Help me get my CTR above 1%.

Discussion in 'AdSense' started by danbradster2, Jan 17, 2007.

  1. #1
    My website is www.tutorials-db.com and my CTR is almost 0% at the moment. I have about 250 ad impressions each day but usually 0 clicks. Some examples of my ad formats are -

    Home page - http://www.tutorials-db.com/
    Indexed Tutorials - http://www.tutorials-db.com/tutorials/Photoshop/All/1/
    Articles - http://www.tutorials-db.com/articles/Maximizing_Adsense_revenue_with_6_easy_tips/
    Tools - http://www.tutorials-db.com/tools/Adsense_Calculator/

    The calculator (tool) is the only page getting a decent CTR at about 3%. That probably means that blending and placing the ads in the middle of the content works best.

    I'm asking anybody out there to give me ideas for ad placement, if your idea brings my CTR above 1% I'll give you a free site-wide text link to your website under 'Partners' of www.tutorials-db.com (if your website is somehow related).
     
    danbradster2, Jan 17, 2007 IP
  2. craiger22

    craiger22 Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Well, I dont see any ads on the home page. Also I would blend your ads better. I would match background color and text for starters.
     
    craiger22, Jan 17, 2007 IP
  3. rdv817

    rdv817 Peon

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    #3
    yes you need to blend the colors to match your site. Next, you have multiple (more interesting) click options on your site. What I mean by this is that if I were to visit your site, I would be more interested in the links that you have on your page, not the adsense ads. Finally, the type of visitor you will get is most likely a webmaster. Webmasters are probably the least likely to click on adsense ads.

    So, you can cut down on the number of click options on each page, but mainly you will want to blend the colors. Overall I don't think you will get a high ctr because of your target audience.
     
    rdv817, Jan 17, 2007 IP
  4. danbradster2

    danbradster2 Banned

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    #4
    Damn.

    So do you think I should do something like web design related affiliate programs? Maybe Template Monster, Amazon books, HostGator hosting etc.
     
    danbradster2, Jan 17, 2007 IP
  5. tbarr60

    tbarr60 Notable Member

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    #5
    Review Google's Adsense recommendations - ad shape, color, location are the things you are working with.

    Also, experiment with pay-per-click to get more traffic. I think you will find that traffic that arrives by clicking ads will be more likely to click ads on your site.
     
    tbarr60, Jan 17, 2007 IP
  6. trichnosis

    trichnosis Prominent Member

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    #6
    i have seen only 468*60 ads units on your pages . i think you must use bigger ads units to improve your ctr . using square ads may help you
     
    trichnosis, Jan 17, 2007 IP
  7. hans

    hans Well-Known Member

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    #7
    your site is fully adsense DE-optimized!

    in addition on my firefox2.x part of your small banner is covered - invisible !!
    make sure your ads are clearly visible - besides the fact that partial covering of ads might be against TOS as far as i remember.

    look at G recommendations and G success stories - learn from those making 1000+ a months
    use successful formats and successful color schemes
    your small banner is NO successful format at all.

    i have site wide average 5+% CTR with some newer ads and pages having 10+% CTR
    to increase adsense CTR
    i would recommend precisely

    ABOVE your
    Tutorial Categories

    make a vertical 160x600 wide skyscrapper

    and
    either above your
    Latest 20 Tutorials

    or at the location of your present small banner or 1-2 unites further down

    place a rectangle - either a

    300x250
    or
    336x280

    these locations / formats have highest CTR and should bring you up to 5+ % if placed on all pages similarly

    one of my highest earning/CTR pages is my blog with average above 5%. my blog has very much the same page layout and format as your site.

    have a look - it is pretty much exactly what i recommeded above. i always give my ads the very best
    locations on my pages - and i enjoy increasing adsense $ accordingly ever since i made this move nearly a year ago!

    as you can see in my blog-example
    i also have sometimes the ad colors red - and i get some of the best CTR on slightly different colors than my page colors for texts and links.

    by having your small banner - you exclude all modern video ads and large picture ads - both are used more and more frequently and i remember in one of the recent google newsletters google having asked for more 300x250 being made available at page top location ( above the fold ) for videos.
    if Google asks so to web publishers - that would mean there are more customers willing to put up video ads if matching formats and prime locations above the fold are created/offered by site owners !!

    btw

    if you replace the
    Line 129 column 631: there is no attribute "align".

    </div><hr /> <div align="center">

    with <div class="center">

    and if needed add this style to your external CSS if missing, then
    most likely you get a fully w3.org validated page as well
     
    hans, Jan 18, 2007 IP
  8. Lorelei

    Lorelei Notable Member

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    #8
    hi, it's me, Lorelei who is always submitting my tuts from loreleiweb forum / toptut! thanks for sending us traffic, didnt know it brings u nothing in return... anyway, up until today i also didnt see any ads, i think u fixed it now, as i use firefox and today was the first time i actually saw any.

    200 daily impressions daily is very little, u need a much more massive traffic to fix the problem in the first place.

    + on same pages there are still no ads, such as http://www.tutorials-db.com/articles/ while articles are a great niche to place adsense at. on pages where i have articles i get up to 1$ for a click, especially if it' hosting / seo oriented so u may want to consider adding some articles about it as well.
    hope it helps, good luck!
     
    Lorelei, Jan 18, 2007 IP
  9. danbradster2

    danbradster2 Banned

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    #9
    Thanks both of you. I changed the ads on my articles page to be blended and the CTR went above 1% and above $0.50 CPC :).

    I'll test what you said and hopefully that'll help. I'm not going to do the vertical 160x600 wide skyscrapper above the navigation though as I assume that would be very annoying for my visitors.
     
    danbradster2, Jan 19, 2007 IP