Google rolled out two new AdSense ad sizes earlier this month and they’re big:
- 970 x 250 Billboard
- 300 x 1050 Portrait
Google says the new Adsense ad sizes will help publishers to reach more advertisers, enhance user experience, and improve onsite engagement, but . . .
They’re BIG!. Possibly TOO BIG!! and although online business is all about making money many internet marketers are unimpressed by the new additions a comment placed in one forum thread reads.
“Why not simply offer full-page ads and be done with it?”
Google announced the introduction of the new Adsense ad sizes via their blog on June 3, and showed two example placements:
But using the recommended placement for the billboard ad would push the page’s main content down below the fold and Google has previously stated this is not good practice. An extract taken from a post published on the Google Webmaster blog, In January 2012, reads:
“As we’ve mentioned previously, we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away.”
In fact, Google’s algorithm has been tweaked to penalize sites for this practice:
“Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.”
So Google’s latest AdSense ad sizes appear to contradict their own rules.
But just how much space does the new take up?
Both of them are pretty hard to miss, but it’s difficult to say how they will ‘enhance user experience’. The new ads are pretty hard to miss though, so they may prove popular with advertisers, and Google AdSense publishers who utilize the new ads on their sites may achieve higher click-through rates, but it is also possible that such blatant advertising may prove to be a turn off for some site visitors and cause them the click on the ‘Back’ button, rather than the ads. and surf off in search of milder-mannered pages where the advertising looks more like an additional feature rather than a focal point.
What’s your opinion of the new AdSense ad sizes?
