Thanks, Google

for horizontal AdLinks, and for listening to publishers

[berto]

There is so much grousing about Google here in the Adsense forum and elsewhere at Webmaster World. Although I share some of the concerns, I'd like to add something positive, too.

Thanks, Google, for making horizontal AdLinks available a few weeks back. On one of my sites, horizontal AdLinks have increased my CTR by 5X or more, with revenue from that site up accordingly. Before horizontal AdLinks, I tried almost everything else, including vertical AdLinks, and nothing really worked. I was removing underperforming, or non-performing, ad units from page after page. It got to be so bad that I was seriously thinking of dropping Adsense from the site entirely. Then Google made horizontal AdLinks available, which changed everything. I have renewed hope of successfully monetizing the site. This motivates me to continue working hard at it.

Thanks, too, for listening to publishers. When vertical AdLinks were first made available several months ago, one or two persons requested the horizontal AdLinks variety. I didn't think much of it at the time, and the request elicited little comment in the Adsense forum. But Google listened, got to work, and horizontal AdLinks were the result. On a hunch, I tried horizontal AdLinks. Their performance was miraculous.

Okay, so Google could be more responsive in general, but in the case of horizontal AdLinks, I say: Thanks for listening. Thanks for reacting. Good job!

[joeking]

Great post Berto - you have inspired me to try them for myself.

My only concern is that visitors click on them, believing them to be navigation bars, and are annoyed that they are taken to another website. Is this a genuine concern do you think?

[webnoob]

if you want to piss your visitors off then use them.. most people think they are normal links to other parts of the site only to be sent elsewhere.

adlinks are useless for most and the person has to click twice for you to earn anything. some people have a hard time getting just one click, nevermind two.

[jretzer]

Adlinks outperform my other ads by three to one. My sites are blogs, and I get a high percentage of return visits, so I don't think they're making anyone angry.

[berto]

If you deploy horizontal AdLinks in a deceptive way, so that visitors confusedly think them to be site navigation bars, I suppose that some might be annoyed. But I don't do that.

If I substitute the unobtrusive, low-profile horizontal AdLinks for a more in-your-face, garish conventional ad unit, I think I've reduced my visitors annoyance level, not increased it.

The proof is in the pudding. For over three weeks now, horizontal AdLinks (in the "hot spot," above the fold, centered, just before the main page content) have outperformed anything else I've tried by 5X or more. If users are annoyed in general, I don't think they would continue clicking as they have.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

berto,

This is great feedback. We’re glad to hear you’ve had a positive experience using the new horizontal link unit. As you mentioned in your post, we try to improve and develop products based on the suggestions provided by our publishers.

WebmasterWorld is one of the ‘forums’ (literally and figuratively) where we get to hear your feedback and ideas for future offerings, which we greatly appreciate. So, basically, keep on writing about what you want!

-ASA

[david_uk]

I got the code for a 465*15 but ended up with a big square with three ads! Something wrong there I think

[TheDonster]

I too have to thank Google for implementing horizontal AdLinks. I couldn't really blend them into my site vertically and since adding them, they have become my star performers on my landing pages with double digit CTR. Now that being said and taking ASA to task about what else we would like to see, how about allowing publishers to blend the Search box. Only 2 colors (black & white) definitely makes it difficult to integrate. I know this seems unlikely since the response has always been no, but maybe someday... (hope-hope).

[surfer67]

they have become my star performers on my landing pages with double digit CTR

Is the eCPM comparable to the regular adsense ads?

Also, these require a second click, correct?

[Celicaphile]

how about allowing publishers to blend the Search box. Only 2 colors (black & white) definitely makes it difficult to integrate.

They also have gray...

[incrediBILL]

Webnoob said:

if you want to piss your visitors off then use them.. most people think they are normal links to other parts of the site only to be sent elsewhere.

adlinks are useless for most and the person has to click twice for you to earn anything. some people have a hard time getting just one click, nevermind two.

That's an opinion many of us simply don't share.

My site generates a ton of feedback a day (more than I can reply to) and I've never heard a single negative comment about AdLinks, EVER. Visitors do click twice, and I had a 30% earnings increase to prove it.

Check out this thread, many said their income went up a bunch:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Would you like some salt to go with that crow?

[Sense_able]

I thank Adsense for 2 cars, a happy wife and a nearly paid for house.

[TheDonster]

TO: Surfer67
Yes so far the eCPM has remained in line with all other comparable ads onsite. One of the advantages to the links is that it serves up more choices of ads on the secondary page. It really is amazing to me that visitors will click twice to view an advertisement. The only drawback I can see so far is that when the visitor clicks back to the primary link page, the adlinks have changed so they may get frustrated if there was something else they wanted to click on.

TO: Celicaphile
Oh yeah, forgot gray, doesn't blend in either for me
:-)

[beggers]

Is anyone able to put two instances of the Links code on the same page (such as top and bottom)? I can't get this to work and I wonder if they are interfering with each other.

[Alioc]

Beggers, more than one adlinks unit on the same page isn't allowed at the moment.

[sircraig2000]

If Google allowed more than one Adlinks I would use them exclusively :)

[berto]

Yes, if we could use multiple (limit 2?) AdLinks units per page, I would use them exclusively, too. They do very well on the type of sites I run.

[howiejs]

I would also like to request additional ad link units per page

[Alioc]

Hopefully, we will make these new feature requests to the new ASA soon. I see that there will be many good ideas to make Adsense better.

[ganeshcp]

horizontal adlinks are doing very well on my site. one tip is to place them at the bottom of your site giving your visitors something to do after they're read your page.

what i don't understand is why ad links are displayed sometimes when there are no ads for that topic to serve.

[Alioc]

What's more weird is that sometimes no adlink is displayed when there are ads to serve! ;) It's all chaos.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Hi TheDonster…

Apologies I didn't get back to you before the weekend. I just wanted to let you know I’ve passed along your feedback about allowing publishers to use a wider variety of background colors for AFS boxes.

howiejs - I’ve also passed your suggestion about allowing multiple link units to the product team.

These are exactly the kinds of suggestions we are interested in, so thanks for sharing your ideas so quickly.

-ASA

[TheDonster]

Hi ASA,

Thank you very much! I have seen premium publishers are allowed to modify the Google search boxes so I know Google is not 100% against it. It would be nice to be able to blend the search boxes into our sites as well as the ads. As noted in the recent webinar the more blended the ads are with site content, the less chance of ad-blindness. Being able to integrate the Google search box would seem to be a logical progression as well.

[nervo]

I've got two adlink units + one leaderboard ad on one page. Is that allowed?

[nervo]

Huh, forget about the previous question... I have just found the answer and I'm going to take the second adlink unit down..