AdSense Font Size Mania

AdSense now lets you change the font size of your text ads

[AdSenseAdvisor]

When we released new font choices [webmasterworld.com] a few months ago, the biggest piece of feedback we heard was that you'd like some control over font sizes as well. That was tough for me because we were already working on it but I wasn't allowed to tell you.

I also wanted to give you a heads up that soon we'll be setting the default font size a little bit bigger based on your feedback that sometimes the text ads on your page are hard to read. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, VOILA! You can now experiment with font sizes for the text ads in your account. There are more details in the blog post we put out on the topic.

Enjoy!

ASA

[Play_Bach]

Ok Khensu, I'll give Large another shot since following your lead a few years ago was the best thing I ever did in AdSense.

[Khensu]

Wow, must have been good. Maybe I was more enlightened in those days.

The size comes and goes!

Whatup wit dat?

[WolfLover]

Ok, as of right now, I am up 30% in CTR and ECPM. This may not hold. I changed to LARGE font on all my sites in a test to see what would happen. If it goes to crap, I'll go back to small like it was before.

Here's hoping this is really working!

[Automotive site]

Wolf, I am seeing similar figures (30-40% increase on previous levels of CTR with small font) on one the sites I am testing on. Have applied the medium font on another site just now (I feel medium as opposed to large will be better on this one) taking into consideration the layout and design and teh reader experience.

[Automotive site]

But its all too early though. I think you should give it a week and see whether the increase sticks or not.

[true_INFP]

I seem to remember complaints from publishers that the increased text size made their pages look bad.

Yes, I'm one of them, and this new feature does not help with that problem at all.

The feature has not changed anything for those of us who want to keep the font size small. In fact, it is completely useless for us.

I changed the account-wide font size to 'Small' several hours ago, but the font size keeps changing randomly in a tasteless way, as usual. When Google displays a single ad within a two-ad ad unit, the font size is definitely not what I would call Small. Compared to the default size of the format, it is Medium, and sometimes even very Large.

I hope this is just a bug. If it's not, I'm going to be really disappointed. It would be completely useless for publishers who want to avoid big font sizes. And it looked so promising.

[zdgn]

Further to my post earlier, it seems (atleast at my end) the font-size in 300x250 with 4-ads still cannot be increased (I chose Arial and Medium+) - retaining old original smallish size.

That makes two of what I've tested so far:

728x90 (4-ads per unit, Arial) - No increase
300x250 (4-ads per unit, Arial)- No increase

Would be nice to have one ad taken out of these to make the 3 remaining ones larger if Arial Medium+ is set on the unit.

[sailorjwd]

Yes, pages may not look as good but now I can buy health insurance. CTR up significant percentage and EPC is better since I only enlarged the top ad on a two-ad page.

[Play_Bach]

I'm still having one of the worst days ever after changing the font size. :-(

[WolfLover]

You know how there are claims that ugly sites do well? It's true.

As a for instance, when I would go to use the 728x90 ad size on my sites which looks MUCH prettier than the big old 336x280 size, the CTR is horrible on the pretty ads, but slap those big ugly ads in there and the CTR is much greater.

Now, with increasing the font size to LARGE on all my sites, my CTR has increased 30% and so has my ECPM which my friends means more money.

Now, would I rather have a pretty site that does not make me any money or an ugly site that makes good money? I'm afraid that since I need the money, I have to go with the ugly site, though in my heart I truly wish the pretty site would also have a high CTR.

What is one to do?

[WolfLover]

Play_Bach, maybe in your case, it's coincidence OR your stats are stuck. You know that this stuff happens all the time. Some people will report stuck stats while others report normal stats.

I wish you the best my friend.

[Sally Stitts]

From the Adsense blog -

Also, a bit of advance notice: soon, we'll also be changing the default font size across AdSense in ad units from 'small' to 'medium'. We've heard from some of you that the current font size can be too small, and our testing also showed that slightly larger font sizes improved performance. Any ad units set to the default font size will automatically be updated to display the larger setting. If you'd prefer to stick with today's font size, you can set your desired font size as 'small' across your account.

So, when does "Medium font" become the default? What does "soon" mean? Pretty soon? Later? Hmmmm.

Now, if we can just get rid of the 4th ad in all the rectangular ad blocks, we'll be all set. The increased crowding tends to negate the positive effect of the larger sizes.
.
.

[edited by: Sally_Stitts at 9:37 pm (utc) on June 19, 2009]

[Khensu]

Yep Sally

Bigger text, Less ads, More white space.

I have 3 - 250 x 250 at the top, semi blended (green on a green to dark green gradient) Yellow headline white text and black urls (ugly but effective)

With the download content description and links just below them, all above the fold.

I would just love to lock those adblocks at 2 text ads each with the large font.

[dazzlindonna]

I've changed all mine to large to see what happens but so far, 24 hours later, I've not yet seen even one ad (in any size I use) show a larger font. I'm thinking it might just be me though, since CTR and ECPM have gotten noticeably better. (Maybe it's another linux/adsense bug).

[farmboy]

For any size ad, whether a leaderboard with space for 4 ads or a button with space for 1 ad or whatever format, I think there might not be enough space to have large text as long as the ad space is displaying the max number of ads possible for the space.

Am I wrong about that?

FarmBoy

[Swanny007]

I switched one ad block to "large" today. CPM is up but CTR did not change. It's too early to tell anyway, I'll give it a week or so before I draw any conclusions.

I am noticing that on that leaderboard it's still often putting 4 ads in the space, sometimes 3, and sometimes 2. So I guess choosing a "large" font size means they will keep switching things up from small to medium to large as opposed to the default AdSense activity which is small or medium (Google picks).

Hey, if the G team really wanted high CTR's, they'd let us put small topic-related images beside the ads, or they'd let advertisers do that. You used to see that years ago and it worked at drawing my attention to the ads.

[WolfLover]

I don't know about the other size ads, farmboy, but my 336x280 blocks are showing 4 ads at the large size font with no problems.

Yes, this is only the first day, however, Fridays and Saturdays are my lowest earning days. Today, (Friday), my CTR and ECPM are still 30% higher than they were.

Is it a fluke? Is it temporary? I have no idea, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

[tangor]

Query: Are these view tests at full screen or less than full screen? Wondering if perhaps the browser might have some play in this? Just asking!

[bouncybunny]

Sorry if I missed it up-thread, but what is the default size? Small? Medium?

EDIT OH, I've just seen the blog quote upthread. Default size was small, but is going to be medium.

[Oxydada]

I noticed that using large fonts in my skycraper does nothing when using Firefox, but it does work in IE.

[dreamcatcher]

A more important update is surely to make the Adsense code validate on web pages? Its still amazes me that such a hi-tech company like Google have 100 validation errors on the simplest of homepages.

dc

[Lame_Wolf]

A more important update is surely to make the Adsense code validate on web pages?

It does for me. Unless of course, you have two search boxes on a page... Then it doesn't validate.

[true_INFP]

Guys, could you keep your posts in this thread on-topic? This is a rather important matter for many publishers. Thanks.

[tangor]

Have to agree with true_INFP... topic is about a format change in FONTS. And possible benefit thereof. Validation is something else entirely.

[maximillianos]

We are seeing big improvements on some sites, and no improvent on others. Very interesting. Overall we are very pleased with this new option. It has given us the flexibility to make our ads more readable. Previously we had to redesign around ad formats that supported larger fonts. Now we can use the box ads sizes again and they are actually readable. Good improvement.

[londrum]

i've got a 160x600 block and i've tried all 3 sizes -- small medium and large -- and it doesn't appear to change for any of them. waited half a day in each case.
any one else noticing that?

on some of the other block sizes i've noticed that it changes the size of the description text without changing the size of the link.

[farmboy]

I don't know about the other size ads, farmboy, but my 336x280 blocks are showing 4 ads at the large size font with no problems.

I have a page with 1 336 x 280 ad block and for weeks every time I viewed the page it only was showing three ads. I changed it to large text and it is now showing large text and only three ads.

Last night I added a half-banner with large text to the page.

This morning, the 336 x 280 is still showing three ads with large text but the half-banner is showing its one ad with what looks like small or medium text - it's not large text.

If anyone is able to get large text in a half-banner or button size ad, please post.

FarmBoy

[Play_Bach]

Back to default. What I'd like to see as an option is the same size as Google uses on search.

[zdgn]

If anyone is able to get large text in a half-banner or button size ad, please post.

You're right. 468x60, 234x60 and 125x125 all show smallish text for me too (using Arial).

However, 180x150 has large fonts now, so you might want to replace 234x60 or 125x125 with 180x150 (these are all single ad units.)

[signor_john]

300x250 (4-ads per unit, Arial)- No increase

Would be nice to have one ad taken out of these to make the 3 remaining ones larger if Arial Medium+ is set on the unit.

I changed the font to "Medium" yesterday, and I'm seeing three text ads in my 300 x 250 ad unit.

The difference in appearance is pretty subtle. I didn't even notice the change in type size at first--I just noticed that I was seeing three instead of four ads. Still, the medium-font version is more readable in a side-by-side comparison, and that could be helpful to sites that have a lot of visitors who are over 40.