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A month or so ago, Google officially brought arrows to all AdSense ads after doing so on mobile ads.
Since then, Google has tested and tried the arrows in blue, white and gray colors, from what I've seen.
Now, there are reports that the arrows are not displaying at all on some Google AdSense text ad units.
A WebmasterWorld thread has a couple AdSense publishers saying they sporadically do not see the arrows anymore.
The only time I am able to replicate the ads without arrows is when an image or multimedia ad is displayed.
I think for the most part, publishers like the CTR impact of having arrows on the ads. So I am not sure why Google is testing them without. I guess changing it up often helps with the overall CTR on AdSense ads.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
TheChafas
01/14/2013 04:48 pm
I still see them and they work great, CTR increased in my case. I hope Google just simply put this as an optional thing for members in the AdSense Panel.
Robin331
01/14/2013 10:30 pm
adsense conversions goes down dramatically at end of 2012 and 2013, need to promote aff programs, not adwords
pubpubpub
07/01/2013 11:38 am
My earnings have gone down since they started those gawd-awful 1998 arrows. It makes my site look ridiculous as well. I don't what impact you're talking about.