The discussion revolves around replacing Discourse’s built-in Suggested Topics with Google AdSense’s Matched Content. ljpp introduces the idea, highlighting Matched Content’s similar user engagement feature and monetization opportunity. charleswalter shares his experience with Matched Content, preferring it for desktop but not mobile, and suggests improvements for mobile topic pages.
Charleswalter also shares his implementation of Matched Content on desktop using a 728x90 footer ad through DFP. ljpp clarifies that he is looking for a more native integration, using Matched Content as a 1:1 replacement for Suggested Topics. Charleswalter notes that using Matched Content would mean losing control over topic specificity to categories and potentially showing irrelevant content.
The idea of a plugin to integrate Matched Content into Discourse is proposed, with consideration for factors like time and relevance in suggesting topics. Charleswalter suggests a recent posts area as an alternative solution.
Google AdSense’s new Matched Content is interesting in two ways:
It provides similar user engagement feature than Discourse’s built in Suggested Topics.
It can be used for monetization, on eligible sites.
Has anyone tried this on Discourse? The Matched Content has a responsive layout, so it could be used as a drop in replacement for Suggested Topics. I would be very curious to see this in action. It would be interesting to see how Google selects the topics to be promoted, and of course the monetization opportunity is there.
Could it be implemented to replace the Suggested Topics via Discourse’s awesome customization panel?
I have tried it in the past and like how it can provide thumbnails for content with images. It’s good for desktop view, but I am not a big fan of the mobile experience. In the end, I prefer using the ad spaces for ads. It would be nice to have another option for recirculating users around the site. The ideal experience would probably be different for desktop and mobile at the topic level.
I just added a link in our mobile topic footer to encourage new users landing from search to explore the list of categories. I’d be interested in the idea of showcasing latest topics at the bottom of topics with an additional link to browse more of the category and create a new topic. The mobile topic pages could probably be improved to get new users engaged with the category or community, as users land on the topics from search engines.
I have a 728x90 in the footer active through DFP. I’m assuming the same could be done activating the AdSense placement, but that may not allow you to place the custom code. Currently I have regular ads running, but you can imagine this with the code from AdSense matched content.
Not sure if this is what you were looking for. If you need more info on setting up DFP, I can try to offer assistance on that. Let me know if you try it out.
Ok, that is not exactly what I am after. Since Matched Content layout is responsive, I could be used as a 1:1 replacement for Suggested Topics. Blend it in to the site layout so that it looks more or less native.
No. When I had tried it I only had content showing from our site. Interesting idea of having an option in Discourse to specify for related content area to come from the AdSense matched content plugin. Perhaps a good plugin. Note that you lose control of having the topics be sepcific to the category, and some may not be relevant any longer (which could also be a case with related content)
Time is a factor that should probably be considered for suggesting topics. That why I like the idea of a recent posts area.
