which is better for adsense ads - text, image, or both?

[Sweet Tooth #3]

Sweet Tooth, Thanks for the advice. But in my case, the saying about putting the cart before the horse comes to mind. I guess first I need to get some decent traffic, then I can run an experiment like this.

I see your point, but you should set up your custom channels as soon as possible. That way you get an idea much earlier. Right now I have to go back end edit over 300 pages of content, and I'm not even sure my tests are correct. So go ahead and set up your tests now, they don't have to be perfect.

[SinghVineet]

Earning money from Adsense require good traffic and placement of ads unit. No mater what ads you use, if you have no traffic and the ads are placed in the area where visitor can't see it, you will not get anything from any ads. For better traffic, most of us here know how to increase traffic through SEO, SMO, Viral Marketing etc. But not many are using Adsense Heat Map to place ads to get maximum clicks. Google Adsense Heat Map gives the guide to the best locations to place your ads. It's a general idea as it differ from page to page like for blog, forums, website etc. But a general idea is to try and use it that suites your website more without over abusing ads and making a false impression on the visitors.
Following is the image for Adsense Heat Map. Darkest area will perform better in comparison to the lightest color area.

general_en.jpg

Regarding the question, in my opinion you should use the combination of text and image ads. Using only image ads will limit the ads to be displayed, since not many advertisers are using image ads and thus, you will get limited number of ads from limited advertisers. But they are attractive and also use Flash to display ads. This attract the visitor eyes and the chances of click increases. Text ads are a good options to get clicks but only if they are optimized for the website fonts, colors etc.
Using both image ads and optimized text ads increases the chances of earning more and give Google the option to display ads accordingly.

[innominds]

Few days back I got a message from Google Adsense team to show both type of Ads.
As per their feedback, Enabling the Adsense units to display both text and image/rich media ads will significantly increase Adsense revenue.
So, I prefer to have the option - default.

[alexisdel]

I had the same question before but I tried all of them for atleast 3 month each 3/mo text only and 3/mo image only, and at this time I only have almost 2/mo using adsense default and I'm earning more money than just text only or image only. so, for me image and text is better, I knew I have more traffic right now than it was but I could see the deference of ctr/cpc.

[sushil.fame]

well for me text ads performed better because they have a higher CTR if properly placed on your site. Though in some niches like gaming , web designing etc. image ads might perform better but thing matters that placement of ads is right . May be on right sites above menubar or just right before content or middle in content .that performed best for me .

[Dipal Raval]

Text Ads: Business, Science, Careers, Politics, Educational,Health.
Image Ads: Sports , Gaming, Movies, TV, Fashion, Arts, Celebrity News ,Music.
In my opinion, for Google AdSense, I prefer text ads because I already have sponsors with image links throughout the page. And i choose to display text ads with a look and feel that’s similar to the rest of the site.

[coder]

Like everyone else has already stated "it depends". Do your own variant testing to see what works best for your site. Not only test text vs. image but also test color, placement, channels, etc. Yes it does take awhile to test everything but why would you want to cheat yourself out of money.

For me what works was a lot of work but well worth it.

1. Create multiple G channels
a. I found out using text pays better than images

2. create a session variable for your site visitors

3. For each page that your visitor views change the session variable so that the user sees different channels and not the same channel for every page they visit (banner blindness)

4. Page layout design
a. Place the ads in sections of your site with high visibility or around action items
b. Use text ads but incorporate graphics that compliment the space and text ads

5. Rinse and repeat.

Like I said this is a lot of work but it works for me. My websites receive a lot of repeat visitors which was added to the equation. If you have a high bounce rate or low return visitor rate than this strategy will not help you.

good luck.