If you want to make money with Adsense, your ad placement strategy could definitely have an impact on your success. There are a variety of schools of thought in terms of which Google Adsense ad placement strategy will be the most profitable.
There are many factors involved in finding the best placement for Adsense ads. Read on for some things you’ll want to consider:
Site Layout
Google Adsense ads could be displayed across the header, the footer, in the sidebars, or directly in the body of your content. You can also opt for a combo of the above. When you login to your Adsense account, you set up the ad layout the way you want it.
You can set colours, sizes, and number of ads. Google’s site lets you make changes as needed so you can test out some different layouts to see which ones you like the best. It’s as simple as pasting the ad script in the right place on your website or blog.
Is there a science behind colour? Maybe. Many opt to have their ads blend in with the colours of their site, so that the ads look natural. Some work with the competitive ad filters to be sure they’re not sending their clients to competitor sites, and some try varying ad placement strategies until they find one that works for their site.
Some suggest having your ads near to the end of content posts, so that people will naturally gravitate to the ads to be able to learn more. Placing ads above the fold as well is generally a good strategy, too, as people may click the ad if they’re uninterested in the content.
The right blend of keywords and curiosity piquing could help your reader naturally click because contextual ads for the right niche naturally appear on the site. Google allows up to 3 ad blocks (be sure you follow Google’s Terms of Service so you don’t breach any rules and risk having your account terminated and earnings forfeited.)
Conversion Rate Vs Revenue
Your ad revenue and your conversion rate both tell you a lot about the efficacy of your Google ad placement and your overall strategy. Revenue isn’t a tell-all because different niches have varying payouts.
Look at your conversion rate on your Google Adsense reporting to see how you’re doing. If you can continually make that rate climb, your site will start to earn more. Conversion= % of clicks out of web traffic. 2% would be 2 clicks per 100 visitors, for instance. Look at revenue and conversion rate to continue to make your site as profitable as possible.
Keywords
Knowing a bit about the keyword cost per click rates of your niche can be helpful and by doing keyword research ahead of time, you’ll get a good idea of what the higher paying keywords for your niche are. You may write content strategically to try to capture the highest paying ads. Knowing that clicks could pay from a penny to several dollars per click can help you plan strategically.
Keyword placement can also help both in terms of intriguing a visitor and getting sent search engine traffic because your content appears very relevant for people looking for information. Traffic equals more potential for revenue and the right traffic can result in more ads being clicked. Find the right ad placement and you could have a winning combination on your hands!
Adsense Ad Placement – Test And Measure
Try testing a few different Adsense ad placement strategies and measuring your revenue and your conversion rate. You may find a winning combination that you could replicate several times for some great income streams.
See you at the top of Google!
Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
AussieSEO.com © 2007 - 2010
I’ve heard there was a study conducted, testing effective Google Adsense ad placement patterns. During the study they tracked visitor behavior to create hot spot charts of different webpage layouts and there efficiency. I guess the ideal layout may vary from site to site, but it would be interesting to look at, as a starting point.
I didn’t realize is was possible to add a Competitive Filter on the Ads that are displaying on your site, that knowledge may come in handy in the near future. Thanks
.-= Cade´s last blog ..Move over Oprah…cause Sean Rasmussen is taking over =-.
There is a link to info on the competitive ad filter in the article Cade. It’s something I haven’t used a lot, but could be worthwhile investigating further for sure.
One thing that I have learned to do is test, test, test.
Site layout is one factor to take into consideration, however what about font type and ad colour?
Google themselves have some great resources on what they have found works. But, it is important that you test what works best for you.
.-= Cemil´s last blog ..Creative Ideas for Over-Coming Writer’s Block =-.
Ad font and colour are certainly avenues you could look into when testing and measuring Cemil.
Thanks Sean for sharing this Google Adsense Ad Placement Strategies.