Media Queries and Adsense

Does a responsive page and adsense play well together?

[ipetdogs]

I've recently been adopting a responsive design strategy to new sites I'm creating.

(If you're not familiar, responsive design uses media queries to change the layout of your content to best fit the device. For example I have a 3 column layout for desktops and it transforms into a 1 column layout on smartphones.)

While I try to avoid it, I have found it incredibly useful to have divs that are hidden or visible depending on the device. I know that it's against policy to hide or make visible any ads via tricks, but with media queries becoming more common, is this becoming antiquated?

For example, one site I have actually hides all ads when viewed on a smartphone. The adsense code is still there, just hidden from view. The site is location specific, so I'm assuming my visitor wants the info, not the ads when mobile. As a site owner, I'd rather earn the trust, recommendation, and brand awareness of a mobile user than an adsense click.

I'm afraid I may be penalized somehow, yet I'm doing this for the benefit of my visitor.

I'd love to see Google introduce some ad units that are responsive themselves, or for us to specify which size of ad should be shown at a typical resolution, or if it should be shown at all.

Anyway, I'm curious how others are handling this. Do you feel that Adsense needs to update its presentation options?

[Lame_Wolf]

I know that it's against policy to hide or make visible any ads via tricks, but with media queries becoming more common, is this becoming antiquated?

Even if it is antiquated, if it is against the current TOS, then it is against the TOS. Simple as that. Do it at your own risk.

My 2c

[netmeg]

We have a recent thread on this.

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Lame_Wolf]

Thanks netmeg, I had a quick browse. I do not cater for mobile devices, so no real concern for me.

[levo]

It's not the code which is hidden, the code still executes and requests an ad, page registers an impression and if it is a CPM ad, advertiser is paying for it. Don't even try it.

[ipetdogs]

netmeg, thanks, I did a cursory search and the topic didn't pop up. Unfortunately, it looks like the same conclusions were reached in that thread - avoid it.

Don't even try it.

I hate we have that mentality regarding adsense. Overall, I'm not trying anything shady or trying to trick my audience into clicking non relevant ads. In fact, my first concern is the visitor, and just as I change my layout dependent upon the device, I'd like to do the same with ads.

Right now my income across my sites is about 30% adsense 70% affiliate and private ad sales. So, adsense does play a significant part in my income and would certainly be missed. Unfortunately, I'll be avoiding adsense on any responsive sites that I'm building.

I know Google often looks through here and will hopefully address responsive sites sooner rather than later.

[netmeg]

They'll get there; parts of them are singing the responsive design praise already.

There are some solutions - I am going to give a company called responsiveads dot com a try at some point. I'm still using a plugin for mobile devices at the moment.

I love the idea of responsive design, but I'm not sure yet how it will work for serving ads, even if we get the technical issues solved. Mobile users usually have different priorities, limitations, and intents.

I just don't know how the ads fit in from a user behavior standpoint. I just saw a headline yesterday about some study that said that a huge percentage of mobile ads are clicked on by mistake. If that's true, that's gotta change or the advertisers will flee.

[levo]

I hate we have that mentality regarding adsense.

Its not even an Adsense thing. Anyway, you can always position the ads at the bottom of the page for mobile users.

[Leonard0]

I have a similar design to the OP's and use PHP to examen the user agent string to determine the appropriate ad for the screen size - phone, tablet or wide screen.
Also I use Javascript to set a cookie with the window width.
There may be a few cases where a large ad appears on a small screen for the first page view but I don't know if it is worth worrying about.

[topr8]

i don't understand the problem,

why don't you use the user agent header to decide not to send ads at all if it is a mobile device - it's pretty straightforward, just a bit of php on the server.

[netmeg]

Well for me, 40 to 50% of my traffic is mobile now, so yea, I would like to monetize it, and also my traffic is crazy spikey and so far this year it's been running twice as much as last year, who knows what it will be at peak, so I want to minimize any extra load on the server that I can.

Also, if you're a purist, I think the device detection kind of goes against the principle of responsive design in the first place. Kinda.

[ipetdogs]

I agree with netmeg. Yet, I'll probably be implementing a little of each that all have suggested.

I've actually been playing with the user agent php trick. However, I'm hearing on other forums that it's not too reliable. Different browsers on different devices can give misleading header info. There's fixes, but that means more code.

As netmeg suggested, I really want to minimize any execution of code, however small, for mobile users.

Additionally, Google's policies are ambiguous enough to make it's use questionable. Overall, I'd like to see this handled from Google's end so there will be no confusion.

I'd love to see some type of fluid ad block within the year. I'd also like to have the ability to simply have ads hidden depending on device or viewport size.

For example, I have a niche that does very well for desktops and tablets. However, very few sites in that niche are optimized for mobile. I'd rather sacrifice the potential for making an extra .20 per click and avoid invalid clicks, plus avoiding lower ad quality scores for the Adwords advertiser.

As netmeg has stated, I'm sure Google is working on this. I guess I'm feeling in between a rock and a hard place implementing adsense on responsive sites.

[netmeg]

Been there, done that. Sticking with my plugin this year, and hoping next year there will be a solution.