AdSense Vignette Ads on Desktop? No Thank You!
AdSense Vignette Ads are coming to desktop, but you might want to think twice before enabling them.
By. Jacob
Edited: 2020-10-27 08:38
Vignette ads will start appearing on wider screens, such as desktop, after November 3rd
I just logged in to my AdSense account and noticed this notification about changes to AdSense auto ads; but is this really an amazing idea? I do not think so. These ads are some of the most annoying ads I have encountered as a user.
This is why I have now disabled Vignette ads on Beamtic. The disruption and annoyance they caused me and my visitors is something I will not tolerate — and I am surely not going to enable them on Desktop. I think both ad types behave maliciously and degrade the user experience of a website significantly, and I fear I will loose visitors if these ads are allowed to run unchecked.
A long time ago now, when I first enabled auto ads I also hoped to see an increase in ad revenue, which has not really happened. At least not in any way that it was noticeable to me — but perhaps it works better for sites with extremely high traffic — in any case, I am actually considering to disable auto ads because of the problems they have caused.
Why Vignette ads are bad
Vignette ads has been known as mobile-only ads that displayed in-between page-loads. If a user pushed a link on your website, the event could be "hijacked" by a Vignette ad; these ads can be dismissed quickly, but still causes an annoying disruption to the flow of information and the free movement of the user.
Both Vignette Ads and Anchor ads reflects a bad-practice in the online space, and it can potentially motivate people to find ways to disable ads, which can in turn damage the revenue for website owners. I think AdSense should therefor aim to minimize these ads as much as possible in the future. It does not matter whether the ad is immediately dismissable or not — if it blocks the content of a website, it should not be there.
Anchor ads and fixed elements
Anchor ads are also deeply problematic, because they are fixed to the viewpoint, and take up part of the users screen, often blocking content underneath. If a website already has a fixed header or footer, problems caused by these ads will be exacerbated. Fixed ads are horrifically similar to traditional popup banners, and they should be avoided entirely.
Ever since I enabled auto ads, I have been fighting issues with margins and text being unselectable on my websites; ultimately, if I do not find a solution to these problems I might just have to go back to traditional ad units, since they allow for much finer control over placement and sizing.
Sources
- AdSense Announcements - support.google.com
Links
- Show vignette ads on wider screens - support.google.com
- Auto ads settings - support.google.com
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