Google AdSense Retiring Link Ad Units

[Lagonda]

We've decided to retire link ads. This is in order to modernize our available ad formats, based on the feedback from users, publishers and advertisers. Going forward, we’ll be focussing on improving and developing other ad formats to help you grow.
What does this mean?
From 10-03-2021:
• You will no longer be able to create link ad units.
• Your link ad units will be renamed with [previously link ad unit] added to the end of the ad unit name. This will apply to both responsive and fixed-size link ad units.
• Responsive link ads will begin to serve display ad units on your site(s).
• Fixed-size link ads will stop serving on your site(s).We will collapse each ad unit where possible. In other cases we will show a blank ad.
Your earnings
Our experiments show that, for the vast majority of publishers, responsive display ads can perform as well as link ads. We are constantly optimizing responsive display ads to maximize performance. You will be able to monitor the performance of your link units through the ad units report to compare performance before and after.
What to do next?
There is no action required from you in relation to your responsive link ads as these will begin to serve display ads from 10-03-2021.
We recommend that you remove the fixed-size link ad units from your site and try out the following ad formats instead:
• You can let Auto ads scan your site and automatically place ads where they’re likely to perform well. Learn more about how to get started with Auto ads.
• Display ads work well anywhere on your site. Learn more about how to create a display ad unit.
• For a customized ad experience, you could try native ads. Learn more about how to create a native ad unit.
• If your site is eligible for Matched content, you can replace your link ad units with a customizable Matched content ad unit. Learn more about customizing Matched content.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to develop our products.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team

[support.google.com...]

In one of my sites, these ad units represent 55% of total revenue.
Nice Christmas gift Google.
Very, very nice.

Well, time to adjust.
They removed Ad Balance, now they remove link ads.
What's next? Not sure I'll be 100% around to wait and see.
(feeling really f'ed up)

[edited by: engine at 12:54 pm (utc) on Dec 11, 2020]
[edit reason] Added attribution [/edit]

[barefoot]

@gatormark - The past few days have been the best since 2018 for me. Basically all coming from link units. 65-85% from link units depending on the day. In fact I have a link unit right next to a display ad unit which proves to me that link units work better.

@worker - Thanks for letting me know that link units have looked like that way for a while. Adsense has been set and forget for the past few years for me, basically not worth my time or worry. I log in to Adsense maybe once every month or two, but more so recently with these new changes. I don't mind if I have to remove Adsense and go my own way.

[dolcevita]

I can also confirm that at this point Adlinks are still functioning and earning money the same as before March 10th.

[Jori]

Nothing changed for me. Just saw some display on pages with very low traffic only.

[Lisa01]

Can someone confirm whether Google is retiring just fixed link ad units or all types of link ad units?

[CommandDork]

Sounds like all of them. Per Adsense help...

"Responsive link ads will begin to serve display ad units on your site(s)."

"Fixed-size link ads will stop serving on your site(s)."

[support.google.com...]

[Lisa01]

But link ads are still working and making money. Is anyone here still using link ads? Because i am.

[not2easy]

As Command_Dork quoted above - from the announcement posted at the top of this page: IF your ads are responsive link ads, they will continue to show ads and earn money. They will be showing as display ads, not link ads. The announcement is pretty clear about what happens to your ads. The fixed size link ads have been disabled. If you were not using fixed sized link ads, you will continue to earn money showing display ads. ;)

[Lisa01]

Yes I get it. But mine are still showing link ads, not display ads.

[ubound]

I got tired of waiting until they replace my links with display ads and made a switch myself. However, responsive display units looked too aggressive right under titles and I removed them altogether. It's too early to say anything because there are a lot of moving parts. I had quite a traffic drop yesterday, too. One thing to be happy about: No ugly link ads under my titles anymore!

[jetteroheller]

I have to prepare a presentation until March 17th. Maybe I change the AdLinks next Thursday

[puente]

responsive link ads are still showing and earning on my site and the label hasn't changed to 'previously'. thinking google still has inventory to burn thru and march 10 wasn't a sunset date but a phase out starting date.

[Lisa01]

Yes, i think you're right

[Lisa01]

So are there any chances that they might deduct the earnings made from link ads during this period?

[gatormark]

@Lisa01

Good question...they warned us to remove the ads.

[worker]

Google did not warn people to remove link units.

Google said that after March 10, hardcoded link units would be collapsed (if possible) or just blank (if not possible). They said that responsive link units would have the name changed and would be replaced by display ads.

At no point did Google tell people to 'remove link units', with the possible interpretation of them telling people to replace hardcoded link units with responsive link units or display ads directly.

[Lisa01]

Yes. Google did say in the mail to do nothing for the responsive link ad units. They'll do it on their own, whatever they have to.

[nmbrsk]

Still showing up on my site and earning money.

I thought they would show responsive display ads starting the 10th?

[pmays]

Well, for me happened what I expected. I replaced wide link ad unit with reponsive ad unit (hardcoded 728x90), CPC is quite bigger, but CTR is -40%. So i end up on $3 CPM (from $4). Link ad units was for me best performance units since Google Adsense exists, I am doing milions of impression each month and this will hurt my earnings quite lot.

Link ad units could really nicely fit content and they didnt look like ads, so people click a lot on it, even if they to click twice (first keyword, second result from result page). Still much more profitable.

Problem is, that nowadays we can't improve anything in Google Adsense - colors are set auto, text/image format is auto, banner sizes are reducing, everything is simplified. Adsense really need a big competition.

[Lisa01]

Link ad units make around 40 percent of my revenue. They are different from the other ads and attract attention. This is going to hurt me really bad. I still haven't replaced it with responsive display ads. Changed it for a few hours and the result was dismal. It's sad that Adsense doesn't pay much for impressions alone.

[ember]

I have a competitor with a huge link ad below his title at the the top of every page. Looks like navigation. It's still there, so who knows what Google is doing.

[MayankParmar]

I have already replaced link ad with responsive ad and it's doing way better than link ad.

[ubound]

It has been only a couple of days so it's still early to judge. Also Google seems to test a huge header ad on my site for the past 2 days, I haven't seen this before very often.

[dolcevita]

5 days later and just to confirm that LinkAd are still present and the same as before

[gatormark]

One of my websites got a Google SERP boost after I took off the link ads. It went from about 9000 page views per day to 18,000 page views a day. :-) So, the revenue doubled. I hope they keep me ranked where I am...or go higher. ;-)

[gatormark]

Has anyone's CPC's gone up since removing link ads? Mine have gone .04 cents and is increasing.

[jetteroheller]

Just changed yesterday from 3 AdLinks 600x24 to 2 ads 600x60.
Last week impression RPM of AdLinks had been 55% lower than the 2 new units.

[Jori]

They finally took off the links ads on my website.
And yes, that's terrible news for my revenues.

I have now to reimagine the way I display ads :/

[lammert]

Google auto-replaced my links ads with billboard size 970 x 250 ads. That's way too large for the content they are on IMHO. I have removed the code temporarily to see if it has significant effect on earnings.

[puente]

the links are gone and with them so are the decent earnings.

[Lagonda]

Yesterday was, I think, the first day without link ad units at all.
From 10th March to 26th March the old link ads were slowly and gradually replaced by a new responsive unit.

If I look at yesterday's vs last same weekday reports, these are the metrics:
Estimated earnings -42%
Impression RPM -33%
Clicks -77%

Considering the link ads units were well integrated into the site's design, were about 30px tall, the new unit is a huge ad 230px tall that owes a lot to discretion, and losing 42% of revenue at the same time, this is worrisome.

I haven't touched a thing - no replacing of code, no new units, nothing.
I will not touch anything for a month.
I'll report then.