336x250 only showing two ads?

[maxgoldie]

For the first time I see only two ads in my 336x250, where there normally should be four. Plus the fonts are almost twice as big as normal.

It looks terrible. Any ideas how to get it to show four ads?

(I have opted out of CPM and "advertise on this site".)

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Hi everyone -

Sorry I didn't jump in earlier. The ads you're referring to are called expanded text ads (for more information, see [google.com ]).

I assure you that we performed lots of testing before releasing this feature, and found there was a revenue benefit for publishers. If you see expanded text ads appearing on your site, it's because our technology has determined that showing fewer ads on a particular site represents a greater revenue benefit for you.

As you know, the ad auction is dynamic so while you might see expanded text ads appearing sometimes (i.e., when they represent the greatest revenue potential), at other times your ad unit might contain more ad units.

-ASA

[pgrote]

"I assure you that we performed lots of testing before releasing this feature, and found there was a revenue benefit for publishers. If you see expanded text ads appearing on your site, it's because our technology has determined that showing fewer ads on a particular site represents a greater revenue benefit for you."

I have no idea what this means.

Does this mean that you are limiting the number of ads? Does it mean that due to people buying ads specifically for our sites or genre kicks in limiting?

Is there a way to opt out of this and return to the way it was?

Was any thought given to the way the pages look with the new ad format?

When will the results be reviewed and turned back to the way it used to be?

"As you know, the ad auction is dynamic so while you might see expanded text ads appearing sometimes (i.e., when they represent the greatest revenue potential), at other times your ad unit might contain more ad units."

Although I haven't looked at every site with 336x250, I don't recall seeing any with the normal amount of ads before this change.

Was this change communicated to advertisers in Ad Words?

[heyday]

Thanks for the info but....

What if it brings us less revenue?... which it is.....

It sure would be nice to be able to turn this "feature" off.

heyday

[annej]

ASA, what alarms me is I seem to have lost all those wonderful ads from the hobby specific online businesses that fit my topic so perfectly.

Now I am just getting big companies and when I use the adsense tool to look at them they really don't offer anything related to my hobby topic.

The problem is these ads are selling the object made in this hobby while my visitors want supplies for their hobby.

[Vlad]

I have been using a large square on the index page of my site for a few months now. I have only one page with this format and by far it was one of the best performing pages.
I just noticed the other day that it only had 2 ads showing and didn't think much of it, until I saw this thread.

I went to check my stats for December, and what do you know... 50% drop in clicks and revenue since about the mid month for this channel.

The rest of the site uses a different ad format and there is no shortage of ads. A scary thought just crossed my mind... what if this spreads to all ad formats :/ Ouch!

I could see how this might be beneficial to advertisers, but not publishers IMHO.

Some of us do a lot of testing before deciding which ad format works best, if google wants to do this for us, they should at least give us an option to opt out! Or maybe they should just make a special auto-pilot-format and show 1 to 8 ads depending on time of day or some other factor.

Anyway, it's very frustrating to see this change. Does anyone feel they are making more money since this change?

[fearlessrick]

This drivel from Google is pure BS:

Showing fewer ads works to your advantage,
allowing the better-performing ads to draw more user attention and click-throughs.

I've been wondering why my eCPM was so low recently. All the ads that are big rectangle are showing only two ads. They are in prime locations. Google is hurting me and themselves with yet another brain-dead move.

4 ad units in the box looked way better, converted better. Get a clue, Googlers.

[maxgoldie]

I wonder how this is affecting advertisers? Sure, there are going to be some who might like it and find it beneficial, but how is it playing out with them across the board?

[Sweet Cognac]

As you know, the ad auction is dynamic so while you might see expanded text ads appearing sometimes (i.e., when they represent the greatest revenue potential), at other times your ad unit might contain more ad units.

Is ASA saying that only certain times of the day the ads are reduced, such as, when the site is recieving the most visitors and then returns to normal after the visitors slow down? Or am I reading into this?

Good point Vlad, I've done plenty of testing, and when I settled finally on a large leaderboard, I had to go back and change it again and rebuild the whole site because the one ad, (which is not expanded text) looked ridiculous and was way off topic.

[NoLimits]

I've been saying this is affecting me adversely - it still is.

My earnings are consistantly lower since my number of ads shown in the 336x and 250x AdBlocks have been cut down. CTR is less than 1/3rd of normal, and while the EPC is up - it doesn't come ANYWHERE NEAR compensating for the reduction in EPC.

This should have been optional. If this is optimizing for CONVERSION RATE - then I won't fret, but if this is supposed to be an optimization to increase MY bottom line, as I understand it to be - the algo being used is seriously flawed.

[heyday]

It is bad for advertisers.... less ads... less impressions...... It could be good for the guy that is "lucky" enough if his ad is one of the two.... but then again not as many people are clicking now....

I mainly advertise on the Content network and even though I just said all that I'm actualy getting more impressions today then I was two weeks ago.... but then Jan is always my hotest month....

heyday