What is CTR based on? http://www.dx-t.net/forums. I'm trying to figure out what I can do to get my CTR up? Currently it's about 1.58%.
Google Help Centre would say, make your ad text more relevant and appealing... Use the keyword in your title. Description Line 1 & 2, should have a call to action, etc... Get Keywords that have a lower competition... I got lots more... but i'm too tired to think
You have to place ads in the header or in the center of your website, inside of the content, with the same colours and style with it. The ads has to fit and look just like the content. They can also be placed near some images or text link ads that look as a menu. I will give you a link so you can se an example http://freetld.net . Some friends of mine said they have been cheated by the link ad and clicked it, thinking it`s a menu
1.58% is amazing for forums! Things I've noticed that've improved CTR: - Place advertising in the 2nd post (this way if someone reads a thread, but isn't interested in it, they may click on your ad) - Place advertising next to the quick reply box (they'll read down through the thread, decide to post, but whilst they're writing their post up, they can get sidetracked, it's also one of the few ways you can put a square ad unit into a forum).
All good suggestions above, and the one thing you need to keep in mind is that CTR is typically low for forums - this is because there is a lot of repeat traffic, and your members will develop "ad blindness" after awhile. I definitely think it will help if you embed your ads within threads and posts, rather than at the periphery of the pages. If you decide to place images near your ad blocks (which should definitely help, as well), you may want to employ a script that rotates the images - this has been shown to decrease ad blindness and increase CTR. HTH, Sam