No More AdSense
I have decided to take AdSense of of the site because of a low CTR (Click Through Rate). Well it was really worse than a low CTR, it was more like a no CTR. Since the beginning of TWR I have tried multiple ad placement techniques and they have resulted in zero clicks. Not only that but it has brought down the CTR across my whole network of sites. AdSense seems to work better on niche sites but every other webmaster out there will tell you the same. You may need to evaluate how well it is doing on your site also. Now if you have only one site then it doesn’t really matter if you use it or not but if you have more than one site and site A gets a poor CTR then it will bring down the earnings of the clicks on all of your other sites. You can read about smart pricing over at Court’s blog. To sum it up though, Google will devalue the clicks on your sites because of a low CTR. You want to try and stay above a 3% CTR to keep from being smart priced out of your earnings.
Increasing CTR
How do you increase your CTR? Well ad placement is key. Now on some of my sites I have done well with link bars below the header. Different sites will have different results though for that type of placement. On Google they have recommendations for ad placement
In the picture the darker the area, the better the placement. Now this is just a general reference but it is a good start when trying to figure out what works best on your site. Now when you place a few ads, make sure you place each one in a descriptive channel so that you know how each ad performs. In your AdSense account you will be able to get fairly detailed statistics on each channel so that you can decide where ad perform best for you.
Ad Integration
You should also make sure that you blend the ad into your site well. It is not about deceit, it is about aesthetics. Just because your ad stands out doesn’t mean that it will get more clicks. It should look natural on your site. Below are two examples of ads, which one looks better?
The one on the left uses the same background and text colors as the content (close anyways) and the one on the right uses the standard ad layout and it stands out from the content while making the page look bad. Don’t know what colors your template is using? Download a color picker like ColorZilla that installs in your Firefox web browser. If you are not using Firefox then you can download
. You can get a lot of great ad ons to make Firefox an outstanding webmaster tool. Once you have the hex code for your colors then you can apply that when you build your ads in you AdSense setup console. There you have it, better looking ads that don’t make your site look bad.
How do you place your ads? When I first started I tried to place my ads out of the way so that it would not interfere with the viewers experience. As a result I seen a very low CTR and very little earnings. I adjusted the placement but have just now started really examining how well the ads that I display are performing. Don’t wait as long as I did, be proactive and get your site in order. Have you seen success with a unique ad placement? Well tell us about it in the comments. I would also like to know if the ad was helpful. Thanks for reading and good luck.
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Have you considered selling the adspace directly?
I just reinvoked AdSense on my blog as the same time as turning it into more of a niche focus. My AdSense performance has improved immensely. So I back up you assertion that AdSense is primarily for the niche markets.
Matthew, am looking into selling adspace directly. Right now am also testng out adtoll to sell ad space. I am thinking about selling adspace Just above the first topic and below the picture, or maybe replacing the picture with an ad. I was hoping to wait until my 125×125 atracted an advertiser and then push the header ad. I am still not sure how much it s worth right now. I am thinking $20 a month for the header. What do you think, would it be worth it?
ShadowKnight, thanks for backing me up. I have tried to make adsense pay on this blog and it just refuses to be clicked. Now my biker website get fair CTR for such a low volume site. I am glad to hear that you have adsense working for you now.
I’ve had quite a hard time selling advertising. What a lot of bloggers have been doing is offering cheap “specials” to get advertisers at a low price… then hopefully keep them when the price goes up.
Im looking to sell my google adspace directly to banners etc
I was offering my 125×125 for 5$ a month at first. When I had no takers I then installed adtoll and I am offering that space for .40 cents a week now. I will give it a little while longer and then offer the space for a dollar a month and see how many takers I can get for that. I was sent an email today though by a new ad firm asking if I would do a review for them. They said just send them the price and my paypal info. Maybe that is a good sign because it is a site that has got a little exposure on a few of the larger sites.
What sites or programs do you use to drive the link space that you have available?
What ads does well for you if I may ask?
Tony,
I use adtoll for the small 125×125 on the left. The main banner that I will put up just below the header and above the main post will be done manually. I have tried selling links through TLA but they didn’t work very well for me.
Soundtrackgeek,
I am not sure what you are asking but if you are asking which of the current ads that I display make me the most money, then I would have to say the godaddy link. It has made me a small amount and the others haven’t done very well. I do get a lot of clicks on them though, just a very low conversion rate. As my traffic goes up though that should change.
Hello,
I agree that adsense has been dying a slow death lately. I hadn’t had any clicks in ages either, so I have decided to remove it and focus on other types of advertising (moving away from PPC). I posted an article about it yesterday. I am also today investigating ‘NetWeb Marketing’ which I hope to post later today.
Keep up the good work
-Bec
Really? Wow, thanks for the info. I didn’t know that adsene devalues clicks because of low ctr. I was clueless about how google adsense values my space til I found this article.
Thanks!
I am glad that Court published that article. Maybe one day when I have a more targeted audience I will use them somewhere. Maybe a sales page designed specifically for adsense or something.
Great article. Reading the article made me curious about one thing: On which parts of your layout have you been most and least success placing ads?
my blog ctr is also low, the future is direct ad sale for blogs.
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ну, как говорится, время стирает ошибку и отшлифовывает истину