Written By Kate Zimmermann | April 6, 2007 | Share This |

Both Google and Yahoo appear to be playing with ad formats to help improve performance. Yesterday Inside Adsense announced,

“You may have noticed that some of your ad units have started to look a little different lately — we’re happy to announce that, just in time for spring, we’ve given our standard ad units a […]

Both Google and Yahoo appear to be playing with ad formats to help improve performance. Yesterday Inside Adsense announced,

“You may have noticed that some of your ad units have started to look a little different lately — we’re happy to announce that, just in time for spring, we’ve given our standard ad units a fresh makeover. After extensive testing and research, we’ve found that the new formats are not only visually appealing to users, but they also perform even better for publishers and advertisers.”
(see below)

Ads showing up at the top of search results also got a makeover. From Inside Adwords,

“After months of testing, we decided to switch the background color of the top ads from blue to yellow. Second, we’ve modified what counts as a click in this box to be consistent with what counts as a click for the ads on the right hand side. Instead of clicking anywhere in the box, users now need to click on the link in the top line of an ad in order to be taken to an advertiser’s site. Together, these changes help decrease the likelihood that a user will unintentionally click on an ad, while making our highest quality ads more visible.”

In the meantime, Yahoo announced an update of its own,

“We’ve found that ads written more concisely give users a better experience and perform better for advertisers…As an advertiser, you have two options for your ad descriptions, one long (up to 190 characters) and one short (70 characters or fewer). At present, you may use either. Starting in May, however, a short description will be required, while a long description will be optional…And starting in June, ad descriptions longer than 70 characters may automatically be cut off in Yahoo! Sponsored Search results.”

I guess the engines are getting a head start on spring cleaning. Does this indicate that paid search performance has reached a bit of a plateau?