Text vs Image ads

Not ready to "do a test" yet...

[downhiller80]

Yeah I know - I need to test test test.

And I will. Probably. But for now I just want some general opinions and experiences of your success with text ads / image ads.

Which do you use, and why?

I can't help but think that text ads possibly get clicked on more;

1) in one big banner you have more than a single advert
2) they *do* get clicked by mistake when formatted close to your styles and near content, I'm sure.

I just think they look a bit rubbish, sadly. If the earnings are higher I'll probably switch (all on "image only" at the moment), but only if it's a lot higher. For the sake of 10-20% I'll stick with the "prettier" adverts.

Part of the problem I have is that my site has a translucent background. The main background image is a full-screen graphic, and my site appears as a floating sheet of paper above it, with a very slight translucence so you can see the texture of the background through it.

This is very subtle and not enough to ruin readability etc, and a pleasing effect (to my eye at least). But google text ads have an ugly white background which makes them stick out like a sore thumb. And I'm fairly certain there's no way for me to change that since they're inside an iframe etc etc.

So switching to text ads will require me to lose the translucence of my site too, for them to work well. I think.

Cheers!

[Lame_Wolf]

they *do* get clicked by mistake when formatted close to your styles and near content, I'm sure.

Don't even try it. People have lost their accounts because of it.

You cannot make the adverts translucent, so if you want to continue the eye-pleasing effect, then you're going to have to use image adverts. But be warned, you'll get a lot of off-topic adverts.

The choice is yours.

[downhiller80]

You think you get better-targetted adverts with text ads? Interesting - simply because there's many advertisers without image ads I guess?

Don't worry, I wasn't going to try anything underhand. I just meant they DO "blend" with your content a lot more than image ads, and people are more likely to click as a result, even if they do know subconsciously that it's an advert. Maybe.

[netmeg]

I'm sure it depends on your niche. I had not used image ads for years and then I tried it again last year and was very pleasantly surprised at how much higher the CTR and eCPMs were (I made separate channels for text and image and evenly rotated them) That was over several million impressions, so not entirely a fluke.

[Leonard0]

I can't help but think that text ads possibly get clicked on more

Yes, in my experience text ads have higher CTRs but overall the RPM is about the same for image and text because image ads have a higher CPC.
Also, I only get about 10% image ads (that includes Animated, Flash and Rich media) - the rest is text. YMWV

If you have ads that have solid backgrounds next to a translucent content area, you may find that the CTR goes too high and end up getting Smartpriced.

[azn romeo 4u]

You can use the new google interface for adsense, to see what gets clicked on more.

And for me, Image ads, has the better CTR and RPM. But only show like 2/10th of the time that a text ad does.

[bumpski]

But google text ads have an ugly white background which makes them stick out like a sore thumb. And I'm fairly certain there's no way for me to change that since they're inside an iframe etc etc.

You can set the background color of text ads to any 32 bit color you like, they don't have to be white. It's not transparency, but usually you can match your background fairly closely.

[Play_Bach]

Due to a lack of advertisers in my niche (at least that's what I think is going on) I seem to do better with text ads.

[JCKline]

I found text ads better when it comes to CTR, and the payout seems the same. Also I think most image ads look bad, and slow page load time. On pages with multiple ads, I will have one of the two (the smaller ad size) display both image and text to increase eCPM...which may or may not work. However today has been awful.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

We just recently posted a case study on the AdSense blog on a publisher who saw a dramatic increase in earnings after enabling both text and image ads. Many publishers choose not to allow text ads because they feel image ads are more aesthetically appealing, but you can customize the look & feel of your text ads to work best with your website. Also, if you're not enabling all ads, you're leaving advertisers (aka potentially higher bidders) out of the auction.

Here's the blog post:

[adsense.blogspot.com ]

While CTR may be higher for text ads, image ads typically have higher CPM and therefore can drive up your overall earnings. If you enable both text and image ads, you're opening up the auction to more advertisers and therefore driving up competition.


ASA.

[Lame_Wolf]

ASA
People would be more inclined to have image adverts IF they were related to their sites. There is not a supermarket, search engine, coupon site, or automobile company in the world that is related to my site. THAT is why some of us will not enable them. (or contantly blocking).

[netmeg]

I actually don't want ads related to my site, I want them related to my audience, so it works out well. (Also I'm pretty sure AdWords would not allow ads that were *directly* related to my site)

[ken_b]

I actually don't want ads related to my site,

I had that conversation with an AdSense team member once. I have a nationwide event calendar on my site for events related to the site niche.

Hobbyists and vendors travel all over the country to attend these events, which are often held often hundreds of miles from their home.

So I suggested that perhaps ads for say hotels, might work well on those pages. The AdSense person was obviously completely surprised by that idea.

Even the people traveling in the comfort of expensive motorhomes need to park them somewhere near the event. Not to mention people need to sleep somewhere along the way. At larger events I've sometimes had to stay as far as 40+ miles away to find a room.

But, NOPE, it's a widget site! No hotel ads me!
.

[netmeg]

It did take them a while to get the targeting right - at least a couple years. And I did have to block a couple ads that were tangentially related to the topic. But in my case, it actually helps that AdWords doesn't have many ads in that space.

[tim222]

FWIW, I recently made a switch from text only to text_image and it has improved my earnings a little bit. In particular, I noticed the eCPM jumped on a 160x600 text ad in the right column. There was a very slight improvement in the bottom position and nothing noticeable on the left side. It's only been running that way for a couple of weeks, so I don't know about the long-term impact.

I don't know if text ads are more or less likely to be clicked. AdSense text ads sort of match my website but they are not likely to receive accidental clicks, whether text or image. There is a clear delineation between ads and content.

My guess is that the difference lies mostly in ad inventory rather than the liklihood of a format to be clicked. It's very possible that some advertisers only have image ads. It's also possible that advertisers might bid higher for image ads than text. It makes sense, because they probably pay more for an image ad to be developed, so they might be willing to invest more to promote those ads.

As far as the look and feel, yes it made a difference. I think my website layout worked better with text ads. Images have a different dynamic than text. Also, I can't control the color of the image ads like I can with text ads. Oh well. My design is not that great anyway, and the image ads are not horrible. I'd rather have more income than feel like my site is perfect.

All-in-all, I'm glad I tried it.

[JCKline]

I mafe the switch yesterday, so of coarse no difference yet (everything is still bad since Dec 1st...so now I wait and see. I also enabled interest based ads against my better judgement, because Google mentions an increase in revenue over time. Again I wait...but how long. A month? Well things couldn't get much worse I guess. I follow all the rules, have had an AdSense account for years now, was making about $10 a day, CTR has always been low (around 1% because of the nature of my site - webmasters don't click), but now I'm lucky to make $2 in a day...

If things don't improve doing EVERYTHING Google recommends to publishers, then I'll have to find another income stream.

[JCKline]

I just got an email from G stating that most of my ads are text only and I should switch to both to increase revenue...which I did TWO DAYS AGO. Anyway, CPM tripled in two days, and CTR dropped more then half (which was very low to begin with), yet earnings doubled (which again became very low since De. 1). At any reate, it's worth sticking it out for a while in the hopes things will go back to the way they were (or be better).

[Sally Stitts]

I received the same email today. It was not "no reply", a positive development, to be sure. Now, they want feedback.

Here is my partial response -
(redacted)
"Here is the deal - I DETEST ANY MOVEMENT in ads, or anything else on the page.
It is PURE DISTRACTION - vexing, unnecessary distraction, when the user is trying to read.
I am not going to force upon others, that which I myself HATE!
(redacted)

If there were an option for "static ads only", maybe I would try it.
What does "rich" mean? It means flopping, wiggling, flashing, gyrating CR@P! Not for me, ever.
I don't care if jumping cr@p pays 10 times as much, I am not going to do it.

I REFUSE TO READ ANY PAGE, that I FIRST cannot shift the wiggling ads off-screen.
I WILL NOT BE POKED IN THE EYE WITH A STICK, WHEN I AM TRYING TO READ.
I simply, absolutely refuse.
(redacted)"

And then, as stated here in several threads, there is -
- image ads not as relevant as text ads = lower CTR, makes site look bad
- slower loading (. waiting for doubleclick .) Watch that status bar. I do every day.
- cannot specify static images only - how hard would it be?

The worst offender is the H. Post. Now that they have been purchased by AOL, we can expect total bombardment, all the time. First, the whole page shifts down, then the whole page shifts up, then it wiggles and shakes - it is rapidly becoming unnavigable. AND, they need to provide an override for the obnoxious auto-update "push technology". HEY! I'M READING HERE! RUDE! This is a great argument for having an easily jerkable ethernet cable. SHUT UP!

The older I get, the more intolerant I become.
Over time, many things do not get better in a linear manner. Some things get worse. Much worse.
Strong-armed marketing tactics are anathema to many folks - not just oldsters like me.

[Sally Stitts]

Please, just let us do the soft sell, if we want to.

[bumpski]

Hear Hear Sally!

If Adsense would enable publishers, Google's earnings would improve and advertisers costs would be reduced!

Statistics based algo's do not work well on high content low traffic sites and pages.

Massive branding campaigns do not produce earnings for Google or publishers of high content low traffic pages.

Adsense, migrate the branding CPM ads to high traffic sites and leave PPC campaigns to sites with content!

[JCKline]

It's now day four since I enabled text and image/rich media on all of my ad units, and my earnings have increased almost 80% even though CTR is the same. I'd certainly recommend trying it.

[Lame_Wolf]

was making about $10 a day, CTR has always been low (around 1% because of the nature of my site - webmasters don't click), but now I'm lucky to make $2 in a day...

It's now day four since I enabled text and image/rich media on all of my ad units, and my earnings have increased almost 80%

Percentages can be very deceptive.
Now, if you were making $5k a day and had an 80% increase...

[DaStarBuG]

I have Image & Text Ads enabled.
Just some quick statistics for one of my website for the last 30 days:

Text Ads: ~1.5 mio AIs
Image Ads: ~500k AIs

Image Ads CPM was 416% higher then Text Ads
Image Ads CTR was 223% higher then Text Ads
Total earnings for image ads were 138% higher then text ads

even though when I surf my website (which is a health forum) I often see ads which advertise dog food or such.
I neither own a dog nor am I interested in a dog or dog related topics however I don't really care.
And Google seems to do a good job in maximizing my revenue by displaying ads like this :)

I think one major factor in why image ads are performing so well is placement targeting.
I wrote an article about "how to harness the full potential of placement targeting" once that might be interesting to you:
[adsenseexperts.com...]

[edited by: DaStarBuG at 1:53 am (utc) on Feb 26, 2011]

[Lame_Wolf]

(which is a health forum) I often see ads which advertise dog food or such.

Health food tastes like dog food. ;)

[DaStarBuG]

WORD :D

[JCKline]

Percentages can be very deceptive.
Now, if you were making $5k a day and had an 80% increase.

Yes, I didn't word it correctly. I was making around $10/day, then dropped to about $2/day. I enabled both text and image ads, and now I'm back up to $10/day.

[sailorjwd]

Right Sally! If something moves on the page I'm out of there! I hate bugs - same as if something moves on my desk... I'm gone.

For many years I had a single ad on each page in the hotspot, all text ads. I experimented periodically changing some/all to image and everytime it was a disaster.

Then after further Google insistance I started putting two ads on the page. 2nd ad mostly text/image with images showing predominantly. Results were very good with earnings up 20-30%.

I've been happy with that setup for a couple of years, only adding some adlinks on the side or very bottom with further increase in earnings of 15%.

Several days ago I got the message from google complaining that I had too few image ads so there I go again and switch most of my text to text/image. I didn't even look around much cause I know that what I see isn't what my users see with the personal ads showing all over now.. anyway, ECPM dropped 50% Friday was the lowest income friday in many many years.

I thought I must have been hit by the algo change and then realized that visitors were only down a little but that EPCM tanked - nothing to do with algo change.

So, I just changed everything back to normal - text at top with 1/2 text/image 2nd ad at bottom.

[Lame_Wolf]

Yes, I didn't word it correctly. I was making around $10/day, then dropped to about $2/day. I enabled both text and image ads, and now I'm back up to $10/day.

You may have dropped 80% but you didn't have an 80% increase ;)

[bumpski]

Yeah I know - I need to test test test.

Google's tests are so huge so pervasive any tests I do are dwarfed by Google's experiments.

So, I just changed everything back to normal

Did earnings go back to normal?