Quality of Adsense Text Ads?

[Buzzlord]

What is people's opinion of Adsense Text Ads vs Adsense Image Ads? I am wondering if I want to put them on my site...

Putting on the "web site/blog user" hat instead of the blogger/webmaster hat, I've always hated the way Adsense Text Ads look. I actually think they look like absolute garbage, and I have never clicked on one in my life -- at least intentionally. I don't click on image ads or any ads at all either I guess, but it seems like I have a much higher opinion of them when I see them on sites.

I have also noticed lately that you don't really see those Adsense text ads on most highly reputable, mainstream sites anymore. I've noticed a trend you really no longer see Adsense text ads on Twitter, Digg, Flickr, Facebook, etc. You also never see them on huge blogs like Lifehacker, Gawker, Deadspin, EnGadget, ProFootballTalk, etc. Those sites are all opting for higher quality flash ads (which can also be annoying for other reasons) and Image ads that appear to be regular Adsense image ads, I'm guessing because it makes the site look a lot more professional when you don't have nasty looking blue-link text ads all over the place.

The other thing I wonder is if users are just immune to those Adsense text ads. They've been around for so long that many people may have learned to subconsciously tune them out -- I know I have, but maybe people newer to computers are still prone to clicking on them?

One more problem I have with these. Google doesn't seem to care who advertises with them. It seems like I see things that appear to be rampant MLM or just your basic pyramid scheme constantly advertised through Google text ads, in addition to the annoying miracle teeth whitener or miracle fad diet ads we see so much of. Does anyone think that having ads like this on your site harms your credibility? I know I don't want my users being directed to a "Work at Home" scam from my site.

Do the Adsense Text Ads make more money than the Adsense Image Ads or something? I guess I don't understand why I still see so many of them on other sites still...

What do you think?

[maccam87]

tbh nice post btw but i use both text and banner ads and they are just as good as each other really but also ur right with the boring text ads if you have a really good banner you might get alot more clicks it really all depends on the visitors and what they prefer i think they are pretty similar

which one would you click.

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Which one with your click on?? hopefully that has answered your question

[Buzzlord]

Thank you for the compliment and for the reply.

I think I might have posted this in the wrong section of the forum because I am not referring to advertising for your blog, but to putting Adsense text ads on it. I guess I'm wondering if people think having Adsense text ads on your blog make it look less professional than just having the Adsense image ads or some sort of flash ad or whatever you might use.

To the point you made about the difference between the ads, the image ad looks a lot better. It just looks a lot more credible than a basic e-book link because at the very minimum it shows that you have invested something more than the couple of seconds it takes to type out a text ad.

[pcsourcepoint]

Try blending text ads in your content - works for me...

I get more conversions on text ads that are embedded in my posts at the top - period, as in my CTL blog (in sig below). Almost everyday. I guess the text blends in with the post to catch the eye of visitors; Not much conversions with side bar/top ads - except for occasional conversions for booking type ads for my hotel blog - as visitors are looking to book a hotel. Thus the ads I think are quite relevant to my content (reviews). Thus extremely targeted (and high paying) ads are served up.

Hence I am trying commission junction banner ads - which get more clicks than I ever did for adsense image only ads. If you see adsense ads not entirely relevant to your site/blog it could be - that the blog is displaying too many pages, that don't relate to each other in content- thus adsense may struggle to serve up relevant/targeted (and hence increase likelihood of lower value/non targeted ads appearing. I now only display one page for my blogger blogs to help attract targeted adsense ads for my CTL blog (as posts are quite different in content - and don't always relate to a central theme).

Also Google implemented "interest" only ads; ads that display once a visitor enters your site, based on their user recent web site surf history (including your own) history. This may explain ads you see on your site, are not entirely relevant to your content - but perhaps to your recent PC search history. Example: When viewing my CTL blog on my PC, I saw ads on hair shampoo and blowers, etc. This was because my teenage daughter had just finished viewing fashion and cosmetic sites, etc. Visit Google adsense about interest user ads, which you can opt out (if not already).

[Buzzlord]

Originally Posted by pcsourcepoint

Try blending text ads in your content - works for me...

I get more conversions on text ads that are embedded in my posts at the top - period, as in my CTL blog (in sig below). Almost everyday. I guess the text blends in with the post to catch the eye of visitors; Not much conversions with side bar/top ads - except for occasional conversions for booking type ads for my hotel blog - as visitors are looking to book a hotel. Thus the ads I think are quite relevant to my content (reviews). Thus extremely targeted (and high paying) ads are served up.

Hence I am trying commission junction banner ads - which get more clicks than I ever did for adsense image only ads. If you see adsense ads not entirely relevant to your site/blog it could be - that the blog is displaying too many pages, that don't relate to each other in content- thus adsense may struggle to serve up relevant/targeted (and hence increase likelihood of lower value/non targeted ads appearing. I now only display one page for my blogger blogs to help attract targeted adsense ads for my CTL blog (as posts are quite different in content - and don't always relate to a central theme).

Also Google implemented "interest" only ads; ads that display once a visitor enters your site, based on their user recent web site surf history (including your own) history. This may explain ads you see on your site, are not entirely relevant to your content - but perhaps to your recent PC search history. Example: When viewing my CTL blog on my PC, I saw ads on hair shampoo and blowers, etc. This was because my teenage daughter had just finished viewing fashion and cosmetic sites, etc. Visit Google adsense about interest user ads, which you can opt out (if not already).

Interesting... Thanks for the response.

I don't want to mix the text ads in with the content because, as a user, I HATE when sites try to "blend" the ads with the text. That's actually kind of what I'm getting at with my original post. Don't you think that trying to blend the text ads into your content insults the intelligence of your user and detracts from your credibility? When I am browsing the web and I see ads positioned like that, I think "this site is trying to trick/force me into reading these ads" and that is a huge put-off to me as a user. Even if I was interested in a product advertised I would avoid clicking simply because I don't like the fact that the ads are trying to force me to look at them by mixing with the content.

That said, I am probably a lot more internet savvy than your average internet user. Is the average user just not "caught up" yet? I'm thinking that mixing text ads into your site is a bad move in terms making your site look as professional as possible. Like I said before, I don't see any of the really big-time blogs or heavily trafficked web sites using these ads anymore, and if they do they do not try to blend with the content.

[dibbs98]

i find the quality is not that great, they never seem too appropriate for my subject, but perhaps i am writing on too much of a niche topic? who knows...

[pcsourcepoint]

Originally Posted by Buzzlord

Interesting... Thanks for the response.

I don't want to mix the text ads in with the content because, as a user, I HATE when sites try to "blend" the ads with the text. That's actually kind of what I'm getting at with my original post. Don't you think that trying to blend the text ads into your content insults the intelligence of your user and detracts from your credibility? When I am browsing the web and I see ads positioned like that, I think "this site is trying to trick/force me into reading these ads" and that is a huge put-off to me as a user. Even if I was interested in a product advertised I would avoid clicking simply because I don't like the fact that the ads are trying to force me to look at them by mixing with the content.

That said, I am probably a lot more internet savvy than your average internet user. Is the average user just not "caught up" yet? I'm thinking that mixing text ads into your site is a bad move in terms making your site look as professional as possible. Like I said before, I don't see any of the really big-time blogs or heavily trafficked web sites using these ads anymore, and if they do they do not try to blend with the content.

Many large blogs/sites and forums (that I partcipate in), have the luxury of receiving 100's or more hits per day; Our own Trademe (like ebay) site in NZ has 20,000 - to 70, 000 online per second every day. They perhaps do not need to blend in ads. In fact many forum members I suspect do not click any ads, and I have participated in discussions where members were moaning about standard sidebar ads being too obvious (e.g. PC world F1 in NZ - where else can sites put ads, if not blended?).

I have notice over the years - more ads/network advertisers/companies are becoming prominent and their ads - in size, placement, form (e.g. more text ads today),etc, and are basically everywhere; This I believe has caused a bit of scrutiny from searchers - more people are becoming either immune to ads or criticize/moan about sites displaying them. But they forget ads helps drive Google's empire - which those searchers use (and their tools, e.g. Gmail. docs, keyword tool, etc...and adsense) generally for their benefit.

I blend ads to try recoup something - namely many hours of research into my content, and because I opted into "interest" ads, those ads may serve up what a searcher (and easy to spot if blended) was looking for - prior to landing on my blog (even if my content does not fulfill their answer). If the ad benefits the searcher - then good - click or not click.

If it insults intelligence of such searchers for blended adsense - searchers can copy/click on the displayed url, and recognize that they are ads as the term "Google" is displayed (this was mentioned by a prominent site owner for tech help - one that receives $100's per month - how's that for insult - makes heaps - and I bet never clicks directly on other adsense ads). Or searchers/visitors could bypass specific ads and go to their publishers/sites direct (as in affiliate ads - e,g, Amazon).

Ads are all good - but for whom? It's becoming a bit more muddled - are ads trying to benefit the advertiser - site/blog/owner or the searcher/buying or ideally all involved - as it's a dynamic state amongst all three - where all involved want something, but perhaps at a bit of a sacrifice/loss/detriment to the other. It has become harder to please one or the other - particularly for site/blog ad owners/publishers. Ads may help...but it seems always with increasing dissatisfaction in some quarters...

[Buzzlord]

Originally Posted by pcsourcepoint

Many large blogs/sites and forums (that I partcipate in), have the luxury of receiving 100's or more hits per day; Our own Trademe (like ebay) site in NZ has 20,000 - to 70, 000 online per second every day. They perhaps do not need to blend in ads. In fact many forum members I suspect do not click any ads, and I have participated in discussions where members were moaning about standard sidebar ads being too obvious (e.g. PC world F1 in NZ - where else can sites put ads, if not blended?).

I have notice over the years - more ads/network advertisers/companies are becoming prominent and their ads - in size, placement, form (e.g. more text ads today),etc, and are basically everywhere; This I believe has caused a bit of scrutiny from searchers - more people are becoming either immune to ads or criticize/moan about sites displaying them. But they forget ads helps drive Google's empire - which those searchers use (and their tools, e.g. Gmail. docs, keyword tool, etc...and adsense) generally for their benefit.

I blend ads to try recoup something - namely many hours of research into my content, and because I opted into "interest" ads, those ads may serve up what a searcher (and easy to spot if blended) was looking for - prior to landing on my blog (even if my content does not fulfill their answer). If the ad benefits the searcher - then good - click or not click.

If it insults intelligence of such searchers for blended adsense - searchers can copy/click on the displayed url, and recognize that they are ads as the term "Google" is displayed (this was mentioned by a prominent site owner for tech help - one that receives $100's per month - how's that for insult - makes heaps - and I bet never clicks directly on other adsense ads). Or searchers/visitors could bypass specific ads and go to their publishers/sites direct (as in affiliate ads - e,g, Amazon).

Ads are all good - but for whom? It's becoming a bit more muddled - are ads trying to benefit the advertiser - site/blog/owner or the searcher/buying or ideally all involved - as it's a dynamic state amongst all three - where all involved want something, but perhaps at a bit of a sacrifice/loss/detriment to the other. It has become harder to please one or the other - particularly for site/blog ad owners/publishers. Ads may help...but it seems always with increasing dissatisfaction in some quarters...

Great post.

Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to take shots at anyone who blends in ads into their content -- I just want to discuss the way visitors view our web sites and whether or not the trend is moving away from blended advertising the same way it moved away from pop-ups. I compare it to pop-ups because it is obviously an effective way to get the user to look at ads, but it is annoying for the user to a degree -- some more than others. I think I might be ahead of the curve in terms of getting annoyed by the blended ads, and I'm thinking that the trend will move away from that type of thing.

I think it can be incredibly hard to try and pinpoint the "buyer persona" (or "reader persona" for blogs if you will) of your reader or site visitor. I know my own personal "buyer persona" gets annoyed when it sees blended ads because I feel like the person is trying to trick me into clicking on their ads - as unjustified of a feeling as that may be. Of course I know that everyone doesn't think like me, so I wanted to see what some other webmasters/bloggers thought about it.

I've often wondered about forum users, and other users that frequent a site. I do not know, but I would be willing to bet that a first-time visitor to a site is 100 times more likely to click on an advertisement than somebody who has 1,000 forum posts. My theory is that the person with 1,000 forum posts ignores all ads by habit. The eyes go right to the content because they know exactly where it is. Just a theory, I have never run a forum but I would love to know .

I think there must be a balance where things are optimal, an in-between point between annoyingly ubiquitous advertising and no ads at all that ends up producing the most possible revenue. I'm sure it varies by site to site and market to market as well...