Spicy Websites

Did you know your website could be making over 200% more income with better Google Adsense placements? Learn expert methods and the science behind it to increase CTR.

Blending

While this may be common sense, it is the most important factor for increasing CTR. More and more viewers are becoming more experience in identifying advertisements. When viewers detects an advertisement, they pay less attention to it. By simply blending the colors to match the website, it makes it more difficult for the viewer to identify text advertisements which increases the chance that they’ll read the text ad and click on it.

 

By removing the border and matching the link and text color to the website, the ad becomes less perceived as an ad.

Place the Ad Where it is Most Visible

Another method to increase exposure to the ads is to place it where it would be read first. A good example of this position is right above the content/article. By placing it before the content/article, the viewer will read the ad first before they proceed to the content/article.

 

An example of placing an ad before content. The viewer will read or scan the ad first before they find the actual content/article.

Align the Ad with the Content

This is one of the least known techniques. Ads should not be placed arbitrarily on a website; it should be aligned with some content so that it does not look like an advertisement. If a text ad is placed by itself, the viewer will check to see if it’s an ad. However, if there is real content that’s aligned with the ad, the user will not check for an ad as strongly as it would if the ad was alone by itself or not aligned with other content.

By positioning the ad on the same imaginary line as the real content, the ad looks less like an ad.

Repetition

Blending an ad in a repetition is one of the most effective methods for blending ads with content. Although it may be tricky to implement into a website, it can dramatically increase exposure and CTR. To blend a text ad into a repetition of content is to place a text ad where normal content would usually be.

The text ad is less perceived as an ad because it is surrounded by and on the same imaginary line as the real content.

Images Beside Google Text Ad

This used to be the most common technique and can usually doubles CTR, but it’s against Google Adsense’s TOS (Terms of Service). We do not recommend using this technique.

We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn’t actually being offered. That’s not a good experience for users or advertisers.

Publishers should also be careful to avoid similar implementations that people could find misleading. For instance, if your site contains a directory of Flash games, you should not format the ads to mimic the game descriptions.

- Google Adsense Blog