AdSense Announces Custom Ad Sizes

Forum Moderators: martinibuster

Message Too Old, No Replies

AdSense Announces Custom Ad Sizes

netmeg

6:55 pm on Dec 11, 2013 (gmt 0)

Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of 434,216 new ad unit sizes! Or in other words, we’ve just made it possible to create custom ad sizes to give you more flexibility and enable you to better design your content for your users.

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

So my first question is - will these be collapsible? The reason I don't use a 300x600 even where I have room for it is that they tend to show ONE ad and a bunch of white space underneath it, that looks bad on a desktop and really awful on a smartphone. Interesting though, I wouldn't have called this one.

ken_b

7:12 pm on Dec 11, 2013 (gmt 0)

will these be collapsible?

I don't think so. In the example they show a 300 by 400 custom size in a 300x600 slot (dotted line), with the rest of the ad slot empty.
.

Swanny007

10:17 pm on Dec 11, 2013 (gmt 0)

Wow, this is a biggie, lots of publishers have been asking for this for years. I've never had to think about what size *I* want.... I'll have to think about that.... hmmm....

LifeinAsia

11:58 pm on Dec 11, 2013 (gmt 0)

If you go to create a custom ad, you get the following message:

Custom sized ad units may have a limited inventory of display ads available, which could have a negative impact on your earnings. If your site uses responsive design, we recommend that you use a responsive ad unit instead.

So it sounds like they should have left the "responsive" part off the title of the announcement.

phranque

12:51 am on Dec 12, 2013 (gmt 0)

mod's note:
the actual (misleading) title of the Inside AdSense post was "The next evolution of responsive ads - custom ad sizes" so i modified the title of this thread to more accurately reflect the feature that was announced.

matbennett

9:09 am on Dec 12, 2013 (gmt 0)

Worth noting that these work best for text ads. You can use them for rich media, but you get a floating ad within the size box that you prescribe (because the advertiser ultimately has control over their creative).

As pointed out above, the units are not responsive, but they do offer more options for those using responsive layouts.

We've been testing them for a while and the biggest advantages that we have see so far are in making grid layouts easier and in more creative placements that help break ad blindness (really useful on forums!)

levo

9:34 am on Dec 12, 2013 (gmt 0)

Did you try custom sizes for text ads? It looks really weird.. I've tried 436x280 (just a random size) and it showed 5-6 ads using a tiny font size.

jojy

12:29 am on Dec 13, 2013 (gmt 0)

I like the ad customization they have given to premium publishers. I have already tried with varies text ad sizes but it didn't work for me. CTR went down. If you don't know about custom ad size there used to be a code which lets you define your own ad width and height.

HowYesNo

4:02 pm on Dec 15, 2013 (gmt 0)

nice feature, testing now

Zivush

4:19 pm on Dec 16, 2013 (gmt 0)

@HowYesNo
Any news for us?

HowYesNo

2:32 am on Dec 17, 2013 (gmt 0)

replaced 728x90 with 728x300, ctr almost doubled but cpc is 3x less than average

in 728x300 they'll show you one 728x90 at the top or 10 small ads (728x30) or 5 medium ads (728x60) or one 336x280 centered

HowYesNo

2:41 am on Dec 17, 2013 (gmt 0)

also tested with 728x200 but font is very small when they show 10 ads, i'll stick with 728x300

matrix_jan

6:00 am on Dec 17, 2013 (gmt 0)

I'm experimenting with a 300x400 unit. Today I started to see a fancy one text ad that covers the whole unit and has a gradient background and when you hover over it the background changes. And the title is in blue, while I have all-black set up for that unit. Haven't seen an ad like that before, not on my websites not anywhere else.

------
Edit: Here's how it looks like.

[imgur.com...]

ken_b

5:00 pm on Dec 17, 2013 (gmt 0)

I think this might be relevant

Creative sizes (Beta) [webmasterworld.com]

.