1. I'll give some tips with screens. 2. You give some tips with screens. 3. Also discuss your best color palate. 4. Increasing eCPM This source can be used in the future as a reminder to people and a teaching book to newcomers on the best way to increase their CTR and eCPM making the most out of AdSense. Increasing CTR 1) Ad Unit Under Article Title 336x280 This is still a great way to increase your CTR. However, it's against TOS to directly have your ad under a title. That's why you should give it some separation. 2) Ad Unit Middle of Content 300x250 There are no violations to dodge here. All you do is set your ad to float left and then give it a margin or padding to make the ad not so scrunched up against your content. 3) Ad Unit Content's End 336x280 Again, a simple trick. People finish your article and are still looking for more on the topic. 4) Blended Link Units - Top of Left Nav These also get a relatively high CTR. BEST COLOR PALATE 5) Best Color Palate Link Color - Blueish color. #0000FF is standard, but not always the best. Description Color - Always #000000 URL Color - #000000 or a color that's really light on it's background. INCREASE eCPM This is very hard to do because anytime your trying to increase your eCPM, you usually end up decreasing your CTR. Smaller ads payout higher because the top AdWords bidder gets that position. Example: If you have a 125x125 and someone clicks that ad, then you're getting the most money possible for that ad. However, in a 336x280, if someone clicks the 4th link down in the ad you make less money. If you can figure out a way to get the same amount of visitors to click your 125x125 ad the same amount of times they were clicking your 336x280 ad, you'll make a lot more money. Share your tips. I would love to see them as many other people would also. It doesn't hurt to share so why not? This can be a resource used and pointed to for future questions about increasing CTR and eCPM, so let's do it. Bring in your best tips. We'd also love to see screen shots if at all possible. Remember to discuss 1. Increasing CTR 2. Your Best Color Palate 3. And ways to increase eCPM.
One I have to argue with is best colour palettes, surely (in my experience) this depends on the overall colour sheme of the site? this must have to factor in to which colours to choose for ads? Eitherway very nice tips, thanks for sharing them!
I agree but also disagree with you. Ever since the internet became big, people have naturally been trained to click BLUE whenever they see a link. At the same time, if blue doesn't blend into your template then you're right, blue probably wouldn't be the best color for you. However, if at all possible, from personal experience it seems to me that BLUE does in fact outperform any other choice for possible link color.
Yes I had read that blue was the best performing colour for link units and they worked very well for me on a blue themed arcade site..although other sites of mine using a different colour scheme didn't perform well with blue link units. Again though thanks for the tips and one I can add is: On pages that use heavy thumbnails \ images (eg arcade, movie sites) use an image skyscraper add on the left or right of the content, this increased my CTR by 50% on my old arcade..
Great Tip! I would like to add in the fact that skyscrapers usually don't perform very well compared to square ad units unless you know something I don't. However, using it the way CollyMellon says to use it above sound pretty promising. Let's get some more tips here guys. We want this thread to be a number one resource information on how to make the most money possible using AdSense.
For me these two work: Horizontal Link Units - Not too wide (depends on site), 4 links instead of 5, on the beginning-ish part of the content. Link color - #306599 which is a sort of navy blue.
Yes, I also use horizontal link units and also 4 links intead of 5, but not necessarily on the beginning, I use them at the end of articles.
336x280 block in a 340 wide table (2 px margin) left or right aligned inside content is the absolute best performing ad format. No skyscrapers or vertical banners. Horizontal banners are OK but hard to smoothly integrate with content. Link units are essentially worthless, good click-thru but low payouts. Color scheme, same as content, no borders.
I think another way to increase CTR is by displaying ads from multiple sources and NOT only from one particular source like Adsense only . Diversify your income and show ads from adbrite, adnse ypn etc and rotate them.. Do you think that could work ?
I have tried this trick using AdSense and Widget Bucks. Didn't work too well for me. AdSense and AdSense alone is the way to go. You could try TheNewsRoom if your site is media rich, but other then that, just stick with AdSense.
Did you run ur adsense and widget bucks ads at same place in rotation .. ? I tried that with multiple ad streams on one of our website - they are from adsense, yahoo, clicksor, bidvertiser .. we built this tool - www.displaybanner.com to achieve this and it worked for us.. I think diversification of revenue would always work.. no ?
I tried dark color which is totally different than content and its working for me. I think it draws users attention
Nice thread but the colors are all depends on the blending and the color of your site... there is no constant rule for colors unless you have white background..
Great tip man. I may have to try this one soon. Right now I have a smaller 250x250 ad in the same area, but I have the text wrapping around it.