Format A site: www.treadmillhq.com Nav on right, integrated Adsense Format B site (converted from a Format A 10 days ago): www.strollerhq.com Nav on left, integrated AdSense CTR = Up 11% Format C site (converted 10 days ago): www.bed-in-a-baghq.com Nav on left, AdSense set off by bright, obnoxious colors CTR = Up 42% So far, no discernable affect on product click throughs and affiliate sales, though I don't really have a large enough sample to make a definitive assessment. Personally, I think C looks sort of cheesy, but there's no denying the results; they're right there on my AdSense report.
That's not what most considered integrated Adsense. Integrated Adsense would be mixed right in with your content. That means instead of a product in one of the blocks, you'd have a Google ad block. Try that, and you'll see your CTR really skyrocket-- people will actually be LOOKING at the ads... -- Derek
Your right, Derek. I should have said semi-integrated in the sense that they come below the normal navigation links and are formated to blend in rather than stand out.
Up 42% doesn't mean a whole lot to me in this instance. They do stand out more, but if your goal is click throughs, moving them to the center of the page will do a whole lot more for that. If you have a .1% on the original example (which i suspect is pretty close based upon placement), than a 11% increase is only up to .11% and a 42% increase is only up to ~.15%
I'm top-toeing around the Google TOS and don't want to give an exact figure. But if I wasn't making 'enough' it wouldn't be something I would waste my time tinkering with. My affiliate and Adsense efforts are all about inceremental income. If I take a site's AdSense revenue from $4 a day to $6 a day, I just made another $60 a month. Multiply that by some 30+ sites and it's significant. I'd rather have a penny each from a million people than a dollar from a hundred. My primary goal with these comparison sites is to drive affiliate click throughs and sales. But if you're not going to click through and buy that stroller, I might as well give you an exit link that will earn me some revenue. With this experiment, I wanted to see if I could increase AdSense CTR without impacting affiliate sales. So far, so good. I think putting AdSense into the product section would negatively impact affiliate click throughs and sales. I don't think the increased AdSense revenue would make up for it, since the average sale earns me anywhere from 5 - 10% of the purchase price.
Thought I'd offer my final assessment. I can't give any numbers of course because of the TOS, but after three weeks, I'm making about double what I was making before with the in-your-face red ads versus the navigation-looking format with no apparent loss in affiliate click through and conversions. Multiply that by the 30+ sites I run and that's a chunk of dough.
You will do better if you put the AdSense on the left and the navigation menu on the right. I'd estimate another 50-100% AdSense revenue leap...
Interesting sugestion, Will. I might give that a try, though my initial reaction is that is would result in reduced page views and thus reduced affiliate click throughs and sales.
There has to be a point where the site sufferes if all the traffic goes to google. I guess if that's the only purpose of the site fine. But those days seem to be ending too. Interesting subject though.
I should also mention that placing the navigation and Google ads on the left vice the right also seemed to bump up noth pages views and click throughs, though not enough to get excited about. So if you look at the samepl sites, the A site no longer has the navigation on the right anymore - I put it on the left for all my sites now, and expanded the red/yellow adsense combos to some other sites to see if they had the same affect.
That probably makes sense, since most sites have navigation to the left of the site, people look these for other products or information. Stuff at the far right is usually deemed to be the least important stuff on a page (except at the bottom of course).
yeh, also thanks for sharing.... i just moved my adsense in a similar experiment....but only 24 hours ago... its a bit early to draw any conclusions... however i am flicking through the ferrari brochure