Google Adsense Format Request: Thumbnail next to Ads

[anon123]

I'd love a format with like this. It would make the ad's a little less boring and bring some life and clicks back into our outdated ad's. I don't think any changes to the ad's have been made in years.

The advertiser/adwords user can upload the thumbnail they'd like to use. It will improve CTR's. Facebook has begun doing this. And of course the publisher could opt in our out of them.

Does Google still read this forum? Does anyone else think this is a good idea? Isn't time we see a new feature/format? User's have gotten so used to the old ad's no one's clicking any more. I wish Google would stay a little fresher.

Any thoughts?

[netmeg]

It will never ever ever happen.

As an advertiser, I wouldn't want it to happen either. Who knows image they put next to the ad?

Nope. Don't hold your breath.

[levo]

Saw it once on my website a couple moths ago. Looked like chitika ads, product images on left, ad texts on right.

[anon123]

netmeg, would you be interested if you as the advertiser could select the thumbnail to use?

Also, like I said, the publisher could opt in/out. You wouldn't have to use it.

Advertiser could opt in or out of them as well. Doesn't have to be mandatory - just for those who want it.

[levo]

Found it, apparently still in beta and available to select advertisers..

[googlemerchantblog.blogspot.com...]
[adwords.blogspot.com...]

As I said, it showed up in my website once.

[anon123]

Oooh! Nice levo, thanks for that, I wasn't aware it was in testing. Hopefully they roll it out to more publishers, I'd love to participate in the beta.

Did you happen to notice any increase in CTR?

[Lame_Wolf]

I did report in this forum about 2 weeks ago that one of my ad blocks were showing 4 adverts - one of them had an image next to it.

Image with text advert
text advert
text advert
text advert

[anon123]

What are your thoughts on it, Lame_Wolf? Did you happen to notice an increase in your CTR?

[Lame_Wolf]

It was nice to see something different. Google does need to freshen things up a bit.

I only saw it on one ad block 336x280, and only once. I didn't see a change, but then again, one advert on one block for one day will be like a piss in the ocean.

It was also off-topic for my site, so I guess it didn't make a change even if it were shown more often.

[netmeg]

netmeg, would you be interested if you as the advertiser could select the thumbnail to use?

If I want images, then I create image ads.

Look the Display Network is ridden with fraudsters. We all know it. If they allowed publishers control over this type of thing, it would be way out of hand in about a minute.

But if you really want to lobby for different ad styles, the place to do it is probably in the AdWords forum. When it comes down to it, it's what THEY want, not what publishers want.

[anon123]

Look the Display Network is ridden with fraudsters. We all know it. If they allowed publishers control over this type of thing, it would be way out of hand in about a minute.

I was thinking Google would manually approve the thumbnails.

[netmeg]

Wouldn't scale.

[jbayabas]

It would be nice to have a full page ad that forces the user to view the advertisement before viewing the site. Similar to what YouTube is doing to some of their videos which forces the user to watch the full commercial without the skip button. It would be good for sites with good quality content that have loyal visitors.

[Lame_Wolf]

It would be nice to have a full page ad that forces the user to view the advertisement before viewing the site.

Yep, one way to really piss off your visitors. You do that to me, and i'll never come back.

[netmeg]

Yea, some of the larger magazine sites use those interstitial ads, and they're *very* off-putting. We all have to monetize, but not at the expense of pissing off our users, I hope.

[incrediBILL]

If you're big enough with compelling enough content that you cannot get anywhere else then ticking off your users by forcing them to watch commercials is a perfectly viable way to monetize the site.

Personally, I loathe the practice and ads I'm forced to watch will most likely NEVER get my business just as a matter of principle alone as I don't like to reward people for annoying me.

... which means when my car finally breaks I'm pretty much stuck with a horse and buggy unless they start advertising those too ...

[jbayabas]

Yes, the full page ads only apply to sites with compelling enough content. My loyal visitors are very Internet savvy. They just don't click the ads anymore even if it's relevant to them. A full page ad will be good to place in some high traffic pages with 24 hour interval. We could get as high as $5 to $10 cpm. I don't know how else will we solve this ad-blindness in Adsense. Visitors are just getting smarter and consciously ignoring ads placed on our site.