Google AdSense Ad Unit Changes: What Publishers Can Do To Adapt

This post was most recently updated on July 16th, 2019

Recently Google announced a few updates to AdSense ad units. They are continually working on improving ad performance and increasing user interest in ads. To support this goal, they are testing, updating, and improving ad units.

Some users will start seeing new ad units, which are a mix of text and image ads, as shown below. In this post, we’ll show you all the updates from AdSense and more.

Source: Google AdSense

In the following weeks the “Ads tab” in the AdSense dashboard will be updated to include the following changes:

Ad Sizes

-Any ad units created will be responsive by default.

-This will make adjusting to different screen sizes and devices more straightforward, leading to better performance.

-You will also be able to continue creating custom ad unit sizes.

Tips for publishers from MonetizeMore: Responsive size does not perform the same way across all websites. We know of many publishers in the past that experienced worse performance using responsive ad sizes versus using the standard ones. In short, it’s not for everyone. The key is to test which setting performs best.

Ad types

-Media-rich ad units will be the focus moving forward.

-Text and display-only ad units will be removed to improve user experience.

-“Text ads only” and “Display ads only” are renamed to “Display ads” and will serve all ad types.

Tips for publishers from MonetizeMore: This gives publishers fewer options, but it’s most likely going to perform well. With text and display ads enabled at all times, you get more demand and more competition for your inventory. So go with it!

Text ad styles

-Text ad styles will be replaced with “text and display ads” ad units.

-You won’t be able to create styles for new ad units anymore.

-Google will optimize the text ad styling.

-The same will go for existing text ad styles that Google will also optimize as the update rolls out

-If you still want to continue customizing styles, you’ll need to implement native ads on your site.

Tips for publishers from MonetizeMore: As a result of this update, publishers have less flexibility but also less work to do. If Google’s algorithm works in our favor, this could bring in more revenue. Now that text ad customization is limited to native styles; you may experiment with blending or contrasting colors there. Because native is usually CPC based, you’d want to pay close attention to which style garners the most clicks (highest CTR).

The “If no ads available” option will be removed

-Google AdSense is focused on upholding the quality of its ad network and removing malicious ads.

-The “If no ads available” will be removed and instead the ad space will collapse, or a blank ad space will be shown.

-Whatever settings you have in place for this at the moment will be updated in the future to reflect the change.

Tips for publishers from MonetizeMore: No passbacks behind AdSense could mean more unfilled impressions. This strategy was useful when running AdSense as any line item type other than ‘AdSense’ in Google Ad Manager (i.e., when not running on Dynamic Allocation). This change seems to be Google’s move to get more publishers to run AdSense as backfill (a.k.a Dynamic Allocation). To take advantage of this update, enable AdSense in your Ad Unit settings and set up the corresponding AdSense line items to specify the inventory you wish to target.

Experiments

-Obsolete ad unit setting experiments will also be removed.

-Ad unit experiments will stop working in the up and coming weeks.

-The experiments report will also be removed from the “Reports” tab.

-Experiment types that remain will still be available on the experiment details page.

Tips for publishers from MonetizeMore: Publishers are losing the option to choose ad styles and types, and so removing the ability to set up experiments, therefore, is somehow expected. While your AdSense account is not yet included in this rollout, you might want to take advantage while you still have it. In short, design your ads and set up experiments while you can, and increase your revenues by running the winning ad style/ad type.

Synchronous code

-The option to change an ad code type to synchronous will be removed.

-If you still need synchronous code, you’ll have to update the code manually. This guide will help.

Tips for publishers from MonetizeMore: Asynchronous code is preferred not only for better user experience but also because it’s compatible with Header Bidding, Lazy Loading, and Ad Refresh. If you’ve been running Synchronous tags, this might be the right time to test out Async. Swap your creatives or on-page codes and monitor!

Conclusion

Not sure how to react to all the AdSense changes mentioned above? It can be overwhelming when so many updates get released all at once. Don’t worry, instead let the ad ops experts help you make the transition smooth and optimize your ad inventory to maximum ad earnings! Sign up to MonetizeMore today!