Which Google AdSense Banner Sizes & Formats Perform Best on a WordPress Site

Google AdSense banners remains the most popular way to monetize a WordPress website. Google provides its partners with the most qualified and diversified support which brings the best conditions for the newcomers to join thousands of successfully monetized websites. More important is that Google AdSense has the predefined banner sizes and formats which can suit nearly any website`s design. If you want to monetize your WordPress website with Google Ads then you need to know the opportunities they provide.

We will focus our attention on the best performing Google AdSense banners in this article. This top is made by Google itself and is based on the most complete analytics data from around the world. The most important index is CTR (click through rate). This index shows the effectiveness of a Google AdSense banner and the income you can expect from it.

The choice between the most suitable banner for your WordPress website`s design and the best performing one is a tough deal. But there is also an alternative way to adapt your website`s interface to the most well performing advertisements. This way you can follow the newest trends in web design and attract more active visitors to your WordPress project.

Medium Rectangle Banner (300×250)

Medium Rectangle banner appears to be the optimal choice because of two reasons: it could be used either in sidebar or in-text and it is very popular among advertisers. The first feature provides you with the flexibility to add the advertisement inside your posts or in the sidebar where it usually does not annoy website visitors. The second feature tells us that you would have much more opportunities to provide different ads to your users including those that are closer connect with your website`s topic.

The additional advantage of Medium Rectangle banner is that it is already optimized for mobile version of your WordPress website. The format supports both text and image/video ads which is also an additional advantage for your website.

The size of 300 px width and 250 px height is usually perfect for the sidebar of a WordPress website. This format does not require additional changes in the web design of your website which means a lot for the newcomers at the sphere of WordPress administration. In other words, this Medium Rectangle banner is the best decision for WordPress admins who do not yet know much about advertisement strategies and tactics but wish to try something and get their own experience.

Large Rectangle Banner (336×280)

Large Rectangle banner is more noticeable than Medium Rectangle but has its downsides. First of all, this format is not mobile optimized, so you should not use the same ad for the desktop and mobile versions of your WordPress website. You should also pay closer attention to the position of Large Rectangle banner as it can make your text content less presentable in narrow columns.

Google AdSense specialists advise to use Large Rectangle banner after the text content or between the paragraphs. The common WordPress website`s sidebar does not allow to use Large Rectangle banner without web design fine-tuning which could be difficult for novice administrators. The format also supports both text and media ads.

Leaderboard Banner (728×90)

Leaderboard banner is perfect for the advertisements which you want to place on the header (or just below the header) of your WordPress website. Leaderboard banner supports text and media formats of ads but is not mobile optimized (you should use another advertisement format for the mobile version of the website).

Leaderboard banner gets a lot of attention from users because of its position. On the other hand, it can be very annoying for your website users, if you use media ads which distract from the main website`s content. This format needs constant attention from the side of WordPress admin. If the performance or CTR begin to lower significantly, it could be the secure sign to change to another ad format.

Half Page Banner (300×600)

Half Page banner is one of the largest variants commonly used to present media ads. This type of banner is often used by advertisers which represent some famous brand. Such advertisement places can significantly increase the brand awareness of the audience through all user segments.

Half Page banner may not suit for every WordPress website due to its really large size. It can also distract users from reading your content. On the other hand, this format provides one of the most engaging type of ads and one of the highest CTR as a result. Google AdSense specialists advise to use this type of banner for websites with lots of visitors. Half Page banner has no mobile optimization and is suitable only for desktop versions of the websites.

Large Mobile Banner (320×100)

Large Mobile banner is the optimal ad format for mobile version of your WordPress website. This format is actual for WordPress websites which do not use the mobile optimized Medium Rectangle banner. In this case you should choose separate banner types for your desktop and mobile versions of the website.

There are also variations of the height format for this banner: 50 px and 250 px instead of 100 px. These smaller and larger versions appear to perform worse based on analytics given by Google. But these options are sometimes very helpful for unique web design for mobile versions of the websites.

Less Popular Banner Sizes and Formats

The opportunities of Google AdSense do not end with the top-5 banners mentioned above. There are also lots of other sizes and formats which show the true flexibility of Google AdSense platform. We will list them in a shorter form in case your WordPress website need some unique approach on ads:

• Banner (468×60) and Half-banner (234×60) are used for website headers which provide smaller spaces for ads than the normal leaderboard banner.
• Large Leaderboard (970×90) is an opposite to previous list members – used for larger header spaces.
• Billboard (970×250) requires a very large ad space and is usually used to place VIP advertisement.
• Skyscraper (120×600) and Wide Skyscraper (160×600) are specially designed for narrow and tall advertisement places.
• Portrait (300×1050) is the largest format which usually performs better at the right side of a website.
• Vertical banner (120×240) fits good for small vertical spaces and does not disturb users much.
• Square (250×250) and small square (200×200) have limited usage because the form does not usually suit modern websites` designs.
• Small rectangle (180×150) is the reduced version of the most popular banner format for the websites with a lack of free space.
• Button (125×125) the smallest format for websites which do not focus on advertisement at all.

Examples of Unique Regional Ad Banners

It is also worth mentioning that Google AdSense provides the support of some unique sizes and formats for distinct countries. The prominent examples are:

• Vertical rectangle (240×400) for Russian segment.
• Panorama (980×120) for Sweden and Norway.
• Triple Widescreen (250×360) also for Sweden.
• Top Banner (930×180) for Denmark.
• Netboard (580×400) for Norway.
• Exclusive Triple Billboard (750×300), Double Billboard (750×200) and Billboard (750×100) for Poland.