Ad Units vs. Link Units

Which do you like best?

[farmboy]

If Google announced today that you could use only Ad Units or Link Units on your site(s), but not both (you have to choose one), which would you choose?

Assume sizes remain the same as now.

FarmBoy

[jetteroheller]

I made in the last days some efforts with AdLink units

3rd Adlink in the content area
Improved color scheme for the new AdLink in content
Improved color scheme for the old AdLink below the content

When I run a statistic from December 25th until now, the AdLink produce a little bit more income than the normal ad blocks.

[netmeg]

If I had to choose, link units. I use them a lot more than ad units as it is.

[wyweb]

Link units. No question.

[ken_b]

The first 2 - 3 years with Link Units I would have chosen them in a "New York Minute". They brought in half of my income using a fraction of the space compared to regular ad blocks. But based on the last year or so I'd have to choose the regular adblocks.

In fact, I'm thinking about pulling Link Units off many of my pages now. They don't take much space, but they really are not carrying their weight for the prime spot they have.

On the other hand, I have tried swapping them out for a 125x125 ad block with poor results, so I'm still undecided. I might just move them around on the page until I find a spot where their performance balances with the location.

[Sally Stitts]

Ad units. No question.

I have tried link units several times, and their performance was not even 1/10 as good as a big ad block.

I am amazed that so many folks here claim good performance from link units.
Boy, when they say YMMV, they aren't kidding!

[greatstart]

Ad Units - only!

Like Sally stated above, Ad Links only earn a fraction of Ad units for me too.

I've tried those Ad Links several times throughout the year, but the CTR and earnings were extremely poor.

[Lame_Wolf]

My three best earners are link units, although I prefer ad units.

[zdgn]

Link Units.

[icedowl]

Same as what Sally said goes for me too. However, I do use both.

[farmboy]

Any of you Link Lovers want to take it a step further? Horizontal or vertical?

FarmBoy

[Lame_Wolf]

Horizontal - 4 "adverts".

[netmeg]

Mine are all horizontal. Mostly 728 x 15, 4 ads. The vertical ones don't seem to do well at all for me.

[purplecape]

Link units, vertical, do very well for me in a few very specific locations, on a small number of pages.

Ad units, also vertical, do well on most pages.

I can't put ad units where I have the links, and the links do not do well where I have the ad units, so I'm not choosing. I need both.

[zdgn]

Horizontal or vertical?

Both. Entirely depends on a given site's design and its available space to play with.

They do so well, in fact, even removing/adding bg/borders has had minimal impact on performance, unlike ad units.

I am amazed that so many folks here claim good performance

Could be because I have megatons of organic traffic? I guess users don't mind clicking interesting stuff in link-units according to what they're looking for and which is nicely relevant to the content they've landed on.

[piatkow]

I agree with purplecape, both have their place.

I have seen sites place link units so that they can be confused with the site's internal navigation. One was so blatant that I actually reported it and promptly forgot the url so I can't check if G actually did anything.

[HuskyPup]

Almost 40% of my earnings are from a 728 x 15 and a 160 x 90 Link Unit therefore I would have to go with my 728 x 90 Ad Units.

The CTR and eCPM for the 160 x 90 is almost double that of the 728 x 15!

[maximillianos]

Ad Units perform better for me. Link Units are a nice complement to them, but they are no where near the same as far as earnings go for (for my sites).