You could dramatically increase your CTR and earnings by reading everything here! So many people do it, but so many users may be getting used to it: Advertisements being displayed below post titles, but above the main meat of the article. Are users getting used to and IGNORING the common 336x280 block being displayed below post titles? Slightly Irrelevant Ads Below Post Titles Can Make Users Bounce! Let's first discuss slightly irrelevant ads. Slightly irrelevant ads are ads that are kind of on topic, but not 100% on topic. For example: You have a site about the P90X Workout, but ads about Workout Equipment. Slightly irrelevant ads are just slight enough to make a user bounce. Let me explain: Example 1: Let's pretend someone comes to your site looking for "Home Acne Treatment." Let's also pretend your ads are being displayed directly below the post title. So someone comes to your site looking for "Home Acne Treatment" and they're greeted with ads about Proactiv and Murad. Well, not really "Home Acne Treatment," right? Thus, the user bounces right away, because the ad is not displaying exactly what the user is looking for! To get people to click ads, you have to give them EXACTLY what they want, right away! Example 2: Under the same context, let's pretend that you have your post title: "Home Acne Treatment," a paragraph about "Home Acne Treatment," and then, an AdSense ad. Although your advertisement still discussed Proactiv and Murad (which aren't home acne treatments), the user will take a second look at the ad, because you actually gave them what they were looking for in the first paragraph! Thus, the user actually stayed on your site, because your site was exactly what they were looking for. Why Should Someone Have To Click Your Ad When You Promised The Solution? When someone comes to your site looking up let's say: "Home Acne Treatments," why should they have to click a link in your post before reading anything, when what they clicked on in the search engines was supposed to take them to the solution (which is your website), in the first place? Compared to ads displayed below post titles, people see information embeded within posts after the first paragraph, as useful and related information - which is why they click more often. Note: If your ads are 100% relevant, they may do well below post titles. Still, I believe ads after a 3 - 5 sentence paragraphs perform much better, because: (1) They blend better. (2) Users recognize the ads as content. (3) Users have a reason to believe that ads within the posts are more useful links, then links above the posts. Research & Personal Experience: Although I have read from numerous eyetracking sources that the top of the main content section receives the most eye fixations, please note that an eye fixation is NOT a click. From personal experience, it seems that users will actually click more often, when ads are displayed above the fold, and after the first paragraph, then when ads are displayed above the fold, but after the post title. My reasons for this are explained about. What do you think?
Hello ttomp13! Do you have any graphical presentation of your posts to point the same? By the way, why didn't you apply the technique here at http://www.videobloggingtips.com/2009/03/jane-hajduk-baby.html?
I still find ads above the fold below the title to be the best performers. I usually use links or two large rectangles side by side blended no boarder.
This is not true at all... I am getting over 20-25% CTR average. You need to work on color scheme, pictures, and ad placement. You can always block out ads with weak titles. If you look at XFactor sites, you will see that his ads look like they are links to pages within the site. Stop sharing information that is not true.