New Nessie Redesigned AdSense Text Ads

[simplo]

I haven't noticed anything about this so I thought I'd post. I've noticed a significant drop in CTR since Google redesigned the nessie button to a round one.

[adsense.blogspot.ca...]

I'm sure I'm not the only one. On top of this update AdSense gives me a notice "Your earnings on September 18 were 34% below forecast" yeah, I wonder why that would be Google. Maybe instead of the "learn more" link going to some generic nonsense it could link to the blog post? It's annoying that this comes around just when I'm starting to recover from the nessie penalty I got hit with in March.

[ken_b]

I'm seeing that on text ads, the new style overrides border my chosen border styles. They're substituting square corners for the small round corners I had set.

.

[ken_b]

I want the old ones back ...

OK, go here:

Allow Block Ads - Ad Serving - Enhanced text ads - show performance-enhancing features on text ads

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[loner]

CTR is abysmal! I want the old ones back and so does the public!

Haven't noticed a difference in my CTR, but that's not what I focus on. For me it is the bottom line, and whether or not it's due to the change of a little button; round, square or cubic, the bottom line is better this month. Heck, maybe it is even seasonal. I do my thing, they do theirs--even of they choose to insult the public's intelligence. Sometimes I think the public likes that.

[webcentric]

Turning off Enhanced text ads won't undo all the changes. Title style (big text and no underlines) will persist. At least that's the way it was yesterday but it's apparent that G isn't done playing with things yet either.

The "old style' ads appear to be gone the way of the Dodo.

[breeks]

Decide to go "All In" with the new ads and results have been excellent. I updated page templates to better fit the new ad design and RPM is now higher than the older version ads.

Will be interesting to see if the improved performance holds after visitors get used to new ads.

Bottom line if you can't beat them join them. :)

[webcentric]

I updated page templates to better fit the new ad design and RPM is now higher than the older version ads.

1. Curious to know if you stayed with the ad sizes you mentioned above.

and

2. Can you generally speak to the types of changes you've implemented i.e. repositioning of ads, reworking page font schemes, colors, etc. I think a lot of people are looking for answers.

[nickreynolds]

New ads look no better no worse on the page than the old ones for my sites. Performance doesn't seem to have changed

[webcentric]

New ads look no better no worse on the page than the old ones for my sites.

One fact this thread reinforces is that not everyone has the same sense of, or sensitivity to, aesthetics. This is true across the human race and not just webmasters so I'm not trying to pick on anyone here. It's a fact that ugly can be just as attractive to the eye as beauty. What each does to the brain is another story. I think this boils down less to aesthetics and more to the whether something is intuitive or not. I'm finding that my sense of aesthetics was somewhat bothered by the new ads mostly because they messed with existing white space and initially threw off the balance of my pages. But the bigger problem though was that they just didn't look very interactive in the color schemes I had been using previously. Having said that, I'm finding some success with page tweaks for balance adjustment and color tweaks to help people more intuitively understand that these things are actually clickable. An intuitive aspect of text ads was lost when the underlined titles went away and it seems like color and font face are now the most available and effective elements for getting some of that lost intuitiveness back into the equation.

[1script]

To add to what webcentric is saying: the new design lost any sense of being a call to action. The title no longer looks like a link and also, the old version button was actually located to the right of the title line as an "invitation" to follow for further information (at least in languages where you read left-to-right). The current round button is *under* the title, which logically makes it look like a stand-alone element, like a cutesy list bullet if you ask me, not at all anything clickable. Your eye is simply sliding right off of it, I always find myself trying to look to the right of that round dot for something that it appears to be pointing at (which is of course a white space - real estate waste).

I am astonished Google did not consider rolling these out as an option (and/or in small increments). There are some webmasters that seem to like them but there are droves that report 50% down CTR and earnings. Not 5% or 15%, 50% - this is really unheard of in 10 years I've been with AdSense. Not one change before this one had such profound negative effect. And, of course, the fact that Google themselves don't use these new adds shows how little G cares about publishers.

[Web20]

Im a new member to this forum. And I'm really surprise that's about the only place that discuss on this new text change.

Im in the web business for more than a decade, and have mainly 4 sites, in realy different sector, in different country, made by different designer/prog (not looking similar).

Since the 19, CTR is downs exactly 50%. Ive tryed the enhanced text. im not seeing the impact that much, playing around with color,a bit on the layout, up to now , its not a major success i would say. On top of that i had at the sametime a suddent CPC drop. If things stay this way... its a loss in the 6 figures this year. Even shy to say how much revenu dropped, really , unreal.. No choice to cut on some staff at this point. Those are not greatly diversified revenu sites, its more free services and content for people.

There's something really strange on this change..They knew about the impact. I think google is surfing on some really great internet stock euphoria, maybe looking for the ultimate spike.

Would be glad if some peoples suggested some concrete solution, layout change.. is pretty unclear to me. font change.. to which one?.. The new font are really nice, thats the only thing im happy about actually.

[Fern]

@webcentric

Are your 728x90 units displaying 1 text ad, or 4?

That unit use to display only 1 text ad, and now it ONLY displays 4 - my CTR has tanked because of this.

[webcentric]

@Fern They're showing one ad in firefox and I.E. Early on, I was seeing different formats in different browsers (including four ads stacked on top of each other) but that seems to have settled down a bit. I still see the four ad layout when I'm working on my site on localhost so there seems to be some conditional rendering going on still. BTW, 720x90's have been showing multiple ad layouts for quite some time including (2-across, 4-stacked and single ads among others) but I'm not seeing anything but singles in this unit right now.

This is all very fluid right now. Still changing and evolving.

[Fern]

@webcentric

My site is displaying 4 ads in that unit no matter what on desktops. Some reason adsense wants to only display 4 ads on my site so my earnings crash by half.

[SteveKuato]

Web20 said:

> CTR is downs exactly 50%

It is strange how so many publishers are seeing the 50% drop. I am also in this category. ;(

> No choice to cut on some staff at this point

This is the most upsetting aspect for me. These changes really affect people's lives. Google should be more sensitive about the changes they force upon us.

[martinibuster]

Please do not discuss specific websites. That violates the AdSense Forum charter. [webmasterworld.com]

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. :)

[EditorialGuy]

I checked just now, and our site's September CTR continues to be higher than its CTR in August. (As of today, September CTR is up by about 20 percent.) Same page layout, same ad units.

Of course, the new ad formats are just one element in the mix. There are plenty of other reasons why average CTR, average cost per click, etc. might go up or down from one month to the next, especially on a site that serves both text and display ads.

[webcentric]

There are plenty of other reasons why average CTR, average cost per click, etc. might go up or down from one month to the next, especially on a site that serves both text and display ads.

How true! We're having a really good end of month but most of it is still coming from link units. On the other hand, some minor adjustments to page layout and ad coloration are also proving effective where enhanced text ads are concerned. Needed to deal with changes in visual balance based on white space in some of the new units (maybe just to satisfy my own sense of aesthetics) and I think contrasting colors in the units themselves are also helping out.

Glad to hear you are having some success. I'm also noticing an uptick in CPC generally which I'm attributing to the imminent onset of the holiday season. CTR though is a much more telling indicator right now than CPC when it comes to understanding the effectiveness of these units, I think. Perhaps Google has now created a product that actually needs room to breathe on the page and needs to stand out (to the dismay of those who would have it otherwise) which may be why you haven't had to do much to your pages. Congratulations.

[Web20]

Id like to know if some people saw a difference , between site having a low user implication ( low page view, low time on site) vs site having a really good user participation.

I'm really seeing a difference with the new adsense between those 2 . anyone can confirm this?

[indyank]

I'm really seeing a difference with the new adsense between those 2 . anyone can confirm this?

what exactly is the difference that you are noticing? Is the CTR down or up and in which case?

[Web20]

Im seeing CTR down on site having a better user participation, and so CTR almost the same as before on site having poor stats, (3-4 pages view 2 mins)

[webhed]

I don't know if it is the new "showing ads on https" or the new format of the text ads but my adsense revenue the last few days has been almost double my previous high days. No complaints here!

[webcentric]

I don't know if it is the new "showing ads on https" or the new format of the text ads but my adsense revenue the last few days has been almost double my previous high days. No complaints here!

Can you say "end of the quarter marketing budget dump." It's my guess and the next few days should answer the hunch one way or another. I've seen really good CPC over the last week but not a huge growth in click counts which indicates more money in the auction right now.

[Web20]

Im seeing Adsense going back to the older version since the last hour.. they don't have any better way to test, than put a version live everywhere for 10 days?

[webcentric]

Im seeing Adsense going back to the older version since the last hour

Just saw a 728x90 with 3 ads stacked for the first time in a long time. Smaller titles but no underlines. They seem to be popping up at random, interspersed with what we've been seeing for the last couple of weeks (ads with really big titles). It's pretty obvious, the experimentation phase in not over yet.

[webcentric]

they don't have any better way to test, than put a version live everywhere for 10 days

I've got a solution for that, they can test it in the SERPS on their own pages! What a concept.

[Web20]

I saw the underline back on the non enhanced text yesteerday,

I switched back to the enhenced text mode, im seeing some progress. nothing like before, but , while they are harder to click, The color change with the mouse over , the arrow, looks a bit more like its clickable than a simple aLt text.

[EditorialGuy]

Can you say "end of the quarter marketing budget dump."

Great point. I had my best AdSense day on September 30 than I've had in several months, with a nice spike in CPC. (By tomorrow, I'll be talking about the "good old day.")

[indyank]

yes the incomes are back to normal since the start of this month...