blog news - News from the web world

US tax form: W-8 form renewal

Over the past few days, many AdSense publishers, especially YouTubers who monetise their YouTube channel with AdSense, have received a message regarding the renewal of their US tax form.

Some background: If you earn revenue from AdSense in the US, you may be subject to US withholding tax, even if you are not a US resident. Double tax treaties prevent you from being taxed twice on the same income, in the US and in your home country. To avoid this, you must provide AdSense with a US tax form W-8. The W-8 form is valid for three years. The W-8 form is for non-US citizens only. US citizens must submit the W-9 form and are not affected at this time.

The first forms will expire this year, and you will need to submit a new form, as Google is introducing the form for the first time in 2021. It is highly recommended that you do this by 10 December!

You can find the form and current status in your AdSense dashboard at 'Payments'/ 'Payments info'/ 'Manage settings'.

Click here for more information: Tax form USA

First Milanex AdSense Blog Newsletter

Since a while it is possible to subscribe to a newsletter and a few days ago I sent out the first one. For those who have not yet subscribed: Click here for the web version:

To the newsletter

The topics of the newsletter

• What is the impact of switching from CPC to CPM? With an update on my testimonial and how I got hit by an AdSense 'invalid traffic' bug.
• Tutorial: AdSense Consent Mangement Platform
• Optimise AdSense with coaching: A 25% discount offer. Valid until 31.7.24.

Would you like to receive our newsletter in the future? You can sign up here:

New in AdSense: Offerwall message

In beta, AdSense is now offering the Offerwall message to a wider group of publishers. This feature allows you to keep content on your site active for the user for an extended period of time. For example, when an ad or video is viewed, the user can continue to view content on your site.

The Offerwall is enabled in the Dashboard under 'Privacy and Messaging' / 'Offer Wall' / 'Manage'. You can do the following

• Create and edit message text
• Add a logo
• Set the frequency of the message, e.g. from the 4th page view.
• Select languages
• Duration or number of pages the visitor can use on your website after the ad.

You may be able to increase your revenue with the Offerwall, but you should consider whether it will deter users. Some of them will leave your site earlier.

If you want to know how the Offer Wall increases your sales, you can create your own report. To do this, use the 'Ad formats' report and also filter 'rewarded'.



For an analysis of how often the message was viewed and how users responded, go to 'Privacy and messaging'/'Offerwall'/'Manage'. You can also download a report that details how users responded to your web pages.

AdSense: First effects of the change to CPM

The switch from clicks to CPM has been active for most AdSense accounts for four weeks now. Google has assured us that this change should have no impact on earnings. As there is still a lot of movement in the data, it is not yet possible to draw a final conclusion. But it is time for the first theses::

Four theses

• Sites that were previously well optimised for AdSense are losing moderately. However, the overall page RPM remains above average.
• Sites with previously low page RPM and low click-through rate are gaining.
• Results are less volatile. The average page RPM is relatively constant and does not fluctuate as much.
• The number of ads is weighted more heavily.

A recentpoll on Redditconfirms that there seem to be more losers than winners from the change:



It is now important to continue testing how to improve results under the new conditions. A detailed article on the initial results can be found here.

Update: the new revenue model and your optimisation strategy

AdSense: Switch from clicks to CPM

As of 2.2.24, the basis for publisher revenue sharing has changed. Since the announcement last year, the share of CPM bids has been rising steadily, and by the end of last week had reached almost 100%. Google had predicted that revenues would not change significantly as a result of the change.

Impact on revenues

At this early stage, it is too early to say whether this prediction will be confirmed. Initial reports from publishers are mixed, ranging from -80% to +100%. It was to be expected that the results would vary, but the fact that the gap is so wide shows that the question 'how can I optimise my AdSense earnings' is now important. My tip at this point is to let the account run for a month and analyse the results so far. This will help you decide what needs to be done.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

The key figures for analysis are also changing in importance. Two key figures are coming to the fore:

• Page RPM
• Impression RPM

Both metrics were already important, especially when thinking about the scalability of the site or the number of ads. Now they are becoming the most important metrics.

Less important in the future:

• Clicks
• CTR
• CPC

These values will certainly be a point of reference for conversion when auctioning advertising space, but will only have an indirect effect on your own revenue.

Further updates, information and analysis can be found in the blog posts:

AdSense: New revenue share structure

CPM instead of CPC: the new revenue model and your optimisation strategy

Update 19.12.2023

Relaxation before the holidays: Since yesterday, there have been some reports in the forums that the bug has been fixed and the warning in the policy centre has disappeared. Unfortunately, there is no official statement from Google yet. My opinion: More transparency would be useful and important for everyone.

I wish you all happy holidays and a successful 2024!

AdSense Bug: Consent requirement: Certified CMP not adopted

The deadline of 16.1.24 is fast approaching. After this date, a Google-certified CMP (LINK adsense-dsgvo.html) must be used for consent management. An error has been introduced at the wrong time. Some publishers are seeing the following error message in the Policy Centre: "Consent requirements: Certified CMP has not been accepted".

The strange thing is that these publishers are using the Google AdSense CMP solution. This message creates a great deal of uncertainty, as policy violations are always of great concern to publishers and also to AdSense.

AdSense itself does not seem to know what the report means yet. The support team responded to a question about this:

"..."

Thanks for reaching out!

We are currently checking with our specialist team and will get back to you with a response once we have an update to share.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Assessing the message: At the moment the warning is for information only. I am sure that this is a bug that will be fixed by AdSense after investigation. Therefore, my recommendation: Just wait and do nothing.

When more information becomes available, I will update this post.

AdSense: Has the switch to CPM bids started yet?

AdSense announced at the beginning of the year that the revenue share for publishers would change from CPC bids to CPM bids. Since the announcement, it appears that the percentage of estimated revenue generated by CPM bids has increased.



The exact implementation is still unclear. AdSense does not expect any impact on the level of payouts.


Background and current status:AdSense: New revenue share structure

AdSense: Has the switch to CPM bids started yet?

AdSense announced at the beginning of the year that the revenue share for publishers would change from CPC bids to CPM bids. Since the announcement, it appears that the percentage of estimated revenue generated by CPM bids has increased.



The exact implementation is still unclear. AdSense does not expect any impact on the level of payouts.


Background and current status:AdSense: New revenue share structure

Major changes to Google AdSense

There are many changes and announcements to AdSense, both big and small.

Vignettes: You can now set your own ad frequency

For a long time AdSense tended to do all the work for publishers and automate everything, but now there is a new direction: more customisation options for the automated ad formats. Here's a step in the right direction: The frequency of the vignettes can be set between 1 minute and 1 hour.

Automatic ad formats

Ad Review Centre redesigned

The review centre, where you can block ads, has been redesigned. With a better layout, new filters, bulk actions and better search options, it's now easier to ban inappropriate ads from your pages.

Read more about the Review Centre

GDPR and CMP: the deadline of 16.1.24 is approaching

Announced some time ago: By 16 January 2024, AdSense CMP or a Google-certified consent management solution must be in place. AdSense has informed publishers who have not yet implemented a solution and offered to automatically activate the AdSense solution by the deadline.

Already certified CMP systems

Tutorial: Set up and use AdSense

New revenue sharing structure

Probably the biggest change for a long time! At the beginning of 2024, the exact date has not yet been set, the current revenue share of 68% of revenue will be changed to a participation model based on CPM (cost per mille) bids. The exact implementation, in particular how advertisers' cost per click models will be converted to CPM, has not yet been published.

The current status can be found in my article:

Google AdSense: New revenue share structure

Automatic use of AdSense CMP

A new email on the subject of the consent management platform for AdSense is increasingly putting publishers on the spot. Background: By 16 January 2024, a Google-certified consent management solution must be used for traffic from the EEA and the UK. Without such a solution, there will be no AdSense revenue from this area in the future.

As AdSense itself has a free solution in its programme, Google is going one step further and offering publishers the option to install it automatically on the 16 January deadline.

All the info on this in the article update: GDPR information and consent

New: English version

Milanex.de becomes bilingual! From now on, the blog posts will also be published in English. The previous posts will also be translated bit by bit. The main focus will be on the AdSense posts, the webmaster topics will follow.

Those who prefer to read in English can find the new website here: Home

Search: Google Core Update August 2023

Google has announced the second official core update for Google Search. The update will be fully rolled out in the next 14 days.

It is the second core update this year. But in the meantime, there has also been a lot of movement in the search results. There are no concrete instructions for action for the Core Updates. As always, it is important to create relevant, unique and helpful content.

It is always exciting to see how websites and their search results develop. As always, there will be winners and losers. Good luck with it!

1 year the blog to the web - milanex.de

Today is the first anniversary of my blog. An occasion for a little review!

• 41 Posts (all in Google Index)
• 12 News
• 2 Featured Snippets
• 100.000 Google impressions
• 250 clicks per month from Google search, approx. 600 page views

This is not yet outstanding, but it shows that everything is slowly developing. The next project is to make the blog bilingual. The English version will start soon.

Update 9.8.23

Almost like a birthday present, the permission to monetise www.milanex.de with AdSense arrived today.


"Good news! Adsense ads can now be delivered to your milanex.de website."

Twice in the course of last year, there was a rejection due to 'policy violations'. AdSense often irritates prospective publishers with this practice. The actual reason is often not mentioned: Not yet enough relevance due to too little content and/or too little traffic from search engines.

This may also answer the common question of how much traffic and how much content do I actually need for approval. However, since the topics and the quality of the website also play a role, these are only indications.

AdSense: Selection of a SEPA payment method is now possible

In the AdSense dashboard there is now an inconspicuous message about the SEPA payment method that you can use from now on. Behind this, however, is a major change: Until now, you could only select a bank account from the country in which you were registered in your AdSense account. If you live in the EU, you can now also choose a bank account from the SEPA area in most countries.


Until now, you could not use AdSense if you did not have a bank account in this country. Especially 'digital nomads' will be happy that they can now also use AdSense.

AdSense: Google list for certified Consent Management Platforms

After AdSense's announcement during the course of the year that it would only accept CMPs that were certified by Google and TCF-compliant caused unrest and confusion among publishers, Google has now published a list of platforms that are already certified. This list will also be updated as more systems are added.

Click here for the Google list:

Google certified cmps

AdSense product expert diamant

Today an unexpected package arrived. The sender was Google AdSense and I was excited and then surprised. I was "promoted" to the product expert diamond. I was very happy about the appreciation and recognition!

If you want to know more about the Google Product Experts Programme, you can find information here:

Product expert programm: What it is.

And here is a link to the certificate:

Google AdSense certificate PE diamant