I have in the navigation right from the content 300x250 and below the content 336x280

I found it anoying, that it happened often, that both showed the same ads.

So I started an experiment with 300x250 text only.

After some weeks, no statistic differcent

I've tried it both ways and for me "text and images" usually pays best.

I've also done a test and text and images paid around 30% compared to just text. But I have heard that text only works for some folks.

I tried image ads once. I quickly went back to text ads only and have no plans to change that.

FarmBoy

Text ads only, to many offensive image ads getting through the screening process.

If that makes me oh so 2003 as someone else stated in another thread so be it.

If its good enough for google.com its good enough for me.

If image ads are so effective, why doesn't google use them on their own sites -- say, google news, or gmail?

Text only or text/image, but I tried images only and the CTR was down about 40%.

Text only. The image ads clashed strongly with my editorial, and I saw no difference with them on or off except for the increased load time caused by image ads. That, and now the inclusion of other types of "expandable" image ads scares me away, as we don't wish to distract our audience. All image ads cause banner blindness for me.

Text only.
[webmasterworld.com...]

Well *someone* must be allowing 'em, cause I have clients on the AdWords side doing really well with them (also video/flash ads) Tons of conversions, too.

Text only. Too difficult to catch offenders, if it is possible at all. The preview tool obviously does not show image ads. Flash ads do not even show URLs.

Guess what? I think it's sad in a way, because about 90% of the image ads were spot-on, but the 10% that are unrelated are soo annoying that they just throw a bad light on our sites.

text ads only as well

I'm using text/images in towers only. Text everywhere else.

Text only for the majority of units, advertisers tend to try and sneak in scantily clad women too often on my subjects.

Went to text only and seems like earnings decreased. Switching back to text / images.

Are you actually using only text?

Yes, because we've already got a rep firm for display ads.

For us, AdSense isn't the cake; it's just the icing on the cake, as it is on many media sites.

For those of you who are opted out of image ads, is the primary issue ad quality or eCPM (or just personal preference)?

In other words, what would it take to get you interested in showing image ads on your site?

ASA

ASA, I've opted out and back in to showing image ads and am considering opting back out again. The visual appearance of some of them quite frankly sucks. Yes, there are many that look really great but show me even one ugly one and that is enough to dump them all.

ASA, My site attracts both young parents and teachers. Very often the parents are browsing my site with their children on their lap. In these circumstances ads for "Achmed the dead terrorist" with skull and all in the picture shown isn't really appreciated.

For those of you who are opted out of image ads, is the primary issue ad quality or eCPM (or just personal preference)?

Even if I didn't another source of display ads, I'd probably be leery of AdSense display ads for the same reason that I'd be leery of display ads from other horizontal (as opposed to vertical) networks: Generic text ads aren't as "in your face" as generic display ads are.

For those of you who are opted out of image ads, is the primary issue ad quality or eCPM (or just personal preference)?

It's mainly a quality issue for me

I go with text only due to image ad quality. Too much bad stuff gets through and once or twice is too often.

I prefer text ads only

Maybe is a little bit off discussion between text or video but i prefer Ad Link Units. They are most effective on each of my site's and perform 20x better than any other type.

Thanks for the feedback. It's always appreciated. I'm passing it along to the right people as it comes in.

ASA

Hi ASA,

Our problem is offensive ads. Most (95%?) of the image ads are of passing to great quality.

Sadly that 5% that comes through that are offensive are REALLY offensive. To the point that I have parents, educators and grandparents emailing me about them.

We tried to block them but its a hopeless mission. The screening has to be more rigid at the editorial level imho.

Text only; it blends in better with my site and provides an overall better user experience IMHO.

i kept getting ads about finding a gay partner (for a matchmaking site), and it had this big picture of a 6-foot bare-chested bloke covering up half a 120x600 ad.

didn't really fit in with my site.
you only need to see those a few times to want to turn them off.

Many variations in what works best for different situations, layouts, etc. but my testing has found...

- text AND image works best when ads are in left or right columns (non content areas)

- text works best when ads are within the text of a page (like the middle of an article