When traffic comes from Google SERPs the link units always show the ads according to the keywords the visitor used. That means way bigger CTRs. For me it is 10-15% in everage while Ad units 1-3% CTR. The only problem with Link units is that they are so small. But i still mostely use them.
This is totally the opposite for my sites. How are you blending these into your site? Yes, they don't obviously look like ads, however after clicking a link, the visitor needs to click ANOTHER link (which is rare...)
I don't know. But the results speak for themselves. And they do click twice, well may be its because alot of my visitors are blond barbie girls from college
I think what's coming across here is that it's different for every site. I'm currently getting (at best) .69% CTR but I'll keep working on it. I suppose the best thing to do is find out what your competitors are doing and copy that... Nah, that's boring!
i got no link unit in my site only teh leader board so i can not compare. i just think put too much ads is not good for my site.
Link units seem to work great for me on pages with articles on them, perhaps because they appear to be navigation that promises more related/relevant content. They're probably my second-best performing ad format, after wide skyscraper ads.
Yep exact same thing here. It's the 728 link units that perform best for me after the 160x600 ad unit.
In my experience, link units have a higher CTR but lower CPC. With ad units, I made more money with fewer clicks. Other reasons I don't like link units: 1. You can't have but one 2. They are too small and hard to see 3. User has to click twice -- too much work 4. Don't show the highest paying ads
I find placing link units in 'between the lines', meaning between paragraphs of articles, works very well for conversion rates.