This is the first of a series of posts on Google AdSense ad sizes. The main reason I’m doing this is for my own reference. There won’t necessarily be any great insight or advice on how to use these ads. It is mainly a test environment so I can see all of the current AdSense options in action. It will also compare Google AdSense ad sizes to standard agency ad unit sizes.
Four Recommended Ad Sizes
AdSense has four main recommended AdSense ad unit sizes, which are the following:
- 300 x 250 – Medium Rectangle
- 336 x 280 – Large Rectangle
- 728 x 90 – Leaderboard
- 160 x 600 – Wide Skyscraper
The 300×250 – Medium Rectangle
This ad can contain either text ads or banner ads. This ad unit can be seen throughout the Internet on web sites everywhere and is not only the main recommended size by Google AdSense, but also by the Yahoo! Advertising Network, Microsoft Advertising and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Usually, the 300×250 – Medium Rectangle is found either in a side bar or directly in the content with the text wrapped around it, as seen here.
This is an example of the graphic or display ad version of the 300 x 250 – Medium rectangle.
This is an example of the 300 x 250 – Medium Rectangle text ad unit.
What’s Next?
Next time, we will discuss the second recommended AdSense Ad Unit size – The 336 x 280 – Large Rectangle.
Related articles
- About Google AdSense (funincollege.wordpress.com)
- 100% Google AdSense: Tools, Tips and Resources (smashingmagazine.com)
Might also be useful to talk about the best placement for each Adsense block or unit such as sidebar, header, footer, below each post, etc.
Agreed. There are standards for ad placement and recommendations based on whether you are using text or image banners.
We’ve been using a custom mobile WordPress theme on our site OneDirection.net for the past 4 months, using a 320×50 mobile banner at the top, and a 300×250 halfway down the page beneath the main content. Since we’ve been using this setup the 320×50 has performed very poorly, whilst the 300×250 unit has seen the biggest RPM’s.
This week, we decided to change the 320×50 top banner into a 300×250 ad. Granted this takes up a fair bit of room in the UI, but with the advent of larger smartphones and the simple fact it fakes no time at all to simply flick past the ad to the main content, we weren’t too concerned.
The main thing however is that the new unit is performing literally 10 times better than the 320×50 ad did! The increase in revenue is simply staggering, and we find this very especially considering that the 320×50 unit is specifically for mobile.
Anyone with a similar setup give it a try.
Cheers,
Chris.
Thanks for sharing, Chris. It’s always interesting to me to see which ad sizes and placement work better. It’s funny to me that it’s not usually the ones I think will perform the best. That’s why we test!