How AdSense could (and should) be improved

[John Carpenter]

Quoting from the AdSense blog:

Next, the team experimented with AdSense designs, focusing on optimization through typography and placement. They found the biggest influence on CTR was the similarity between the AdSense type (size and font), and the main body text of the page. The more similar the type, the higher the CTR.

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

So I'd like to ask the AdSense team (again), wouldn't it be a good idea to allow all AdSense publishers to select suitable font faces and font sizes for ads displayed on their sites? At least from some "safe" Google-prepared presets (e.g. Verdana, Arial, Times, maybe Helvetica).

[deepesh]

Nice Question! ASA, Pls. Comment.

[NoLimits]

What good does increasing CTR do?

Every time I increase my CTR - one week later, earnings are back to normal regardless of how much my CTR increased.

Perhaps you haven't hit the Smart Pricing wall yet?

[zjacob]

I guess the point of the EngineeringTalk article in the context of font and optimization is that you should match you site's font to the ads, not the other way around.

While we're discussing ways to improve Adsense, I'd like Adsense to copy a book from the Chitika business idea book, and allow publishers the option to target ads with multiple keywords instead of leaving it to the AS algo.

For that to work, I guess, they'd need to strike a marketing deal, like Chitika has done, with a merchant that carries a massive inventory of individual products from third parties, like shopping.com.

[John Carpenter]

I guess the point of the EngineeringTalk article in the context of font and optimization is that you should match you site's font to the ads, not the other way around.

You may be ready to redesign your site to match the style of Google ads. We would never even consider doing anything like that.

Would you like it if all AdSense publisher sites looked the same way? Sorry, but it's a bit perverted idea.

They allow colors to be changed, so why not allow font face and font size to be changed as well (by the way, premium publishers can).

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Hi John Carpenter -

Thanks for your feedback on AdSense fonts; I'll be sure to pass it along to the product team.

I'm glad to see you're reading the Inside AdSense blog!

-ASA

[John Carpenter]

Hi John Carpenter -
Thanks for your feedback on AdSense fonts; I'll be sure to pass it along to the product team.

Hi ASA, thank you. I hope the product team will consider it seriously. It could bring more money to all three parties (Google, publishers, and advertisers).

I'm glad to see you're reading the Inside AdSense blog!

Yes, it's a good blog. It would be nice, if comments were allowed (but I think I know and understand why they are not).

Regards,
John

[david_uk]

I'd like to see targetting like Chitika on keywords too. My site has been online for 5+ years now, and a of today I'm #1 on google.com and google.co.uk for my prime keyword. Like most of us, I've been analysing my logfiles a lot over the years. I know who my site appeals to, I know where my visitors come from, what they expect to find when they get there, demographic info - you name it.

With this knowledge that Google can't possibly have, I feel that webmasters should have more input into what ads are targetted. I'm not suggesting that google allow us to disable the target bot or anything that extreme. I don't think it would help to be honest if they did! I would like to see selected keywords taken account of. I know we have the targetting tool, but that in my experience did not improve targetting.

[bnhall]

What is the current Adsense font?

[linear]

Arial. Point size varies based on the ad unit.

[John Carpenter]

Verdana is used in some AdSense formats too (for instance in the 468x60 and the 234x60 formats).