@webcentric. The figures have returned, but no change in the modifications that are supposed to be happening today.

Huh, my RPM for today is going up but earnings remained unchanged. Is there a click dump in the works. My banker wants to know. ;)

Big impression dump not too long ago, hopefully the click dump will come soon.

I got the very same impression that my impression dump would would lead to a big click dump. Reality turned out different than my impressions would have indicated. And WTF was that all about anyway? Something was going on but no interface updates that I can see.

It wasn't just AdSense; AdWords and Analytics and some other stuff was slow or delayed yesterday too.

In sports terms, yesterday was a grand slam. It's outta here. I used to see these on a daily basis, but now they are as rare as a blue moon. I'll take it and yes I'll report how this story unfolds.

Just now I'm seeing ads with no URL in them, it's just gone. Simply a Title and a description and an arrow. WTF? Now what? Vertical alignment is all screwed up. Arrow is jammed all the way to the top of the ad. Anyone else seeing this?

The only thing I am not seeing today are clicks from both the UK and USA, not one, huh?

This may be a responsive ad beta test (missing urls). Frankly, I'm tired of being Google's beta-tester and yes, CTR is in the toilet today (probably a direct result of this most recent tinkering).

Very bad start to June here as well

I'm seeing 728x90 text ads with the bottom half of the script across the bottom of the ad cut off. I tried changing fonts to small, etc., but nothing worked, so I was forced to change 728x90s to display ads only.

Back to back home runs. It's nice to be reminded how good earning days feel. It's a blip (that's how my expectations are now) but I'll gladly take it. You give me three of these days in a row, then I'll say something must be broke.

I'm seeing 728x90 text ads with the bottom half of the script across the bottom of the ad cut off.

I've seen those on and off for a while now. Also words cut off in weird places to a new line. Aggravating.

Like I said, I'm seeing ads with no URL portion. I don't use fixed ad sizes so all I can confirm is that this is happening on responsive ads. And yes, text and arrows are still getting cut off. I've gone to many more display only ad slots as well. Text ads, particularly responsive ads are what I'm beginning to see as "unstable" and "unpredictable" and, still, ugly. At this point I'm not sure whether the square arrows are responsible for the low CTR or the fact that the text in the ads is such a mess (Fonts all over the place, cut off, arrows pushed to the top or bottom instead of center, images poorly aligned, blah, blah, blah). This is so beyond tiring.

Give me a stable product Google and I'll work with it! Jeez.

Not sure what's wrong, but it has been a real pleasure checking stats the past two days. Today is no exception. My eyes are watering. If I go three days in a row, I'm going to McDonald's for a Big Mac. I probably could afford a side of fries too!

728 x 90 banner ads look okay on my site

I have two on the homepage

CTR on both my sites is way down this month. Down over 30% compared to May and YTD.

I wonder someone to give me a quick bit of advice? Like a lot of you, my earnings have been quite a bit down in the last couple of months and I decided to try changing a few things around to see what happens. I'm going to put a 300 rectangular unit and wrap the first paragraph of text around it, floated to the left. Am I better off having text/images enabled, or just text?

I guarantee you that text only option will result in the highest CTR and RPM for the scenario you are describing.

I better off having text/images enabled, or just text?

I've always done better with both enabled. The theory is that having both running creates more competition, thereby increasing advertiser bids and revenue for us.

728 x 90 banner ads look okay on my site

If you're responding to my observation about the URL element missing, the key factor may be responsive vs fixed size ads. I use responsive ads exclusively. This may be something G is experimenting with and my site is being used as a test site. What I will say is that when the URL is not there (also the favicons are gone) CTR is way up. Hope they leave this this way. They've been moving the text and arrow alignment around so the the arrow lines up with the title better. It actually looks a lot better than what I've been seeing for quite awhile now. I'm really amazed no one else is reporting this modification.

My theory is that if you have a clickable link amongst the text that people are reading, they are more likely to click them they would do a simple photograph.However, I suppose the advantage of having image as well is that you seem to earn money if nobody clicks, mind you it's only a tiny miniscule amount, but that does add up at the end of the year

Generally, on my site, text ads have a higher CTR but a lower EPC, while image ads have a lower CTR but a much higher EPC. So overall, the RPM ends up higher than having either text or image alone.

My theory is that if you have a clickable link amongst the text that people are reading, they are more likely to click them they would do a simple photograph

You just said a mouthful!

First, text ads do not currently contain anything that looks like a link (unless you actually hover your mouse over them). So, the whole concept of intuitively knowing where to click (from a visitor's perspective) is greatly diminished. This means, you have to get the user's attention with color and get the ad in the path of the user's mouse so when they move over it, something happens to light it up. You do get an underline and a bit of shading on hover so that's something, but the absence of an underlined title has been a problem in my view for some time.

Next, by using both text and image ads, you're driving up CPC. Not just getting pennies for exposures. It helps to understand how the auction works. You're not getting paid what the advertiser bid, you're getting paid what the next-highest bidding advertiser bid. Image ads drive up the "next-highest" amount which is what you'll be paid (regardless of the type of ad). Oh, yes, there's also the pennies earned from ad views (CPM revenue), but the real thing to understand is how the bidding works and how you can drive up the amount you get paid per click when you include both types of ads in a particular ad slot.

And last, since falling off the "text ad only" bandwagon, I'm finding display ads to be quite successful in their own right when added to the mix (particularly rich media ads) so while the old Adsense text ads were king (IMO), I think the playing field is now more level than it was in the not-too-distant-past.

The whole text ads only versus all ad types discussion/debate will always be a work in a progress and unique for every publisher. There are stretches where for my sites enabling all ad types DOES help drive up the CPC on text ads and ultimately the RPM. However, it's a total roller coaster. For example, I've had all ad types enabled for the last 30+ days and until the last 7 days it was performing better than just text ads. However, the last 7 days have been so bad that this morning I went back to text ads only and my RPM today is up almost 40%. So was it the right move for me (for now) to go back to just text ads? Absolutely. AdSense, even more than Adwords, requires constant monitor and adjustments to really earn as much as possible. There is no set it and forget it option to be as successful as possible.

AdSense, even more than Adwords, requires constant monitor and adjustments to really earn as much as possible. There is no set it and forget it option to be as successful as possible.

Agreed. I watch the density of ads when I've got both types enabled. Sometimes, display ads can't get a word in edgewise and the only way to get a good mix of them is to turn on Display Only for awhile. Other times it's the opposite. If I'm getting mostly display ads and no clicks, I'll turn them completely off for awhile. It pays to have some sort of idea what's displaying on your site and not be afraid to shake things up a bit when they go south. Changing from Text Only to Display Only or Text and Display can sometimes be just what the doctor ordered. Also, works as an ad blindness technique as well. Like you said, "Set it and forget it" can be a bad strategy. Of course, changing things every five minutes isn't really a good plan either. You need enough information to be able to draw some conclusions. Of course, a sustained period of "this sucks" can lead one to a pretty strong conclusion.

This morning, my page RPM has plummeted.

Then I realized what the problem is, I checked the stats: ALL Google Italy hits. The TV show my site is about is currently airing in Europe while it's 3 am in the U.S. !

The ads those Italians are seeing obviously have no use for them.

Whew!

Stuck today or just me?

Google is having issues today. YouTube not loading, Google Analytics not loading.

AdSense and analytics seem to be okay here in the UK