1. Advertising
    y u no do it?

    Advertising (learn more)

    Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

    Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

Tips on getting a higher CTR

Discussion in 'AdSense' started by Notting, Feb 28, 2006.

  1. #1
    Increasing CTR generally at the top of the list of things to do for most webmasters. One of the reasons for doing it is that it can be one of the most effective ways of raising revenue from a site. Of course, increasing traffic will bring higher revenues, but if your CTR isn't too high then the effort you put into getting that extra traffic (i hate that word - lets say visitors instead) will be wasted.

    Tips on increasing your CTR

    #1. Having quality content. This is one of those things that everyone mumbles on about all the time but I think it is important to look at *why* it is important to have quality content to increase CTR. Firstly by having content that is captivating you are increasing people's interest in the subject. Boring content makes people less interested - and therefore less likely to click ads to get more information. From a CTR point of view it is better to have slightly less content, but content that is highly interesting.

    #2. Ad placement. This is so obvious that this forum has a board specifically for it! When thinking about ad placement it is about getting balances.
    a) balancing placing the ad obviously vs destroying the look of your page
    b) The number of ads - More ads should = more clicks, but does it? Try testing it out for a week with more and then with less ads. The results might surprise you. The page http://www.nottinghamstudent.co.uk/Student_accommodation_nottingham.html has the highest CTR on the site, and only has one google ad unit (and a search box).
    c)Test and test again. The best policy is to mess it up a bit, try something, then try something else. It pays to take risks here - Sure you may lose a couple of clicks for a week - but you might get a higher CTR for the rest of the sites life!

    #3. Getting the ads showing the ads you want. There are ways of slightly changing the type of ads shown. You may have a page about parrots but want to show ads about a particular type of parrot - put the name of the parrot in bold, underlined and in the same cell/div/table/frame as the unit. Using frames can be effective in getting ads to display certain ads - you may have a page specific to a area/region but want national ads on the subject for a higher CTR/ppc - using frames can acheive this.

    #4. Use of images. This one can be a bit of a grey area, so you should take care in its use. Using randomizing images near ads can significantly increase the CTR of your page. There is a fine line between tricking visitors and nudging them - so be careful! I believe google recommend that you put a line between the ad and the image

    #5. Place ads above the fold i.e. above the point where you would have to scroll down to see them. This for me is a bit dubious, as if you've followed tip one your users should be a the bottom of the page by now! Use if you have rubbish content.

    #6. Get a nice bit of space around your ads - If youre spending the time to focus on your ads you want your users to as well!

    #7. Ads on the left tend to be the most effective - Most people read from the left, and you want your ad to be where the eye finishes reading the last item.


    Well hope thats enough to get you started. Some of this info has been posted before - but now its condensed and hopefully a bit easier to use!

    Good luck!

    :::Jamie:::
     
    Notting, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  2. Kasparoff

    Kasparoff Peon

    Messages:
    335
    Likes Received:
    24
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    Good advices, though are pretty common.

    What about one, but universal advice?

    1. Location, location, location... Substitute common navigation elements of a website with similar looking ads. Slight changes sometimes produce big results, though I haven't tested it yet.
     
    Kasparoff, Feb 28, 2006 IP
    Kaabi likes this.
  3. Notting

    Notting Notable Member

    Messages:
    3,210
    Likes Received:
    335
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    280
    #3
    See #2.c)
    Then let us know the results! :)
     
    Notting, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  4. Shadow

    Shadow Peon

    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    10
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #4
    Yep, very nice, great post Notting...

    #4 :eek:
     
    Shadow, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  5. Brad Callen

    Brad Callen Peon

    Messages:
    854
    Likes Received:
    50
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    Also one addition to that. Many people say to blend the ads in with your site etc etc. But one thing you should NEVER do is change the link colour.

    People are so used to Blue Links that if you change it, they will be looked over.

    I have tested this out on many of my sites and it always comes back to using blue links because of the much higher CTR, I am talking like an extra 10-20% on some sites.

    Brad
     
    Brad Callen, Feb 28, 2006 IP
    tomd, BamaStangGuy and Sharpseo like this.
  6. MKInfo

    MKInfo DP Guard Dog

    Messages:
    1,481
    Likes Received:
    97
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    140
    #6
    I thought I'd done a good job on one of my sites (it's not one in my sig) until the last week.I dont' know if it has anything to do with the G dance but from a constant 10+ per cent over the last 2 months it has followed a pattern for the last week of : 1 day 10+ next day 3 next day 10+ next day 3 and so on.I can't fathom it out:confused:

    Also Brad is that the link at the top of the ad of the site name at the bottom........or both even?
     
    MKInfo, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  7. sketch

    sketch Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    898
    Likes Received:
    26
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    148
    #7
    I implemented #3 earlier today and already it's giving me better ads (although my revenue has barely increased ... ahh, that's what tomorrow's for :D ). Now I'll have to find a way to incorporate images.
     
    sketch, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  8. proudlyPinoy

    proudlyPinoy Peon

    Messages:
    78
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #8
    any examples for #4? errrr, I just want to see how it works. thanks! :)
     
    proudlyPinoy, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  9. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Notable Member

    Messages:
    955
    Likes Received:
    51
    Best Answers:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    245
    #9
    Never thought of that. I will change all my links back to blue and see how that goes for a week or two :)
     
    BamaStangGuy, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  10. cpvr

    cpvr Guest

    Messages:
    1,030
    Likes Received:
    35
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #10
    Why randomizing images? Doesn't just one image work fine?
     
    cpvr, Feb 28, 2006 IP
  11. danzor

    danzor Peon

    Messages:
    208
    Likes Received:
    16
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #11
    you want it to be "fresh" to try and combat ad blindness. if you get frequent visitors to your site and they see the same image every time and they know it's an ad underneath, they arent going to click it.
    i use a random image script with an adsense ad at the bottom of my content pages.
    i also change the colours of the ad fairly frequently to keep ad blindness away. one of the best colour combinations i found were orange for the bold titles, and blue for the links.
     
    danzor, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  12. mobilebay

    mobilebay Active Member

    Messages:
    1,024
    Likes Received:
    44
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    90
    #12
    hmm i started using blue last week and have seen an increase
     
    mobilebay, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  13. quaffapint

    quaffapint Active Member

    Messages:
    299
    Likes Received:
    6
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    58
    #13
    Never would have guessed the 'blue url' suggestion. I would have assumed the opposite. Worth a shot to try it, though...
     
    quaffapint, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  14. GeorgeB.

    GeorgeB. Notable Member

    Messages:
    5,695
    Likes Received:
    288
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    280
    #14
    I find the opposite myself. When you make the links the same color as all the other links on page people assume it's another link and tend to click it.
     
    GeorgeB., Mar 1, 2006 IP
  15. Edz

    Edz Peon

    Messages:
    1,690
    Likes Received:
    72
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #15
    One thing i would like to ad as a tip:
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Try putting a small banner in close proximity to a link that you know is going to be clicked quite frequently...such as an ''next'' or ''back'' or ''read more'' or ''continued here'' link.

    Visitors are in ''clicking mode'' so to speak so when a ad is close by and if it's in their interest they are more likely to click the ad.

    I call it ''ad baiting'' since i visualize it as such.

    The visitor is aproaching the first ''bait'' but sees the second ''bait'' that looks very interesting and it can't be ignored so the chance the ''bait'' is going to be taken is very high.

    If your ad is way of the area where the visitor is concentrating on... your ad will not be noticed (ad blindness) but place the ad next to an type of link as described as above you are placing the second ''bait'' with a very high probability to be noticed and clicked on.

    Since the visitor was already in the mindset of clicking the link.
     
    Edz, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  16. ahearn

    ahearn Peon

    Messages:
    292
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #16
    Generally, if you place your ads so that they are integrated closely with your content (the best way, IMHO), then links should be the same color (blue) as other links in your content. For example, if you wrap your content around a large Adsense rectangle in a table, use blue links and no borders.

    On the other hand, if your ads are in a skyscraper or banner format and separated from your content, you need to use different colors to draw visitors eyes to the ads. And if your traffic is primarily return visitors, you need to change the ad colors frequently.
     
    ahearn, Mar 1, 2006 IP
    Edz likes this.
  17. quaffapint

    quaffapint Active Member

    Messages:
    299
    Likes Received:
    6
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    58
    #17
    I had my ads the same colors as my site (ypn text same color as site text and ypn links same color as site links) and integrated with my content and would average 0.1 - 0.2% CTR. So I just changed some of them to blue links as an experiment and will see what happens...
     
    quaffapint, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  18. Notting

    Notting Notable Member

    Messages:
    3,210
    Likes Received:
    335
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    280
    #18
    I tend to disagree with the blue links thing. None of the links on my sites are blue for a start!
     
    Notting, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  19. IamNed

    IamNed Peon

    Messages:
    2,707
    Likes Received:
    276
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #19
    Some sites I get a CTR of 20% and 3% on a another site wth the exact same ad format and site layout. I think demographics play a factor. Younger people dont click ads for example.
     
    IamNed, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  20. Saadh

    Saadh Peon

    Messages:
    88
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #20
    Notting, how do you know that the one specific page gets a high CTR? How do you check between different pages?
     
    Saadh, Mar 1, 2006 IP