Font Size Theory

[kidder]

Google have made the default font larger because of falling revenues and less inventory. I've had to revert mine back to smaller ads becasue the larger ones performed so badly, since the larger sizes kicked in it's been all downhill and today I got my first ever complaint from a user with regards to the Google ads.

[maximillianos]

We have been using a larger font throughout our site for years. So this new font size option helps the ads match our content. No complaints yet, and revenues are up about 40%!

[kidder]

Amazing, I've changed back down to smaller today and I can see our exit click tracking is already showing a higher CTR to adsense. Perhaps it's due to a better match with the site as you have stated.

[maximillianos]

It is definitely site specific. Our biggest site is the one that has seen the biggest increase in earnings/clicks. But a few of our smaller sites have not seen any improvement.

[farmboy]

Google have made the default font larger because of falling revenues and less inventory.

Have I missed a statement from Google? Didn't ASA indicate this has been in the works for months?

Is this fact or assumption?

FarmBoy

[andrewshim]

I just had to go through the hassle of chaning ALL my code to specifically state small font. The default font made EVERY page look horrible - probably gave visitors the impression that I was shoving ads up their noses.

[ken_b]

I just had to go through the hassle of chaning ALL my code

Why didn't you just change your sites default setting to small and be done with it in one step?

[signor_john]

Google have made the default font larger because of falling revenues and less inventory.

A more likely reason is that more people are using high-resolution monitors and netbooks these days, compared to what they were using in 2003 when AdSense was launched. For many people, "small" is too small. (I upped the size of my own site's menu fonts a while back for that very reason.)

[andrewshim]

Why didn't you just change your sites default setting to small and be done with it in one step?

because my codes were ALL 2 years old... and tied to my own channel management system.

plus... I didn't know you could do that.... Duhhhhhh. Crap... one hour down the drain.

[Khensu]

Andrew how are your chickens?

The main issue I had with GIANT is there is no white space so there is an offense sensed by the viewer (jamming), I am running medium an showing a slight improvement. If I could limit the number of ads, that would give me the sufficient white space and I could run EXTRA HUGE and increase profits, the white space is the problem.

[kidder]

Farmboy it's just a guess but it's clear to me that ad revenue would be down in many verticals. Shareholders hate falling revenues and so on... We are sending more clicks to google than ever but our revenue remains at about the same level or trending downwards. I see less advertisers on our sites and as a buyer of adwords PPC (10k per month) I'm finding it much easier to place higher with lower bids due to a decrease in competition I expect..

[Ezekiel]

While the downturn no doubt must have an impact on ad revenues, there's nothing to suggest this was Google's motivation. We increased our font sizes a while back to address the increasing number of ways visitors view us (UMPC, PSP, PDA, IMT, 1600+ res etc). Google has already addressed the .mobis, but (for my demographic at least) this is a far more important issue. We can now implemement AdSense in a less incongruous and (hopefully) more effective manner. I'm sure there will be those who crank everything up to large regardless of layout in search of a quick CTR boost (before smart pricing and visitor fatigue kicks in), but in my mind this feature is about blending and not (to quote another poster), screaming.

[edited by: Ezekiel at 8:28 am (utc) on June 25, 2009]