To allow adsense to be targeted on facebook applications, you first have to realize that adsense code cannot be added directly on a facebook page, due to javascript limitations.

The only way to get around this is to pull adsense ads via an iFrame box, where the adsense code is actually on a different page somewhere(not a facebook page). On this adsense page, you must do a few things to make sure the ads are targetted, or else google will just send random ads with no targeting.

I target the ads by putting entering meta data on the page holding the adsense code. I also name that page something specific to my sites general topic. While you probably cannot make EVERY page of your application targetted like it normally would, you can at least get targeted to the general topic of the application.

Something else you may consider is using url parameters in the end of the url for the page holding the adsense code, and use those parameters to change the overall targetting.

For example, I can use iframe src=”site.com/facebook/apartments.php?city=Raleigh&page=Reviews

I can then take these url parameters to help target the meta data so that adsense can focus its advertising better towards apartment reviews in raleigh, in this example.

Hope this sheds some light into the facebook/adsense universe for you.

Recently, Facebook announced that they would make their application pages public, or at least, open up the option for developers to make their pages public. So this brings the SEO Consultant in me to ask, will these pages become highly ranked in the near future? Will they become a valuable place for sites to get links on?

A storm of ‘domain squatting’, if you will, has already started on facebook, with developers gobbling up the most highly sought after keywords.

A new application has even launched to allow developers to sell their facebook applications to those seeking to have the right keywords.

My analysis is this:

http://apps.facebook.com/apartments/ will be of no more value as a location for keyword specific content than say, http://apps.facebook.com/the-crazy-apartment-man/apartments/.

Both locations in the facebook directory could potentially be developed with public accessibility, and both could be optimized with some “apartments” specific data.

The only thing I can think of that would potentially limit this value of the second location, is that google may throw into their algorithm some value associated with how far down the directory a page is located. If location site.com/x/y/z/a/b/c is considered of less value than location site.com/x/ , then you may have an arguement in terms of assigning SEO value to the directory names behind facebook. Otherwise, I think the “squatting” may be short sited, and irrelevant.

Any thoughts? Leave a comment!

I have an application that I created, with 10,000 registered “Installs”. The application is averaging around 600 unique user visits per day, out of those 10k users.

I decided to test out existing popular ad solutions that are available to facebook advertisers, and included google in the mix.

After much investigation, the best solution I could find within facebook was provided by http://socialmedia.com .

Their solution allows for various sizes of ads, and many of the advertisers paying for clicks are other applications within facebook.

However, after running their ad solution for 3 weeks, I found it to be lacking, and providing only an average of $.07 per click.

Optimizing a facebook page to deliver targeted ads had once seemed to be impossible.

So, with an average of 50-60 clicks per day, I was bringing in a grand total of about $3.00 per day. The most important thing to consider here however, is not the money brought in, but the number of users that were taken away from my application.

I then decided to hack out an Adsense solution that would still provide for targeting within the facebook application. I found that it took longer than usual for the ads to start targeting the content on my application pages, but after 4 days, WHAM … my first targetted ads were appearing.

Instead of the previous $.07 per click, I was able to get $.90 per click for a not-so popular subject matter. This was great for me, and had some other great advantages, other than just the money:

- I didnt need to put the ads on as many pages to get the same monetization value

- I didnt have as many users being taken away from my application while still receiving the same moneys.

- With a focus on the user experience, I no longer had to push for shear numbers of clicks, but rather was able to position the ads selectively, targetted to points in the application where users often opted to leave the application by their own choice. The ads were now being used essentially to offer them a way out of the site at a time they were wanting to leave anyway (for example, when they were finished submitting information)

Google is once again KING, at least in the targeted ads arena, and facebook is the next place that developers are looking to reap the rewards for well targeted pages, and high user involvement.