AdSense CTR Very Low: <0.5 %!

Hello,

I've been working on a finance niche site and I believe the on-site and off-site SEO are both well done. It's a new site, only 9 months-old...

The CTR is very low, generally around 0.20 %, anyway under 0.50 % per day, on average.
Basically I need around 400-500 visitors just to get a single click!

I am using 1 piece of 468x60 AdSense TEXT ad only per article, right under the page title of each article, above the text. The link color is the same as my own internal links' color: slightly dark blue (not very dark). But I use a different font for my internal text (so that they don't get confused with the ads).

I am using a few 250x250 AdSense IMAGE ads on main pages.

Planning to insert more ads (up to 3 total allowed per page), but I still find the CTR very low!

There is nothing that I think might distract their attention from the ads, so theoretically they could click - but they don't seem to want to click!

Visitors usually come from Google (therefore free organic search), they find me for well-targeted keywords. I guess the ads that they see aren't appealing enough or they are simply "immune" to ads...

I'd like to have a CTR above 10 % (in the past on other sites I even managed 30-40 % CTR, but that was "in the good old days")... Of course, 15-20 % would be nice, I heard many people speak about having in the tens (15, 16, 18, 20 %).

Ideas, tips on increasing CTR?

 

I would get rid of the 468x60 which has a very poor CTR, try a 300x250 "Text/image" (Google state that text/image nets you 36% more $'s on average than text only - Their actual stats by the way not mine!) at the top right with the text wrapped to the left of it.
This will definitely help a lot just by making that one change.

 

yes agree with him you need to use 300x250 or 300x280 this is best for getting higher ctr and cpc good luck

 

there are some reasons :
1_ maybe your ads unit not in the right place or it`s size also you must know your post words count
2_ the visitors must be from uk canada usa australia
3_high paying keywords in your content will make google putting high adsense ads in your site

 

Not only ad sizes, ad placement is a great factor. Ads shoul be displayed on header and upper sidebar for better CTR.

 

I'm having the same problem. I have changed ad units to the 728x90 and 300x250, but my CTR is still just 0.6%. The income is so low it is hardly worth bothering with adsense.

 

There are these combined AdSense banners now - when the image has an small "box image" and text near it.
I don't know how you call these, but they are different from the standard "text only" AdSense ads.

Anyway, I would still keep the 468x60, but would use square image ads as well... in other parts of the site.

I guess my problem is mainly due to traffic quality:
-I am trying to focus on USA/EU visitors
-I am struggling to target them better, because more targeted clients deliver better results
-most of my visitors dropped in for news articles, not so much for my main pages, so I'm focusing now on attracting them to the latter
...and I'm conducting other efforts as well.

...I shared these ideas with you, because hopefully it inspires others.

 

Try less adds , even small box of links, sometimes less and small ads work much better,Again , it depends on your visitors intentions, are they ready to buy something? or just visiting. Targeted visitors better CTR. I can get %15 - %30 on many sites.

 

Is the site in your sig? Or is this dead?
I'm seeing no ads at all.

 

Oh no, it's not that site. And that one's not dead either.

 

Oh sorry, this was kind of an old thread. Hope your doing good now.

 

- Don't do this. Try once and the result will be great. This is my experience. Let adsense decide the type of ads on your page.

 

My CTR had been about .5, but recent months, it's about 1, and I did nothing. No much secrets here, the sizes and places, it's a balance, you dont wanna low ctr, you dont wanna annoy your guests either, if you purely pursue ctr, it's quite simple by amending the theme of your site.

 

In my experience CTR does not depend so much on tweaking the placement, colors or sizes of ad units.
It depends on a niche.
Example. I have a blog in a wight loss niche and whether I use double block or single on top, turn text or images, I always get around 1%CTR.

On the other hand, I have a blog in a financial niche. Here CTR is pretty consistent 13-25% peaking even sometimes at 40%