Responsive Adlinks

Pretty nice improvement.

[Broadway]

I'm guessing I'm the last person on Earth to learn that there's responsive code for Adlink units.
I got email from Adsense suggesting I implement it.

Having a responsive site, I had just been using a single Adlink size that wasn't too wide for mobile screens. On desktop I was just floating the unit to one side. All and all they looked kind of crapy so I was just using them in my footers.

Now with the responsive code, the units no matter what screen width are always full-width.
It seems they show three ads across on big screens, or three stacked ads on smaller ones.
They redesigned Adlinks a few months ago. Now they're always text inside an oval.
On mobile, and while not as refined looking, the Adlinks look a bit like Media.net's text units.

I guess I'm mentioning this because all and all they don't look all that bad, to the point I might consider using them higher up on my pages in-text.

Now that you can have more than three regular Adsense units on a page, possibly they still make the better choice. But if you're looking for a unit that's just different and possibly draws the eye for that reason, they could be a way of mixing things up.

A problem I am having is that when using multiple old-style Adlinks on a page, they tended to have more varied text links. The responsive ones tend to just show the exact same links as other units on the same page. Maybe that will change with time.

[keyplyr]

I'm guessing I'm the last person on Earth to learn that there's responsive code for Adlink units.

2nd to last :)

Never considered it, but it makes sense. I've only ever used the 300x250 responsive content/text ads for mobile at the bottom of the page, but I may consider trying responsive Adlinks and see how they perform on a few appropriate pages.

[jetteroheller]

Great! AdLinks played always a great role in my AdSense income.

Since April 2016, my layout is formed by 600 pixel width elements. According to screen width 1 to 6 columns of 600 pixel width elements are placed horizontal.

The first element was logo. The logo and below a 336x280, a 200x90 AdLink and below a search box.
Now I use the responsive AdLink sized to 234x150 by a DIV.

The second element is content. Between title and description and content was a 468x15 AdLink
This is now increased to 600x20

A third AdLink is only increased from 200x90 to 200x120

This 3 AdLinks make now 62% of income in competetion to
one 336x280 and 2 600x160.

The 3 smaller AdLLinks before produced only 42% of income.

[ember]

They look nice and do well for me.

[jetteroheller]

Now after some weeks:

Adlinks have about 50% of my revenues.

22% 234x150 AdLink left top was before 200x120
22% 600x20 AdLink in content was before 468x15
21% 336x280 top left
17% 600x150 dynamic placed
12% 600x150 dynamic placed
6% 200x150 AdLink below the content was before 200x120

Just thinking about a better placement for the only 6% AdLink

[CommandDork]

I just recently went back to Adlinks after years of shunning their ugliness. Thought the new changes mentioned above were interesting so I re-implemented them last month and have been pleasantly surprised with their targeting and revenue. They almost always rank near the top of my best earning channels (daily). Their targeting seems waaaay better than what I see from my regular text/media ads.

[Dimitri]

After reading this topic, I am giving it a try too. Looks good so far.

[Broadway]

I recently implemented a single responsive adlink unit in-text positioned 1/4th to 1/2 the way down each page (which places them way below the fold). They now account for easily 1/3 of income.

No doubt they Rob some clicks from other ads, but using them has restored my page rpm to a level I haven't seen in years.

[CommandDork]

Weeks into going back to adlinks (after years of not using them) and they are, by far, my best Adsense earners. They are way more targeted than general adblocks and take up less space. So "win-win" for a webmaster. I'll be looking to implement more of them across my network in the coming weeks and ride the high while it lasts.

The one thing that troubles me about my Adlinks, however, is the crazy-high CTR. Kind of like the rate you get when using the Adsense-for-Search bar function (those ads have historically had crazy high CTRs). But I'm not displaying them in any nefarious manner so I dont get it.

[Dimitri]

The text of links are extremely appealing (and misleading in some cases, I noticed) , so this is not surprising lot of people might be clicking on them.

[Pistoche]

Sorry for the newbie questions, but can you guys clear a couple of things for me?

1. Is Adlinks the same as "Link ads" - all I see in my ads section is "Link ads"?
2. We are only allowed to use DIV resizing with responsive ads, correct?
3. Do the color settings work for Link ads? No matter the colors I choose, I'm only seeing blue Link ads on my websites.
4. How does the Ad Balancer work with Link ads? (Does Ad balancer have an affect on Link ads just as it would with regular ads?)

Thanks in advance :)

[Dimitri]

1) yes

2) I am not sure I understood the question

3) Like for text-ads, it seems that Adsense is experimenting itself , with different colors and designs.

4) I feel like it does not affect ad links. but I am wondering the same too.

[Broadway]

I came here looking for an answer to Pistoche's question #3 above about not being able to change colors.
And I saw this thread where I think Dimitri had addressed this issue before:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Anyway, the implementation of adlinks on my main site has been generation so much income that I thought I might reconsider their implementation. Specifically, making sure they looked like ads and not links I had placed to other sections of my site.

I had already placed horizontal rule <hr> tags above and below them. I was also hoping to change their color so there was no question they were blending in too well and therefore deceptive.

I picked a new color scheme and after checking up to two hours later, the new scheme hadn't been implemented yet. (Now I know why.)

The colors Adsense has chosen match my scheme perfectly, and right now I can't say I'm all that comfortable with that (since Adsense has a history or making recommendations that go against Google policies). I wish they'd give us more control.

Someone here mentioned CTR. I'm getting a CTR in the range of .6% to .7% of visitors. I have them (one per page) placed in-text (across the text, since they're horizontal/responsive), 1/4 to 1/2 way down the page. I try to place them at logical break points in the content (places where previously I already had a horizontal rule.)

[Broadway]

After a break I went back to look at my mid-page Adlinks.

I'm 100% positive earlier in the day the Adsense notation next to the unit contained the word "Info." Now it states "AdChoices."

I had noticed the "Info" moniker before because I thought it was one reason why people might be clicking on the links so readily. Also, when making sure my horizontal rules were centered on the ad units properly I had taken notice of the "Info" moniker because it was so short in length.

I don't know if this is a permanent change or one of their experiments.

[Broadway]

I'm noticing big experimentation with Adlinks today.
1) The buttons now have a color filled in (light blue in my case).
2) The buttons are now square (Adsense supposedly had changed them to ovals several months ago).

[RedBar]

I had filled-in light blue last week, white again today and oval.

That got me to thinking, they aren't really oval, they're rectangles with a rounded end and so far the only mathematical description I can find for them is Capsule.

[Dimitri]

There are all kinds of experimentation indeed. There is also arrows, "normal" text links, or even links opening in a new window (with a little icon next to the link). Different colors, imitating the color scheme of the page, etc...

[CommandDork]

"That got me to thinking, they aren't really oval, they're rectangles with a rounded end and so far the only mathematical description I can find for them is Capsule."

From my Photoshop experience, these are described as "Rounded Rectangles" : )

[RedBar]

Rounded Rectangles

I don't believe so, Round Rectangles are rectangles with rounded corners, these are elongated rectangles with semi-circular ends, well on my sites they are:-)

Think of the inside marker lane of a flattened velodrome.

[RedBar]

It also seems to be known as Stadium!

[CommandDork]

So to start March 2017, Adlinks are my strongest earners by far. They closed out strongly in February as well. Maybe they are the future of online advertising :)

[Dimitri]

Ad links look particularly interesting on mobile devices. First of all the ad links "texts" are extremely appealing , then the page showing the list of advertisers looks good on a narrow screen , like the kind on mobile devices (but doesn't look good on wide desktop screen in my opinion).

[james007]

I had no idea that adlinks now look halfway acceptable. Not used them for years. Thank you to the OP.

The reports of revenue here are really nice!

From other comments here, it seems acceptable to have them next to display units?

[james007]

Disappointingly, AMP does not support ad links. [github.com...]

[breeks]

Had not used ad links for 10 years. Surprised how well they are working.

good - match content- do not take much space.

not so good -- 50/50 split on revenue with G - two clicks to the advertiser site.

[breeks]

Mine went from oval outline to solid color today. Will see if this changes earnings with links.

[CommandDork]

Today I'm seeing each Link Ad numbered as in 1 to 4, left to right. Still oval shaped, solid blue. The numbers sit in a white circle.

[breeks]

All I can say about responsive link units it that's they are the gift that keeps on giving. :)

[Mr_Jefe]

I haven't used text link ads in about 2 years. I didn't know they had a revamped version optimized for mobile.
My site traffic is about 80% mobile, and my RPM has been suffering badly this year.

I'll run a one-week test starting April 1st and see if it helps.

[Bluejeans]

All I can say about responsive link units it that's they are the gift that keeps on giving. :)

Roger that. Saw a startling increase in RPM this week just by going responsive and using the default color scheme. I have them at the top of the page and am wondering about putting them on the bottom too.