I was working on the layout for a site recently and it got me thinking about the various AdSense ad unit formats that you can choose from and which were my favorites. My top choice may surprise you: it's the half-banner (234 by 60) format. (It's the one you see at the beginning of these blog postings, if you're reading this on the site and not using an RSS reader.)
Why do I like this format? Because it always looks good. The ad you see in a half-banner is basically the same ad you'll see on Google's search result pages, minus the URL. (Which is generally a plus — the lack of a URL makes it look less obviously an ad, especially if you blend your colors.) Three simple lines within a box wide enough to let the lines wrap naturally as they were entered by the advertiser into the AdWords console, and yet the box is narrow enough to fit almost well within a gutter or even within the main content of the page. The full banner (468 by 60) is almost as good for similar reasons, although its width keeps it out of the gutters.
And the great thing about the half-banner is that it always shows the same number of ads: exactly one ad. Most of the other ad formats show a variable number of ads. Unfortunately, the look of the ad unit varies with the number of ads. I wish Google would add an option to either keep the number of ads constant or else to keep the look the same and to just live with extra whitespace at the bottom or right of the ad unit.
The half-banner is also a great way to ensure that you only get the three highest-paying ads on your page, no matter what order the ad units are inserted into the underlying HTML of the page.
I'm not saying the half-banner is the best converting ad unit. I'm just talking from a visual and esthetic viewpoint here.
What's your favorite?
Sponsored Link: Monetize your site even further by adding related eBay listings using Build A Niche Store to create a highly-targeted eBay niche store. Recommended by me and several of my readers.
Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. If you like this posting, why not ask Technorati to fix their broken tracking system!