TRIPLE YOUR ADSENSE CTR

TRIPLE YOUR ADSENSE CTR

STEP 1. CHOSE CORRECT ADS


The basic goal of this document is to make your AdSense ads look less like ads,

and more like content on your page. It has the second goal of putting the ads exactly where they need to be to draw the most clicks.The AdSense publisher’s problem is that the typical Internet surfer is plagued by “banner blindness”. People automatically overlook anything that looks like an advertisement because of being bombarded with ads all the time. It’s not that they aren’t interested in what the advertiser has to offer. With AdSense you know that they are interested most of the time, since the ads shown are related to the content of the page. The fact that the visitor clicks on the ad is an expression of their interest in whatever that ad has to offer.


What I’ll focus on in this document is not hiding the fact that the links are ads, but putting the ads on the page in such a way that they are not overlooked by the visitor. Google makes it very clear that the links are ads by placing their “Ads by Google” link in the ad block. Bottom Line: To get more clicks, you’ve got to get your visitors to notice the ads by putting them in the right place and making them look less like “traditional” web advertising.


The above table makes it very clear which ad format you should be using. The

336 x 280 large rectangle receives the highest click through rate by far. It is followed by the 300 x 250 small rectangle, and then the CTR really starts to drop off from there.


The reason that these two formats do better than the others depends on which

format you compare them to. The 468 x 60 banner clearly is the worst victim of banner

blindness. Again, “banner blindness” is the fact that most Internet users today are so used to seeing advertisements that anything appearing in the shape of “tradditional” web advertising on a page is subconsciously ignored. The 728 x 90 suffers less from this phenomenon, but it suffers just the same.


STEP 2. CHOOSE THE BEST COLORS FOR YOUR ADS BLOCKS


Most new AdSense publishers have read that making the border color and the
background of your AdSense ad blocks match the web page on which the ads will
appear will improve your CTR. This is generally true (but not always, as the “Facts and Figures” section reveals). As a general rule of thumb you will see an increase in CTR by making your ad background and border colors the same as the background of your web page.

So, for example, if the background of your pages is white, make the border and

background of your AdSense ads white as well.


STEP 3. POSITION THE ADS BLOCKS PROPERLY

The location of the AdSense ads drastically effects the CTR. You don’t want

your ads on the right or left sides of the page (a location often used by new AdSense publishers). You want them as close to the top and middle of the page as possible. This is true because the center of a web page is where Internet users have been conditioned to look for the content. The majority of informational sites layout their pages with their header across the top of the page, the navigation down the left, the content in the center and perhaps more navigation or advertising down the righ.


STEP 4.Doing It Right: Screenshots of Good AdSense Pages

Putting it all together, your pages will get the best CTR if they are similar in layout .Part 2 of the page 300x250 rectangle in the middle of the content


The big question for most reads might be, “Why is Google’s CTR so low?” I
personally believe that the answer has two parts:

1. Adwords. Often the same AdWords ads that appear on search engine result

pages for a set of keywords will appear on the pages that are in those results.

This is true since the content is very similar (which is, after all, why they are in

those results). If a searcher is going to click on one of those ads, he has a good

chance of doing so on the search results page before he ever reaches your

page.

2. Google searchers tend to be more net savvy than other searchers. Google is

often hailed as the “Computer Geek Search Engine”, and those who pride

themselves on being up on technology like to use it. Those who are not “Geeks”

but still use Google do so because they have become net savvy enough to know

that, at least for now, Google still offers the most relevant search results. These

kinds of individuals are quicker to spot the difference between an on-page link

and an advertisement.