Mobile AdSense optimization?

[atladsenser]

I'm in the process of setting up a mobile version of my site and was wondering -- do you guys have any advice on where to place mobile ads? Whether they should go at the top of the page, at the bottom, or in the middle of articles/posts?

Interested to hear your two cents.

[HuskyPup]

To be honest I don't bother with mobile ads, all the handsets I've tested my sites on, including Blackberry, the normal ads work just fine.

I'm pretty sure there are handsets that they don't however they are such a small proportion they're not worth worrying about.

IMHO the biggest issue is the ad landing page, some sites are truly diabolical for handsets, apart from being unbelievably slow! Google really should address advertisers' landing pages for mobile users.

[netmeg]

I use a plugin to render my WordPress sites in mobile, and it's AdSense ready (i.e. I just plug in my pub id and channel code, and it places the ad either on top or on bottom) I always have it on top. Seems to work well.

[levo]

I would advise using large font size for tablets/smartphones.

[Leonard0]

There's so many different screen sizes it's difficult to pick one design to perform well in all devices.
You could just use your regular layout with a larger font and zoom out.
Or you could go with a design that fits the screen with no zoom and use mobile ads. There are four general catagories of mobile smart devices:
1) small (480x320) - ie. the iPhone
ad sizes: probably only 325x50 will work
2) medium (800x480) - Android models by HTC, etc
ad sizes: 200x200 or 250x250 mobile or 468x60
3) large (1024x768)- iPad and other tablets
ad sizes: either mobile or regular Adsense
4) variable - the Motorola Atrix can be used alone (960x540) or plugged into a cradle or laptop for HD display. This is probably the future.

A single-column liquid layout with a minimum width of 480 might work okay across all screen sizes and give the best choice of ad sizes.

I wonder if there is any difference between Mobile and regular Adsense in terms of advertisers and CPC? If so, it would be nice to have larger mobile ads for tablets.

[atladsenser]

That's great advice, Leonard0. My site actually looks fine as it is on the iPad, so I'm probably not going to develop a tablet-specific version of the site. However, I think I really need to develop one for the iPhone, as I notice the visits from that and Android devices just keeps going up.

[Leonard0]

For me, I don't think its worth designing a 320 px width page for the iPhone. It's too narrow to work well with my content, and it will be obsolete soon.

A 480px wide layout will fit the device when held in landscape orientation - though I guess most people use it in portrait orientation. It will still be readable when zoomed out a bit to fit the screen.

Ad sizes that will best fit the 480 wide layout are the 468 banner, the 125x125 button and the skyscrapers.
Rectangle ads are probably only suited for the larger tablet size screen.
The 728x90 Leaderboard fits the iPad screen nicely, leaving 20 pixels for padding.