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".)

[ken_b]

I can only dream of having all my 300x250 rectangles showing 4 ads at the same time. Such is life in a relatively low inventory niche.

I'm lucky to get three ads showing, 2 ads is common, and 1 ads isn't unusual. And that's when we are just talking about regular CPC ads in the regular size.

So this isn't affecting me negatively that I can tell. In fact, I'm guessing it would help me.

One thing about varying the number of ads is that it may combat ad blindess because not every adblock looks the same. Combine that with rotaing background colors, etc and the result may get even better.

[edited by: ken_b at 8:10 pm (utc) on Jan. 2, 2006]

[Nitrous]

Well I am now seing 3 and 4 ads in those boxes after having 2 for weeks.

It didnt hurt my income though since this month is around 3000 much like the last 20 have been - probably the opposite in fact since december is normally lower.

[spaceylacie]

My main ad position is a large 336X250 rectangle and I noticed the same thing. Mine all had 4 units before I left on vacation 2 weeks ago, now they all have just 2. I don't know exactly when the switch happened, but since Dec. 29th my CTR and eCPM for those units have dropped. The 2 units don't look bad on my site but the 4 units seemed to make more money.

[Tropical Island]

Mine are still showing the two ads.

If yesterday's results are any indication then they can stay that way.

Had a record day on Monday.

[adamxcl]

It's ugly and I don't like it but revenue has been good....so it's a tough one. Maybe they provide the option in the ad settings....to run a certain number of ads for those who want design over dollars.

[paulroberts3000]

well I'm getting 2 regular size ads in the rectangle all the time, i changed to this unit and my earnings went up now they're down and so is my ctr by 50%.

I'm going to try 2 460x60 ads to see if it makes a difference.

[maxgoldie]

ken_b, I think you are right that the change in number of ads might combat ad-blindness, and actually (hopefully) improve conversions. (although showing just two ads out of four might be lowering CTR across the board, it may improve conversions -- something that I, as a publisher, have no way of knowing though.)

I think that this might even be the reason for this en masse change to large rectangles; with the sudden growth of competitors of Adsense like YPN with similar looking ads, perhaps G is trying to combat a creeping ad blindness that may be setting in with all of the contextual ads out there now.

As an aside, I wish there was a way to measure the performance of rotating random background colors.

[pgrote]

It's been a horrible change, and I don't know why Google hasn't commented on it yet.

Not only does it change the look of the page, but it changes the flow. My CTR and earnings are down because of it.

Does anyone know if this is because Google has a low ad inventory now that the holidays are over?

[Atomic]

I have some rectangles with four ad units again but some still with two or three. And thank goodness. CTR was going down the tubes.

[maxgoldie]

I doubt that this has anything to do with ad inventory. We wouldnt be seeing this happen across the board like this in every different niche.