Seasonal Ads Now Displaying

[skyhawk133]

Just saw a seasonal ad in my 160x600 ad block.

Gifts, polar bear, rabit with box, penguin, snow man.

[annej]

They seem to be showing at random rather than all the time. In fact I'm only seeing them about a quarter of the time. I cleared my cache in case that was the problem but it made no difference, still random. I'd prefer they were shown all the time.

They don't match my color schemes either but I think they are kind of fun. I get fewer visitors during this time than any other. The target is such that my usual visitors are getting ready for the holidays and have less time for surfing. So why not do somethihng kind of different & whimsical?

I'm not sure I want to have them turned on for other holidays though.

[creepychris]

The color scheme matches the site that I have them on quite nicely. They look quite good here. I'll keep 'em up and see if the CTR moves. They are kinda growing on me.

[JoeS]

I can't believe it took over a week for them to get this in their network. It's almost Christmas.

What are they going to do next week?

My click-through-rate has dropped 1-2% since these began.

[malachite]

I'm seeing them on all sites now, but they do appear randomly, so I guess that's why I wasn't seeing them when I checked earlier.

Maybe it's a girl thing :) but I think they're rather cute so will leave them for now and see how things go.

I'm not sure I want to have them turned on for other holidays though.

I agree - it depends what the big G considers a holiday - ASA, if you're around could you give us a list of dates/occasions when Google is going to display these themed ads?

As a for instance, 4th July would probably be one? Great if sites have a mainly US audience/focus but pretty useless for me. Halloween also is not such a big thing outside the US. It'd be handy to know in advance when and for what occasion these ads were likely to show up so we could switch them on and off accordingly. Pretty please?!

[annej]

Maybe it's a girl thing but I think they're rather cute

That must be it. :) My visitors are mostly women of all ages. I just looked at my CTR and it's OVER DOUBLE the usual today. And the holiday version of the ads are only showing part of the time.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Hi everyone -

Thanks for the feedback on themed ad units. As you know, these are brand new so there is no calendar as of yet for when we'll be displaying them. Also, it might vary depending on the location of your users (i.e., different holidays in different geographic locations).

I'm glad to see that many of you are enjoying these. Please feel free to keep passing along suggestions for ways to improve the new feature!

-ASA

[skyhawk133]

Thanks ASA, any chance we could get a list of which countries see the the seasonal ads each time you release them?

[21_blue]

ASA wrote:
>Please feel free to keep passing along suggestions for ways to improve the new feature!

Dear Santa Google, my XMAS list for 2006 is:

1. A customisation feature, so that those of us who have "blended" ads can blend the seasonal ads as well
   
2. A geotargeted preview tool that can preview future holidays
   
3. A timetable of what will be shown when, with the ability to opt out of specific holidays
   
4. A "percentage shown" control, so that we can choose whether ads are shown 100%, 0% or the degree of randomness inbetween
   
5. Separate reporting for seasonal/ordinary ads so we can compare their performance
   
6. A Porsche Boxster
   

Thanks in advance

[annej]

ASA, just curious why they don't show all the time.

[Frequent]

annej-

That's an easy one. So that we (publishers) can't get a definitive number with regards to helping or hurting click through.

Freq---

[malachite]

That's an easy one. So that we (publishers) can't get a definitive number with regards to helping or hurting click through

Cynic ;)

[markbaa]

I have two main adsense sites... a very business focussed one and a very consumer focussed one. I turned on the seasonal function on my site figured google would work out which ones to display the seasonal ads on.

So far, seasonal ads on the business site, none on the consumer site (where I think they'll do really well - think Asian teenager audience).

:(

[Rodney]

Maybe they don't show all the time to test "ad blindness"

They seem to have helped my ctr slightly overall on a site that had blended ads. Makes me want to test making the ads stand out more for that site.

[elsewhen]

google did a beta test of these ads for holloween, and i am sure that they had improved CTR during that period, or they wouldnt have rolled it out.

the problem is, that it is likely that google received a network-wide improvment in CTR, which doesn't guarantee that a particular site will have improved CTR.

of course its too early to tell, but i think my sites are experiencing a slight decrease in expected CTR, but a slight increase in expected CPC.

will keep running them for a little longer and then make a final decision.

[21_blue]

Just an update... (reminder: yesterday seasonal ads started showing and our CTR dipped).

Seasonal ads have stopped showing on our site today and the CTR has recovered to near the more usual level. Although one day's data is not sufficient to draw firm conclusions, it does seem as if Seasonal Ads depress CTR on our site.

This is probably a combination of the fact that our site is business oriented and we have blended our colours and used "white space" rather than borders around the ads. Therefore the seasonal colours don't match fully, and the border/background being non-white spoils the page design.

[Frequent]

21_blue and markbaa,

I have to concur with your posts. The seasonal ads seemed to only show on my "business" related sites and not the "fun" related sites. Also, if yesterday is any real indication I would say that they also reduced the CTR for the day.

Although, this could also simply be due to people being out of the "shopping" mood. They are just coming to get the info they wanted and are gone. Busily preparing the roast beast no doubt.

However, despite a lackluster 1st day I am leaving them up for the duration. I would like to have some control of the colors but other than that I like the "seasonal" feel.

Freq---

[21_blue]

Frequent wrote:
>Although, this could also simply be due to people being out of the "shopping" mood.

Could be, though if that was the case, then I'd expect CTR to be low today, as well as yesterday. However, although traffic is down, CTR today is back to the level we'd expect.

I agree with your liking of the seasonal feel, but just need the ability to preview, blend and assess the impact.

[pcklz]

My observations -- I tried them, for one day -- watched the click-through rate plummet...nearly 2 percent. Overall that won't make much of a difference, but I wasn't willing to gamble. So, have turned off the option for now.

I think most of the problem was how badly the ads clashed with the design of the sites they were on. But also, to some degree, how badly they clashed with the content of the sites. Out of seven or so sites - I suspect only one or two would benefit from having the seasonal ads. With no way to pick and choose, this option is of very little use to me.

By March and St. Patrick's day, I'd really like to see a way (for lack of a better word) to channelize the presentation of the seasonal ads... Would also like to see color palette options....even if it's as simple as for dark backgrounds versus light backgrounds.