Tips for Improving AdSense Performance Most AdSense publishers are working to increase their revenue from the AdSense program. Here are a few tips to get you on the right track. Tear Down the Borders Remove borders on your AdSense ads. Web visitors eyes wander around the screen, and borders stop them from wandering. Removing borders from your AdSense ads can lead to a significant boost in CTR. Use Matching Fonts Match the font of your site content to the fonts of the AdSense ads. Use Matching Colors Match the colors of your AdSense ads to the colors of your site content. Make the ads look like content and more visitors will look at them. One exception to the color matching rule is sites that are designed to appeal to scammers and spammers. Those sites sometimes perform better with highly contrasting colors. Use Blue Links Another exception to the color matching rule is to set the links in your AdSense ads to blue. Blue links tend to have a higher CTR than other link colors, because people have become used to clicking blue links. Use Big Ads Larger ads outperform smaller ads. Wider ads also outperform more narrow ads. The Large Rectangle (336x280) is the best performing ad unit. Use Lots of Ads Google allows you to use three ad units and one link unit on each page. Use them all. The more ads you have, the higher your Page CTR will be. Place Ads Above the Fold "The fold" is industry jargon for "the part of the page that the user sees without scrolling down". This will vary depending upon the resolution of the users screen and the size of their browser window. Place as many ads as possible above the fold. Ads placed below the fold are seldom seen and seldom clicked. Place Ads on the Left Web users are accustomed to seeing menus on the left side of the web page. Move your menu to the right and place your AdSense ads on the left. Use the Heat Map Use the Google AdSense Heat Map to determine where to place ads. The darker spots are areas where users spend more time looking. Place your ads in the darker areas. Integrate Ads with Content Visitors will be reading your content. Keeps your ads as close to your content as possible to ensure that the visitors also look at your ads. Use Custom Channels Use AdSense's Custom Channels to test the performance of different ad sizes, placements, colors and fonts. Don't use Low-Paying Competing Ads Don't clutter your page with competing ads that don't pay. If a user clicks on an ad that pays you $.01, they are not clicking on an ad that pays you $.20. Use URL Channels Use AdSense URL Channels to determine which pages are making you the highest CTR, CPM, and earnings. Focus your efforts on building pages like that. Use an AdSense Reporting Package Google only supports 200 channels. If you have more than 200 pages, use AdSense reporting software to give you better insight into your AdSense earnings. Don't Compete for Other Peoples High Paying Keywords If a keyword is on a list of high-paying keywords, that means that thousands of spammers are already competing for that keyword. Don't be a follower. There is no money in being one of the crowd. Do Compete for Your Own High Paying Keywords Monitor your AdSense URL channels to determine which keywords are making you the most money. Compete for those keywords. Build more pages optimized for similar keywords. Get inbound links for those keywords. Spend your time and efforrt on the keywords which are making you money. Increase Traffic In the long run, the best way to increase AdSense revenue is to increase traffic to your web site. That topic is out of scope for this forum post. Stay tuned for those tips, coming soon to the Digital Point Forums.
Nice like always WIll. I'd like to add to the importance of having fewer adds on your pages. I ran my own experiment. This might help someone: Link Unit +4 normal ads: Initial profit (100%) 8 normal ads Profit up to 150% (but a lot of clicks are down from the $1 average to .10 cents!!! 5 normal ads 200% (you wont see the .10 cents ads again)
I've seen my revenu jump by font/color/link matching my site with the adsesne ads. Works quite well. How about using images above the Ads?
nice tips! I've always had menus on the left. Think I might try moving them to the right and see how it affects CTR
I remember reading one of the AdSense case studies where a company tested different ad formats / placement / borders / colours / etc for months and they said that the individual thing that affected most the CTR was having matching fonts between the ads and the site contents (including size).
Very nice tips Will Just want to be sure, If I have a lot of ad views and low clicks, the earning for each click will be low (eCPM),right? Or the views:clicks isn't the only effect on each click...
Sorry i explained wrong. I meant 8 different advertisers. You know some ad units contain 4 different links. Thats what i meant. I apologize.
Good stuff Will. The only comment I'll make is regarding the importance of placing ads "above the fold." Obviously there are sites, such as forums, where this is a good rule, but for sites with general text content, it's better (in my experience) to use 336x280 blocks blended in with the text, wherever the text is positioned on the page.
Thanks Will. You've always been an inspiration for me here at the forums, so thanks for sharing the wisdom. Its all stuff most of us already know, but having it there in one post helps alot. How often does having more ads increase CTR? I've read conflicting comments from other people, saying that less ads are actually better.
I'd like to add that you should also display the search box on all (if possible) of your pages. If your readers don't find the information they want there, it makes it convenient for them to search and for you to potentially make some money. Personally, I like to place the search box at the bottom of the page. It fits onto the flow of things - when you finished browsing down the page and don't find what you need - the search box is right there for you to use.
I'm new to Adsense. Can anybody provide more details regarding the following: Don't use Low-Paying Competing Ads Don't clutter your page with competing ads that don't pay. If a user clicks on an ad that pays you $.01, they are not clicking on an ad that pays you $.20. I was getting cheap clicks at www.BestWebsites.com.my Thanks a million.
Malaysia: I should have explained that one better. I was referring to ads from sources other than Google AdSense, such as banner ads.