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Mobile only websites - feedback on ad sizes/placements

Maleda

11:35 am on Mar 11, 2015 (gmt 0)

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Hi everyone!

I've been a long time lurker and read this forum every couple of days to keep up to date with how everyone else is faring! I've got a question and was hoping to get some feedback, here goes...

I run several local info websites and over the weekend I launched a mobile only version of them, ideally I will eventually migrate them to a responsive design, but the 21st of April is fast approaching and I wanted to give them time to bed in.

Each page is essentially one column and I've gone with the following placements:
320 x 100 - towards the top of the page, below the main navigation and first 'snippet' of content.
300 x 250 - after the main body of content/article.
300 x 250 - after the secondary body of content and just above the site footer.

I know it's difficult for anyone to judge whether this is the best approach without seeing the website and it's content - but I'm keen for people to give their feedback on whether these sizes have worked for them, what placements they find work on mobile, are 320's better than 300's etc.

Look forward to hearing from you all!

netmeg

4:47 pm on Mar 11, 2015 (gmt 0)

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The 320x100 works well for me on mobiles, as does the 300 x 250. Those are probably my best two sizes - on a smartphone.

woody midrib

5:00 pm on Mar 11, 2015 (gmt 0)

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320 x 100 - towards the top of the page, below the main navigation and first 'snippet' of content.
300 x 250 - after the main body of content/article.
300 x 250 - after the secondary body of content and just above the site footer.

That's basically the same setup that I use. You don't have much choice on mobile. Some minor adjustments that seem to work better for me (but only very slightly, YMMV):

Use Large Rectangles (336x280) on screens that are wide enough. That's easy to do with responsive ads.

Use a custom 320x160 ad size on the top of the page. This is the maximum size that I'm comfortable with, to not violate the guidelines. It will only display text ads but so does the 320x100 Large Mobile Banner for me mostly.

On longer pages, place the third ad block after the secondary body of content in the middle of the page, not on the bottom. I found ads in between content to perform best on mobile.

RedBar

5:28 pm on Mar 11, 2015 (gmt 0)

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I use 320 x 100 at the top of the page underneath the navigation and at the top of an article and 300 x 250 at the bottom after the article. They also look good on desktop therefore a bonus.

Swanny007

9:50 pm on Mar 11, 2015 (gmt 0)

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I am pretty sure you can just use responsive ad code in there already.

I added responsive ad code on my responsive site and it automatically serves the right size ads everywhere. The top one under the logo is not-too-tall, maybe 100px tall or so on mobile view. The one mid-article is usually a 300x250, and the footer one is 300x250 or so, again all on mobile size devices.

If I was you, I'd try putting responsive ad code in there now to see if it works, I suspect it will work better than you realize. The responsive ad code detects the space where the ad is going and adjusts on the fly. I'm actually really impressed with the code now (not so much when it was first released).

Maleda

3:42 pm on Mar 12, 2015 (gmt 0)

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Thanks for the feedback everyone, it's good to know that I'm on the right track!

Netmeg & RedBar - do you find that out of those two sizes one outperforms the other?
Woody - thanks for the tip, I'm going to try moving the second banner a bit higher on the longer pages.
Swanny - it's great to hear a positive story regarding responsive ads, I'm keen to migrate once the websites are redeveloped!

RedBar

5:54 pm on Mar 12, 2015 (gmt 0)

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do you find that out of those two sizes one outperforms the other?

On my sites the 300 x 250 does almost double that of the 320 x 100.

anefarious1

7:32 am on Mar 15, 2015 (gmt 0)

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I find that 300 X 250 works better than 320 X 100 as well. However, CPC continues to drop across mobile using all ad formats. CTRs in mobile are dropping also :(