's why we give you the option to refer products by category and keyword. You can narrow down the types of ads you want to display and let AdSense figure out which ones will perform best on your site. Whether you want ads for a specific category, advertiser, or product, referrals 2.0 will give you the control to decide.


Ad unit optimization: It can be tricky picking the best ads for your site, so we've included ad unit optimization for referrals. When you create a new referral ad unit, simply select the Pick best performing ads option. We'll then compare your selected ads to other relevant ads, and serve the ads we expect to perform best on your site.


Better targeting for pages with multiple themes: With standard contextual targeting, ads may not match up directly with the text around them if there are a number of themes on the page. With referrals, you can select unique "keywords" for each ad unit to narrow the targeting directly to the theme you want. Better targeting means higher earnings for your site.


Greater compensation for high-quality traffic: Since referrals are paid on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, your traffic matters. If the traffic you send to advertisers is more likely to turn into a completed sale or lead, you will earn more with referrals.


Add your seal of approval: Unlike AdSense for content ads, our program policies allow you to make specific references to referral ads on your site. If you endorse the product that you are referring, feel free to let your users know. By adding your personal review of the products you refer, you can help your users make more informed choices.

To get started with referrals, click the AdSense Setup tab in your account, then click Referrals. If you don't see referrals 2.0 right away, please check back in a few days, as the feature will gradually become available in all accounts over the next few weeks. Please also keep in mind that for some languages, advertisers are just getting started so ad inventory may be limited at this time. We encourage you to check back frequently to see new offers.

It's a much needed improvement.

[Sjorritsma]

Referrals 2.0 is not activated at my account.

[Blackmane]

Originally Posted by Sjorritsma

Referrals 2.0 is not activated at my account.

It wont be straight away, they update the accounts in blocks to make sure every thing is working. From the looks of things, there are plenty of products to choose from.

Hopefully I might get more click thrus.

[Tearabite]

I got updated the other day.. but i havnt tried any yet..

[Lpspider]

Not active for me either, but I'm looking forward to it.

[Shadow]

Bah, I sooo can't wait. Finally some better referral-stuff

[FanAddict]

So... does this mean it's out of the "beta" stage and rolling out to all adsense publishers?

EDIT:
I need to read the adsense blog more often lol.

"Referrals 2.0 launches to all AdSense publishers"

[FRYO]

Just got upgraded to Referrals 2.0

Looks great.

[Crusader]

It's not active for me yet. It would be interesting to see what products are on offer and how they'll perform.

[shaileshk]

it's not active for me.

[kilcher]

It's better but far from perfect. I see no benefit to using this over CPC or CPM. If/when they add image or interactive links (similar to CJ) then I might consider using it. Until then they trail far behind.

[godmode]

i posted this new fews hours before you but no one bothered to check huh?
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=381816

[udit1425]

ya even i got

[lfcfan]

Its not updated to my blog...

[FanAddict]

Originally Posted by godmode

i posted this new fews hours before you but no one bothered to check huh?
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=381816

This thread was started at: Yesterday, 2:58 pm (my time)
Yours started at: Yesterday, 9:49 pm (my time)


You started yours 7 hrs later


---------------------------

I'm still waiting to see it in my account.... CJ performs well for me, so this might as well....

[DomainWorks]

It's activated in my account, and I've installed test code on a couple sites. I find the ad selection interface a little complicated. You have the option of selecting referral ads by individual advertiser/product or just using keyword matches. I'm trying both.

The keyword matches aren't precise, in that some off-topic products are showing up in some of the keywords I've entered. But the keyword path gives you the option of letting Google choose the best-performing ads, which might make this more low-maintenance than CJ or other affiliate programs.

[siteseer]

"If you endorse the product that you are referring, feel free to let your users know."

does this meant that for referral ads you can now say things like:

"click here ->"
"visit this sponsor"
"take advantage of this offer below:"

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by siteseer

"If you endorse the product that you are referring, feel free to let your users know."

does this meant that for referral ads you can now say things like:

"click here ->"
"visit this sponsor"
"take advantage of this offer below:"

Yes, it does. However I think they actually want you to elaborate a bit more on the offers in question... Something like"Get great software for webmasters. The software does this and that. Check it out now!"

[john269]

Originally Posted by kilcher

It's better but far from perfect. I see no benefit to using this over CPC or CPM. If/when they add image or interactive links (similar to CJ) then I might consider using it. Until then they trail far behind.

The only advantage would be if a large majority of advertisers pay per lead and not per sale plus they don't abuse the system by paying something like $0.10 per newsletter signup when infact they are wanting to get that signup plus also about 10 - 20 extra visitors to their site.

If there are some good pay per lead programs that pay $5 - $20 per lead for a quick and easy signup, then in return it could yield better results than CPC, but somehow I have a few doubts until I see whats actually on there.