Premium Services

Chapter 15
Premium Services
In This Chapter
ᮣ
Signing on to Premium AdWords for larger advertisers
ᮣ
Understanding Premium AdSense for content sites
ᮣ
Knowing about Premium AdSense for searth sites
ᮣ
Becoming a search destination with Custom WebSearch
ᮣ
Taking advantage of Silver and Gold Search for medium-sized search sites
G
oogle provides premium versions of its three major programs for
high-traffic and high-budget sites. Those three programs are AdWords
(see Part II), AdSense (see Part III), and on-site Google searching (see
Chapter 5). This chapter describes the high-end versions of these programs,
premium AdWords, premium AdSense, Custom WebSearch, and Silver and
Gold Search.
Premium AdWords
Google AdWords is not just for small businesses and entrepreneurs anymore.
Small accounts put the program on the marketing map, but now corporations
of all types are represented in the advertising column on Google search results
pages. When Google eliminated its Sponsored Link program, which sold place-
ment on a pay-by-impression basis, the corporate segment of its advertising
clientele was rolled into AdWords — probably with little complaint. The effi-
ciency and control afforded by AdWords applies just as happily to large com-
panies as to small ones.
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Large advertisers are eligible for a special program called premium-level

AdWords. (No one, even the largest, most budgetarily advantaged advertisers,
is forced to use the program.) Similar to regular AdWords, the premium pro-
gram offers a more involved customer service experience throughout the cam-
paign. Many a small-business owner wishes he or she could enjoy the service
perks built into premium-level AdWords.
To qualify for premium-level service, AdWords advertisers must commit
to spending a minimum of $30,000 over a three-month period and at least
$10,000 per month. (There is no charge beyond the spending minimum.)
Because AdWords is a pay-per-click system, a natural question arises: What
if the company’s ads don’t generate $10,000 worth of clickthroughs in a
month? After all, it can be difficult for little businesses to keep their click-
through rates high enough to spend money seriously. This is where Google
steps in.
Each premium AdWords account is assigned a customer service team that
assists the client at every step, from soup to nuts. This level of assistance
includes industry-specific marketing advice, creative help writing ads, hands-
on account maintenance if desired, campaign structuring, keyword genera-
tion, account planning and optimization, performance analysis — basically,
everything an excellent third-party agency would do when implementing an
AdWords campaign for a client.
Conceiving of Google as a specialized ad agency brings up an interesting
issue: Should a high-spending company operate in non-premium AdWords
with the help of a hired ad agency? Or is it better to enter premium AdWords
and let Google be your de facto agency? Going with Google saves money —
that’s one consideration right off the bat. However, if AdWords is part of
a large, multifaceted marketing campaign, the ideal situation might be to
manage the entire effort under one roof, which would not be Google’s
roof. Then again, just as Google doesn’t manage non-AdWords aspects
of the campaign, most traditional ad agencies do not specialize in AdWords.
So getting it all under one roof — either Google’s or a hired agency — is

difficult.
A few miscellaneous notes about premium AdWords:
ߜ Despite the special service provided to premium AdWords clients,
Google doesn’t bend basic AdWords rules. The ads are the same —
small boxes of text. The competitive environment for placement on
the page is identical to the competition faced by regular AdWords cus-
tomers, and premium-level advertisers bid on keywords in the same
fashion as non-premium-level users.
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ߜ The pay-for-placement Sponsored Links, which were once placed atop
search results pages, no longer exist as pay-for-impression ads. AdWords
ads receiving the top two spots on pages populated by ten ads go in those
top-of-page slots, but they’re paid for by the click just like any AdWords
ad. Premium-level AdWords doesn’t offer pay-for-placement service.
ߜ Just as with regular AdWords, participation in premium AdWords doesn’t
affect a site’s listing or PageRank in Google’s Web index.
ߜ Although account management is offered to premium-level accounts,
those clients are free to use the standard AdWords reporting and admin-
istrative tools available to everyone.
If your company is interested in the premium level of AdWords and meets the
spending commitment requirement, you notify Google of your interest by fill-
ing in an on-screen form. The form, shown in Figure 15-1, requests basic con-
tact, industry, and URL information and serves as an introductory letter to
Google. Find that form here:
services.google.com/ads_inquiry/en
Figure 15-1:
This form
serves as an

introductory
letter to
Google for
prospective
premium-
level
AdWords
customers.
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Premium AdSense for Content Sites
As it does with AdWords, Google offers a premium-level version of AdSense.
Because AdSense publishers at any level do not pay Google, the requirement
for breathing the thin air of premium membership is not a financial commit-
ment, but a traffic threshold. Sites serving at least 20 million page views per
month (not unique visitors, but total page views) are eligible to apply.
Whereas premium-level AdWords provides essentially the same AdWords
features but with enhanced customer service, premium-level AdSense for
content sites differs a bit from standard AdSense. These variations include
the following:
ߜ Custom ad layouts and formats diverge from the presets in regular
AdSense. However, many premium publishers use the standard ad
layouts. (See Figures 15-2 and 15-3.)
ߜ Dedicated account management is available, offering site optimization
and technical support as needed.
ߜ Standard AdSense allows publishers to block ads from competitive
domains (see Chapter 13). In premium AdSense, competitive filtering
of unwanted ads is a more serious and robust tool.
ߜ The AdSense for content program pays selected publishers to sell their

ad space to Google on a cost-per-impression basis for running AdWords
ads. Prospective publishers must qualify for this program independently
from the normal premium-level AdSense program.
ߜ Although regular AdSense publishers enter, start, pause, and exit the
program at will (given basic eligibility), at least some premium clients
contract with Google for a certain term (for example, six months).
These term contracts are sometimes terminated by Google for poor
CTR performance. Even though the publisher is not aware of the click-
through statistics associated with ads appearing on the publisher’s site,
Google definitely keeps track of everything.
Note that page traffic of 20 million views per month doesn’t necessarily qualify
a site for premium-level AdSense. Google employs unpublicized criteria when
deciding who is admitted and who is not. I have spoken with owners of sites
who claim that they have been declined although their traffic exceeds the
threshold. Other AdSense publishers with high traffic claim to have received
unsolicited invitations to shift to premium AdSense.
Interested companies may start the application process by filling in an intro-
ductory on-screen form here:
services.google.com/ads_inquiry/ct?hl=en
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Figure 15-3:
Another
premium
AdSense
site uses a
wider ad
layout with
thicker

borders
than normal.
Figure 15-2:
Premium
AdSense
publishers
may use
slightly
modified ad
layouts not
available in
standard
AdSense.
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