Me too! I got the call up. Whilst I share your scepticism, there could be some positives that come from the rework of my site.

Google will need a critical mass of sites that will show the 350 x 250 before they can go to big clients and reassure them of quality placement.

This could be (please note ‘could be’) a sign of more technological convergence. Mobile devices may benefit from above the line placement. More people have faster, consistently reliable access and can receive video these days.

Or maybe G is going to offer some form of integrated package that includes their recent purchases, some form of YouTube, local radio, local newspaper, search, publisher-based mash-up brand – which others cannot immediately imitate.

Hello,

I received mail. I added the required format and uploaded just to give a try. After 2 days there is no change in the revenue structure but I guess we have to wait for a week as it was saturday and sunday in the beginning. There is no decrease in the revenue for sure in my case.

Why not some guy from G confirms about the mail since many of us don't know the authenticity of it.

I did this pretty fast because I was using large format and it was easy to switch over to medium. It wouldn't hurt my design too.

At the end of the day what matters is the revenue and there has to be significant increase if G considers our site to be worth to choose for the custom placement program.

I DID NOT get the email. Maybe they are sending them to people with a certain type of website? I do not have analytics either.

My site has always rotated various AS sizes but when I got the Google 300x250 invitation I quickly cut out the five lowest performing sizes and replaced with 300x250.

flash-based(?) [tax time] ads quicly filled my slots but weren't getting clicked so often. But my earnings were up because apparently HRB noticed my site and started pushing similar flash ads into my Wide Skyscrapers. Those are getting clicked and the CPC is high.

I'm having my first ever $20 day.. and this from a forum site that, until Smart Pricing, was only seeing $3-5/day. If this continues I'm expecting $20-30/day during weekdays when our real traffic comes.

[edited by: martinibuster at 9:13 am (utc) on Jan. 29, 2007]
[edit reason] Removed specifics. [/edit]

well i didnt received mail :D

how lucky i am lol?

Man.. when those tax prep guys get to work on Monday morning and check their weekend AdSense spend it's gonna be interesting! I suspect we'll see a quick end to the flashy green ads.

i did receive the email NOT.
and i haven't 300x250s in place yet, because:

a) the rectangle format is very difficult to fit in my design
b) i wouldn't change a thing for google image/video ads at this time

but to all you test animals, please report how it works out. i for one predict a non starter once again - like always when google experiments with other than its core business text ads. reasons:

a) lack of appropriate ad inventory
b) ugliness
c) unexplained payment terms and conditions

If they personally reviewed my site, and I personally sent them a reply asking some questions, I'm still personally waiting to hear their answers.

I have the big rectangle on most pages of my site since long. I did not get any invitation.

Well, I added the format to one of my sites, then allowed it back into the site targeting network.

In the forum clicks and eCPM have doubled. eCPM rising is likely due to increased competition.

I saw a cool video ad, but I don't think it was part of the placement packs program. I'm looking forward to more increased competition as this gets rolling. So far so good. ;)

I went from the 336x280 to the 300x250. For me, it was the other way around, CTR down, CPM down :(

Is anyone getting blank spaces in their inline rectangle (300x250) ad(s)? My site is very high traffic, but Google is not filling the ads, so instead of 4 lines often appear 1 or 2 lines only, leaving the rest... BLANK!

Well, I think that's good.
In my experience, when Google servers less ads on an ad unit that usually serves more, they pay higher EPC.

Same here fischermx, so I changed back, but I'm still getting the same low revenue. I also renamed my channel, could that effect the ads I'm getting? *confused*

Just as I suspected.. Monday AM is here and the green flashies are gone from my site.

Same here no email and no XMAS gifts - I feel like ignored :(

Questions...

Are there folks who did NOT receive the magic email, but placed the inline rectangle(s) (300x250) anyway?

What kind of video ads are you all getting on the inline rectangle (300x250) ads on your sites? I got, for example, Fat Joe talking Cadillac which has nothing to do with our products that we sell.

I got the email too and changed from the large to the small rectangle a few days ago.
My CTR dropped a bit as could be expected but I just noticed that we are supposed to notifiy AS if decide to opt in, which I failed to do.

If you decide to add medium rectangle units to your site, please notify us by replying to this email so that we can begin featuring your site in more of our advertiser packages.

Maybe the new ads don't kick in until you respond to the email.

I have completed all the formalities and waiting for the result. I was using medium rectangle above the pages and recently only changed to large one, but there was no much difference, so now returning to medium rectangles again is not going to affect me much.

I got the email too. I just try to run the 300x250 ads, so far not yet get the big change in revenue. I think google is not directly include us in the "Custom placement packs" even i had place the 300x250 as they suggest in the 1st email. Because, after 4 days run the 300x250 ads , i got a reply email from adsense.

" Thanks for getting back to me and for implementing our suggestions. We look forward to including your site in our custom placement packs whenever possible! "

Now i still in testing period.However, If anyone here had run the ads and included in the "Custom placement packs" ,and already earn more $ from it , please share your experience. Thanks!?

Regards
Ian

Hi

Received this email on 26 Jan. Did as told and included the format on 2 pages and reply accordingly to AS.

Today just received from AS and their reply,

" Thanks for getting back to me and for implementing our suggestions. We look forward to including your site in our custom placement packs whenever possible! If you haven't already done so, we suggest labeling your placements with '300x250 ATF' in the description in order to let advertisers know that you've placed medium rectangles above the fold on your site."

Going to clarify about the '300x250 ATF'.

Did anybody else receive this email?

i also got reply of this '300x250 ATF' and i dont know what does it mean by put '300x250 ATF' in description field.. are they saying i need make a channel called '300x250 ATF' and then place that ad?

regards

I got this

"Thanks for getting back to me and for implementing our suggestions. We look forward to including your site in our custom placement packs whenever possible! If you haven't already we suggest labeling your placements with '300x250' in the description in order to give advertisers more information about the ad unit style you're using."

I think "labeling your placements with '300x250 ATF' in description" meant set the Channel Description to "300x250 ATF"

Anyone else has difference ideas?

Hello,

I received the thanks letter with '300x250 ATF' to be labeled in the description. I added that word in the description. I don't know how to label apart from this.

I think that point ties up with the original last para of Geoff Vitt's email:

We also recommend you use the newly launched ad placements feature to define your ad slots to advertisers so they can bid on specific placements on your site.

I made the change and responded, but never got the second email.

I think we should step back and look at a different angle of this. I think alot of attention has gone to the 300x250 size rather than the ad placement channel part. Has anyone read the official adsense blog? (adsense.blogspot.com) They outline the ad placement channels there that will provide advertisers more information abot your placement of the ads on the page so that they have more fine-grained control over the placement vs cost of their advertising dollars. Maybe this is what this email is all about? I didn't get the email, but just my $0.02.

I reckon it's both. This was the email (minus specifics); as it was sent to thousands, I do not think I'm betraying a confidence. I hope not!

Dear Publisher,
After a recent review of your site, we would like to include [site url] in our custom placement packs program. Custom placement packs are selections of individually-reviewed sites designed for our largest brand advertisers.
We would like to feature your site more frequently in these advertiser packages, but to do so, we need you to place more image and text-enabled medium rectangle ad units (300x250) on your site. Visit https: [adformats] to see a sample of the medium rectangle unit.
The medium rectangle is the most demanded size among our brand advertisers that utilize these packages for both text and image ads. These advertisers want to ensure they reach visitors on high quality sites like yours, and are willing to bid more for ads prominently displayed on these sites. They require that the units be placed "above the fold" on a page so that the ads are immediately visible to your site's visitors without scrolling down.
If you decide to add medium rectangle units to your site, please notify us by replying to this email so that we can begin featuring your site in more of our advertiser packages.
We also recommend you use the newly launched ad placements feature to define your ad slots to advertisers so they can bid on specific placements on your site. For instructions on how to create ad placements, please visit https: [answer=50691].
Sincerely, Geoff Vitt AdSense Support

[edited by: Quadrille at 1:28 pm (utc) on Jan. 30, 2007]

did anyone get the email who was already usinmg the ad size/placement they mentioned.

ps I didn't get the email

I already had this ad size on that position and I didn't receive any notification. I'm not sure if that's a reason

I reckon Wiglian is correct. It's not the size, it's the stuff around the ad placement channel. The questions you need to answer almost force you to sell your ad space to advertisers. What size, where it appears on the page, which pages it appears on. Is this new, I never realised all those questions were there before. In fact I only used channels to monitor which pages were doing well, not which ad formats.