You can choose from up to 256 colors to customize the background, border and text of AdSense ads. Here are some guidelines on using the color customization options.

How do I customize the color of the ads on my website?
You can select from a number of built-in color palettes, or you can create up to 100 of your own. When you select a color palette and an ad layout on the Ad layout code page, the appropriate ad code is generated for you. You can select up to 4 palettes that will rotate randomly. To take advantage of this feature, you'll need a newer web browser with JavaScript functionality (Internet Explorer 5.5+ or Netscape 6+).

To generate ad code with the palette of your choice:

• Log in to your account at https://www.google.com/adsense
• Click Ad layout code under the Ad Settings tab
• Select up to 4 color palettes by holding down the Ctrl key
• Choose the ad layout
• Copy-and-paste the AdSense ad code into web pages

To create custom color palettes and manage your palette list:

• Log in to your account at https://www.google.com/adsense
• Click Ad colors under the Ad Settings tab (or click the Create new color palette link on the Ad layout code page)
• Select a pre-existing color palette to start with
• Choose the color you want for each area of the ads (border, background, title, text, and URL)
• Name your new palette
• Click Save

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Use channels to find which of your pages, ad formats and colors are performing well in the AdSense program. Here are some common questions about channels.

1. What are channels?
Channels provide you with a way to view detailed reporting about the performance of your pages. By pasting channel-specific ad code into any combination of pages, you can track a variety of metrics across your sites. Track your leaderboard performance versus the performance of your towers, or compare your motorcycle pages to your automobile pages, by assigning each group of pages to a specific channel and comparing results in your custom channel reports. You can even assign a channel to each of your separate domains, to see where your clicks are coming from.

With up to 50 channels available for each publisher, you can use channels to gain the insight you need to optimize your site's performance. It's easy to add, deactivate, or rename your channels, and customized reports are simple to generate.

2. How do I create channels?
Before creating your channels, you may want to take some time to consider how channels can best be used on your site. Think about which metrics you would like to track ­ are you looking to compare performance of various ad layouts, or do you want to find out which groups of pages are generating the most clicks? When creating channels, we suggest that you use descriptive names for each channel, so that they are easily identifiable in your reports.

Once you've decided how you're going to use channels, there are two steps to creating them: first, the creation of the channel name; and second, adding the channel-specific code to your web pages.

To create a new channel name:

1. Log in to your account at https://www.google.com/adsense
2. From the links below the Ad Settings or Search Settings tab, click Channels
3. Select the Create new channel radio button, and enter a channel name in the text field. We suggest using a name that will help you to identify this channel later. For example, carpages or blue_skyscrapers
4. Click Edit/Activate channel. Your new channel will be added to the Active Channels list.

To add the channel-specific code to your page:

1. Click the appropriate Settings tab and click Ad layout code or Search code, or click Continue to Ad Layout from the Create Channels page
2. From the Channel drop-down list, select the appropriate channel for this code
3. Copy-and-paste the code into your web pages. The channel identifier within your code will track performance on these pages.

A page can be moved to a different channel by updating the code on that page. A page can also be removed from all channels by specifying No channel selection when generating the code.

3. How do I view channel reports?

Channel reports are accessible from your Reports tab. After selecting a date range and breakdown type, select the Channels Data radio button. Choose any number of Active or Deleted channels from the channels list by holding the CTRL key while selecting.

Click Display Report to create your custom channel report. Your channel reports will show data for all selected channels, including page impressions, clicks, and earnings data. Please note that data for channel reports is delayed 2 days before being displayed, as described in the question below.

Learn more about channels

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You have the option of choosing from several different ad formats to find one that best matches the layout of your site. The links below show the available ad formats and example placements for these ad formats. Experiment with different placements including placing ads at the top of the page or in the body of the text to see which placements attract user attention and generate high CTR.

View the available ad formats: https://www.google.com/adsense/adformats

View example placements:
Leaderboard: https://www.google.com/adsense/leaderboard
Banner: https://www.google.com/adsense/banner
Skyscraper: https://www.google.com/adsense/skyscraper
Inline Rectangle: https://www.google.com/adsense/inline

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You can select from 11 different ad formats of varying sizes that display up to 5 ads to run AdSense on your webpages. Visit www.google.com/adsense/adformats to see the available ad formats. Try the different ad formats and see which ones generate higher CTR and higher revenue for you.

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You can now run image ads on your content pages in addition to text ads through the AdSense program. Here are some common guidelines about image ads.

1. What are image ads?

Image ads are graphical ads offered initially in 4 major formats. Unlike traditional banner advertising, Google's image ads are precisely targeted to the content of a publisher's web page using our AdSense contextual advertising technology. Advertisers target image ads by selecting keywords related to their product offerings, and Google matches the image ads to the content and context of your web pages.

Running a combination of image and text ads expands the available ad inventory for your site, and offers the potential for increased revenue. Google's technology determines on a page-by-page basis whether text ads or image ads are likely to make you more money, and serves the appropriate format to your page.

2. Do I have to run image ads?

The decision to run image ads is entirely yours. You can choose to run image ads in addition to text ads, or you can show text ads alone. You can decide which types of ads to run across your entire account or make your selection one page at a time. You always maintain full control over the types of advertising that show on your web pages.

3. How do I enable/disable image ads?

There are two ways to enable image ads: you can select a radio button in your AdSense UI to enable image and text advertising for all of your pages, or you can enable image ads for individual pages. Enabling image ads for individual pages will always override any selections you make on an account-wide level.

Enabling image ads across your account:

1. Log in to your account at https://www.google.com/adsense
2. Click the Ad Settings tab
3. Click Ad type
4. Click Edit information
5. To include image ads in the inventory for all pages, select Display text and image ads in all ad units. Please note that any page with a specific manual selection, as described below, will not be affected by changes to this setting.

Enabling image ads for individual pages:

Enabling image ads on individual pages is easy. Simply make your selection when generating your ad code and replace your existing AdSense code as described below. This is useful, for example, if you decide to include image ads on all of your pages, but don't want image ads on your home page.

1. Log in to you account at https://www.google.com/adsense
2. Click the Ad Settings tab
3. Click Ad layout code
4. When generating your ad layout code, select either Text ads only or Include image ads from the Ad Type drop-down menu.
5. Copy and paste this ad code into the appropriate pages of your site. Your manual ad type setting will remain in effect despite any changes made to your account-wide setting, as described above.

4. What are the formats in which image ads are available?

At this time, image ads are available in the following four formats:

• leaderboard (728x90)
• banner (468x60)
• skyscraper (120x600)
• medium rectangle (300x250)

You can see examples of each of these formats on our AdSense Ad Formats page.

Learn more about image ads

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You can replace PSAs on your website with "alternate ads". Here are the details on setting up alternate ads within your AdSense account.

1. What are 'Alternate Ads?'
Alternate ads allow you to utilize your ad space in the event that Google is unable to serve targeted ads to your page. By specifying an image, HTML page, or ad server of your choice, you can make sure that your advertising space is always being used effectively, either by targeted AdWords ads, or by your own choice of content. You can also select a solid color as your alternate ad, if you prefer not to display other advertisements or content when targeted AdWords ads are unavailable.

Alternate ads count as page impressions like any other ad. Google does not keep track of clicks on alternate ads and you will not receive revenue for them.

Alternate ads, if specified, will be shown when there are no targeted ads available for your page. The ad space will not be branded as 'Ads by Google.'

2. How do I Specify an Alternate Ad?
You can specify an alternate ad URL from your Ad layout code page. Simply enter a fully qualified path to any image, HTML page, or ad server, and that URL will be loaded in the event that we cannot serve targeted ads to your page. You can also enter an HTML color code, to show a solid block of color when targeted ads are unavailable.

1. Log in to your AdSense account at https://www.google.com/adsense
2. Click Ad Settings
3. Click Ad layout code
4. After selecting a color palette and ad format, enter a fully qualified path to your image file, HTML page, or ad server in the Alternate Ad text box, or click Choose a color to select an HTML color code
5. Copy and paste the ad code into your site pages

Your alternate ad can point to any of the following formats:

• Static Images
• Clickable Images: To load a clickable image, specify an HTML page containing the link information for your ad. An example of code to include in your HTML page is below:
  <a href="http://www.google.com" target="_top"><img src="http://www.mydomain//images/adsense/Picture1.jpg" border="0" /></a>
• Ad Server: You can also enter the URL of your ad server. For more information on linking to a third-party ad server, please contact your ad network directly.
• HTML color code: Enter the hex code for any color to show a solid block of color as your alternate ad.

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If you will be placing your ad layout code on a page that uses frames, go to Ad Settings > Ad layout code and select the 'Framed page checkbox. Selecting this option will tell our crawlers to gather content from the appropriate frame, thereby enabling us to serve relevant ads. Please note that your ad layout code must be included in the same frame as your page's main content.

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AdSense offers downloadable reports in comma separated values (CSV) format. To download:

1. From your reports page, generate the report that you would like to download
2. When your report has been created, click Download CSV file from the header bar of your report
3. A download prompt will appear - enter a filename and location, and click Save.

CSV files can be easily imported into common spreadsheet applications to spot trends quickly and easily and track your results. Downloadable reports make it easy to chart the results of channels as well as historical data from your account.

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