Written on August 12th, 2005 at 02:08 pm by Darren Rowse
Adsense Centered Text Ads
Perhaps connected to the Adsense move to vary the number of text ads in an ad unit is this new centered design of Adsense ad that I spotted today on my digital camera review blog. It’s in a 468 x 60 ad block and is actually quite striking on the page.
Update - I just saw the following ad on another of my sites - it’s the same ad but MASSIVE! I’m not sure I like it - it tends to dominate the page quite a bit. What do you think?
15 Responses to “Adsense Centered Text Ads”
Jason Gilman
August 12th, 2005 3:35 pm
Yeah, that definitely seems like a nice adjustment on Google’s part. I use that size banner a lot when I add additional ads to longer posts so perhaps I’ll start seeing some like that soon.
Dave
August 12th, 2005 5:27 pm
Hmm, problem is that when you are designing around the fact that the ads are left aligned, suddenyl centering ads might just upset the balance for a few people.
Wish list would be that adsense would allow you to choose
a) left, center, right alignment
b) font size (say between 7pt and 12pt)
c) font (say verdana, arial, sans-serif, etc)
We are told quite often that blending the ads into your design is a good way to increase clicks, yet google seems intent on ensuring that there is no consistency between the ads that are served up - some of the main ads on my pages now show 3 rather than 4 links, which means there more whitespace and a larger font, which contrasts with the overall design.
If google are going to continue to rpovide variable ad formats, they need to give the webmaster some form of control over how its displayed.
Miha
August 12th, 2005 7:24 pm
It would be great if we could get more control of the way ads are displayed, but I thing Google will never do it.
Are this new ads text or image ads???
John (SYNTAGMA)
August 12th, 2005 7:51 pm
Hmmm. Sometimes when Flickr goes down, a small pic is replaced by a large empty box and part of the sidebar disappears below the skyscraper. Messing about with sizes can cause problems. Presumably they know what they’re doing?
Darren Rowse
August 12th, 2005 8:34 pm
these are text ads Miha.
Dave
August 12th, 2005 9:13 pm
John, I wish I was convinced that google know what they are doing, but having seen problems with the ads in netscape/firefox scrolling slightly when you mouse over them, I’m not overly sure! :D
The big add looks a little tacky to me, I’d rather have discreet adverts rather than in-your-face large ones.
Allan Burns
August 12th, 2005 9:38 pm
Maybe Google are trying to overcome ad blindness. In my opinion they are making their ads look more like ads.
This doesn’t bother me at all as I get far too few visitors for it to make a difference. I bet it is upsetting some folks though.
Jacob
August 12th, 2005 10:49 pm
I’m pretty sure these ads are CPM ads Darren. I don’t think these are simple PPC. You’re guaranteed a better rate with them, that’s why I don’t mind them as much. You don’t have to worry about the clickthrough rate with them. I’ve noticed them on some of my sites from time to time. Anyway, I’m *pretty* sure that’s what the deal is.
IO ERROR
August 13th, 2005 12:27 am
I’ve been seeing those large centered ads in your 300×250 block for several days now here on ProBlogger.
oli
August 13th, 2005 1:03 am
These are cpm ad campaigns, Ive had a few run on my site aswell.
tmtb
August 13th, 2005 2:43 am
That needs to be an opt-in. I’ve seen it on quite a few sites and it is quite intrusive. It kinda goes against the blend it in idea.
I would say that there are a few placements that are less intrusive than others. On this blog, for example, when you’re scrolling down and you get before the comments, it’s like a stop sign. Maybe that’s a good thing…hmmm.
Quick Online Tips
August 13th, 2005 4:50 am
I am not sure I like these huge ads. I wish they had an option to allow or disable such changes by publishers.
FFL
August 13th, 2005 11:26 am
To much empty space, if you are in photography, space is valuable and this ad doesn’t do it.
Michele
August 15th, 2005 6:24 pm
Those look like site-targetted ads as opposed to standard context ads.
Rob Lewis
August 18th, 2005 3:09 am
I was hoping that the Yahoo Publisher Network would allow for much greater customisation of ads which might push Google to do the same (eg font size, alignment, as suggested in one of the comments above), but from what I’ve seen so far, the Yahoo ads are very similar to Google’s and the customisation options are pretty much the same.
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