4.1 Ad Placement: Where to put your Ads?

Location is everything. The world's best ad won't deliver if it isn't visible inthe first place. But after much experimentation with Google AdSense, I knowthat the most visible ads aren't always the most effective. In fact, they'relikely to get ignored as 'blatant advertising'.

What does work is wise placement. Put them where your content is mostlikely to interest and engage your visitors.

You can create several 'points of interest' with the wise use of graphics,tables and other layout techniques.

Once you have your visitor's attention with engaging and meaningfulcontent, they are most likely to read and click on relevant ads. And that isprecisely what Google wants — "educated" clicks from real prospects, notrandom visits from bored people.

Here are a few simple tips to make your ads 'click'!

4.2 Go with the 'flow'

Identify the reading patterns of your visitors. What draws their attentionfirst? What makes them 'click'?

Like I said, you want to put your ads in areas that draw your visitors in withinteresting content. There’s no point in putting your ads in some out of theway place where no one ever looks.

Your users will follow your content, so you need to make sure that your ads follow that content too.

Look at the design and layout of your webpage, identify the places that youthink most of your users look — and mark that as a likely spot to put your ads.

Google actually offers a pretty neat tool to help you identify where your usersare most likely to look. Their heat map at https://www.google.com/support/AdSense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html sums up the options pretty well:

Google’s Heat Map shows an “average” site’s hot spots. The darker areas arethe regions where people look most frequently. But remember, no site is average.Where do your visitors look most?

Google says that certain areas are more effective than others. Researchershave also found that when people look at a website, their eyes start in thetop left hand corner and then travel down the page from left to right.

All of this is true but the hottest areas can vary from site to site. You willneed to experiment to find the very best places for you.

4.3. Above The Fold

One general rule on the Internet is that people spend most of their time on asite “above the fold.”

The first thing people do when they reach a website is to absorb as muchinformation as possible before they start scrolling. The part of the page thatthey can see without scrolling is called “above the fold.”

That’s where you want your ads.

The number of links that appear above the fold affect how likely people are
to click on your AdSense ads. That’s why more ads doesn't always mean
more money!

Google always puts the top-paying ads on the top and the lowest-paying
ones at the bottom.

If you have a stack with three or more ads, the cheaper ads might steal
attention away from high-paying ads and clutter up your website.

You don’t want ads and links competing against each other. If you want to
increase your earnings per click, remember: Less is More! And that’s
particularly true above the fold.

Now, which of these sites’ ads do you think bring a higher click-through rate?You guessed it. The second site has triple the click-through rate of the firstsite. The moral of the story? If you want to maximize your AdSense clicks,give your visitors fewer choices above the fold!

4.4 Using Tables

I’ve already mentioned that one of the principles of a high click-through rate(CTR) is to make your sites blend into the page. The more you position yoursites to blend into the page, the better your click-through rate will be. Onevery neat way to help your ads blend into the site is to place them in tables.

In the example below, technology guru Chris Pirillo skillfully drops hisAdSense into a

for a clean and attractive look that turns AdSenseinto a new focal point. See out how he does it at http://www.lockergnome.com/

4.5 Ad Link Units

So far, I’ve been talking about where to put your ads and I’ve recommendedabove the fold, with little competition and suggested that you might want toput them in a table. But you should also think about which kinds of ads youwant to place where.

Ad Link units let you place a box on your site that contains four or five links.They come in sizes ranging from 20 x 90 to 200 x 90, and are really meantto be placed on a sidebar.

Because you can place one Ad Link unit as well as three other units on thepage, you might find that the choice helps: if a user doesn’t spot somethinginteresting in one type of ad block, he might spot it on another.

Where Ad Links differ from other types of ads is that they only display a listof topics that Google believes are relevant to the content of your pages. Theydon’t display the ads themselves. When a visitor clicks on a topic, Googlepops up a new window with targeted ads.

It can be argued that the Ad Links are ineffective because people have to gothrough two clicks in order for you to get paid. That’s right, you only get paidfor the second click (but that does mean you can check to see which adsyour users are being served.)

But it can also be argued that if someone is taking the time to click on atopic, then they are probably very interested and are likely to click an actualadvertisement on the resulting page. Some people have found that justabout everyone who clicks on an Ad Link will click on the ads that appear onthe next page.

I have tested Ad Links on multiple sites and have seen vast differences inresults. That makes it more difficult to say whether or not they are for you.

In the first case, I placed the Ad Links on an information-based site with avery general audience. The results were nothing to write home about. Let'sjust say that you could just about buy a large candy bar with the CPM I saw.

In the second case, I placed the Ad Links on a product specific site with anarrow audience. The results were fantastic! We're talking about a CPM thatis greater than what someone might make flipping burgers in one day.

The conclusions should be obvious. If you’re going to use Ad Links unitscampaign. You need to put them:

1. On a site with a specific field of interest. A general site will giveyou general ads — and few clicks.

2. Above the fold with few other links. For Ad Links, this is crucial: Ifyour users are going to click a link, it should be a link that gives you money.

It’s also a good idea to keep your Ad Link units for sites with high-payingkeywords. If someone comes to your site seeking out information or aproduct on a top-notch keyword, they tend to be more likely to click as aresult.

Let’s take a look at an example:

I’ve already mentioned Chris Pirillo’s site at Lockergnome.com as anexcellent template for how to do AdSense properly. While I don't have accessto his AdSense statistics, I have watched his sites long enough to speculateas to his success.

The center column of his page is classic AdSense placement. He is using amedium or large rectangle with blue links, black text and subtle URL. The adsare placed inline and right justified. People start on the left and drift to theright. My testing has also shown that ads on the right perform best.

He is using a 120 x 600 skyscraper ad, which I usually don't recommend.However, many people use the skyscraper ads in sidebars. Pirillo has thoughtoutside the box and used the white space next to his bullet points for thispage. Right justifying the skyscraper block and placing it inline is a slick move.

But look where his Ad Links are: in the top left column of the page, abovethe fold. That means you can see Ads by Google as the first item. As long asthose AdLinks are very targeted to the content on the page, they couldgenerate 1%-2% in clicks. If you have the space and they fit in yoursidebar, I would test them on your site as well.

4.6 Horizontal Ad Link Units

Recently, Google introduced a new format for Ad Link Units: horizontal. Thisis a huge difference. Users are reporting increases in CTR as high as 200%using this units!

Instead of piling the links one on top of the other—which is great for puttingabove lists of links but stand out too clearly when placed in text—thehorizontal ads blend in perfectly when placed on pages with articles

You can still only use one Ad Link unit per page and users still have to clicktwice before you get paid but they’re definitely worth slipping into a longarticle. I’d recommend that you put them either above the article or in themiddle. They’ll be too easy to miss at the bottom.

4.7 Using Multiple Ad Blocks

So Google allows you to put up to three AdSense blocks (ad units) on thesame page, as well as an Ad Link unit and a search box. What does thismean for web publishers?

A real bonanza: you now have many more chances to hook readers with newads as Google will show unique ads in each ad unit!

To leverage this opportunity, look at adding new content to your high-trafficpages. Use attractive, quick-loading graphics that encourage people to scrolldown. For example, relevant, catchy graphics could be a great way to drawyour visitors to an ad. A B2B website could run a daily cartoon strip with ahumorous take on trade news and issues. Your AdSense ads can bepositioned right underneath the cartoon, which will lend instant visibility tothe ads.

That’s a strategy that will maximize exposure to the AdSense units, leadingto more clicks and more money!With multiple ad blocks, you can decide which ads are served in the bestplace for your site.