I am currently in the process of re-designing my websites. However, I remember I read somewhere that a darker background with the same ad placement can have a lower ctr. Is that true?
I had different experience ...dark background delivered lower ctr and the layout was exactly the same....
That is what I heard to.. a darker background can lower your ctr.. Anyone else had a different experience?
Same here, switching from a dark background to a plain white one with black text doubled my CTR....althought its still super low...but that's because of my niche...
I think it would depend upon the subtle dynamics of the niche and your traffic. No rule could possibly apply. Though it is an interesting area to experiment with.
I just did a test on the same site. One week dark layout, one week white background. Its almost identical ctr.
I have a site with a dark background and my ctr stays between 15-25%. I have never tried the site with a light background so I cant compare the two, but i don't expect it would be much higher.
Google advises light colored ads on dark colored backgrounds - so perhaps blending just generally doesn't work well on dark colored backgrounds. Personally though I have some pages that do quite well with dark backgrounds. (purple, to be exact).
I always feel the default is best; the green here on DP is pretty nice as well. Black would be best for gaming sites. Other than that, I would always prefer the default.
Well, I wonder: what would the 'default' mean in this case? Point being: being original has its merits. Will give more branding with your visitors and ads just a tad bit of 'extra' to your site.