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Google announced two updates this week for AdSense. One, that they've upgraded the AdSense ad unit creation process to make it easier. Two, that they have two new ad unit sizes added to the mix of ad units.
AdSense Ad Creation Updated
Google made it "easier" to make AdSense ad units by refreshing the interface and speeding things up within that interface. The screen below shows the steps you go through now:
AdSense Adds Two New Ad Sizes
Google has added two new ad sizes for AdSense publishers, pretty massive ones. They are 970 x 250 Billboard and the 300 x 1050 Portrait. Yea, massive. Here are pictures of how massive they are:
Note, URL link will now display in a light gray replacing the green color previously associated with it. Here is a picture:
Comments:
Shazad
06/06/2014 12:16 pm
That's really good...
Thomas
06/06/2014 02:12 pm
nice massive, above the fold ad to get whacked for :/ hypocritical bs.
Alexander Hemedinger
06/06/2014 02:25 pm
I was thinking same thing...
Yo Mamma
06/06/2014 02:52 pm
A once free service is now PAID The big Google sell out to ADVERTISING ADWORDS
CharlesBiggs
06/06/2014 03:07 pm
Same...
Durant Imboden
06/06/2014 03:46 pm
The 300 x 1050 skyscraper might work on long pages, but the 970 x 250 leaderboard seems a bit overwhelming. And either one is going to look ugly unless it's a display ad created for that size, as opposed to a slew of text ads or a couple of 300 x 250 ad units floating in the space.
CharlesBiggs
06/06/2014 03:46 pm
With all these "innovations", new ad sizes and what-not it kinda has me thinking (actually for quite a while now) whether users are not beginning to "smarten" up to ads too much..? If not, how long will the gravy train last? In my humble it has already been on a downward trend/spiral for quite a while now. And call me pessimistic (I prefer realistic) but somehow I can't see this changing FTW. What will happen when "regular" users become so savvy that gimmicky tricks and sly ad placements work no more? Keep blurring the lines between actual content and ads I suppose... I can see these companies pushing the envelope to the extreme, almost to the point that they are tricking users too much. I say too much because definitely there is some trickery already involved imo. Really, how many people do you know click on ads... All the folks I know certainly don't! They know exactly what they are. Which brings me to another point--most the folks I've seen that click on ads usually don't even realize that what they are clicking on is in fact an ad. Despite the labeling. No that is not a link to that detailed research paper you are looking for, it is a link to a site looking to monetize. It's basically do a search [Google] and click on the very first result. Prime territory for advertisements. It's almost like a reflex. These folks are usually older, too young to realize and or of the non-tech-savvy Luddite variety. What kind of ROI is that? I mean these ads are supposed to be highly targeted right? Because if they are that targeted you won't be able to resist right? What if you really want that item but got no money? And click on that ad (thus costing the advertiser money) anyway only to buy from competing vendor at a later date? Cost of doing business I guess. I digress on some of these last points though. Just think, have you clicked on an ad lately? Or because you thought ooohhh what's that!? I gotta check that out; gotta get me one of those; I gotta have that! Yeah, I thought so. Me too :-]. **Edited to add** In my case what works really well [on me] are email offers and things like this. Mighty Deals anyone!!? Boy these guys do "spam" a lot. I even created a filter called "spam promo" just for these guys. And yet...they get me every time :-]. Just can't resist some of those deals. So I guess on some level online advertisements are not doomed altogether. Maybe the display banners and such. I will in no way pretend to know too much about this aspect of online advertising though; I just go from the data and experiments I've set up and what seems to work. Anyway, don't mind me, carry on folks.
Durant Imboden
06/06/2014 05:21 pm
One of the big problems with online advertising is that, because of low CPMs (or effective CPMs, in the case of CPC ads), there's a tendency to load up the page with ads, which makes each ad less visible and of less value to both readers and advertisers. My local metropolitan newspaper for example, often runs seven ads on a page. The individual ads get lost in the clutter. From a reader's point of view, a single, relevant 300 x 600 display ad should be more appealing than a bunch of ads scattered around the page, So why hasn't the industry embraced single, large ad units? Such ad formats have been around for years, but they're mostly used on big-name newspaper and magazine sites.
CharlesBiggs
06/07/2014 12:47 am
Great points. Especially regarding just one single relevant ad unit whether it be a 300x600 or something else. And: From a reader's point of view, a single, relevant 300 x 600 display ad should be more appealing than a bunch of ads scattered around the page... It's funny you say this. I have found this to be true on many occasions. On one site I used to run in particular (monetized mainly with AdSense) I had one specific popular page. Had it maxed out with all available ad units as per TOS. On a whim and a bid to clean up the page, I removed all the ads except one 336x280 unit above the fold near the headline. The result...CTRs (and earnings) almost tripled. Literally instantaneously. So definitely, there's a lot of merit to this in my experience. In general I've been leaning towards this trend myself. I wonder if it has anything to do with [a perceived] supply and demand. You would think that those laws would apply. This is something I'm continuing to experiment with to this day.
Jameyson MacDonald
06/09/2014 01:11 am
Forget about Adsense; not only is it a joke that doesn't even pay that well, but more and more people are having issues with their accounts and having their payments witheld. When you do have an issue, good luck getting someone on the phone. I recently had an issue with my account and tried to speak with someone in customer service 3 times in as many days. Each time I was placed on hold immediately and stayed on hold. The last time I called, I waited 5 hours on hold then hung up. I removed Adsense completely from my website, sent them an email notifying them that I felt their business ethics and customer service sucks and switched to Chitika, a system that is similar to Adsense, except it pays more and has many less issues. To view how Chitika ads look, you can see them in the right sidebar on my website at http://www.lcws.net If you'd like to get Chitika yourself, just go to http://www.chitika.com