Google Adsense anounced few days ago that Link Ad units will be retred on March 10 2021.

Link Ads was, for many years, a good choice for publishers. They were preferred because they seemed more like the content and less like other ads. Our eyes are trained to skip image ads, but link ads look more like the website content, like a list of recommendations.

Display ads is not my first option for website monetization, because I achieve better return on investment in other ways: SaaS, Affiliate Marketing, Sponsored Posts, etc, but on the websites I used it in the past I experienced better CPM for Links Ads. They look more natural and I always thought that image ads are ruining the design.

I don’t think there is anything we can do to bring Link Ads back, but we hope that they know what they are doing and that they did the right decision.