Is this a bug?

1. 74

   Inspirepubposted 17 years ago

   I know we have changed the way Adsense ads display, and I know that a new Hub won't have relevant ads.
   
   But I am seeing this:
   
   Ads by Google    eBay Money  Paid Cash  Money Magnet  Earn Online  Affiliates
   
   Where I used to see three-line ads with headlines and display URLs on them.
   
   And in the middle of my Hub another "ads by Google" in a green box, with four (apparent) keywords arranged vertically.
   
   The keywords are clickable, and take you to a page of the real ads.
   
   On the RHS there was a pink box which started out as Ads by Google and then actually got two ads in it.
   
   I refreshed the page, and the ones at the top and in the middle went away, while the one on the right morphed into a pink vertically-arranged list of keywords.
   
   
   Feature or bug?
   
   'Cos if it's a feature I reckon it will reduce click throughs, just a wee bit ....
   
   Jenny

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   1. 67

      darksideposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      You're used to seeing Ad Units.
      
      These ones that you have described are called Link Units.

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2. 68

   Carolina Creteposted 17 years ago

   Hi, although I'm fairly new to Hubpages I have a few years experience with Google Adsense. I just looked at a couple of your hubs and saw the different ads you describe - they are all normal Google Ads.
   
   One feature of Google ads is that they can can be set (by admin / siteowner) to match webpages text and background colour, or to stand out against it, or any number of combinations. The keyword-only arrangement is also a Google feature. Looks like the new Google Ads have been set to 'random' by the admin which means that a different combinations of styles will be shown each time the page is viewed.
   
   I'm sure that admin will confirm it's not a bug.

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   1. 77

      LdsNana-AskMormonposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      Can admin over-ride what a hubber instructs adsense to do with the ads placed on our hubs?  I will need to go over to Google and find out.  a few weeks ago I was able to determine all of these things on how these ads appeared.
      
      Colors, text, box, border, shape, etc..  Not that I place them much, but I did it nonetheless.  So I know that the capability is there for the individual... but can admin over-rule this?
      
      I am in agreement....  not attractive for most part.  That yellow curved box is very sloppy looking.  I know that is a new style... I had the option to use it... but I chose then when I had control, NOT to use those types...
      
      
      In fact... one of these text boxes placed itself right into the text of one of my hubs...  as if it were a photo inset...  but the text was not formatted at all and it looks very poor.  Really takes away from the work I have put into the Hub to have it clean.
      
      My input...
      
      tDMg
      Kathryn

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      1. 67

         darksideposted 17 years agoin reply to this

         We don't have the ability to pick and choose the format of Adsense ads served at HubPages so it's not a matter of HubPages Inc overruling us, we just don't have the power to do it in the first place.

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3. 74

   Inspirepubposted 17 years ago

   Okaaaaaaaay ...
   
   I think some of these styles will vastly reduce clicks, and the ones with colored backgrounds look uuuuuuuuugly, which will most likely reduce clicks, too.
   
   I just looked again, and this time I got a (bright yellow - gag) box with rounded corners and no display URL, where only the headline was clickable, and the bottom right area, maybe a sixth of the ad overall, and at least half the size of the clickable area for the headline, was also clickable, but it went to a page advertising Adwords and Adsense, instead of to the advertiser's site.
   
   I don't mind as much about diverting clicks from the advertiser to Google if we get paid for those clicks as well - but do we? Or are we losing clicks to Google if people click the wrong part of the box?
   
   I guess it's not a huge drama for me, since I don't plan on making more than pocket change from my Hubs, it's more a matter of principle, I think!
   
   Jenny

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   1. 68

      Carolina Creteposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      These ads are referals for Google Adsense and Adwords sign-ups... normally they pay for any sign-ups generated by click throughs to that ad.
      
      
      I can't answer the questions about the settings of Google Ads on Hubpages Kathryn, that's up to the site owners, I was just pointing out that these are all normal Google ads.
      
      Also, we may hate  the look or feel of some of these garish ads, and I haven't tried experimenting with them much on my own website as I don't want to compromise the look of my site, but many webmasters use them so perhaps the reason is that they actually create more click -throughs?

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4. 74

   Inspirepubposted 17 years ago

   Yes, I have to agree, Kathryn, the ads are looking awful.
   
   I have checked a couple more of my Hubs - in one, there is a vertical set of Google ads in a bright pink box, quarter width in a half-width column, pushing down the next set of text-box-plus-right-aligned-capsule to make about three centimetres of screen that is three-quarters white space.
   
   At least the text ads, even if the words didn't fit well, blended better with the Hub because they were on a white background.
   
   Having a bright colored box for them just highlights how badly-positioned the ads are. For some reason, it also makes them look smaller and harder to read.
   
   Jenny

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5. 74

   Inspirepubposted 17 years ago

   I'm not sure whether to reply here or start a new thread, but the Google ads are really screwing up the formatting of my Hubs.
   
   I have one where I have done the classic "flagship Hub" design with five images down the right and text down the left.
   
   Google, in its wisdom, inserts a full-width ad block under my images, pushing all the text after the first paragraph all the way down to under the fifth image and the Google ads.
   
   So "above the fold", all you see is a paragraph of text and a heap of white space.
   
   Can we PLEASE stop with the full-width ad blocks in the middle? If the ad blocks go in on the right, make them half-width. If they go in a capsule that's full width and flowing around right-aligned capsules, then for God's sake let the Google ads flow with the text!!
   
   Please ... I have edited this Hub twice now to fix the alignments, but it changes where the ads are each time it loads the page, and what works for one ad arrangement doesn't work for another.
   
   Please make the ads behave like normal capsules ...
   
   Jenny

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6. 67

   darksideposted 17 years ago

   Personally I prefer ad formating which blends them in with the layout and theme of the site.
   
   These ones stick out far too much. And make them far too obvious. When an ad screams "I'm an ad!" people tend not to click.
   
   I recommend the book The Adsense Code (available at Amazon, look it up, it's written by Joel Comm). It's easy to read and understand and it presents a strong case for "blending".

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7. 74

   Inspirepubposted 17 years ago

   I agree.
   
   I got a grey round-cornered box once - that looked reasonably classy, and the text seemed easier to read than on the pink or yellow.
   
   Maybe because it was in keeping with the color scheme of a Hub. It looked friendly, instead of intrusive.
   
   Jenny

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   1. 77

      LdsNana-AskMormonposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Jenny
      perhaps there is another thread going by now... but I agree with you - back:-)  I am not happy with unformatting my text so sloppily... gray is okay when properly done
      
      But some of these ads are such an intrusion to what is being presented by Hubbers.  I trust they will fix this... best interest of theirs as well.
      
      Darkside -
      
      Well... adsense gives me the option to order my colors, shapes etc... or they did and it worked...
      
      I will head to adsense and see if this function has now been turned off... and it was on and worked.
      Thanks
      tDMg
      Kathryn

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8. 88

   gamergirlposted 17 years ago

   Kathryn,
   
   The options you select in your adsense settings allow you to customize the ad layout for ads you place in your personal web page.
   
   Hubpages selects our ad formats, if I remember correctly.

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9. 83

   Whitney05posted 17 years ago

   Yes, Kathryn, you are only able to select how you want your adds to appear- color, shape, etc- for your own site. HubPages determines what your hub ads look like. You can only determine your own add settings for personal blogs and websites that you can control the HTML on. HubPages doesn't allow HTML. They control this setting.
   
   They are currently studying which ads- placement, color, and style- work best at click throughs. I trust they'll watch the CTR and decide which to keep and which to replace. But, for the time being, we're going to have to deal with it.
   
   I personally don't mind because I know that there's a reason behind it. If I know they're trying to find ways for us to make more money, then I'm for it. Even if they're bright pink and red.

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10. 86

    Marisa Wrightposted 17 years ago

    Kathryn, just to clarify what Gamergirl et al have said - you can't choose what your ads look like on HubPages, and you have NEVER been able to do so.  You're asked to choose when you sign up for Adsense, but that choice is only relevant to your own websites, not HubPages.  Maybe it was coincidence that the old HubPages ads looked similar to the style you had chosen.
    
    I'm absolutely certain of that, because I chose a style on Adsense to match my blog (which has a coloured background) and they never showed up on HubPages.

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11. 60

    Jason Menayanposted 17 years ago

    Just a note that HubPages uses YieldBuild, an ad format optimization service, to maximize each page's revenue, by tweaking ads' placement, format (color, style), and position.
    
    While some sites/pages work better with ads that blend in, others don't. It's impossible to draw up a rule that applies across the board, which is why you just have to test. YieldBuild does all that multivariate testing algorithmically.
    
    There's a writeup here in our YieldBuild blog: Text Ad Format Myths – Ads that blend into the page background perform better.

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12. 57

    jaymzposted 17 years ago

    One of my hubs has regular ads at the top, then right above a red picture, I get an ad with a red background. I like it! I looks neat.

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13. 57

    jaymzposted 17 years ago

    Sad. My Cool red ad is gone now. :-(

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