Google AdSense: Text vs. Image Ads? Or both?

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When it comes to your AdSence ads, do you go for Text ads, Image Ads or both?

I would think a mix is best. Text ads are closly related to the content where as Image Ads are more general or completely unrelated.

So if a mix, manually place on the page or just let google random it?

Which typically pay more?

Anyone done some study on this?
#search engine optimization #ads #adsense #google #image #text
  • adsense is recomanding to put both on our blocks, this way more companies can bid for add placement
    • [1] reply
    • Using image ads gives you the potential to earn more IF adwords bidders are displaying images AND bidding more than the text bidders.

      Its also niche dependent because some niches don't have very many related image ads.

      You can use channels to split test with and without images to see what works best for your site.
  • So as expected, image ads should pay more, but which has a higher click-through rate?
  • You can find out which ones are working better for your sites in the "Performance Reports" section of your AdSense Manager. (Left Hand Side Menu - More Reports drop down > Ad Types.)

    It will depend on the advertisers that show up on your site. Some of them have really ordinary banners while others are great.

    Just so you know, an image ad is shown if the eCPM is higher than the combined eCPM of the 4 text links that would have otherwise been shown.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Nice info!

      Yes I know I can test for specific sites, but I try to do volume niche sites so I was looking for a rule of thumb more then an answer for 1 site.

      So based on what you said, a text ad would have to out perform an image alternative for it to be 'better'. Interesting...
    • That's interesting info. Can you elaborate a little more?

      I always wondered. I know that highest quality score will get the top spot, if other
      things don't tweak it, like position preference or something of the highest QS. And
      I know that if your QS sucks, you won't get top spot even if you bid the max.

      If that's true, then there is a lot of math to digest, depending on if you have
      a site that gets consistent high paying clicks, or you suck.

      Here's what I gather then. If your site rocks, and you are getting targeted ads,
      high paying clicks, then you don't want to switch to text and image. You are
      better off sticking with text.

      Paul
  • Just try both of them....do text only..then image only..then a mix....see what one converts the best for you..it really depends on what type of site you have..your placement..color...there are a lot of factors involved
  • The 4 text ads in the ad unit would have to. So you might say that 1 text ad will have an eCPM 25% of the Image ad eCPM. Adwords works takes into account quality scores and other stuff though so it isn't that black and white.

    This is why Google pushes the 'use text and image ads' on its users. The auction process should make it more profitable for you. The problem is advertisers paying overs with poor quality ads.

    Animated Images are my top performers for the last 30 days. There just enough to only show them though.
  • My $.02 - I've had higher earnings using only text ads for most of my sites.
  • Try em both out to test it yourself for a few days, but I suspect it will turn out that Google optimizes the best combo of text/images on its own when you permit any of their ads to show.
  • Paul, have a read of this page: How do CPC and CPM ads compete with each other? - AdWords Help

    It covers it in there. I came across it when I was doing PPC on the Content Network. Image Ads were cheaper to buy when advertising as a lot of people seem to only enable image ads but not many people competed for the space. Image Ads are more web design friendly I guess. The CTR (as an advertiser) smashed my text ads. The problem is that a lot of advertisers don't know what they are doing so the ads don't get clicked.

    A lot of AdSense publishers don't know what they are doing either so text ads might perform really bad on their sites, ruining the advertisers eCPM for the sites that do get the clicks. This will make it easier for an image ad to win.

    A good advertiser should cull the dead wood but I don't think many do. As an advertiser I could get an image ad with a CTR of at least 8%. I would love advertisers like that as an AdSense publisher. :p

    This here is a good video for those who aren't quite sure how AdSense ads are chosen in general: https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...&answer=160525
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • LOL! Aint that the truth! And I'm guilty.

      I'm going to take a hard look at image ads again. I have started to actually find more info
      on how adwords and adsense matches up, only because I was sick of people
      whining about such a low click and how they are being cheated because they
      just know they have a high paying site. Or how you can just pick high paying words and
      get rich. It's not as simple as that.

      Interesting to read this line from google about CPC and CPM:
      Paul
    • I think that nailed it. When using image ads, 80% are just fugly. Does google even
      have some sort of quality control on image ads? If they don't it's funny how an
      image ad can be diametrically opposed to the quality of a text ad.

      Paul
  • haha! I think we all are. :p

    Running AdWords on the Content Network was the best thing I could have done for understanding AdSense. They actually helped each other out. In one ear you have PPC people telling you that the Content Network is a dud but then in your other ear AdSense publishers are making a fortune.

    If you enjoy number crunching and have the time to fiddle with AdWords, images on the content network can really pay off.

    As for the CPC and CPM being the same: this is because Google converts all auctions to eCPM (or Ad Rank) before determining the winner.

    If Advertiser A has a CTR of 1% (CPC) and Advertiser B is paying $1 CPM, Advertiser A would have to pay more than $0.10c/click to beat Advertiser B. (Assuming they have the same QS and all the other variables Google includes).

    You should make the same amount with either Advertiser after 1000 impressions.
  • Banned
    Thanks Fraggler, that link/video had some good info.

    YouTube - Introduction to the Ad Auction
  • Joel Comm advices us to use text ads instead of image, and he is the king of adsense so i guess i would say text ads.
  • TEXT ADS ONLY.

    Tested this for years, and text always pay more, and the CTR is always better.

    Just ignore Adsense trying to get you using image ads.

    The only exception is when I use an image ad for appearence and color.

    For example, the blog in my signature is the only blog we have that has images ads, and that because the IM visitors don't click ads often enough to make any real money, and I love the look of the banners - color, action, etc.
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