Google Adsense Publishers Finding Less is More
December 20, 2009
Lately, many Google Adsense publishers are finding out that lots of ad space is leading to less ad revenue. Site owners selling themselves cheaply by having ads in multiple places on every page end up getting the lowest bidders and fewer clicks because it means the ads are often less relevant to the site context.
Here and there, I’ve picked up a few tips, and come up with a few of my own based on performance.
1. New sites should not bother giving up their traffic.
Until you start getting more than 100 hits a day, you shouldn’t bother giving up your traffic with ads in top-half spots on your site. If anything, use a banner or link unit at the bottom of the page so that your readers will have relevant exit links to go to instead of just someplace in their favorites.
The exceptions are if you’re getting constant “Where can I buy…” email from your readers, or your site is all about the exit. If you’re telling people where to buy stuff, Google is just bringing them more of that sort of information, which is a good thing. In that case, the ads are actually part of your content, and more is actually more. Max out ad space, but try to do it in a way that is graphically pleasing.
2. Sidebars and rectangles are where it’s at.
For your one prime space per content heavy page, use one sidebar on the left, or one medium or large rectangle. People like sidebars and squares. They don’t really seem to like leaderboards or banners at the top of pages for some reason.
3. Blend in the text colors, but roll your own borders on squares/rectangles.
Remember, you aren’t allowed to make any individual objects next to the ads, but you can use nice looking color or design borders. If you treat the ad space like it’s special, then your readers will too.
4. Get rid of ads that are not performing.
If a month goes by and you notice that a placement is not performing, just get rid of it. It’s probably either invisible to, or annoying your readers. It’s just better gone.
I’ll post more tips as I find them, but this should get you started on a higher clickthrough rate. The basics of what the steady earners are saying though, is that the reason their earnings are staying steady is because they don’t sell themselves cheap. Ads space should be much more scarce on your site so that it takes more money for bidders to get a spot.
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