Figuring out how to display ads and where to place them is the next step. There are so many different types of ad’s and configurations that it can be overwhelming. Some people leave Googles default settings, which is a big mistake. Controlling the looks and the placement of your ads makes all the difference in getting clicks. If it looks like an ad, most people wont click it. It’s as simple as that. The general web surfing public is very educated and familiar with ads and will ignore them in most cases. That’s why its so important to blend your ad’s with your website to get them as seamless as possible. If you make ads with bright colors, images or borders it will be easily recognized as an advertisement and people work extra hard to ignore them. Placement also has similar effects. If you place an ad at the very top, bottom or some far corner of a page , it will easily be ignored. If you want to get clicks on your ads, make them look like a regular part of your content.

Now here are a few tips that have worked well for me personally, making my CTR zoom to new levels.

Text ads over image ads

Text ads have many advantages of image ads. With proper formating text ads blend in with your content. An image does not give the same freedom of appearance, leaving only the size and position left to play with.

You can fit more text ads into the space that a banner would fit into. The more ads, the more chances for clicks, as long as its presented correctly.

People hate banners and tests show that people are much more receptive to text ads that are related to your content.

The best performing ad size

So you want ads that don’t look like ads and you want text ads, but what size should you use? Well it does really depend on your page and what room you have, but I’ve found that there is a well kept secret when it comes to which types of ad blocks receive the most clicks. Among other AdSense webmasters, its pretty much agreed that the 336 x 280 Large Rectangle gets the most clicks. Mostly it just looks like actual content the most, compared to other formats. Second best seems to be 300 x 250, The Medium Rectangle. This really works well when you want to have two sets of ads side by side. They fit most web pages very well.

One of the most popular ad blocks is the 468 x 60 ad block. This is a big mistake. This ad will be avoided most because it looks most like an advertisement. Most webmasters have the mindset that when they place Google ads on their site that they must place them using the traditional size which is…. you guessed it, 468 x 60. Everyone is most familiar with 468 x 60 ad and that’s exactly why the click through rate is low. In all but special cases, this ad block is mostly ineffective and I recommend ignoring it as most of your visitors will.

Check back next time where I explain how to use colors to increase clicks. Until next time.