Well, I'm starting to get some decent traffic, but my CTR rate just plain out blows. Is there anything I'm doing that would decrease this. In June I was getting about 1.5% CTR, but it's been going down, even as my traffic increases and becomes more targetted. Here's my site: http://techheadaches.blogspot.com/2006/07/guide-to-computer-pranks-how-to-freak.html Thanks! EDIT: Just this mourning I've got 700 unique hits, 1/4 of my visitors visiting 2 to 3 pages, and I have a daily CTR of 0.46%
First of all I didn't even see the banner up on top since I looked at the images and scrolled down. Then I saw that you had another adsense at the very bottom... At least mobe the skyscraper up under the first set of links. That should help a little. Then another thing, I have experienced that blogs are not good for adsense. People go there to read what you have to say, and if you don't talk about what people could buy and entice them to go buy something, you'll never make any money... Just my 2 cents
I think most blog readers are pretty accustomed to google adsense on them now. Therefore, generally they won't click the ads as MikeSwede has said, they go to read, so they don't click the ads.
You're not supposed to quote CTR figures! Get rid of them! Quickly! In answer to your thread though, you can raise CTR by changing your primary ad unit to a square at the cost of (is it really a cost?) some cosmetic appeal. It really depends on this: Is your traffic made up of stumblers? or of repeat visitors? Those who stumble upon your site tend to leave fairly quickly and will provide great CTRs whilst repeat visitors will dilute your CTR. HOWEVER, your problem is more of a thought process issue - calculate your CTR on a per unique basis instead of impressions to accurately find the value of each visitor You may be pleased! <1% CTR is the domain of forums for me.
I'm not sure how flexible Blogger is, but if you can, put the horizontal ads in the content or between the articles since they'll get more attention - I didn't even notice the ads at the top of the screen and no one really looks in the navgation bar anyway. Also, you need to put a border around the images that are next to the ads since it looks like they're part of the ad and Google doesn't like people "labeling" them.
I've found them to be quite flexible when it comes to images. Simply put, don't hesitate to ask Google! They respond extremely fast and usually don't give you canned responses!
0.8% ain't that bad. At least, you should be reassured that your site has good content and people are not clicking on ads to leave your website.
I think you (and many others asking the same question about adsence) lack of tests.. dont be shy, guys ,test it.. test different ads, different colors, different areas.. and you will find your best spot on your website.. plus read other posts on this forum.. many people ask the same questions.. and there are lots of answers already... look at people signatures, they may provide already what you look for...